SignText: Editing Jack and Jill

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
July 8, 2006

Is Lotus Notes a software program for email? Can you download  
Thunderbird email? It is free and fits with Firefox and therefore  
will probably work best for SignWriting...that is why I am teaching  
myself to switch to Thunderbird too...

Download Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

This will be worth it, Cherie...

I will try to add the facial expression you suggest - see next message..

Val ;-)




On Jul 8, 2006, at 11:12 AM, Cherie Wren wrote:

> Shoot, I cant just paste them in like I can in Lotus
> Notes...  the closed smile with pressure on the side
> of the mouth would work; or the closed mouth lips
> protrude forward...  the second one is an ASL
> nonmanual that means 'in a casual manner'.  My facial
> expression varies between those two...  The attitude
> is one of "dum dum de dum..."  not a dreaded chore,
> just a regualr thing they happen to be doing...
>
> cherie
>
>
>
>
> --- Valerie Sutton <signwriting at MAC.COM> wrote:
>
>> SignWriting List
>> July 8, 2006
>>
>> Cherie Wren wrote:
>>> signing as if to the kids--  my face is smiling,
>>> excited, eyebrows up...
>>
>> Wow. This is so cool! You and Darline Gunsauls sign
>> to kids the same
>> way! With an open smile, not the closed smile I
>> wrote...this is great!
>>
>> Facial expressions in SignWriting are very
>> important. But which
>> facial expressions you choose to write, depends on
>> the purpose of the
>> document. Some people choose to write mouth
>> movements related to
>> speech-mouthing, as you know, for example in
>> northern Europe, and
>> that is very important too...but here in the US we
>> tend to write
>> other facial expressions, more attached to the
>> feeling or mood of the
>> signer...This developed over time, as our Deaf DAC
>> members wrote
>> their own literature by hand directly in their
>> native ASL...I noticed
>> that the facial expressions they chose to write were
>> not always the
>> ones that hearing linguists, for example, would
>> choose...
>>
>> Darline contributed three developments to the
>> writing of ASL
>> literature for Deaf children...
>>
>> 1. Established that the smiling face would indicate
>> to the reader
>> that "this is a children's story" by using smiling
>> faces throughout
>> the document...(whenever other faces are not
>> required for linguistic
>> reasons...)
>>
>> 2. Writing mime-like facial expressions for
>> intonation.
>> The choice of mime-like expression when writing
>> children's stories,
>> that are not necessarily linguistically required,
>> but are needed to
>> convey the "feeling" of signing. For example, what
>> is the feeling of
>> going up that hill? Are they burdened by it, are
>> they annoyed by it,
>> or are they happy? Sign literature actually captures
>> more intonation
>> and more feeling than spoken languages do...so I bet
>> you have a
>> facial expression for the sign for going up the
>> hill?
>>
>> 3. Darline also chose to use colored symbols, for
>> children, to learn
>> the difference between hands, movement
>> etc...Although the
>> standardized color system was something we had
>> developed before I
>> knew Darline, Darline was the first person to use it
>> children's
>> writing...so we could try that if you wish later...
>>
>> Here are the three versions of the beginning
>> phrase...(see
>> attached)...I like the version 3 for the first two
>> signs!!
>>
>> But what about the sign for going up the
>> hill?....look in the mirror
>> at yourself, Cherie...what does your face look like
>> when you sign
>> that to children? I am sure my suggestion is not
>> right, but I wanted
>> to stimulate you to think about a facial expression
>> for that sign?
>> Val ;-)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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