<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18pt"><div><span>Wow, thanks, and God bless you. This is a great tool.<br></span></div><div> </div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>R. H. Dettloff <b><br></b></div><b></b></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><br></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Steve Slevinski <slevin@SIGNPUDDLE.NET><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b>
SW-L@LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, October 12, 2011 1:29 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: Advanced searching for symbols and their approximate locations<br></font><br>
<div id="yiv553970250">
<div>
Hi Val,<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/12/11 11:48 AM, Valerie Sutton wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>Can we say now, that the "Search by Symbols" feature in
SignPuddle 1.6, allows us to:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>1. search for all the signs that use a specific SignWriting
symbol in SignMaker entries (dictionary entries) and SignText
entries (literature entries)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>2. search for combinations of symbols</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>3. search for symbols combined with location</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>4. search for exact SignSpellings</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>If this is all true, then we can finally say that searches
can be conducted on SignWriting literature documents, which is
what linguists have been asking for, for years -</div>
</blockquote>
Yes, we can say that real search is possible with SignWriting
documents. <br>
<br>
In 2004, there was a paper presented at Lisbon by Antonio Carlos da
Rocha Costa, Gracaliz Pereira Dimuro, and Juliano Baldez de
Freitas. The paper was titled "A SIGN MATCHING TECHNIQUE TO SUPPORT
SEARCHES IN SIGN LANGUAGE TEXTS". <br>
http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs3/sw0204-Sign-Processing-Brazil.pdf<br>
<br>
Although, not an implementation of their design, the advanced search
now available in SignPuddle addresses the same issues.<br>
<br>
Guylhem Aznar discussed this same issue. He called the slight
symbol positioning differences between signs "Intra-personal
variation". He correctly states that:<br>
<blockquote><i>Such near-imperceptible variations in the fine
positioning are due to the human manual positioning of the
symbols. It is nearly impossible for two SW signs, even while
using the same set of symbols, to share the exact position for
every symbol on the sign canvas : the relative position of the
symbols to the center of the sign changes.</i><br>
</blockquote>
He suggested that these variations should be prevented. I've gone
the opposite way and embraced the existence of slight variations.
The signs in SignPuddle Online demonstrate the variability of the
SignWriting script. The advanced searching of SignPuddle show that
these variations are not a problem.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>I would like to announce this to the Sign Language Linguist
LIst (SLLING) because there are several linguists who have
requested this feature before...</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
Yes, please do. I am very proud of the new search, both in terms of
flexibility and speed.<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>But I also understand that the "Search by Symbol Frequency"
feature does not search on literature in SignText yet - it is
only the "Search by Symbols" feature that can do that so far, is
that right?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
So far, symbol frequency does not include sign texts. The option
will be available soon.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
-Steve<br>
</div>
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