speed of movement in signs

[Dan Parvaz]

> I think there are some minimal pairs, such as ARRIVE vs. PROVE, as well as
> punctual aspect.

There are a few other factors to consider: I think PROVE can have a
"bounce" at the end of the sign, whereas ARRIVE ends when it contacts the
palm. But there must be others, like the difference between comparative
and superlative (e.g. GOOD^ER vs GOOD^EST for "better" and "best").

Metacomment 1: I hate not having a decent corpus. It makes searching for
attestations this game of stopping people in the hallways. :-)

Metacomment 2: Whoever comes up with a decent transcription system, let
there also be an ASCII-only version. IAW, if we have a sign IPA, please
let's also have a sign ARPAbet.

Cheers,

Dan.

____________
,,,
.. .   D A N  P A R V A Z  --  Geek-in-Residence
 U    University of New Mexico Linguistics Dept
 -    dparvaz@{unm.edu,lanl.gov}   505.480.9638