Writing Head and Face in Punctuation

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 7, 2010

Hello Charles!
Thank you for this message and queries below.

Regarding a grid, to line up your writing so one hand will be in the same place all the time for many signs in a row...the new SignPuddle 2.0 that Steve is working on will give us the ability to work on a grid, or we can turn the grid off too...so that is good for lining things up...but I will talk to Steve about this idea of an Anchor point on the grid, so you know exactly where something should line up from a previous writing - that is a good idea!

Regarding how to write with the three Lanes...the three Lanes are not used in the way that you describe below...you are correct that we cannot put a face over in the right Lane, while having other parts of the sign in the center or left lane...a complete sign must be in one of three lanes and cannot be split apart...that is the way I designed the three Lanes...so if the head movement or eyegaze is not a part of the sign, and is a separate sign, then it has to be treated as a separate sign...

Regarding placing facial expressions or head movement as a part of Punctuation...That can be done right now in SignPuddle...you can create it by placing the circle for the face and head in the center of a punctuation symbol...it does have to be constructed, but I have done this several times myself for some documents...see attached example of a head movement that is a part of punctuation at the end of the sentence...


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On Oct 7, 2010, at 4:31 PM, Charles Butler wrote:

> In terms of directionality and lanes, I have a query.  Often in transcribing tapes, the head nods or the eyes change direction at a particular point before or after a sign.  It would be easier for me to treat them as punctuation than try to put them in the same box.  In that case, I almost want to put them, alone, in the left lane, as punctuation, and be able to put the sign in the middle lane parallel to the face change.  Same thing happens with hands that are held through a sign.  If I try to put them in a particular place in the box, they are moved to the right or the left rather than being pinned down to the exact same space in each sign I create.  If it's a grid, I want it to be a grid that I can actually say (at point 150,150) so that the hand that is held is where it is like, holding a flat hand vertical and pointing all around it.  The flat hand sits there and the pointer hand moves all over.  It's multiple signs in one sense, or one sign in a writing since.
> 
> Any ideas.