The pictures below are captured from a QuickTime video clip on the computer. The signer is facing you. That is called the Receptive Viewpoint.
The exact same signs are written below in SignWriting. The signs are written from your point of view. Now YOU are telling the story in the Expressive View.
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Touching Chin Twice With Left Hand |
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Classifier Is Marked By Tension Symbol The eyegaze establishes the classifier's location left diagonal. |
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Classifier Is Marked By Tension Symbol As the classifier is held in space with the left hand, another sign is done with the right. |
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The right hand moves towards the left hand, which is still marking the classifier... |
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Fast multiple movements are intensified with lowered eyebrows, gritting teeth, and the head projected forward towards the left diagonal. |
More
Detailed Depth
You can write the overhead view , which shows depth - It shows
how far the hand is placed from the chest. The circle is the
top of the head, and the little dark spokes (to the side of the
head circle) are the overhead view of the shoulders....
Writing Smiles When The Signer Is Generally
Pleasant
By placing smiles on the face at times, the feeling
of the sentence mirrors the pleasant expression of the signer,
although it may not be linguistically significant. That is why
you see lots of smiling faces in SignWriting children's stories...they
have a definite positive effect on the reader. What is significant
is that SignWriting can record mood and feeling that exudes from
body language during conversations, and it is becoming evident
that SignWriting literature is easier to read (readers are more
fluent) - if some moods, such as smiling are written along with
the signs.
Other Details Could Be Written
You can write the
nose wrinkling and the shoulders up:
You can write the movement down
diagonal instead of forward diagonal.
If you know the SignWriting symbols, you can write all those details, without knowing the signed languages you are writing.
But to know what is linguistically significant, and what is not, will clearly be decided over generations, as more linguists, teachers and native signers write their signed languages.
