[sw-l] Sign Variants via SWML

[Antônio Carlos da Rocha Costa]

Sandy,

  Since I'm not a linguist, this phrase made me curious:

>a difference in the nature of sign languages when compared to oral
>languages, in that oral languages are largely just codification, whereas
>sign languages are broadly iconic. The variants in the suggested SWML just
>express the way iconicity is used to generate variants in the actual
>language.
>
>
  I was understanding your proposal of including variants in SWML as a
means for taking care of prosodic features (intonation) of sign
language. Your phrase concerns iconicity.

  The question I have is this: can you (or anybody else) explain the
difference between the two concepts and tell the way they are related in
sign languages?

   Could symbol variants take care of both aspects?

   All the best,

   Antônio Carlos