[sw-l] LESSONS in Transcribing a Poem from Video

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
November 17, 2004

Nancy Emery wrote:
> Again, if you don't know the language you're transcribing, you don't
> know what distinctions might be relevant.  So there can be different
> transcriptions for different purposes. This is an interesting
> conversation (to me anyway), and I don't mean to say that Charles is
> wrong, just that I think other perspectives are possible.

I agree with you completely, Nancy! There are different ways to
transcribe, depending on the project and what you are trying to
achieve. There are four general ways to transcribe...

PHONETIC WRITING
1. Movement Writing Receptive
2. Movement Writing Expressive

PHONEMIC WRITING
3. SignWriting Receptive
4. SignWriting Expressive

These terms are not exact, because SignWriting is so new, that
standardized spellings have not been established yet, in many
instances, but it still gives you an idea what I mean, when I say
Movement Writing and SignWriting...it is the difference between
Phonetic and Phonemic...

When I wrote this in a previous message:

LESSON ONE:
1. The signer is facing you on the video (Receptive View).
2. We are writing the signs from our point of view (Expressive View).
3. Kevin Clark, the Deaf signer, begins by fingerspelling the word
...H-A-R-B-O-R...
4. He points to his arm while he is fingerspelling, which gives the
fingerspelling focus during a performance.

I was establishing my choice for this series of lessons. I am choosing
to write this video in SignWriting from the Expressive view, which
means I do not want to write Movement Writing, unless I have to, later
on, when some of the gestures in the poem are no longer standard
signs...but it will all be Expressive in these lessons...

Charles, thank you for offering Receptive writing in addition...that
will make an interesting web page later on...

And thank you for posting your first writing in the Receptive view...I
am sorry you are missing arm lines in the IMWA...I still haven't
finished the IMWA! But thank you for using SignBank and SignMaker...

Val ;-)