[sw-l] SWDB - Linguistic SignWriting Database

[Sandy Fleming]

Antônio Carlos,

>    We are calling it SWDB - Linguistic SignWriting Database (but we are
> not sure yet this is the best name).
>
>    The SWML format, called SWDB, has been added to the SWML site
>
>       http://swml.ucpel.tche.br
>
> so you can check it. It's an XML schema, not a DTD, but it is shown as a
> diagram. The diagram is in the PDF format.

It's possible that I'm reading the schema wrongly, but if I'm reading it
correctly I have a serious objection to it.

It seems to assume that the sign language will have an oral language
translation.

Why shouldn't there be a linguistic database with translations to sign
languages?

For example an ASL database for BSL users who have poor English or don't
want to work with English as a go-between for the two sign languages?

This is something I've thought of before - at the moment glosses for use by
editors and dictionary software are always in oral languages but it should
be possible to supply sign language glosses for those who want to work
directly from one sign language to another.

This makes sense to me, as oral languages are quite "foreigh" to sign
languages and only being able to work between a sign and oral language when
trying to learn a foreign sign language seems to me like an English speaker
trying to work with Dutch but only having a Dutch-Japanese and
English-Japanese dictionary.

In fact it's worse because imagine I wanted to access Brazilian Sign
Language - I'd have to go through English and Portuguese to get at the
Brazilian Sign Language instead of just going direct from British Sign
Language to Brazilian!

While not many people might want to produce an authoritative
British-Brazilian SL dictionary, signers who want to learn or teach a
foreign sign language should at least be able to set up a database like this
for their own or classroom use. And how about researchers comparing sign
languages?

I hope either I've read the schema wrongly, or you or Juliano find this
suggestion helpful!

Sandy