Nouns vs Verbs...Pierce College...;-)

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
February 13, 2004

Dear SW List, and Adam!
Thank you for this outstanding discussion of ASL grammar, Adam. It is
great to see how far the knowledge of ASL grammar has come, in the past
20 years...

And I will keep this message to correct our dictionary. I only wish you
could post written signs in SignWriting to the List. Can you type with
SignWriter DOS? I would love your feedback on the signs in the ASL
dictionary...there are 3,100 of them in the DOS dictionary...and
although they were written in SignWriting by Deaf ASL signers, it was
long ago, and there are many signs that can be written better now,
based on new research on ASL grammar...

By the way...I taught several workshops on SignWriting at Pierce
Community College, in Woodland Hills, in the San Fernando Valley (north
of Los Angeles) in 1982, 1983, 1984. Several of our DAC members started
working with me, because of those workshops...They became the Deaf
staff who wrote the SignWriter Newspaper in ASL from 1982-1984...So I
am very familiar with Pierce College! Wonderful ASL program there...you
are right!

Val ;-)

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

On Feb 12, 2004, at 4:33 PM, Adam Frost wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
> I guess we have several questions in this regard. There are several
> verbs
> that can be transformed into nouns - sometimes called Noun-Verb Pairs.
> This
> is done by generaly doing the tense movement with repeating. However,
> this
> does not mean that all nouns have tense movements nor repeated
> movements.
> "Chair" and "Sit" are perfect examples of a noun-verb pair.
> As in Val four sign, not all of them follow the Noun-Verb Pair rule.
> This is
> because there is not real need to have a verb form of that word. (ie
> the
> words were: curtian, class, card, and abortion.) The first three have
> no
> verb pair; however, abortion does. So, the true noun form should have a
> tension mark, but most times in ASL the word abortion is not used. The
> word
> abort (ie to remove a baby from a womb) is used. Val, I hope that
> answers
> your question about these first four signs.
> Val is also correct about the sign American with tension is the
> meaning of
> American.
> The question Bill placed about the sign "chairperson" to Tina is a
> good one.
> Tina is right that to sign chair in that concept would not be full
> correct.
> Maybe Sign English, but not ASL. The suggestion of leader is a good
> one.
> That can be used because a chairperson is a leader. A better one would
> be to
> use the sign to controll as a noun or just add person because a
> chairperson
> "holds the reins" of the meeting. ;-)
> In answer to your question, Val, I am not an ASL teacher - yet. I am
> bearly
> a freshman in College. :-) I have studied ASL in great detail. That is
> why
> SignWriting was such an interest to me. I took the top level ASL class
> at
> Peirce Community College, which is nationally reconized as one of the
> top
> interpreter programs in America. My teacher, a native signer of ASL,
> had to
> often to tell me to hold a comment or question because it would be for
> 4
> more levels higher than that class. She would answer my questions after
> class, though. Now I also tutor the students of thoes classes. I was
> recomended by my teacher.
> I hope that helps everyone. If there are any other questions, ask! ;-)
> |    |
>  ! !  /
> Adam
>
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