Nominal vs Cardinal numbers in ASL

Natasha Escalada-Westland shash90 at HOTMAIL.COM
Sun Feb 8 22:47:21 UTC 2009


Maybe this has been brought up before regarding page numbers, but I am curious, why can't the Arabic numerals be used?  Written English (and many other written languages) numbers pages using 1, 2, 3 and so forth rather than one, two, three or uno, dos, tres.  I'm wondering what the consensus is with regard to SignWriting?Natasha Escalada-Westland, M.Ed. (D/HH), Macromedia Cert.www.westlandasl.com > From: sutton at signwriting.org> To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu> Subject: Re: [sw-l] Nominal vs Cardinal numbers in ASL> Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 12:43:28 -0800> > SignWriting List> February 8, 2009> > Thank you, Adam, for this really good explanation of the problem...and > for your vote for nominal. That has always been my feeling too...> > However, around four months ago I had a long discussion with another > native ASL signer about this and that person voted for the > cardinal...so if you count my vote, then we have one cardinal and two > nominal, but i am not native or Deaf...so we need more opinions, or > maybe test readers and ask them to search for pages in the book only > using ASL numbers to see which works best for them finding the pages > fast...> > Any others have opinions on nominal or cardinal page numbers in ASL?> > Val ;-)> > -----------> > > > On Feb 8, 2009, at 12:01 PM, Adam Frost wrote:> > > A very fine line here because page numbers are counted pages which > > number the page with a label. They are often used as both > > interchangeably mostly because English doesn't distinguish between > > both and most people don't know the difference. When thinking about > > how I usually refer to pages, I usually use the cardinal form as I > > am basically saying "turn 5 pages from the beginning" verses "turn > > to page 5" which would use the nominal form. However, I think that > > we are actually labeling the page as "Page 5" so I think that in > > this case it should be nominals that are used. I hope that makes > > sense. Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth. (Hmm... would that 2 be > > cardinal or nominal? Ha!) ;-)> >> > Adam> >> > On Feb 8, 2009, at 11:40 AM, SignWriting wrote:> >> >> SignWriting List> >> February 8, 2009> >>> >> Hi SW Listers!> >> I need your advice. Most ASL numbers are the same whether they are > >> nominal or cardinal, but there are five that are different....the > >> first five numbers are cardinal inside a sentence, but nominal when > >> telling people your phone number, your apartment number etc...I > >> believe that is correct anyway ;-))> >>> >> In other words, the cardinal is part of meaning in a sentence, but > >> the nominal is like a "label"...like stating your Social Security > >> Number (a long number that represents a person in the US)...if it > >> has a lot of "ones"...like 111-897-1102...or something like > >> that...I don't believe the palm turns towards the chest when > >> stating your Social Security Number, does it?> >>> >> So when reading tiny tiny page numbers at the bottom of pages in a > >> 500 page SignWriting book, should the page numbers be nominal or > >> cardinal? I have always felt that the page numbers were like > >> "labels" for finding a page quickly...but others have disagreed > >> with me...meanwhile most people do not have a lot of experience > >> reading large books in SignWriting yet, including myself, so we all > >> are guessing a bit... It may really be a matter of all of us > >> getting used to this, and figuring out, by testing readers, who can > >> find page 1 faster...when it is nominal or cardinal? smile...> >>> >> I am updating our old Goldilocks documents with the symbols of the > >> ISWA and while I am doing that update anyway, I wondered about the > >> page numbers...They were nominal in the old documents.> >>> >> Should page numbers be nominal or cardinal? Please see attached...> >>> >>> >>> >> <Nominal-Cardinal.png>> >>> >>> >>> >> ____________________________________________> >>> >> SW-L SignWriting List> >>> >> Post Message> >> SW-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu> >>> >> List Archives and Help> >> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/> >>> >> Change Email Settings> >> http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l> >> >> >> >> > ____________________________________________> >> > SW-L SignWriting List> >> > Post Message> > SW-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu> >> > List Archives and Help> > http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/> >> > Change Email Settings> > http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l> >> > > > > ____________________________________________> > SW-L SignWriting List> > Post Message> SW-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu> > List Archives and Help> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/> > Change Email Settings> http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l> 
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