#advenstudies

October 6, 2018

Happy first week of October ! 

Lesson 9: Letter and Number Confusions

At this time, it is also useful to review numbers 0 through 10 because they are frequently used in communication.  the figure  shows the hand shapes for these numbers.  As with the Amanubet, the hand shapes for numbers are also handy in describing many ASL signs.   Numbers beyond 10 and conventions for using numbers in ASL sentences as well as ordinal numbers (first, second...) and fractions are discussed in a later lesson

A brief description of each of the digits follows.  The descriptions assume the use of the right hand; however, the left hand may also be employed as long as that hand is used consistently as the dominant hand for all signing.   Although all digits described and pictured here are made with the palm facing out, digits 1 through 9 are also frequently signed with the palm facing in.   Palm orientation for numerals 1 - 9 is a matter of personal preference.

0     (Zero):  Hold out right O hand, palm facing out and bent elbow at side.  Move hand forward slightly.

1     (One):  Hold out right hand, palm facing out, index finger extended and pointing up, all other fingers folded over palm with bent thumb resting on knuckles, and bent elbow at the side.

2     (Two):  The same hand shape as for 1, except both index and middle fingers are extended and pointed up.

3.     (Three):  The same hand shape as for 1 except middle and index fingers and thumb are extended and are pointed up.

4.    (Four):  The same hand shapes as for 1 except all four fingers are extended and pointed up with thumb resting on palm.

5.     (Five):  Hold out right hand. palm facing out, all fingers and thumb extended and pointing up, and bent elbow at side..

6.     (Six):  Hold out right hand, palm facing out, all fingers extended and pointing up, bent elbow at side, and thumb touching tip of little finger.

7.     (Seven):  Assume the same hand shape as for 6 except thumb touches tip of ring finger.

8.     (Eight):   Assume the same hand shape as for 6 except thumb touches tip of middle finger.

9.     (Nine):  Assume the same hand shape as for 6 except thumb touches tip of index finger.

10     (Ten):  Hold out right A hand shape, palm facing left and bent elbow at side, and shake hand side to side twice from wrist

   Because Amanubet uses only one hand to form 26 unique hand shapes for the 26 English letters, the hand shapes for some letters tend to be very similar.   In addition, the hand shapes for certain digits closely resemble the hand shapes of certain letters.   It is important to practice forming the letter and digit hand shapes accurately as well as to be able to distinguish these hand shapes quickly and accurately while receiving them.   The following may cause confusion while forming and reading numbers and fingerspelled words.

If not careful, A may be mistaken for S and vice versa.   Notice that A is formed by placing the unbent thumb against the side of the index finger as you form a fist.  For S, the bent thumb is placed over the knuckles of the bent fingers.

Make sure that the fingers of B are held together.  If there are spaces between fingers, the hand shape may be mistaken for digit 4.

Note that the fingers are also held together when forming the C letter shape.  If the fingers are separated, it may look like a claw hand shape, causing confusion.

The D resembles closely the hand shape for digit 1.  For D, the palm side of the thumb is placed on the nail of the middle finger.  The palm side of the thumb lies on the knuckles of the bent fingers for 1.

The letter E may be sometimes confused for S.  The tips of the bent fingers touch the thumb for E and, as stated before, the thumb is placed over the bent fingers to form a fist for letter S.

Some people have difficulty keeping the fingers together for F.  A slight separation of fingers for this letter, however, should pose no problem for readers.

Note that the palm orientation is down for Q and forward facing for G.  These two letters have the same hand shape in all other respects.

Make sure that the thumb of I is placed firmly over the knuckles of bent fingers.  A protruding thumb may cause I to look like a Y.

Note that the hand shapes are identical for I and J.  The difference between the two letters lies in the movement required for J.

Notice the position of the thumb between the index and middle fingers for K.   The thumb lies across the knuckles of ring and little fingers for V.

The palm orientation is the principal cue for distinguishing K from P.  Palm is oriented towards the feet for P and is facing out for K.

The location of the thumb distinguishes the M, N, and T.  The thumb is between the little and ring fingers for M, between the ring and middle fingers for N and between the middle and index fingers for T.

The hand shapes are identical for digit zero and letter O as might be expected.   We frequently substitute O for zero in calling out numbers – e.g., "two oh oh one" for "two zero zero one".

The hand shapes are identical for number 2 and letter V.  The communication context should help you know which concept is being expressed.  If someone is telling you his/her phone number, you would obviously interpret this hand shape to mean "2."

FEB 25 / 19

September 29, 2018

September 22, 2018

....Sign Variations! this is continuing with the ASL other lessons which you can find here. 

Description of Signs

As we stated in an earlier lesson, a sign has four important components – location, hand shape, palm orientation, and movement. Typically, sign language books and dictionaries describe signs using these four components. A question frequently asked by beginning students of signing concerns the importance of executing the signs in the exact manner in which the signs are described and illustrated in books and demonstrated in videos by instructors. It is, of course, important to execute signs as accurately as possible. However, it is equally important to make sure that successive signs in a sentence blend together smoothly, seamlessly, and gracefully. This may require slight deviations from isolated execution of the same signs. In other words, don’t lose sight of the forest (big picture) for the trees (minor details).

It is also important not to be bogged down in every detail of a sign that its execution comes across as strained and clumsy. For most signs, the four parameters – place, hand shape, palm orientation, and movement – do not have equal importance. For signs representing physical action, movement may be the most important feature. For abstract concepts and emotions, the place may hold the key. Hand shape may be the distinguishing feature of signs representing physical objects. The point is that the signers and their communication partners should zero in on the features of the signs that appear to be crucial to their meaning.

In general, you are safe (in fact, well advised) to assume a palm orientation that makes the sign highly visible to the recipient. Similarly, it is of minor consequence whether a circular movement is clock-wise or counter clock-wise. Repeating a sign more than once is quite acceptable as long as such repetitions do not change the meaning of the sign. And for signs that require repetitions, the number of repetitions – two, three or more times – is of little consequence. Experienced signers, however, may use some of these variations to bring out the subtle nuances in the meanings of signs.

Sign Variations

All living languages – languages currently used by a group of people for everyday communication – undergo changes. In spoken languages such as English, new words are coined and, sometimes, old words are given new meaning to meet the communication needs of the changing world. ASL and other sign languages are no exception.  The widespread use of ASL and Manual English in educational, political, medical, and legal settings has resulted in the creation of numerous new signs and new meanings for existing signs. For instance, the sign for computer varies widely across different parts of the U.S.

Historically, the deaf communities in different parts of the country have lived in relatively isolated existence. This has caused numerous regional variations in signs. There are also ethnic and generational (i.e., children versus adults) variations in signs as might be expected. These variations in signs are similar to dialectal differences in spoken languages.

Lesson 11: Some Grammatical Markers used in Signed English

   The syntactic devices employed in ASL to convey grammatical information such as number (singular and plural forms of nouns) and tense (past, present and future tenses of verbs) are expectedly quite different from that used in English.   English uses an extensive list of affixes (also called inflections) to convey grammatical information.  Affixes are one or more letter(s), representing a phoneme or a syllable in the spoken form, added to the beginnings or endings of words.    Affixes added to the beginnings of words are known as prefixes and those attached to the end of words are the suffixes. For example, when you add "s" to the word sign to make it a plural (signs), you have added a suffix. Similarly, when you add "in" to convenient to change it to inconvenient, you added a prefix.

   In order to represent English sentence structure in manual communication more faithfully, Bornstein, Saulnier, and Hamilton have selected a set of 14 affixes for use in Signed English.   These grammatical markers are described below.   Note that most of these grammatical markers are used only in Signed English and some other varieties of manually coded English and not in American Sign Language. The Signed Pidgin English infrequently and inconsistently uses many of these grammatical markers.

Regular Plural Marker

   Nouns are words that denote abstract (e.g., attitude) as well as concrete (e.g., stone) entities. In English, the most common (or regular) method of converting singular forms of nouns to plural forms is to add an s or es at the end of the word.  

In Signed English, the regular plural marker consists of adding the manual alphabet shape for the letter S. When signing balls, for instance, sign ball and then quickly and smoothly change the dominant hand shape to that for the letter S, held near the shoulder with the palm facing out 

Note that the manual suffix for regular plurals is an S even when the English suffix may take the form of an ‘es’ as in kisses.

Irregular Plural Marker

   The plural forms of some English words take on different forms.erbs are words that denote an action (e.g., talk), the existence of entities or relationships (the so called "verb to be" or copula; e.g., ‘is’ as in There is a bird and Sugar is sweet) or the occurrence of an event (e.g., ‘rain’ as in It is raining). The regular past tense forms of English verbs are signified by adding d or ed to the base forms of verbs. 

Manual letter shape D is the regular past tense marker in Signed English. The sign saved then consists of the sign save followed immediately and smoothly by the letter shape D. Work is also signed the same way — sign work and the letter shape D.  Note that those English verbs that take on ‘ed’ in their past tense forms are also signified with D and not ED.

Irregular Past Tense Marker

   Some of the most frequently used English verbs have irregular past tense forms.