dance writing and sign language writing

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
September 15, 2005

Hello Antonio Carlos, Ingvild, and everyone interested in  
transcribing a video of dialogues!

Thank you for the eloquently written description below. Of course  
there is a difference between dancers and the way DanceWriting is  
used, and signers and the way SignWriting is used.

Writing dialogues in signed languages between multiple people can be  
written, believe me, not as DanceWriting or gesture writing, but as a  
way to write the language with meaning and simplicity.

There is just one thing I need in November...a small video to  
transcribe. I hope the people in France who are working on dialogues  
will give me a video clip so we can write this together in front of  
everyone on the SignWriting List. Ingvild has already suggested a  
Norwegian videoclip...Thank you for that...Either will do..Once we  
get a video to transcribe, then we can pin down exactly what people  
feel needs to be written, and then we can come to a common  
understanding of how that is written in SignWriting, and then it  
becomes a standard for others to follow if they wish...I think the  
members of the List are good team members who can give us good  
feedback. I am ready to start November 1st.

Can you ask the people whom you are referring to, Antonio Carlos, to  
participate is this transcribing of dialogues in November?

Dialogues can and will be written, as language, and not just gesture.  
That isn't even a question. Talking about it doesn't mean too much,  
since writing from video is the only way we can solve the issue..So I  
hope you can tell them about my suggestion...

Yes of course work can be ongoing, but if people do not ask me what  
has been done in the past, and how I personally would write it now,  
and then they judge SignWriting on their lack of knowledge as to how  
it would be done, that doesn't make sense either...So if November is  
not a good time, we can schedule another time in 2006, but there is  
no reason not to use my time to answer the questions...which are  
definitely solvable...

Val ;-)

--------------------------





On Sep 15, 2005, at 5:21 AM, Antônio Carlos da Rocha Costa wrote:

> 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
>
>