Request for Research Data

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
April 17, 2006

Stuart Thiessen wrote:
> Yes, I am interested in seeing how the SignSpelling rules are applied.
> I am interested also to see what exceptions if any are out there. I
> will certainly be including the spelling rules you have developed in
> the process of my research to see how actual writing compares. Maybe
> we find that in certain situations, the rules create more problems
> than they help. In other cases, we may find that the rules help us
> solve problems because they give us good guidelines when trying to
> compose the sign.  For those situations with exceptions, it will be
> helpful to try to undersand why the writer decided to go in a
> different direction than the rules.

Hello Stuart!
I am enjoying reading your thoughtful messages...an interesting project.

The problem is that most writers are writing SignWriting without  
realizing that there are SignSpelling Rules. So the only accurate way  
to judge the question above is to study those writers who have the  
same training...and have written for about the same length of time.  
If you have a group of people who all have learned the SignSpelling  
Rules, and have tried to apply them accurately following the rules,  
and then later they chose to write a certain way...that is a real study.

But if you are basing a beginner's writing, who has never even been  
told there are SignSpelling Rules...and you look at their writing as  
if they made a choice, when they had no choice to make, because they  
didn't know there were SignSpelling Rules to begin with...then the  
study is not an accurate one...

but it is hard to find people all at the same writing level...

It is similar to people who have never seen SignWriting at all, who  
believe it is See Signs, or who say it is changing ASL, but they have  
actually never looked at the writing system in their lives...To give  
their opinion equal credence, to another person who has studied the  
system well and can read and write it, would not be a good comparison  
either...

SignWriting is unique in history in one respect...There are a lot of  
people learning it from the internet, who have never met another  
person who knows SignWriting, and their knowledge of reading and  
writing the system is as good as our internet lessons are, and they  
are far from perfect...

When the DAC used to come over to my home, we had such a rich  
experience together...we were a team and we really worked hard to get  
a good writing system, but I am just learning myself how to  
communicate some of our writing to others on the internet..in this  
rather impersonal world...

I am hoping that in time, video conferencing will become so easy that  
one-on-one teaching will be easier for us to do over the internet,  
and that should help...

Val ;-)