According to Sign language researchers Ceil Lucas and Clayton Valli, long-term language contact with an oral language has a large influence on the vocabulary and grammar of sign languages including signs for compound words like "boyfriend" .
Sign language researchers Ceil Lucas and Clayton Valli have noted several differences between the language contact arising between two sign languages and the contact phenomena that arise between a signed and an oral language. Long-term contact with oral languages has generated a large influence on the vocabulary and grammar of sign languages. Loan translations are common, such as the American Sign Language signs BOY and FRIEND, forming a compound meaning "boyfriend" or the Auslan partial-calque DON'T MIND, which involves the sign for the noun MIND combined with an upturned palm, which is a typical Auslan negation. 
