[sw-l] common criticisms of signwriting?

[Steve Slevinski]

Hi Erika,

There are rational criticisms of SignWriting.  Here are the top three as 
I see it.


1) Too much noise for too little signal.   Some say that SignWriting 
includes extraneous details that are not needed.  The extra details 
inflates the visual size of the script and interferes with reading and 
writing.  Some say that SignWriting does not record the meaningful 
streams of sign language directly, but that the meaningful parts are 
absent and must be inferred from the writing.


2) SignWriting is hard to write by hand and requires special software 
for computers.


3) SignWriting is too varied and has too much flexibility.  The number 
of potential signs is infinite.  There are too many potential spellings 
for the same sign. 


Most other criticisms are based on ignorance.

Regards,
-Steve