LESSON Finger Bends Middle Joint Closes

[Stuart Thiessen]

Well, we do have some signs in ASL where the bending actually occurs 
during a movement ... for example, the sign for SELFISH, the bending 
actually occurs simultaneously with the movement toward the body. This 
could be captured by a beginning to ending handshape, but if we wanted 
to use the squeeze symbol in that sign, how could we specify if the 
squeeze happened before the movement, during the movement, or after the 
movement?

Another example is when the bending occurs at a specific spot in a 
circular movement. For example, in the sign meaning to question 
someone, the bending occurs on the far side of the side circle away 
from the body and never by the near side of the circle close to the 
body. Theoretically, the bending could occur in some other sign near 
the body instead of away from the body or even possibly occur in 
alternating positions, I suppose.

In these cases, if we wanted to capture the specific timing of the 
bend, we wondered how that could be specified. The simplest approach 
that occurred to us is putting the squeeze near the arrow where the 
bending is supposed to occur. Would that work or is there a different 
way to do it?

Thanks,

Stuart

On Jun 16, 2006, at 18:22, Valerie Sutton wrote:

> SignWriting List
> June 16, 2006
>
> Vanessa Hodge wrote:
>> For example, if the finger was only bending when it was
>> farther away from your body, could you put the dot near that location
>> on the arrow.
>
> Most signs have a beginning and ending position. The Squeeze usually 
> happens in the ending position. The finger or fingers start straight 
> and then Squeeze. So the Squeeze happens at the end.
>
> If you are already writing both the beginning and ending positions, it 
> is not necessary to write any Squeeze symbol since the two positions 
> provide the information.
>
> The Squeeze dots were invented when we wanted to throw away one of the 
> positions. Since the Squeeze influences the ending position, we throw 
> away the beginning position in most cases, and use the Squeeze dot at 
> the end of the arrow tip, or on top of the ending position...Attached 
> are some examples of the sign for HUNDRED in ASL...
>
> Has this information helped? Write to ask questions!  Val ;-)
>
>
> <fingers.png>