Request for Research Data

[Stuart Thiessen]

Please note comments below ....

Stuart

On 4/15/06, Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org> wrote:
> SignWriting List
> April 15, 2006
>
> Stuart Thiessen wrote:
> > I am doing some research related to SignWriting for my MA degree and I
> > am wondering if any of you would be willing to help me out with
> > gathering some data. Part of what I want to do is study the way that
> > we compose and decompose SW to represent specific signs.
> >
> > 5 signs: easy to write in SW.
>
>
> Hello Stuart!
> Great to hear from you again...Your Master's Degree thesis sounds
> really interesting...
>
> What is easy and what is hard, usually depends on a signwriter's
> skill...there are different perspectives...is this from the student's
> point of view? Or from a skilled signer's point of view?

I am looking for the user's point of view. Obviously, this will differ
from individual to individual based on their experience both with the
sign language itself and SW.

> When you ask "easy to write?"
>
> do you mean the physical issues of writing by hand versus computer?
>
> or do you mean what is easy to read? (no physical writing involved)
> just what is clear to read instantaneously?
>
> or do you mean what is clean in the invention, with no exceptions, so
> it is easy to write because the writer has easy and consistent rules
> to follow?

Thank you for the question for clarification. I am not really looking
for "simple" signs. I am looking for signs which are easily written
because it is clear from the rules how to write it. For example, the
ASL sign DEAF is an easy sign because the rules are very clear on how
to write that particular sign. It is unlikely that we would differ ...
much ... in how we write that sign. Preferably the 5 example easy
signs should at least have some contact and/or movement involved in
the sign. The signs themselves may be very complex, but the way to
write it is clearly defined for the writer.

The other 20 example signs I am asking for involve more complexity in
how we would write it. It may be an issue of the rules being unclear
or an issue of the number of symbols or the placement of symbols in
order to transcribe that sign.  I am assuming that these particular
signs will likely come up only in actual usage rather than dictionary
forms. For example, AIRPLANE-FLYING as a classifier is probably a
pretty easy sign to write, but to write AIRPLANE-LANDING might be a
little less easy. Or AIRPLANE-FLYING-OVER-LAND is probably more
difficult than AIRPLANE-FLYING. (I haven't had a chance to see if
these are in the ASL SignPuddle or not, but if they are not, I will
add them on Monday so you can see what I mean.)

I realize some of this I could do through a check of the SignPuddles,
but I am also interested in seeing what the users consider to be
difficult signs. Perhaps I might not see it as difficult but someone
else might feel that way. I still would like to see that perspective.
That perspective is something I wouldn't get if I just went through
the dictionaries myself.

If you would rather just send me a page or so of SW text that you have
already written with some signs circled to let me know which ones were
challenging and which ones were not, that is fine also. The more data
I can get, the better for my research.

Thanks,

Stuart

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Stuart Thiessen
Des Moines, IA