[286c8cb04bda]

That's kinda close. In sign languages, individual signs can be decomposed into different elements: Hand shape, motion, position, et al. Related terms or ideas will use some of the same elements.

I'll use a couple of examples from American Sign Language:

1. The gender of a subject in a phrase is sometimes communicated by performing the corresponding motion with the specific hand shape in front of your forehead (for male) or in front of your chin (female).

2. A signer could communicate "a chair", "then he sat down", and "so help you god, jimmy, you better go sit down right now or i'm going to make you wish that you were never born" with what is basically the same sign (first two fingers on right hand tapping top of first two fingers on left hand), just by repeating it more times and with more emphasis.