nondominant handshapes

[Rachel Channon]

Hi Petra,  I will be giving a talk on a proposed unification of the
dominance and symmetry conditions at the Chicago Linguistic Society meeting
on April 15.  If you or anyone else is interested, I'd be happy to send you
the abstract (the paper will not be ready until after the conference).   
Rachel Channon
University of Maryland Linguistics Department
rchannon at speakeasy.net


-----Original Message-----
From: For the discussion of linguistics and signed languages.
[mailto:SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA] On Behalf Of petra.n.eccarius.1
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 6:02 PM
To: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
Subject: nondominant handshapes


Hello list members,

I am looking at 2-handed signs cross-linguistically for a paper I'm working
on, and I've come up with a couple of questions:

1) For those of you working on sign languages other than ASL:

do any of you have sources (or information) regarding the possible
nondominant (passive) hands of Battison's type 3 signs (different
handshapes, one active, one passive) in your sign languages?  (I am
especially interested in languages that allow nondominant handshapes other
than the basic seven Battison names (B A S C O 1 5).)

2) For those of you who work on or use ASL:

can any of you think of examples of type 3 signs with nondominant handshapes
other than those basic seven?  I have seen variants of BERRY (or was it
CHERRY?) with an extended pinky (I) on the nondominant hand instead of a 1,
and I know that there is an older form of FINAL that I've seen used from
time to time which uses an I with a 1 on the dominant hand.  Can any of you
think of more examples? (I know they are rare!)

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.  Feel free to respond to
me personally (eccarius at purdue.edu) or answer the list if you think it would
be of interest to everyone.

All the best,

Petra Eccarius
(PhD student, Purdue University)