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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Fri Nov 12, 1999 3:00 pm Subject: Re: Compound signs in ASL | |
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Wayne wrote: > Was interested in the four different ways of writing DOG in ASL. >Essentially I saw: >1. finger snapping >2. striking twice on the leg >3. striking twice on the leg followed by finger snapping, and >4. ditto with the ## symbols written to the left of the handshape ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 12, 1999 Hi Wayne- Yes that is right! Number 4 is written that way to make the "unit" more compact...it takes less space when typing...but actually I suspect #3 is the best. Notice how the sign becomes a unit....Instinctively we all read these visual units by finding the stem of the arrows. You have to know where the beginning stem of the arrow is...that tells you that the sign is beginning at the stem, and ends at the tip of the arrow. So you can see that we are not writing from top to bottom....we are writing from the "center of the sign" and then out in the direction of the arrow...so the sign for dog starts at the hip area, where the thigh is slapped twice and then following the stem of the arrrow, continues up-diagonal. If we were really writing from top to bottom only...then it could not be written in that visual fashion. So the signs themselves are written from the center of the sign, but once the "sign unit" is created, we then stack those "sign units" vertically down the page. They can also be placed left to right...and if people prefer that, that is OK too. Just as long as the "sign units" themselves are written so others can read them....the direction of writing can be flexible. As you know, the reason we place signs vertically now is because Deaf people requested it... |
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