Question about "this" sign

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
March 26, 2004

Hello Everyone, Bill and Nikos!
Bill is correct. There are many forms of the sign THIS...The signs are 
directional. If you are pointing to an object that is high up, the 
pointing would be high up, towards the object you are talking 
about...So there are as many forms of THIS, as there are directions in 
the room, and SignWriting can write them all visually, just as they are 
signed.

This is a classic example why dictionaries are never perfect...To 
include all the forms of THIS or HERE in a dictionary, you would need 
around 25 or 30 entries, like the verb conjugation of HELP...smile...

The magnificent beauty of signed languages, is that they incorporate 
the visual reality of our world, in such a concise and perfect way. In 
a spoken language, you would have to write a paragraph explaining that 
the THIS you are referring to, is something high on the corner of the 
ceiling, but in a signed language, one sign takes care of a whole 
paragraph!

Val ;-)

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




On Mar 26, 2004, at 6:23 AM, Bill Reese wrote:

>  Nikos,
>
>  Actually, in that video dictionary, it looks like they are pointing 
> diagonally and specifically to an object. Θ When there is no object to 
> point to, I usually either point to the open palm of my other hand 
> usuing a double movement parallel to the wall plane, or just make the 
> same movement but without the palm. Θ That's exactly the same as 
> what's in the PUDL dictionary. Θ I would suspect that there may be 
> different "dialects" for "this" as my ASL hardcopy dictionary defines 
> "this" as "that", using a "Y" hand and moving it palm down in a double 
> movement parallel to the wall plane making contact with the open, 
> upturned palm of the non-dominant hand.
>
>  Bill
>
>
>  Nikos Grammalidis wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>  Θ /div>
>  We would like some help with the interpretation of "this" sign which 
> is expressed by the following graphic according to the
> PUDL dictionary:
> <image.tiff> Θ /div>
>  Since the double stemmed arrows denote motion -� arallel to -² he 
> wall plane, we cannot understand
> the corresponding video from the ASL video dictionary
>  Θ /div>
>  http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
>  Θ /div>
>  where the movement is -� arallel to the -� loor plane.
> Can somebody explain this to us?
>  Θ /div>
>  Thanks in advance,
> Nikos Grammalidis.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>  Nikos Grammalidis,
>  Electrical Engineer, Ph.D.
>  Informatics and Telematics Institute
>  1st Km Thermi-Panorama Road
>  57001 (PO Box 361)
>  Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece
>  Tel. : +30-2310-464160, (internal 117)
>  Fax : +30-2310-464164
>  WWW : http://www.iti.gr/db.php/en/people/Nikolaos_Grammalidis.html
> <mime-attachment>