[sw-l] ASL Continue

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 19, 2004

Stuart Thiessen wrote:
> What am I saying differently between continue and continue_5 other
> than there is no contact between the handshapes?  I have always signed
> continue with thumb contact. So I should write it like continue_5?

 From a meaning point of view, you may not be saying anything different,
but from the SignSpelling point of view, there obviously needs to be a
standard established...when two different people write signs, they
oftentimes choose a different spelling...this is normal in the
beginning of the history of a writing system...in time it becomes
standard...and a lot depends on how the signs are entered into
dictionaries...

So when I look at these two SignSpellings for the same sign, the only
thing different is the way the movements are being produced...

Regarding arrows...
Imagine your right hand dipped in a can of black paint, and your left
hand dipped in a can of white paint. If the two hands are not touching
each other, then the right hand paints its own separate movement in
space, and it is a black one, with a dark arrowhead. The left hand has
a separate left movement in space with a white arrowhead. But when the
two hands contact, then they are painting a blended path in
space...hence the general arrowhead is used...

Regarding contact...
There are different theories on that...the Danes decided to only write
contact when a sign could be misunderstood without it...which meant
that most Touch stars were eliminated, because we can understand signs
whether they touch or not most of the time...like the ASL sign for
DEAF...if someone skimmed the surface of the face, not really touching
it, we would still understand the sign...meanwhile other writers
outside of Denmark write the contact stars no matter what...so the
Editors of each dictionary will have to think through what their
decisions will be on these spelling standards...

In a public ASL dictionary with lots of people adding signs, we are
bound to have these issues re-surface all the time, but the Editors can
go in and clean the dictionary occasionally to make sure the signs are
written to the spelling standards that the Editors have chosen ...a fun
and really interesting job -  And I too will go in occasionally and see
if there are signs that I cannot read, and if that is true, I will
bring them up to the List and we can make changes accordingly....Val
;-)


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