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Using Space in ASL

What exactly does space with signing have to do with anything. Well during a discussion with one of my fellow interpreters and fresh with ideas from a new workshop she went to she was bubbling over with the opportunity to share some of the things she learned. She said this one workshop she had gone to was AMAZING and she really learned a lot from this particular one. Let me give you some background on this woman...she has been interpreting for a long time and this lady is GOOD so I was impressed. She went on to give me the packet she received from the workshop in the next week and with much curiosity I was excited to get it.

This particular class spoke about

Real Space - the space in which you point in the room towards an object that is actually there.

Surrogate Space- An area of space that is not ACTUALLY there but the signer has conceptualized it like it were there.

Token Space- An area just for reference that has no specific physical features.

What I got most out of her notes was that you have to be aware and involved in your signing the whole time. When you try to capture the ASL Token Space Flags from a spoken English source you really need to visualize the concept and what the person is trying to convey. If they are talking abou the or she you can set up a token space. If you are trying to set up for the words that/this then you can set up a comparison visually so you can see both objects. Also if you are talking about things that people possess you can set up the objects in your signing. Especially if the speaker keeps a refrence to those objects of possession. That is a great tool to use to add to a more visually accurate description in ASL of the speakers target message.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Awesome. These concepts allow us, as second language users, to visualize or "map" more accurately what is occurring in ASL. Use of space in ASL is paramount. Whether it be pronoun development & distinction, surrogates ( aka blended spaces ), tokens, and buoys. Scott Liddell's book 'Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning' really focuses on these parts of ASL. Cheers!

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