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Download Lesson 4 - Blissymbolics
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Lesson 4 Verbs To begin our study of verbs, we need to look back at the symbol for man, and introduce the second meaning for those trousers. The small-sized shape that you find in the Blisscharacter for man has a meaning of its own when appearing as a Bliss-word. It means activity. It is derived from the large-sized Bliss-word for The Action. C.K. Bliss chose this shape for action because it suggests the shape of a volcano cone, which Mr. Bliss described as “one of the primeval actions of our earth”. And just like the mini Blissymbol for the plural indicator, there is a mini Blissymbol for the verb indicator. You can see the four Bliss-words below: man activity The Action action indicator There will be more indicators relating to the verb very soon. But first, we need to look back to those body parts introduced in Lesson 1 and see how valuable they can be. Note what happens when the action indicator is placed above the body parts you have available to you for your display. eye mouth becomes becomes to see to talk ear becomes to hear As you can see from the above examples, you can turn any noun into a verb by placing the action indicator over the Bliss-character(s) that represent the noun. The action indicator is on your display, so in effect, you can turn any of the nouns on your display into verbs. It is located in square C4 and is coloured green like the other verbs and verb indicators. When applying the action indicator, it is preferable to point to it first, to signal to your partner that you are about to change the next Bliss-word to which you will point, into a verb. This is not a hard and fast rule, however, and some Bliss-users find it easier to add the action indicator after they have indicated the root word. The important point is that the partner be informed as to which order the Bliss-user will be using and that they are consistent. It is very helpful to be able to produce verbs when you do not have them on your display. It is, however, a great advantage to have the frequently-used verbs on your display for single pointing and fast access. The verbs that are available to you for your display are: to be to come to destroy Note the direction of the Note the direction of the Remember being in Lesson arrow and the space diagonal 3 between the arrow tip and Contrast with to write the vertical line. For other examples of Bliss-words with the arrow character, see Resource 21. The verb to be has different forms in English in the present and past tense, depending on the subject. Since they are all used frequently, they are listed below: I am I was You are You were He is He was She is She was We are We were You are You were They are They were In all the English examples above, the Bliss-word for the verb is shown as below for present (first column), and for past (second column). The verb will always be translated the same way in the future tense in English - will be. present past future (will be) Now more verbs: to do to drink to eat Remember activity at the beginning of this Lesson . to drink and to eat can be explained through “action with what your mouth gets from the earth (horizontal line represents earthline)”. To drink adds the Bliss-character for liquid. to feel Remember feeling In Lesson 1 to get Contrast with to give to give Remember teacher in lesson 2. to go to have Contrast with to come to make Look at possession in Lesson 1 This shape is the modified in Resource 19 creation symbol that and see Big and Little meaning examples appears in woman Imperfect version of creation represents “man-made”. to take to think Note the container and Shape of symbol suggests The direction of the arrow. outline of skull. See brain in Resources 1 and 2. To want to write To have a strong feeling Note the direction of the diagonal shown by fire. Note that the fire symbol is the opposite to that in to destroy. is the same shape as the liquid symbol but drawn in a vertical position rather than in the horizontal position for liquid. . To communicate In to write the line depicts the pen or pencil. This verb is especially interesting to analyze its components. The first character means to exchange (derived from giving and receiving) The second character means meaning and is derived from to think + to say + to write. It means the significance the mind attaches to what is spoken or written – it’s meaning. Thus to communicate is to exchange meaning. To need to help In to need, note how the person Bliss-word is on an angle, leaning as if requiring support. In to help, the support is being given, that is the person appears to be helping the leaning line. to try to succeed In to try, note the forward arrow + difficult + action indicator. To try is to move forward in spite of difficulty. In to succeed, the forward arrow has proceeded past two opposing arrows. (It has success in overcoming opposing forces.) For your interest, here is the Bliss-word for difficult. You will want to compare it with frustrated which will be introduced in the next lesson. Note that difficult is an adjective and has the descriptive indicator over it. You will learn more about the descriptive indicator (for marking adjectives) in Lesson 5. difficult You will soon be adding verbs to your display. Before you do, however, there are more things to know about verbs. As action words, they allow us to speak about the present, refer to the past or look ahead to the future. In Blissymbolics this is done with indicators called the present tense indicator, the past tense indicator and the future tense indicator. To learn these indicators, it helps to know the time Bliss-words of past, present and future and to remember the big and little meaning strategy often used by Mr. Bliss. past past tense indicator present present tense indicator future future tense indicator To remember the tenses according to the way in which Mr. Bliss represented time, think of a parabolic mirror. For the past the mirror is focused on what lies behind it. For the future, the mirror is focused on what lies ahead of it. For the present, think of the time between the past and the future. There is more to know about the verbs when you are using them with a tense indicator. When you, as a Bliss user precede a verb by pointing to the past tense indicator, the English form of the verb spoken by your partner can vary. For example with the verb “do” in the past tense, they can say “did” or “have done” or “had done”. You only need to point to the past tense indicator and to do. Your partner will give your sentence the appropriate English wording. For many verbs, the English wording will only involve adding “ed” to the verb, eg., worked, liked, There are many others that have a special past tense form, e.g., made, came, was/were, had, went, saw, heard, etc. When you precede a verb with the future tense indicator, your partner’s English translation will add the word “will”. Using the example of the verb “do” again: You only need to point to the future tense indicator and to do. Your partner will give your sentence the appropriate English wording, “will do”. You can precede any verb with a tense indicator. This will change the verb to whatever form the tense indicator denotes. If no tense marker is shown, the verb will be spoken either as the present tense or in the infinitive form. The context of the sentence will tell the partner what to say. If the verb follows a noun or pronoun, the verb will be in the present tense (with no additional marker), “He walks.” If the verb begins the sentence or follows another verb, it will be spoken in the infinitive (to ..) form, e.g., “To walk is good for you.” Or, “I like to walk.” Another thing to remember when using verbs, you can create additional verbs by adding one of the verb indicators to a noun. You can point to a tense indicator and follow it by a noun, thus making a verb in whatever tense you have chosen. For example, you could say, you would like “to mother” someone, by pointing to the action indicator and mother. You could say, “I mother him every time he returns home for a visit”, by pointing to the present tense indicator and mother. Or you could say, “I mothered him when he was sick last week”, by pointing to the past tense indicator and mother. NOW, IT’S TIME FOR ADDING MORE BLISS-WORDS TO YOUR DISPLAY. First enter the action indicator and all the tense indicators in the top line of your display, as shown in the Sample Display. Now organize the verbs that are available to you in the panel on the left side of the home page, in the arrangement that makes it easiest for you to locate them. They should all appear in the 4th and 5th columns unless you make a special arrangement and change the background colour of adjacent squares to green to accommodate additional verbs. Now for some sentences! For practice in USING your display, go to Lesson 4 Quiz.