How many categories?

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
September 1, 2009

Hi Maria and Steve!

For teaching purposes, Maria, of course, you can word it any way you  
wish...just as long as your dissertation makes it clear how the  
official ISWA is categorized...as Steve mentioned below..

 From an instruction perspective, to make it easier for people to  
understand and to not overwhelm them, maybe categories are not the  
point really....you could say we write with 28 groups of symbols...and  
that those groups can be summarized as 10 groups of hands, 10 groups  
of movement, 5 groups for the face and head, 2 groups for the  
shoulders and limbs,  and 1 group for dynamics and timing. And there  
is a 29th group for punctuation when writing sentences.

For accuracy, in your dissertation, Steve is right that the term  
"Category" in the ISWA is very specific to the numbering system we  
used to setup the ISWA...the ISWA will always have 7 Categories  
because of the way we numbered the symbols for computerization  
purposes...and since you are writing daily with those categories in  
SignPuddle without realizing it...we cannot change the categories  
now...and I know you are not asking for that...we are just talking  
about teaching...

So of course, find all the creative ways you can think of, to teach  
people the symbols...smile...

Val ;-)

----------






On Sep 1, 2009, at 5:20 AM, MARIA AZZOPARDI wrote:

> Valerie,
> I'm beginning to undestand when your answer to my question 'how many
> symbols?' was 'it depends on HOW you count' for instance:
>
> Although ISWA has 7 categories, could I join categories together for  
> the
> sake of instruction?
>
> Therefore:
> Cat 1 Hands
> Cat 2 Movement
> Cat 3 Face Head AND Body
> Cat 4 Dynamics AND Punctuation
> (The face and head are part of the body, hence joined together,
> and when you think about it, taking pauses and stopping for a little  
> while
> is part of the dynamics of signing across sentences so it could be  
> joined
> to the dynamics of the movement involved in individual signs)
>
> (I will also leave Cat 7 -Advn Sorting out, when teaching signwriting
> right? just mentioning it is enough)
>
> thanks
> Maria

------------

On Sep 1, 2009, at 6:54 AM, Steve Slevinski wrote:

> Maria,
>
> You should probably not confuse the term "Category".  Those are  
> official numbers.  Perhaps you could say "Topic" or some other term?
>
> Topic 1 Hands
> Topic 2 Movement
> Topic 3 Face Head AND Body
> Topic 4 Dynamics AND Punctuation
>
> Then you could possibly add or mention...
> Topic 5 Centers AND Lanes
> Topic 6 Searching AND Sorting
>
>
> Regards,
> -Steve



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