Blissymbolics Language: Online Nexus

LESSON ONE

Introduction:

Welcome!

The first and most important thing to know as you begin this course is that Blissymbolics is a language. Within this language there are Bliss-Words, made up of Bliss-Characters, enabling YOU to produce Bliss-Sentences. A well-planned and well-organized display, along with skill in using strategies, will ensure that the sentences you generate carry a great deal of meaning!

Very soon (Lesson 3) you will begin making YOUR Bliss display and generating sentences with Bliss-words. But first, I want to introduce you to a group of Blissymbols that can tell you much about Bliss-characters and Bliss-words.

We begin with body parts.
It is interesting to note that Charles K. Bliss chose to begin with Bliss-words for body parts to introduce his language in Mr. Symbol Man. This film is recommended for anyone who would like to better understand the origin of Blissymbolics and meet its creator.(See Resource 11)The film also includes a section showing the Canadian children who became the first Blissymbol users in the early seventies. Since that time, children and adults around the world have been introduced to Blissymbolics as their means of communication.

The body parts will all be nouns. They have been chosen because they demonstrate several features of Bliss-words and they provide you with an initial vocabulary from which you can produce other parts of speech, e.g., verbs, adverbs and adjectives. As well, body parts can introduce you to indicators and word-building strategies. If you would like to read about parts of speech, see Resource 7. If you would like to have a preview of all the indicators, see Resource 2; for a preview of word-building strategies, see Resource 8.

Types of Bliss-words
Bliss-words for Body Parts can show you the ways in which meaning is represented within Blissymbolics. You will discover that some of the Bliss-characters and Bliss-words are going to be easy to remember because they look somewhat like the thing they represent. We call them pictographic because they resemble a simplified picture of an object.

Other Bliss-characters and Bliss-words are not so easy to recognize because they relate to their referent in a different way. They are referred to as ideographic (resembling an idea). It is important for the learner to have the relationship between the Bliss-word and its meaning explained, whether or not he or she agrees with it. Sometimes, learners may differ with the explanation given to a Bliss-word by Mr. Bliss. However, knowing the explanation makes the meaning memorable. That is what is important. If the learner wishes, they may attach a different explanation to a Bliss-word, one that is easier for them to remember.

Still other Bliss-characters and Bliss-words are described as arbitrary. They have no direct relationship with their referent. Of them, we say “They have the meaning they do, because Mr. Bliss said so! Case closed!” To maintain the logic of the language as C.K. Bliss created it, we accept the arbitrary meanings he assigned to these symbols. See Reference 5 for examples of pictographic, ideographic and arbitrary symbols.

You will find Bliss-words depicting body parts that fall into each of these types. It doesn’t really matter which way the Bliss-character or Bliss-word represents the meaning. What is important to remember is that every Bliss-word represents a meaning. That is why Charles K. Bliss called his communication system Blissymbolics-Semantography - symbols that are semantic (meaningful).

Every time you encounter a new Bliss-word, you need to ask, “What does it mean and why?” The answer will lie in the Bliss-characters that make up the Bliss-word. They will be either pictographic, ideographic or arbitrary, and they will have a meaning. Through understanding the meaning of each of the components, you will arrive at the meaning of the Bliss-word

Note:
If you have read some of the publications about Blissymbolics written before 1998, you will notice that the vocabulary items were always referred to as Blissymbols. We began using the terminology of Bliss-character and Bliss-word to emphasize that Blissymbolics is a language - a graphic and meaning-based language - and that the elements within this language act as characters and words, rather than as pictures. Because they are semantic, they enable you to spell the meaning of each word! Because they are not pictures, they enable you to analyze the meaning rather than processing it holistically. (This is an important distinction to make in thinking about literacy acquisition. (Read Resource 6 for further discussion of Blissymbolics as related to literacy acquisition.)

It’s now time to begin Lesson One.

LESSON TWO

Introduction:

In Lesson 1 we looked at some Bliss-words for body parts in order to learn about different types of Blissymbols (pictographic, ideographic and arbitrary) and the way in which each Bliss-character represents a meaning. In doing this we followed in the path of Charles K. Bliss as he introduced his language in the film, “Mr. Symbol Man”.

Life, protection, blood and skin were four good examples of ideographic symbols. The thing indicator was an example of an arbitrary symbol. It has its meaning because this was assigned to it by Mr. Bliss.

As you begin Lesson 2, the Bliss-words available for your display are: arm, back, blood, body, bone, brain, ear, eye, face, hair, head, heart, legs and feet, mind, mouth, muscle, skin, toe. If you would like to review them, you can find them in the Bliss side panel of the home page.

In Lesson 2, we will examine the Bliss-words for people, and learn about the way in which there can be “families” of Bliss-words. The people will have their own section on your display and will be organized into several sections: pronouns, family members, community members, age groups. As you learn the Bliss-words for people, you will also find out what you can do to make a Bliss-word plural or possessive. (See Resource 7 if you would like to know more about parts of speech and grammar terminology.) You will also learn about the ordering of Bliss-characters within a Bliss-word in Lesson 2. Be warned, it is one of the longer lessons. Lots to learn!

So, on to People!

LESSON THREE

Introduction:

In this lesson we are going to learn some of the social amenities that are important in any communication between persons. And you will also begin entering Bliss-words on your display. In organizing a display you will learn about some general rules that have been developed through the decades of Blissymbol use by persons who are nonspeaking.

There will also be some instructions specific to YOUR learning display. They are directed toward your gaining a range of communication experiences as soon as you begin using YOUR display. Within this online course, you are being given the opportunity to use as many of the capabilities of Blissymbolics as is reasonable. For the young developing child, these capabilities would be introduced into their displays gradually, as the child is ready to apply them.

LESSON FOUR

Introduction:

Now we’re at the beginning stage of real conversation!

You will be constructing YOUR display and creating your first sentences as soon as you have completed Lesson 4.

And you will be seeing how useful the body parts are in giving you verbs to use in sentences. I hope you will enjoy seeing the clever way in which verbs in Blissymbolics allow you to speak about the present, refer to the past and look ahead to the future, all with the change of an indicator - positioned, of course, on the indicator line and appearing above the first character of the Bliss-word (most of the time).

LESSON FIVE

Introduction:

In Lesson 4, with the introduction of the “action” Bliss-words (verbs), you were able to make simple sentences. In Lesson 5, you will learn the words that will enable you to describe words and actions. If you are not familiar with what is meant by adjectives and adverbs, go to Resource 7. Just remember, adjectives describe things and people. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

LESSON SIX

Intorduction

Nouns for things and ideas have been withheld until Lesson 6 in order for you to have the experience of communicating using parts of speech other than nouns. Often the person who is nonspeaking and who is beginning to learn a graphic communication system relies heavily on naming “things” and fails to appreciate how other types of words can enrich their communication and language.Introducing you to Bliss-words for people, verbs, adjectives and adverbs prior to acquiring words for a large number of “things” can demonstrate the power of language beyond the here and now. Blissymbolics is especially valuable in this regard. Within the nouns that you will be learning in this lesson, look for those that allow you to speak in general terms. You should be able to count on your partner to question you and gain further specific information by “yes/no” questions.

LESSON SEVEN

Introduction:

Now that you have some people, some verbs, some adjectives and adverbs, some social amenities and some nouns we are going to learn some Bliss-words that will help you create longer sentences and will help you create new Bliss-words to expand your vocabulary. That is, to help you say MORE! In preparation, you can read about them in Resource 7 (Parts of Speech).You will be learning articles, two grammatical words used for indicating somebody or something, prepositions and conjunctions.

LESSON EIGHT

Introduction:

Now that you have covered all the vocabulary groups except those of the questions and time symbols (coming up in Lessons 9 and 10), it is important to learn how you can expand the vocabulary available on a communication display or an electronic vocabulary. Blissymbolics offers many strategies for vocabulary expansion. In Lesson 8, you will learn about three of the strategies. To learn more, you can go to Resource 8 (Word- Building Strategies) and the Fundamental Rules (Listed in Resource 22). Further attention will be given to this topic in Course 201.

The two most important Bliss strategies are the opposite meaning strategy and the combine strategy. They have been a part of Blissymbol communication by persons who are nonspeaking since the early seventies.A new strategy will also be introduced. It is called the colon strategy. It has been developed in order to arrive at a particular synonym when Bliss-words are used on the current voice output technology or when a precise translation into Blissymbolics is required. In the future, when programs are developed to enable the user to readily access synonyms and antonyms, the colon strategy along with that of the opposite meaning strategy may no longer be needed by the user when using a voice output device. In the meantime, these strategies offer a way for the Bliss user to represent the particular word they wish to have spoken.

You will also learn the two semantic modifiers that offer the user augmentation and intensity.

LESSON NINE

Introduction:

At last you are learning the Question Bliss-words. As soon as you have been introduced to them you will be able to create a two-way conversation using your display. While the question Bliss-words have not been introduced within this course until Lesson 9, one or two questions are very important to introduce to Bliss-users at an early stage in their Bliss learning. They can give the Bliss-user the power to control the conversation!