Spelling FROG/FROSCH

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
April 29, 2003

Hello Everyone, and Penny, Siv, Stuart...
Thank you for this question. Actually there are specific rules for this
kind of writing...I will be able to answer tomorrow or the next
day...sorry for the delay, but an answer will definitely be coming...it
could be a good discussion, because the rules need to be documented...
Val ;-)

-------------------------

On Tuesday, April 22, 2003, at 07:46  AM, GS-Media wrote:

> Dear Valerie, Stuart - and all,
>
> In discussing Stuart's exchange with Valerie about how to write the ASL
> sign meaning 'next, next, next', Siv and I were reminded again of a
> recurring problem we have about signs in which the movement is
> repeated.
> One such sign that Siv is working on now is the Swiss German sign for
> FROG (FROSCH).  The passive hand is a flat hand with palm up.  The
> active hand begins with a modified O handshape (fore and middle fingers
> bent to contact the thumb), with the palm facing the floor, the
> fingertips in contact near the heel of the palm.
>
> Now here comes the interesting part - the movement.
> The handshape opens up into a European 3 hand (fore, middle fingers and
> thumb outstretched), while simultaneously making a jumping forward
> movement.  As the hand descends to 'land' on the palm, the hand closes
> again into the original modified O handshape. From the point on the
> palm
> where the hand has landed,  the whole movement is then repeated.
>
> Attached is our SW spelling for FROSCH. If anyone would like a
> Quicktime
> movie of this sign (212 KB), let me know and I can send it to you
> directly.
>
> For linguistic research purposes, we want our spelling to contain the
> following information about this sign:
>
> a) A 'full notation', giving both finger movements and the resulting
> handshapes. (Although this is redundant information, we would like to
> be
> able to search our databank later for either the handshapes involved or
> the type of movement.)
>
> b) The simultaneity of the finger opening and closing movements with
> the
> arm jumping forward movement.
>
> c) The fact that the whole sign is repeated. For linguistic research,
> it
> would be good to be able to search for signs with repeated movements.
> This would be a much easier search if there were a symbol for
> 'repeitition'.  Perhaps there is a symbol for 'repetition' already
> built
> into SignBank, which we haven't found yet.  What we are using at the
> moment is a single quote symbol for each repetition.
>
> We realize that the kinds of things we might need for research
> sometimes
> make the reading of the sign more complicated.  For that reason, we are
> considering putting two kinds of spellings into our databank: a full
> linguistic spelling and a 'reduced, easy to read' spelling for
> children's books, etc.
>
> All for now - from sunny, springy Zurich.
>
> Penny and Siv<FROSCH.PDF>