Dialogues

[Steve Slevinski]

It seems we are talking about two related, but different topics: Written 
dialogues by a writer and transcribed dialogs by an observer.

In movie scripts, there is never any confusion about who is saying what. 
There is always the character’s name, followed by what they said.

In fictional novels, the speaker is not always identified. The speaker 
can be assumed by context and convention. Or the speaker can be left 
ambiguous for dramatic effect. When the speaker is identified, the most 
often used convention is "he said". This convention is so well used and 
expected that it often disappears into the background. Some 
inexperienced writers try to improve the convention "he said" by using 
different synonyms for "said". However, "he yelled, he slurred, he 
murmured, he lisped, he whimpered, he ..." is not an improvement because 
it draws attention to itself, while continuous use of "he said" informs 
the reader while not drawing attention to itself.


Because most sign languages use a topic-comment sentence structure, I 
think it makes sense to put the character’s name first. The character is 
the topic and what the person said is the comment. If used consistently, 
it should blend into the background and become similar to "he said": 
informative and unobtrusive. I do believe that changing the color of the 
signers name helps differentiate between who is signing and what they 
sign. For black and white printing, the name of the signer could be gray 
rather than color.

And while a transcribed dialog would most likely be third person, it is 
also possible to write in first and second person as well. Sign language 
writers and readers have a lot of fun work ahead.

Using different columns for different characters is an interesting idea. 
It allows for simultaneous signing between multiple signers. I usually 
dislike the idea of adding special purpose symbols to the IMWA, however 
some type of markup is needed to illustrate that two signers are signing 
at the same time, rather than one after the other.


What an interesting time we live in..

-Steve