>Karen van Hoek here, a linguist in Ann Arbor --
>Judiciously-applied iconicity, such as the decision to use "stacking" of
>symbols in Sign Writing, is probably a very important component in
>designing a writing system that can actually be read. So we Sign Writing
>supporters don't need to get defensive or embarrassed about iconicity;
>it's a good design principle, and one that has stood the test of time for
>English and every other written language.
>
>Karen van Hoek
________________________________
October 27, 1998
Hello Karen!
Gosh it felt good to see your message this morning - I am glad to hear from
you :-)
I hope I remember this correctly...it was many years ago...but I believe
once you showed me some ASL poetry in SignWriting witten in visual patterns
- the signs were written diagonally down the page and in circles? It was
very beautiful I remember...another creative step towards "the visual".
And I remember your support of the visual nature of SignWriting always gave
me a feeling of strength. It was good to know that some linguists backed
the idea, even back in the mid-1980's when "abstract was in". It took
courage to work with SignWriting at that time.
For the sake of the List members, I think I should explain that Karen and I
know each other because we worked together for years. Karen was the
"resident linguist" of our DAC from its inception, and continued to work
with the DAC until just a few years ago. Karen left us a legacy of eight
ASL Grammar Lessons. I prize them, and I consider them classics. George
"Butch" Zein, who also worked with Karen at Salk Institute at the time,
signed the lessons in ASL, and Karen wrote them in both ASL and English.
We used to have DAC meetings at my home in the evenings. Karen and Butch
would come over to my house, after work at Salk, and they would share their
writing with me...it was so exciting to see ASL described in ASL - to this
day I just love to sit and read the ASL in those lessons.
So I am happy to tell you, Karen, that on Monday I am posting your second
ASL Grammar Lesson on the web. I will be placing the signs down in vertical
columns, and writing a small foreword about the importance of writing
vertically....I hope you will be pleased with it :-)
Please keep in touch, and take good care -
Valerie :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Valerie Sutton at the DAC
Deaf Action Committee for SW
SignWriting
https://www.SignWriting.org
Center For Sutton Movement Writing
an educational nonprofit organization
Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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