[sw-l] BSL Reading Test :)

[Tini Pel]

Hi Stefan and Sandy, please see reply below

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stefan Woehrmann" <stefanwoehrmann at GEBAERDENSCHRIFT.DE>
To: <sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 8:00 PM
Subject: AW: [sw-l] BSL Reading Test :)


>
>
> Hi Sandy - perhaps you would like to rewrite 1,5,6 and 9 once again?
>
> smile -   (I  understand that your goal is to make the paper burn - ha -
but
> nevertheless it seems important to me to keep in line with the general
> spelling -rules ;-)
>
> (What do you think Tini? - I bet you have to smile at this comment - since
> we had lots of exchange of this kind- )
YES IT WAS GOOD STEFAN AND I WHISH WE COULD STILL DO IT. I HAVE TO GET BACK
TO WRITING AGAIN, I AM SURE I STILL NEED CORRECTIONS.
L.I.F.E.
Tini.
>
> Just from the point of view of an uninformed reader of BSL  but well
> informed SW-user ;-))
>
> Stefan;-)

HI SANDY, I WRITE BY HAND AS WELL, DURING CAR TRIPS AND WAITING PERIODS,
JUST PRACTISING.
Tini.
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> [mailto:owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu]Im Auftrag von Sandy Fleming
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 20. Oktober 2004 00:31
> An: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> Betreff: [sw-l] BSL Reading Test :)
>
> Val wrote:
>
> > 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...
>
> Funny you should bring this up. With regard to handwriting more easily I
was
> looking at some signs that were very "busy" (ie a lot of movements and
> contacts even though the sign wasn't complicated to make in real life) and
> wondering how to make a reasonably neat rule to help people to decide what
> to leave out.
>
> I agree that yes, often contacts may simply be left out - often the
position
> of two symbols will suggest that one is touching the other, often the
> movement of a symbol sill suggest that it's brushing or rubbing a nearby
> symbol.
>
> But contacts are usually only small, easy to write symbols - I was
wondering
> if it was posible to go further and remove all contact and movement
> altogether, and just leave the head and handshape to express the sign.
>
> Firstly I realised that this won't work very easily with directional verbs
> or classifier-like signs - the contact and movement is often an
> indespensible part of the meaning.
>
> However, there are many common signs which are pretty much fixed - they
> don't really vary in any way, or the variation is in the facial
expression.
> I thought erhaps that those sort of signs might still be easily
recognisable
> and unambiguous even if all the contact and movement information were
> completely omitted.
>
> I've tried writing some common signs which are similar (all of them have
> just one hand, at the side the face) to see how much umbiguity was
> introduced. I find that, given the clue that they're familiar everyday
signs
> and the movement and contact information is omitted, it seems possible for
a
> person familiar with BSL to see which sign is intended in nearly all
cases.
>
> Of course someone who doesn't use BSL won't be able to see exactly how
these
> are pronounced. Moreover, I'm not suggesting that this sort of spelling
> should be added to dictionaries (unless widely adopted as standard) - just
> suggesting it for handwriting purposes.
>
> I wonder if a BSL user (Trevor?) would be so kind as to have a go at
trying
> to read these signs, and letting me know what he thinks they must mean?
> Although all of them are different and so could be used as long as
everybody
> is familiar with them, I'd be interested to know just how easy it is for a
> BSLer who hasn't seen them before to see what they mean.
>
> (You may notice that due to my recent explorations in handwriting, I'm now
> writing a lot these handshapes without lifting my pen off the page - I
find
> that a good rule is to start at the tip of the index finger or thumb  :)
>
> Sandy
>
>
>