idea of dictionary order (was:spelling order)

[Valerie Sutton]

>Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa wrote:
>Then, maybe the right layout for a SignWriting dictionary is that of "a cluster per page", being of no importance where inside the page the signs are placed, granted that the pages are small enough to be visually searched in a fast way (otherwise the clusters should be broken into smaller ones). This could be applied both to printed pages, to web pages or sign banks. Or else, maybe this is not a good idea, and one should keep trying to mimic the layout of oral language dictionaries.


SignWriting List
November 1, 2002

Hello Everyone, and Antonio Carlos -
Thank you for this thoughtful message. I feel rather honored you have taken the time from your busy schedule to post a message to the List -

And your comments are well-taken. Up until now, we have only had small dictionaries that sort by SSS. For example, the ASL Picture Dictionary which we donated to schools as a part of the SignWriting Literacy Project several years ago....that little book only had 50 signs, so the students had no problems finding the signs because they found them "in clusters" on one page, as you said.

But I believe we can find a way to sort large SignWriting dictionaries with 1000s of signs, and make the look-up process by SSS accurate but easy for deaf children - That is also why I love SignBank, because it is flexible enough that it leaves room for experimentation...

By the way, I developed some new terminology...I hope this makes sense to you:

SignSpelling....The order of symbols within a sign.
SignSorting....The order of signs within a dictionary.
SignWriting Syllables...This I will define in the next message...it is my way of explaining how I spell signs....

All the best -
--
Val ;-)


.....................................................

Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

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