SignWriting List
November 9, 2014

Hello James!
Great to see your message here on the SignWriting List. I hope someone can help you with your question - Too bad I do not know Spanish or linguistics well enough to answer - Maybe the SLLING Sign Language Linguists List could help you?

Meanwhile, I received your November 2014 report on the Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects - thank you! I have scanned it and attached the PDF to this email - I will send you something shortly. Sorry for the delay.

Congratulations and thank you for all the great work you are doing writing Nicaraguan Sign Language - it is impressive, how you keep going since earlier than 1996 - You and your family have established schools for Deaf children in Nicaragua, and written tons of Nicaraguan Sign Language literature using the SignWriting script -

Please see attached - I will try to post it on the web too - Val ;-)


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Valerie Sutton
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On Nov 8, 2014, at 8:49 AM, James Shepard-Kegl <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I am preparing a power point lecture series on the grammar of Nicaraguan Sign Language.  English speaking linguists define the "theme" essentially as the moving figure classifier within the spatial verb.  My Spanish translator last year selected the Spanish word "tema" for "theme".
> 
> In sign language grammar, we also discuss the concept of "topicalization" and how a signer can mark "the topic position" (by raising eyebrows, for example).  My translator selected "tematizacion" for "topicalization" and "la posicion del tema" for "the topic position".
> 
> So, in English, we have THEME and TOPIC -- two obviously distinct terms.  But, my translator selected TEMA for both terms.  That's rather confusing!
> 
> So my question to anyone on the list who can answer this:  Can you recommend two distinct Spanish words for these rather distinct grammatical concepts?
> 
> (One possible solution would be to abandon the term "theme" altogether, and just rely on the synonymous phrase "moving figure" ("la figura en movimiento").
> 
> -- James

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Valerie Sutton
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