Reference in British Sign Language

How signers keep track of meaning

One of the easiest ways to misunderstand British Sign Language is to assume that it works like English with the sound turned off. It doesn’t. In BSL, meaning is not carried by repeated words. It is carried by reference: how people, objects, and ideas are introduced, located, and then kept active across the signing space. If you understand reference, much of BSL grammar stops looking mysterious.

Establishing reference

When a signer introduces something new, they usually do two things at once: they identify what it is, and they show where it lives in the signing space. This might involve: naming a person or object, placing it in space or orienting the body or gaze toward it.

Once this happens, the signer does not need to keep naming it. The reference has been established. From this point on, the signer can return to that referent simply by pointing, orienting, or moving through the same space again. The meaning stays live.

This is not shorthand. It is grammar.

Pointing is reference, not substitution

In English, we talk about pronouns as words that “stand in for” nouns. That idea doesn’t translate cleanly to BSL. Pointing in BSL does not replace a word. It reconnects the viewer to an already-established referent.

The important thing is not the handshape or direction in isolation, but the shared understanding between signer and viewer: we both know what lives there. This is why pointing only works if the reference work has already been done. Without that groundwork, a point has no meaning.

Maintaining reference across time

Once a reference exists, BSL tends to maintain it economically. Signers often: reuse the same location, shift their body or gaze instead of naming and omit anything that the reference already makes clear.

This can feel unsettling to English learners, because English prefers repetition for clarity. BSL prefers continuity. Nothing is missing. The language is trusting its own structure.

Multiple references at once

BSL can keep several referents active at the same time, each anchored in space. This allows signers to: contrast people or objects without naming them again, show relationships visually and move between perspectives smoothly.

What looks like “switching” to learners is usually careful reference management. The signer is not changing subject randomly; they are navigating a mapped space of meaning.

A common misunderstanding

Learners are often taught to label points as pronouns, or to match them one-to-one with English words like he, she, or it. This creates problems. The real question in BSL is not “what word is this?” but: what does this point refer back to, and how was that reference established? When you ask that question instead, the structure becomes clearer.

Why this matters

Reference underpins: sentence structure, role shift, depiction, omission and a coherence across long signing phrases. Without understanding reference, BSL grammar looks fragmented. With it, the language reveals itself as precise and economical. This is not a special feature of storytelling or performance. It is how everyday BSL works.