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

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
March 23, 2005

Hi Nancy and Everyone!
Everything you say below is fine and I can see that you are right, that
there are different kinds of classifiers and locative classifiers do
use the tension symbol but from what you say below, it sounds like not
all classifiers are locative and therefore I need to also update my own
manual about writing classifiers too...so a good thought for the
future...

Now, one thing I want you all to know...I have 4 beautifully-signed ASL
stories signed by a native ASL Deaf signer...Darline Clark
Gunsauls...and all four are for anyone to use, if you wish to write
classifiers in ASL...Golidlocks is the first story out of the four (we
all know that one! ;-), but the three others have never been
written....Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and the last one, Snow White,
is very advanced with advanced classifiers...I am sorry you have chosen
a video we do not have permission to post, Nancy, because it is really
hard for me to know what you are trying to write...so any time you
would like to write some of our four ASL stories, you are welcome to do
so...and we can post portions of the video while we do it...

I am planning to get back to writing the One Harbor poem in ASL which
Stefan has already written, and I want to write it too, and then after
that, I was thinking of tackling the Snow White story, which is very
long and will end up being a thick book. Darline goes on and on
describing, with classifiers, the way each of the seven dwarfs looked,
and how they would peer over the bed post to stare at Snow White and
each dwarf's personality peered over the bed post in their own unique
way...Darline deserves an academy award for the performance, which is
close to being acting...very delightful really...but to write it will
be an advanced experience for all of us!

Anyway, maybe next time, before you start writing, we should be sure we
have permission to post the video piece you choose to
write...smile....Val ;-)

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


On Mar 23, 2005, at 2:28 PM, Nancy Emery wrote:

> 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!
>>
>>
>>
>