Cat-in-Hat: Eyegaze of a Narrator

Sat Nov 17 02:07:12 UTC 2007

Now that you have pointed it out, it has gotten me thinking of how I would
read this if I had never seen the video. The spelling of door as it is now
makes it seem as if the door that is opening is on the right, but on the
front wall. The video shows it is on the side wall. Big difference. But I
also see what you mean that it doesn't read very well if side is written. (I
just tried it. Made my already tired eyes cross. Ha!)

A thought just came to me! Is torso twist what makes it so that the
perspective is changed? We are writing signer's perspective, so if the
signer torso twists to the right and signs something and sees the back of
the hand, the handshape is black even if the viewers see half and half? The
reason I ask is because I just thought of this and wrote with this in mind.
I got exactly what you (Val) wrote.

Adam

On Nov 16, 2007 4:23 PM, Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org> wrote:

> SignWriting List
> November 16, 2007
>
> Cherie Wren wrote:
> > Now here's the question:  Look at the head movement in that clip.
> > How much of it needs to be written?  here is what I had written for
> > that segment: I was not sure that I had the movement written
> > correctly, then on reexamining ithe video, I was not sure how much
> > needed to be there.  but I am looking at the door, and the cat
> > coming in, and back to the audience several times in that very
> > short sequence.  This is something I struggle with on a regular
> > basis.  How much detail is too much, how much is necessary?  I am
> > trying to tease out the required grammatical bits, which seems to
> > be becoming a game of  "why did I sign it that way?"
>
>
> Hello Cherie -
> There is so much to be discussed just in this one video clip, I think
> an entire college course could be established just discussing the
> grammar and writing issues in this one segment!
>
> And there are several symbols that I feel should be added to the ISWA
> to give you the tools you really need to write this well, so you are
> working with a symbolset that is around 90 per cent there, but not
> all there, and so that is an added hardship that in time will be
> resolved...mostly size of movement symbols and body twisting choices...
>
> This is a very hard document and quite wonderful....congrats on all
> this, Cherie...
>
> I learn something every time we write a document, and the writing
> system really benefits from all our insights...especially when
> writing storytelling, which is so detailed, or at least can be, if we
> choose to write it that way ;-))
>
> And there will always be several ways to write something too...which
> is true in English and other languages as well...
>
> OK...now...relating to the corner and then to the audience...
>
> By the way, the side view idea I had when I first saw the video was
> not right...when I started to write it myself I decided you were
> absolutely correct to keep it the back of the hands from the signers
> perspective for the sign for door...just seems easier to read for
> some reason, mainly because we are used to seeing the sign for door
> written with the backs of the hand...
>
> So if we are going to write facing the corner, then the shoulders are
> needed at a slant. The Twisting arrow is one way to write that, but
> there is another way too, and that is not in the ISWA yet...
>
> So working with the symbols we have, take a look at the attached
> diagram...my writing is the second column...the top figure in the
> second column is looking forward while twisted to the corner, but the
> second sign then remains facing the same corner, but the narrator
> turns the head to the audience and the eyegaze to the audience as
> well...
>
> The eyegaze and head turning is also on a diagonal in this case,
> because the upper body is on a diagonal too...so the eyegaze is going
> to the opposite corner from the twisted shoulders, which brings the
> eyegaze ends up directly to the audience (front wall)...The double-
> stemmed arrow on top of the second head means the nose turns in that
> direction. There are other symbols not in the iSWA that could be used
> for this, and I will consider putting them in...but one idea is not
> to show the turn of the head at all, but just use eyegaze to get the
> feeling of the narrator...and just the writing of the eyegaze might
> be enough for the reader to know that you are looking at the
> audience...I will leave some of these thoughts for you to think
> about...reading eyegaze can be quite powerful....
>
> By the way, in the first sign, if you place the fingers directly on
> the face, the touch star isn't really necessary...that is a form of
> simplifying the writing...and it seems to me the palm facing was in
> to the face for the sign for see...but the video was so fast....I may
> be wrong...
>
> I am on another job this weekend...I hope to focus on Cat in the Hat
> starting next week until we post it in January, 2008...
>
> Have a wonderful weekend everyone -
>
> Val ;-)
>
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