[sw-l] Handwriting and idiosyncratic SW

[Rocha]

Hi Val and all,

    Just to let everybody know the terms in which I am putting this issue
of easiness of writing in SignWriting, when I discuss it here.

    I think that Valerie's great goal of having a highly precise visual
writing system for sign languages amounted to the creation of what
linguists use to call a *phonetic* system, that is, a notation system
where every important detail of the articulation of the linguistic
expression is registered.

    Our oral alphabet does not follows this line of representatin. It it
is more of what is called a *phonological* system, that is, a notation
system where the idiosyncratic, regional, cultural, prosodic,
individual, momentary, etc., variations of the production of the
linguistic expression are put aside, in favor of a standardized written
representation.

    Handwriting the symbols of SignWriting may help to ease the writing of
sign languages, but it seems to me that it will not be enough. At some
point in the future (after the SignWriting system is well assimilated by
everybody), people will be forced to start to establish conventions
about what details are irrelevant in the production of a sign and, thus,
what should be left out of the standard representation of each sign.

    I illustrate this in the picture that is attached to the message. From
left to right, it shows a progressive simplification of the writing of
the sign "house" in the Brazilian sign language LIBRAS.

    How far one can go to the right, simplifying the representation, is
something to be determined by negotiation among people, and may vary
from place to place (region, city, etc.).

    How near one needs stay to the left (and one can surely go into much
more detail, like representing the full body, etc.) is also to be
negotiated.

    Where will people find is the suitable intermediate point, that is
the question.

    All this is not new, I remember having this kind of discussion some
time ago in the list (if I'm not wrong). But I feel the time is
approaching where people will have to prepare for it.

    All the best,

    Antônio Carlos


-- 
Antônio Carlos da Rocha Costa
Escola de Informática - UCPel



-- 
Antônio Carlos da Rocha Costa
Escola de Informática - UCPel
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