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<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Thanks,
Charles - I thought that <STRONG>was</STRONG> the group I clicked on, but
anyway, I've now corrected it to <IMG alt="" hspace=0
src="cid:420513018@08032005-0118" align=baseline border=0>.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">I've also
added the sign for "if it rains" to the dictionary as <IMG alt="" hspace=0
src="cid:420513018@08032005-011f" align=baseline border=0>, just to illustrate
how the conditional tense is done in BSL (ie what in English is done with
"if").</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">The reason
is that I've been trying out SignMail and Translate, and I run into the
immediate problem of how to vary the head to get different inflections of the
same sign.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">I suppose
one way of dealing with this would be to put "inflections" into the dictionary
as signs with just the head and shoulders, then as long as we type in columns
the inflection will more or less look like part of the sign? For example we
could type "if rain" and get what looks like the above sign although it's
really head/shoulder part plus hands from the dictionary. This could be
used for all sorts of things such as adding a smiling or unhappy face to the
same sign, and nodding and shaking the head - it's all very
important.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">The only
problem is that the signs could get split at the bottom of a column. Would it be
possible to be able to compose complete signs from glosses which are in the
form "head/shoulder hands"? Then for example a gloss like "if rain nod car"
could be used to make the BSL "If it rains I'll take the car".
Perhaps the head qualifiers could be distinguished in some way in the
dictionary such as being in brackets or having a plus sign after it to show that
it's not a complete sign. So it would be glossed "(if) rain (nod) car" or
"if+rain nod+car".</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">I know
it's a bit of work (and I don't know whether that's an understatement or
not!) but it would much improve the quality of the language in sign mails and
translations.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">What do you
think, Stephen, Val?</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005><FONT
face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Sandy</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=420513018-08032005> </SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>