[sw-l] CLASSIFIERS...ASL document from video

[Nancy Emery]

hi Val,

thanks!  I know it's hard to go without seeing the video, just by what you
imagine it  should be!

I don't have the video with me at the moment - I'll check it when I go home.
But so far -

in sign 1 I think you may be right that the eye-gaze does flick to the side
briefly , and I probably should show that in sign 1 agreeing with the finger
pointing to the side, and then put the front eye gaze into sign 2 (sign 2 I
pasted from the dictionary, but I could re-create it).  The eye gaze was
predominantly to the front during sign 1, but I think you're right that
there was a little flick sideways that would be good to notate.  So I'll
check when I go home.

In sign 2, I don't think that the sign for dog was spatialized to the left,
I think it really was in neutral space.  The location of the dog has been
established by the pointing finger already, and the dog is not going to be
compared with or have a conversation with anything on the right, so it isn't
linguistically necessary for the sign to be produced on the left.  But I'll
check the tape.  Since I should show the head again anyway, to show that the
eye gaze has returned forward, I can easily move the sign to the left of the
head if necessary.

In sign 3, there is not a feeling of tension in the hands that are the
"paws" - it's actually quite relaxed feeling, the dog is resting, so I don't
think the tension mark is appropriate.  I understand why the tension mark
was used in the example in the handbook - those are locative classifiers,
used to establish the location of something stationary, and they do involve
a short tense downward movement (as if to say "it's right HERE").  In
another part of the transcription that I haven't sent, there is a use of
classifiers like this, and the tense symbol is useful there.

However, there are several different kinds of uses of classifiers, and the
ones in this video are for the most part not locative classifiers.  A lot of
them later on are classifiers showing the path of movement - the handshape
represents someone moving in the direction the hand moves.  These particular
ones in sign 3 are something else again, using the signer's two hands to
represent the dog's front paws - combined with the face, it helps give us a
vivid picture of how the dog is first resting at ease, and then sitting up
alert.  The signer has become the dog for a moment.

Maybe it would be good to check with other ASL signers, who know the
language better than I do, and ask specifically about different uses of
classifiers and when the tension symbol is appropriate.  My feeling is that
it is very appropriate for classifiers used to show where something is
located, but not appropriate for other uses.

Sign 4 - movement arrow over the head - good, no problem!  I'll send the
revision tonight when I am at the other computer.

Thank you so much!

Nancy


on 3/23/05 1:03 PM, Valerie Sutton at sutton at signwriting.org wrote:

> SignWriting List
> March 23, 2005
>
> So in summary, Nancy, regarding the first line...I would ...
>
> Sign 2: show the dog to the left of the shoulders
> Sign 3: place tension symbols marking the classifier under the hands
> Sign 4: Place the double-stemmed arrow on top of the head, rather than
> to the side of the head
>
> Do you agree? I will wait to hear from you before I go on...I will go
> on to other topics for the moment...If you agree, why not try to
> re-write that first line?...then re-post it...and I will go on to the
> next line after that...Hope this helps!
>
>
>