dance writing and sign language writing

[Antônio Carlos da Rocha Costa]

Valerie and all,

   The conversation in the list about writing dialogs made me think 
about a possible deep difference between the problems of writing dance 
and writing sign language.

   The point is that usually, language refers to things that are 
external to the speaker/signer, while dance usually doesn't refer to 
things that are external to the dancer.

   More precisely, usually writing language requires that one represents 
things in an explicit way (cf. the use of pictures and formulas in 
technical texts that are demanded to be very precise), while writing 
dance seems to have no such strict requirements.

   Maybe mimics is in an intermediate situation. Possibly, writing joint 
mimics by several people would require the explicit representation of 
external objects.

   This feature of language (reference) makes the difference between 
language and pure gestures.

   If this is true, I conclude that having a definite set of symbols and 
rules for representing referenced objects in SignWriting, specially for 
use in the writing of dialogs, is an extremely important feature that 
has to be written down so people can start using it.

   Of course, this need has to be balanced with the other needs of the 
SignWriting community, so the work can be going on all around every 
place. I'm just saying that in some time in the (near) future, that 
problem has to be tackled.

   All the best,

   Antônio Carlos


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