SignSpelling LIBRAS sign for MAMAE

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
April 7, 2007

Charles Butler wrote:
> 3) If so, what would be the SSS for the shoulder line.  The  
> location of cupping the breast for this sign (which is one LIBRAS  
> sign for mother, the GESTUNO sign for MOTHER, and several others is  
> not easily understood without a body location, one could be  
> grasping anything.  Any suggestions:
> Charles


Hello Charles and Everyone!
I am in the process of writing the SignSpelling Guidelines 2007  
booklet, to explain this in detail.

In the past, the 2004 booklet was based on only sorting 250 signs.  
That was not enough for us to really study looking up signs quickly  
with those SignSpelling guidelines.

But then recently, I sorted 1844 signs and found that the 2004  
SignSpelling Guidelines were not correct, at least as far as I can  
see anyway...

So based on this new experience, I am looking up by the handshape  
first. That means that the first symbol that you need in the  
SignSpelling column, is the handshape, not the shoulders. If you put  
the shoulders first, that would mean you would look that sign up by  
the shoulder line first...

It goes:

1. Handshapes
2. Contact-Movement-Dynamics-Timing
3. Location

Following this idea, your sign for MAMAE, would have this  
SignSpelling Sequence (see attached). I added this as a second  
version to your LIBRAS dictionary...go to MAMAE and then scroll down  
to find my new addition.

The little manniken needs a hollow dot, not a dark dot. The dark dot  
is the back of the person, the hollow dot is the front of the  
person...also notice how I deleted the manniken from the actual  
writing of the sign after I established the SignSpelling...the  
manniken gives the location for lookups in the dictionary, without  
changing the writing of the sign...

I am still not one hundred percent sure we need the shoulders in the  
SignSpelling column at all...the Shoulder Line is used when writing  
the sign, to show the location visually, but when sorting by  
Location, it may be that the little manniken is enough information  
for exact location sorting...these are the kinds of issues that we  
need to test, but it needs to be tested on a lot of signs in a  
dictionary, not just a small amount...to see how easy it is to find a  
sign in the dictionary...

I know you did a lot of work on this yourself Charles, by hand...and  
that was very impressive because you did it without computers...the  
only difference here is we are trying to get computers to do the  
sorting for us. We can try different sequences to see what end result  
works for the majority of people...that could be a life-long research  
project, that is for sure...

Val ;-)



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