[Sw-l] Termology used in the dimensionality (perspective) of the Sutton SignWriting system

[Valerie Sutton]

Signwriting List
November 3, 2022

Welcome to the new members who have just joined the SignWriting List… Feel free to ask questions and post messages here on the SignWriting List, in any spoken or sign language.

And thank you Professor Rubens and Steve, for your discussion of the terminology of Front View and Top View.

Thank you Steve, for mentioning your Internet Draft. Do you have an Internet Draft now? If not that is fine...They are so detailed and well written…If you have a link to older ones, I know I will read it and I am sure others will too.

Rubens - regarding your question about Front View and Top View -

We use the terms Front View and Top View a lot, in flexible ways - be flexible. The terms can be applied to handshapes, and movement symbols - even to the viewpoints of whole documents, for example theatrical plays written in SignWriting can be viewed as if watching a stage from the “Front View” (sitting in the audience) or viewing whole signs from the “Top View” because the depth in the signs are hard to read otherwise, and that involves both movement symbols and hands - there is even a Side View in Movement Writing that is used frequently - and as you mentioned, Rubens, there are Diagonal Planes too - and even Saggittal Planes, which we used to call the “Door Plane” because it was parallel with an open door - but that was long ago and we tried to simplify SignWriting with just discussing two planes - the Front Wall Plane and the Floor Plane - so it would be easier for people…

But these terms are intermixed - one sign can have the hands parallel to the Front Wall while at the same time the movement arrows are parallel to the Floor, and so you could argue that the whole sign has mixed viewpoints, partially Top View and partially Front View and yet strangely enough, the signs are readable that way.

A single-stemmed arrow, for example, is showing movement parallel to the Floor Plane, so it is generally read from the Top View - Most symbols parallel to the Floor are read from the Top View, like looking down - there are only a couple of exceptions in handshapes - the Heel of Hand handshapes are parallel with the Floor Plane, but viewed from the "Front View” (not the Top View) -  See page 110 in the International Hands Manual - see attached screen capture of page 110:


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So the terms are used in a flexible fashion -

Thanks again for the question - I hope my answer helped - I can imagine if you need to translate the English terms into Portuguese and LIBRAS this might be hard, so ask more questions any time -

Val ;-)

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> On Nov 3, 2022, at 7:07 PM, Stephen Slevinski <slevin at SIGNPUDDLE.NET> wrote:
> 
> Here's what I wrote in a past internet draft.
> 
> "The are two main writing planes: the front wall (Frontal Plane) and the floor (Transverse Plane).  The choice of writing plane can affect the shape of the symbols, such as the fill pattern for the hand shape palms or the tail for the movement arrows."
> 
> "There are two perspectives: front and top.  The front perspective is a straight on view of/from the signer.  The top perspective is a top-down view of the signer.  Usually, a sign will be written from a single perspective."
> 
> So individual symbols will be written according to their alignment with a plane.
> 
> While the two-dimensional arrangement of the symbols in a sign will be affected by the perspective of front or top.
> 
> -Steve
> 
> 
> On 11/3/22 7:25 PM, Profo Rubens Almeida wrote:
>> Hello to all SignWriting List members,
>> I have a question, if you are available to help me, I would greatly appreciate it.
>> My question is in the nomenclatures (termologies) used for the dimensionality (perspective) of the Sutton SignWriting system. I know that the category of movements, the arrows for example, can be written in the plane parallel to the wall, plane parallel to the floor and also the diagonal plane. But, my question concerns the handshapes, in the book Manual 2: SignWriting Hand Symbols, on page 4, it explains about the perspectives of the handshapes, using the two nomenclatures (terms):
>> 1- Front view or Top view;
>> 2- Parallel with Wall Plane or Parallel with Floor Plan;
>> I understand that for the movement arrows we do not use the terms Front View or Top View, as it only applies to handshapes, however, in the case of handshapes I can use the terms “Parallel with Wall Plane or Parallel with Floor Plane” also?
>> Attached is the print of the page of the mentioned book. Thank you all for the attention!
>> Hugs!



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