General Arrowhead...Both hands move on same path...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
February 18, 2007

On Feb 14, 2007, at 1:35 PM, Stuart Thiessen wrote:
> Could you give us an example where this distinction would help us  
> tell the difference between signs? I too thought it just meant that  
> two hands moved the same while contacting. So for the sign  
> CONTINUE, I would have thought that was written right. I guess I am  
> trying to understand the benefit of the extra distinction? I  
> thought it was helpful to eliminate the redundancy of two arrows  
> when the movement information is the same...

The General Movement Arrowhead, which writes Overlapping Paths, was  
not designed from a linguistic point of view, but from a movement  
perspective. It provides visual information that is important. It  
eliminates the need for the Surface Symbol in many cases, and  
provides some exciting information when writing intertwining complex  
movement paths in the mime-like and gesture-like features in ASL  
storytelling. It is important that we keep this as a movement- 
description, so that we have the tool for writing storytelling, mime,  
gesture and so forth...

Now, there is no question that there are needs to write Parallel  
Paths too...I realize that. Especially when it is associated with  
some classifiers, I believe that such a distinction would be very  
useful...so later, after I complete editing SignPuddle 1.5 and  
finishing SignBank...I hope to think through with all of you, ways of  
writing a Parallel Path that would help from the linguistic point of  
view...

I do not consider writing Movement Paths visually, a redundant  
thing...For me at least, I have seen too many instances where we need  
to distinguish between right, left and both to want to throw it away  
in SignWriting Printing.

In Handwriting however...that is another story! I rarely write right  
and left for my own notes, but when I publish, I do...

So let us discuss this further later this Spring. I will now return  
to working on SignPuddle 1.5 and SignBank 8.5, which we hope will be  
ready for you all in early March...  Val ;-)



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