Elliptical circle vs. True circle

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
August 1st, 2005

Hello Stuart, Charles and Everyone!
This discussion is really about "how to write verb modulations in  
ASL". Verbs, in ASL, change their movement, depending on their  
meaning. In English, regarding verbs in English, we call that "verb  
conjugations"...like...I go. You go. He goes. He went. He will go. He  
has gone etc....

American Sign Language has lots of verb conjugations, but they are  
different than English...very different!

We are actually quite skilled at writing those verb modulations or  
changes in ASL...Since the 1980's we have done various documents with  
this information, but that was before computers, and so those  
documents are not on the web at the moment...In time I hope to post  
them, but as you can see, there is so much to do, that it may not  
happen immediately.

Therefore, I will now write some verb-modulations in ASL in  
SignPuddle and I will tell you when they are ready to view. I found  
another book that I worked with, years ago, called "American Sign  
Language, a student text, Units 19-27 (advanced book)..." by Dennis  
Cokely and Charlotte Baker, affectionately called the "Green Book" in  
our DAC workplace back in the 1980's! The Green Book was published in  
1981 by T.J. Publishers.

In the Green Book, they use the diagrams of Frank Allen Paul, just as  
Ursula's books did. Frank and I worked together on SignWriting  
illustrations, years ago, before he died. I will write to T.J. to see  
if we could get permission to post some of Frank's drawings from the  
Green Book, that fit with these verb modulations, to illustrate the  
SignWriting of them...I will tell you what happens!

This will be fun!

Val ;-)

--------------------------------


On Jul 31, 2005, at 10:29 PM, Stuart Thiessen wrote:

The first one is the citation form for sick.

The second one is what Klima and Bellugi define as "tends-to-be- 
sick". This is the circular motion (based on the definition of the  
symbol). This same motion done as an elipse and done slower and more  
uneven in tempo is what they describe for continuously sick.

The third one is what Klima and Bellugi define as "frequently sick".

Thanks,

Stuart

On Jul 31, 2005, at 23:20, Valerie Sutton wrote:


> SignWriting List
> July 31, 2005
>
> Word descriptions mean very little to me...
>
> Here are the three versions of the sign for SICK, or to feel sick,  
> in our SignPuddle dictionary at present...How would you define  
> these three, Stuart? I know there are many others, but let's start  
> defining what we already have...One of them means "continuously  
> sick"...right?...
>
> <Picture 6.png>
>