ASL sign for DOWNLOAD software

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
December 9, 2006

Adam Frost wrote:
> Yes! That looks great. Seeing this icon brings up a question I had
> when I was doing some hand writting (for quick and simplicity). When
> you have a close (or any other finger movement) and you only write one
> handshape, which is the position that should be written? I thought it
> was the initial, but here you have the final. Was I wrong?

Hello Adam!
I am glad you asked this question. It is not always the beginning  
position. Not at all, in fact. Sometimes it is, but most of the time  
it is other rules that govern the choice...

Writing both the beginning and ending positions is the most accurate  
or course...

But when you want to shorten the writing of a sign, and you must  
choose one or the other, you choose:

1. The Position of Contact...see Spelling Rule:
http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/elessons/less063.html

or if there is no contact....

2. The Position of Focus (the position that holds the most meaning)

Number 2 needs a web page with a spelling rule written for you...it  
isn't that hard...it is the fact that just the V hands by themselves  
could mean many things, but the result of the bending of the fingers  
is what tells you the information that you grabbed something, and so  
the ending position of the bending of the fingers are the result of  
the meaning of the sign...

Think about reading something quickly for meaning...what is most  
meaningful, like the contact in a sign, is what is most  
important...and seeing that contact is what is needed first and  
foremost...like contacting your chest twice...we don't write the hand  
far away from the chest first...we instead write the position of  
contact on the chest...but that is the second position...the landing  
on the chest is not the first position...so we write the second  
position more than the first position actually although most people  
don't think about it...

smile...I hope I have made myself clear...sorry for rambling on and  
on -  Val ;-)