AW: [sw-l] BSL Reading Test :)

[Stefan Woehrmann]

Hi Sandy and everybody,
thanks for your second table of handwritten signs. My first idea was - wow -
there are not too many symbols to add that would make reading your signs so
much easier  - so what ??


"   -   in a long (four-syllable) sign you should try to avoid writing the
final movement (Val);"


I am not sure what you mean.  I cannot remember any advice like this - in
fact I would be surprised ( smile)

Writing and spelling is always done with the level of understanding of your
reader - there might be signs that do not need to write everything in
detail - since your reader would know anyway  - but it depends.

The general idea in Sutton SignWriting is to write a starting and ending
handshape if there is a difference between the two according to one of the
important parameters. But there are exceptions - and Valerie herself would
never "force" anybody into a "spelling - rule" (smile)
Well all of us do not write different handshapes for the sign of  house -
but in order to describe the difference of handorientation in the beginning
and in the end we should do that.   ;-))  - Especially if we describe our
sign for this and that to somebody who is not familiar with our SL.

Otherwise the whole idea of movement-writing would lead to kind of prejudice
that it is not exact enough and bla bla bla ...

So - can you tell  we where you found this advice from Valerie Sutton?

Stefan ;-)


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
[mailto:owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu]Im Auftrag von Sandy Fleming
Gesendet: Freitag, 22. Oktober 2004 08:03
An: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
Betreff: RE: [sw-l] BSL Reading Test :)

Morning, Stefan!

> Please do me the favour and write down this set of signs (only 10 - smile)
> by hand with all the necessary detailed symbol set that is needed

Here you are then!


> So again - it is not a question of speed - from my point of view
> and believe
> me- if both of us would write at the blackboard your ten signs - with and
> without the additional symbols - time would not be the questions - ha
> definitely not since it would cause only seconds to finish the
> same job but
> with much more information -

Yes, I see your point. There's a rule in Teeline Shorthand that you
shouldn't normally bother to write the vowels except at the beginning and
end of a word. You could apply this tule in ordinary longhand spelling but
people prefer to have the whole word even if it takes more time and space.

Now that I've gone through various SW handwriting ideas I'm inclined to
think that the main thing is to be able to write cursively.

As far as missing things out goes, it seems to me that there's a general
agreement that:

   -   in a long (four-syllable) sign you should try to avoid writing the
final movement (Val);
   -   handshape and position changes in a sign can usually be indicated
just with the movement symbols (Charles);
   -   contact symbols can be omitted if the touch is light and suggested by
the relative positions of the symbols (Signuno).

I find myself more and more writing movement symbols against other movement
symbols to show that the movements are simultaneous (see for example signs 1
and 10 of attachment). This is because if I apply the second movement symbol
to the handshape I worry that the reader might think the movements should be
executed one ater the other. Is this a good thing or am I missing more
advanced movement symbols that can express both kinds of movement as one
symbol?

Sandy