SignBank for "research use" and "everyday use"....

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
August 25, 2003

Ingvild Roald wrote:
> What all these have in common, and where they all differ from
> SignWriting, is that they are developed for research purposes (often
> for one spesific SL or one spesific aspect), and not well suited to be
> everyday writing systems for Signing people.SignWriting too can be
> used for research, but it's main advantage is that it is a system that
> can write any Signed Language, and can be used easily by children and
> other non-researchers.


SW List Members, and Ingvild!
Thank you for this statement, Ingvild...Which is an excellent
introduction to a subject I need to tell everyone about anyway...

Back in the 1980's we had two textbooks with these titles:

SignWriting for Research Use
SignWriting for Everyday Use

So you can see that I had separated the two worlds of research and
daily use...

Then in recent years, I dropped those titles, and there has not been
the marked differentiation between SignWriting for research, and
SignWrting for everyday use...

But the development of SignBank, has changed that now...I feel the
strong need to provide two separate but intertwining SignBanks...one
for researchers with all the detailed and refined lookups, and one for
children and teachers, that is not as complicated, for everyday users...

Remember, Ingvild, when you pointed out to me that the symbols for
location, showing a circle on sections of the chest etc, are fine for
"lookups" and "searches", but since we do not actually write with those
special symbols, it is confusing in SignBank 2, to see those symbols
there?...

You are absolutely right! So by my taking the same SignBank software,
but creating two separate databases...one for researchers and one for
everyday signers, I have been able to provide a simpler symbol-set for
signers that does not include those special research-oriented
symbols...and presto! SignBank seems easier for children...

So I will be explaining the differences later...and I will be
distributing both versions to you all when they are ready...

Val ;-)