SignWriting List
January 27, 2000


QUESTION 0010:
When do I write the dark dots for "closing the fist? And when are they not necessary?


ANSWER 0010:
Example 0010 shows a sign, giving lots of information for the reader. Number 1 is the way it was written in the original document. Number 2 is my version of the same sign.

In Number 1, the writer gave added information of the "dark dots" which mean that the fingers "squeeze or bend at the middle joint". Since the finishing position is written, the reader can assume that the fingers "squeeze into a fist", and writing the dots is a "double-up" of information. It can be read without the dots.

The ending position in Number 1 has two Touch symbols. I was not sure if the writer meant that the hands touch each other twice or not. If they really do "Touch-Touch" then the double Touch symbols are necessary.

EXAMPLES 0010



In my version, Number 2, I placed a single Touch symbol, because I suspect the Touch only occurs once, although I am guessing....

The main thing to realize is that the dots usually are written when we don't feel like writing the second position of a sign...so when you choose to write the second position, they are not really needed.

SignWriting List
January 27, 2000

QUESTION 0011:
When do I write the dark dots for "closing the fist? And when are they not necessary?


ANSWER 0011:
Number 1 in the attached file was the way the sign was written in the original document. There is nothing wrong with the sign...it is written with the assumption that the reader knows the language. So I have written three other possible signs to the right...all of them showing how a foreigner could interpret the assumptions....

1. The original sign shows the five handshape, palm to floor, with a "squeeze motion", a bend from the middle joint.

2. It could mean this: The squeeze motion could finish in a fist.

EXAMPLES 0011

3. It could mean this: The squeeze motion could finish with a claw...all five fingers bent at the middle joint.

4. It could mean this: The squeeze motion only for the middle finger where the dot was located.

So you can see that the dots "assume knowledge", and just as long as the writer realizes that others will have to guess as to how the sign finishes, it is OK.

To avoid guessing, write the second position of course!

Valerie Sutton
Sutton@SignWriting.org




Questions? Write to:

Valerie Sutton

Sutton@SignWriting.org