[sw-l] Underlining proper names in vertical columns...

[Steve Slevinski]

Stuart, thanks for your thoughts about languages, rules, and transcription.

In ASL, I've seen the following signs uses to identify signs for people,
places, and things.  I believe they both label nouns.


     name


     named

The first is used to identify a proper noun.  Right?
The second identifies ....  a noun ... a common name?

-Steve



Stuart Thiessen wrote:

> I think we have to distinguish between what is happening in the
> language itself (on the phonological or morphological levels) and how
> we actually write it on paper.  For example, in English, the sentence
> "We will go see the Washington Monument." and "We will go see the
> washington monument." are pronounced exactly the same.  There is no
> difference on a phonological or morphological level.  There is a
> difference in my transcription based on the rules of writing English.
> The first one is written correctly, but the second only violates
> writing system rules. It seems that many writing systems have a way of
> distinguishing names. Even the Shavian system which is an alternative
> alphabet for writing English has a "namer dot" that precedes the name
> (instead of capital letters) to indicate a proper name.
>
> As others have already noted, in ASL, we often fingerspell a proper
> name before indicating the sign for it (particularly in introductions
> or where a new name sign is being introduced). I haven't analyzed to
> see if we really use the topic marker or not when we do that. Perhaps
> others on the list are familiar with that in ASL. For languages which
> do not use fingerspelling, there may be a different approach to
> indicating the name.
>
> If the language is not using topic markers at that point, it doesn't
> make sense to introduce those markers simply to mark a transcription
> event (noting the proper name). This is usually a writing systems
> issue, not a grammatical, morphological, or phonological issue.  So we
> shouldn't apply those kinds of solutions to the question.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stuart
>
> On Jun 5, 2005, at 5:25, Kasterlinden Bilinguaal wrote:
>
>> Hello List,
>>
>> I think the example where the name is underlined is confusing. I
>> think my students will misunderstand it. They will think it's a
>> punctuation mark.
>>
>> What about using 'topic', where the signers head is tilted back, and
>> the eyebrows are pulled up. (example 2)
>>
>> -a topic is used to mark the subject of the conversation and to check
>> if the other person knows anything about this subject.
>>
>> <mijn.png> <dot_a.png>
>> <space_v.png>
>> <mama_4.png> <dot_a.png>
>> <space_v.png>
>> <topicmijn.png> <dot_a.png>
>> <space_v.png>
>> <topicmama.png>
>>
>> Of course this is not to be used for every pronoun, but a thing to
>> consider ;)
>>
>> Greetings Kathleen
>>
>>
>>
>> >From: "Valerie Sutton" <sutton at signwriting.org>
>> >Reply-To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
>> >To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
>> >Subject: Re: [sw-l] Underlining proper names in vertical columns...
>> >Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 20:47:49 -0700
>> >
>> >SignWriting List
>> >June 2, 2005
>> >
>> >Which version to you prefer? I hope we get lots of answers from
>> >everyone...Your feedback is welcome!
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> ><< Goldilocks.jpg >>
>>
>> Gratis bloggen op MSN Spaces
>
>
>
>

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