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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Wed May 27, 1998 9:11 pm Subject: Re: SUGGESTION | |
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On Tue, 19 May 1998, Richard Tennant wrote: >I am writing this as an open letter to Valerie Sutton as it has to do with a >suggestion for the arrangement of the "new" Sign Writing dictionary she is >proposing to construct in the near future. The reaction to this suggestion by >the members of this list should be of interest and of value to her. > >Dear Valerie, > >It has long been my contention that the Sign Language dictionaries currently >available contribute to the attitude that ASL is an off-shoot of the English >Language rather than an independent language . Most, if not all of them, >arrange the signs by the alphabetical arrangement of the sign's English >glosses. This is not only insulting to ASL, but awkward to those constructing >such a resource. Choices must be made from the many glosses a single sign may >have to keep the size of the resource within bounds at the sacrifice of >completeness. > >Most dictionaries used in teaching a foreign language, on the other hand, are >"two way". One can search for a foreign word and find the English meaning or >search for an English word and find the foreign translations. Shouldn't we >have the same for ASL and English? In the dictionaries mentioned above there >is no way one can look up a sign and find its English meanings! What is >needed to accomplish the desired "two way" dictionary is a logical method of >ordering of the signs that is easy to learn and meaningful to apply. >Alphabetical order is not the answer to this need. A morphological or >handshape order is called for that incorperates number, placement, movement >and expression. > >Gallaudet University Press has announced just such a dictionary, "Handshape >Dictionary", in its spring catalog. A review of this "two way" dictionary, >which will becoming out next month, appears in this catalog. I believe the >application of the morphological order used here to the proposed Sign Writing >Dictionary would be very worthwhile. For the first time the writing of ASL is >possible, thanks to your devotion to the construction and dissemination of >Sign Writing. It will therefore be doubly important that there exist a source >where one can find the meaning of a sign appearing in an article, story, etc. >one is reading. You will want your dictionary to provide this need. > >Before constructing this new dictionary I would hope that you will be able to >study the order used in this "Handshape Dictionary" and consider its >usefulness in what you are compiling. I will send you a copy as soon as I get >my hands on one. > >With much affection and appreciation, > >Richard ____________________________________________ Hello Richard! Thanks for this helpful message, and of course I agree with you! We are on the same wave length :-) There are many theories on the arrangement of the "looking up process". Teaching Deaf children to look up signs by "Sign-Symbol-Sequence" will be a new experience for teachers themselves, who will have to learn the Sequence well, before they can teach it to children. That is why I worked years on this issue. Our keyboard designs, for typing SignWriting, are based on the Sign-Symbol-Sequence, and chapter 14 of our textbook "Lessons In SignWriting", is devoted to it. I understand, from what you say above, that the authors of this new book have their own theory on the "looking up process"...of course I am very interested in what they have to say. And thank you for offering to send me a copy...I would LOVE it! Meanwhile, we do have a small two-way dictionary on our SignWriting Web Site. It is called the ASL Picture Dictionary, and it is an example of a dictionary we are developing for the SignWriting Literacy Project: ASL/English Picture Dictionary https://www.SignWriting.org/asl012.html Thanks once again for all your input and suggestions, and please keep us posted on any new developments... All the best - Valerie Sutton :-) https://www.SignWriting.org Sutton at the DAC Deaf Action Committee For SignWriting Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA (619)456-0098 voice (619)456-0010 tty (619)456-0020 fax |
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