[Slling-l] research on turning head while signing?

[Susan Walker]

Hi, all.  Many years ago (I'm long retired now), I thought I saw some research
in ASL whereby a subject was sitting on a stool, and signing.  The stool was
twirled slowly so that the signer's body and head turned away from the observer,
but he continued to sign.  He therefore altered his signing locations because his
head/body were no longer facing directly toward the observer/listener.

For an example:  The sign in ASL for HOME is made on the right cheek by a
right-handed signer.  But as the signer turned to the right, he eventually was
turned so much that he now made that sign on his left cheek so that the
person to whom he was signing would be able to see the sign being made.
[I hope I'm describing this properly!]

Does anyone remember any such research?  It's quite possible I saw it in
England in 1989, but I'm pretty sure it was an ASL speaker, so I'm thinking
it was probably the USA.

Thanks!!  -- Susan Walker, Linguist (Ret.) [Do we ever really "retire" from 
our love of linguistics?]   :-)