writing signlanguage - written and 'spoken' language

[Ingvild Roald]

As a hearing person, I know that I have to change my language when I cannot 
see the person I am talking to. In ordinary conversation, many of the 
'rules' of the language are broken - this does not matter, because most of 
the message is carried by non-verbal signals: stress and loudnessof the 
voice, moving and position of the body (yes, hearing people do use a lot of 
the same ways as deaf people do), etc. If it is dark, if I move into another 
room, if I speak on the phone - I have to be more careful about how I say 
things to be sure to be understood. When I write, I also change my language: 
if I write to a close friend or family, it is not very different from the 
language in the telephone, but it still has to follow more rules. If I write 
to someone I do not know that well, or if it is a more official letter, I 
have to be more careful again. - The written language has to be 'stiffer' 
than the spoken or signed language, because we do not have easy access to 
all the non-verbal cues.  This may be less so for signed languages than for 
spoken ones, because in SignWriting we do have the possibility to write the 
face and the body and ... But once we start writing 'official' letters etc., 
we will meet this problem.

E-mails are considered very unofficial, so the language used in e-mails does 
often not follow the strict rules of the language - and they are often full 
of spelling mistakes, too.

Of course, in the subtitles of a film, you can get some of the non-verbal 
cues. Also, the subtitles are not fully what is said, they are shortened to 
fit with the pace of the speech and the available space. So the subtitles 
are not good examples of written language - they are a way to give the most, 
but not all, to those who do ot understand the spoken language of the film 
(in Norway, most of the film are foreign, and subtitled, so I know, because 
I can understand some of the spoken languages)

Ingvild





>From: Honza <honza at ruce.cz>
>Reply-To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
>Subject: Re: [sw-l] writing signlanguage
>Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 23:54:04 +0200
>
>sorry at first I didn't udnerstand your message as it is. I imagine 
>something else.
>anyway I don't know how to write it down.
>
>about written and spoken languages - there I don't see any differences. For 
>example subtitles - it is the same as on the screen.
>
>Honza
>
>Lucyna Dlugolecka wrote:
>
>>Sign languages are still young languages (like kreols, ha!), so don't care 
>>about the literary style now ;-).
>>
>>Lucy
>>
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Honza" <honza at ruce.cz>
>>To: <sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu>
>>Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 11:45 PM
>>Subject: Re: [sw-l] writing signlanguage
>>
>>
>>>Lucyna,
>>>
>>>yes, sure I know as you know, but it is not easy to write almost all the 
>>>signs in that way I wrote about.
>>>
>>>Honza
>>
>>