Wednesday, September 30, 2015

THOUGHTS ON SIGNING SONGS

     Last Friday was the last practice that Sandy was with us.  Looking back on what we, PH, had discussed with Sandy about signing songs, I thought we could discuss some here.  

        First It is important to realize  Signing is another language.  In fact, if a person knew ASL or another form of signing and were applying for a job, said person could legitimately claim to be bilingual.
       
       The second thing I always explain to new comers is ASL is a conceptual language.  What we sign are thoughts, concepts, not word by word what is being spoken or sung.  One sign can cover more than one word, because it is a concept.  In the English language we have more than one word for a thought, action, or feeling.  Take the words "want, desire, long for", they all are covered by one sign.  Expression or manor of signing may differentiate the degree of wanting but the sign is the same.

     The next thing that we discuss is syntax.  When we are signing songs, however, we stay closer to English syntax.  There are times when ASL syntax works better.  An example of that is in "Faithful One", the song we are signing in October.  In the song the phrase is "my rock of peace"  we sign "my peace rock.

      I will return to this subject in latter posts as each member contributes their insights on the subject.

Thank you for visiting.  May God bless.
   

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments are always apriciated