[sw-l] Underlining proper names in vertical columns...

[James Shepard-Kegl, Esq.]

>
>
> What happens if you do not mark proper names? Do your Deaf students
> mis-read it? There must be a reason why you started doing that...


They do if there is likely to be some confusion.   For example, in 1492
Columbus sailed the ocean blue --- in the Santa Maria, the Nina and the
Pinta.  Now, to an English speaker, there's no confusion.  To a Spaniard,
"nina" means "girl" and "pinta" means "spot", so the words have to be
capitalized to denote names of ships.  In Nicaraguan Sign, "Santa Maria"
already is a specific sign ("for the Virgin Mary"), but "nina" gets signed
as "girl" and "pinta" gets signed as "spot", so, indeed, there must be a way
to signify proper nouns to avoid confusion.  Obviously, color-coding won't
work on a whiteboard, either.

-- James