[sw-l] Adding Classifiers to SignPuddle Dictionaries

[Sandy Fleming]

Hi Kathleen and list,

I think before we get into this CL-prefix thing we need to be clear
about whether we really do mean to represent classifiers.

There's a difference between a classifier and a proform, though older
books on sign linguistics don't distinguish clearly.

A proform is a handshape used to represent the shape and/or location of
something in a sign language.

Proforms may be one, two or three dimensional.

A one-dimensional (1D) proform using the index finger to point in BSL
(and other sign languages, I believe)  corresponds to things like
pronouns in oral languages - "he", "me", "we" &c. 1D proforms don't
always use the index finger. For example, in Welsh BSL the middle finger
is used to show that something is NOT at a particular location.

A 2D proform corresponds to flat objects or surfaces. For example a flat
"B" hand might be used to indicate a sheet of paper or a car in BSL
(where, although the car is 3D in real life, it's useful to represent it
as 2D in BSL).

A 3D proform corresponds to objects with significant volume, eg a
"Full-C" hand might be used to represent a mug or can.

Now for classifiers - a classifier is a classification of a proform
according to what it represents in real life.

For example, the flat "B" hand is used in BSL to represent cars,
lorries, sheets of paper, hillsides and so on, but classifiers are
subsets of these objects..

Not all of these are named as far as I know, but when used to represent
cars, lorries, queues of traffic and suchlike, it's called the "Vehicle
Classifier". This is different from the "book" classifier that in BSL is
used to represent sheets of paper, books, and libraries.

So as a rule each proform is used for a number of different classifiers,
so you can see that there are many more classifiers in a sign language
than proforms.

To summarise, a proform is a handshape which is used to represent an
actual shape or location in the signing space corresponding to a similar
shape or location in the real or imaginary subject of conversation. A
classifier is a particular usage of a proform for a class of objects
represented in conversations in the sign language.

I think we should be clear about this for the sake of the dictionaries
making sense to everybody.

Sandy.

Kasterlinden Bilinguaal wrote:

> Hello list,
>
> I read in a book about sign linguistics that the term 'classifier'
> indicates the shape of the hands. There are numerous terms for the
> constructions discribing a situation. Polycomponential verb,
> polysynthetic sign, ...
>
> I use the prefix 'Cl-' in the Flemish signpuddle.
>
> http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-BE-nl/search.php?sign=cl-bergen&search=cl&type=any
> <http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-BE-nl/search.php?sign=cl-bergen&search=cl&type=any>
>
> Greetings Kathleen
>