Friday, May 30, 2008
Can You Sign. . . Parsley?
Seriously I'm stumped. I have this ASL project where I'm translating Peter Rabbit. He gets sick and needs to eat some parsley to settle his tummy. We're not supposed to fingerspell, if at all possible. Is there a sign? I've got maybe seven ASL dictionaries around here. None of them have the word parsley.
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10 comments:
Good question, really I know many of us just spell it out like most of seasonings.
We always spell most of them all like parsley, basil, herbs, etc.
Why? I dunno. :-)
At least, it helps me to know of all spellings cuz I always have trouble finding them at stores so I just write down and ask where to find it. He he.
-SG
That is interesting... just fingerspell parsley.
Fingerspelling plays a large role in ASL. If you view the ASL vloggers, they fingerspell quite a lot...
There are so *many* leaves that we could not sign.
That's pretty common for all of us to use the fingerspell.
We don't use every seasonings to sign.
However, just say and fingerspell.
ASL does not have everything, Kim.
Better than nothing if we use the fingerspell.
White Ghost
Why are you not supposed to fingerspell? I agree that we shouldn't be spelling each letter slooooooowly, but spelling it fast when there is no sign should be okay. Perhaps you can describe it (I have no idea what it looks like) as a small green plant and then describe the rabbit nibbling on it?
Hi Kim: there is no standard sign for parsley. It's perfectly acceptable to fingerspell when there is no sign for a word. I really have an issue with people inventing their own signs just because there is no standard sign, or to differentiate different kinds of greens from other greens, as has happened with S.E.E. On the other hand, on rare occasions you will be communicating with deaf people who will not know what parsley is even if you fingerspelled it -- like with very young deaf children. In which case, you could use multiple signs, like green-stalks-curly. Or plant-eat-tummy-relief.
For the story, you can use your hands to describe Parsley...green leaves (smell herb)and then the rabbit nibbling on the plant.
I think it's about 60% of gestures in ASL stories.
Good luck, Kim! We all are with you!
Thanks to all who responded. I might have misunderstood my teacher. She's Deaf and never speaks. I **think** she said not to fingerspell anything because we're supposed to tell the story as if telling to young children-- no fingerspelling because young children can't read. She might have only meant the names weren't to be spelled though. We had to assign name signs to all the characters. Each of us is telling a different story.
We aren't telling the story to young children, only to each other BUT-- most of us are very, very sloooooowwwww at reading fingerspelling. So it's almost like telling a story to children. Our vocabularies are very limited.
:-)
Kim,
You might want to follow up with your teacher and ask this question specifically. If she says you can't fingerspell with young children, well, I hate to say it, but your teacher is an idiot. I fingerspell many words (rice, bus, bank, etc.) to preschoolers and they understand fine. Linguists say that fingerspelling a word isn't like showing each letter. A fingerspelled word is often recognized as a sign itself. Anyway, you could describe any leafy green plant, rabbits eat many different small leafy green plants, right?
Yeah-- I'm going to ask her. She is NOT an idiot. :-) Please. Like I said, I am learning ASL, and she never speaks, so all class assignments are given in ASL-- and sometimes I misunderstand. I do know she wanted us to give each of the characters name signs so we wouldn't have to be constantly fingerspelling.
There were many vegetable signs I didn't know for my story, and she showed me signs that weren't in my dictionary. So I thought maybe there was a parsley sign I don't know about.
Kim, I think once you become acquainted with the Deaf World, you will realize that fingerspelling is used by "upper crust" and educated deaf persons. When I was growing up in the dormitory there were very few "set" signs, I mean, we drew pictures in the air and we always knew what the other person meant. When people try to invent a sign for every single thing in the world,it is going to be a very crowded language. Hearing staff used to approach me when I was still working for signs to different things and I told them if in doubt, fingerspell! Why not?! One lady wanted the sign for "prunes". I told her I never heard of a sign for "prunes" and a few days later she came to me with a gleam in her eye telling me that prunes was signed with a "p" on the forehead, (similiar to the color black). I am afraid that I made a face and I do not recall her asking me for assistance again! Chuckle.
Lantana
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