This is a system I developed in the late seventies so I could make a computer database of Stokoe, Casterline, & Croneberg's Dictionary of American Sign Language.For clarity, this text should be printed in a monospace serif font, such as Courier or Courier New: monospace so the columns and tables will come out right, and serif so you can tell small ell from capital eye from digit one (l-I-1 vs. l-I-1).
For a pure text version (no HTML), click here.
ASCII-STOKOE NOTATION: A COMPUTER-WRITEABLE
TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM FOR STOKOE NOTATION
OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSIONS NOTICE
Copyright (C) 1993 Mark A. Mandel. Permission is granted to
distribute electronically and to make single hard copies.
All copies must contain this notice. To make multiple hard
copies, apply for permission to the author: he won't be
unreasonable.
INTRODUCTION
This is a system for transliterating William C. Stokoe's notation
for American Sign Language, as presented in his _Dictionary of
American Sign Language_ (Stokoe, Casterline, & Croneberg, 1976:
hereafter "DASL"), into symbols available on most computers: the
7-bit ASCII character set.[1] It consists of a set of equivalences
between Stokoe's symbols and ASCII characters; rules for ordering
characters linearly where Stokoe arranges his symbols two-
dimensionally; and a few extensions for describing a sign in more
detail than DASL does. I originally devised it to facilitate my
dissertation research at the University of California at Berkeley
in the late seventies. Besides computerized searches of
databases, it is also useful for discussing signs in text intended
for human consumption where no special fonts are available --
e.g., by electronic mail and in documents and discussions that
travel over computer networks -- when the writer does not want to
use word or morpheme glosses or extended verbal descriptions.
Any transliteration from DASL into ASCII-Stokoe notation can be
unambiguously reversed. For the most part, each character
represents one symbol, without ambiguity.[2] In some cases DASL
uses the same symbol with different meanings in different
contexts; for example, a dot can mean "extended thumb", "emphatic
movement", or "repeated movement", depending on its location. I
have separated such cases into different characters, one for each
meaning. But some symbols can appear in different parameters[3]
with the same or related meanings: for example, the "O" handshape
symbol can be used as a location, an active handshape, or the
final handshape of a closing movement. Symbols used in this way
are represented by the same character in all contexts. Finally,
handshapes deviate from the "one symbol, one character" rule, for
reasons explained in the section on handshapes.
The basic division of a sign in DASL is into location, active
handshape, and movement[4]. In ASCII-Stokoe these parameters are
separated with slashes ("/"). Each type of parameter symbol can
be accompanied by diacritical marks; DASL puts these above, below,
before, or after the basic symbol, but in ASCII-Stokoe they always
follow it.
I have tried to make my transliterations mnemonic by appearance,
abbreviation, or both. But trying to match DASL's sixty-odd
symbols, with their meanings, to the 94 printable ASCII characters
requires some compromises. In the following table of
equivalences, a capital letter preceded by an asterisk means that
the ASCII character can be thought of as an abbreviation of the
word that the letter appears in. There are also some mnemonic
notes on the relationship between the symbol and its equivalent
character.
LOCATIONS
Most locations are represented by lower-case letters.
Q the neutral location in front of the body. (DASL uses a
slashed zero, but many printers and displays do not clearly
differentiate zero and capital O. One style of capital Q is,
like a slashed zero, a circle with a diagonal line through it.
Can be omitted for human readers; see Order of Writing.)
h whole *Head/face
u *Upper face, forehead/brow
m *Mid-face, eye-nose region
l *Lower face, chin
c *Cheek/temple/ear, side-face
k nec*K (n is needed for a movement)
[ torso (do not confuse with "]", opening movement)
i nondominant upper arm (symbol vaguely resembles undotted
italic "i", stretched out. I have avoided using the ASCII
backslash "\", which has special properties in many text-
handling programs.)
J nondominant lower arm (symbol resembles undotted italic "j";
capitalized to distinguish it from "forearm prominent"
diacritic "j". The slash character "/" is reserved as the
field separator.)
s nondominant inside of *Supine wrist, handshape irrelevant
p nondominant back of *Prone hand or wrist, handshape irrelevant
HANDSHAPES
Since Stokoe's handshape symbols are drawn from the capital
letters and the digits, based on the use of ASL's handshapes or
similar ones in the ASL manual alphabet, most of these
equivalences are straightforward. But ASL has more distinct
handshapes than Stokoe recognized in 1965 under his strict
criterion of lexical minimal pairs. DASL recognizes two of them
as useful in notation while denying them distinctive status,
describing 5 and open-8 as allophones[5] of B and Y respectively and
alphabetizing them separately just after those letters. It also
alphabetizes the independent handshape 3 just after L.
In order to capture the distinctions ignored by DASL, ASCII-Stokoe
uses digits diacritically, though this can be simplified for human
reading; see the discussion under "Extensions", below. Unextended
ASCII-Stokoe represents DASL's handshape symbols as follows:
A B B5 C E F G H I K L L3 O R V W X Y Y8
Each single letter corresponds to the DASL symbol that is the same
letter of the alphabet; B5, L3, and Y8 represent respectively
DASL's 5, 3, and "open-8" (broken at the top). Note that the
ASCII-Stokoe code Y8 thus does NOT represent the numeric handshape
for '8' (unlike B5 and L3); that must be symbolized by adding the
"closed" diacritic (see below): Y8# . In precise use, Y8 stands
for a handshape with the thumb perpendicular to the plane of the
palm, roughly parallel to the bent middle finger. If the thumb is
extended from the side of the hand in the same plane as the palm,
the "extended-thumb" diacritic is called for: Y8` .
MOVEMENTS
This is the largest set of symbols, and the ASCII characters
representing them are a heterogeneous lot. To avoid confusing ")"
and "(" , remember that each one resembles the left-hand half of
its DASL equivalent.
^ upward
v downward
r alternately upward and downward (script "r" moves up and down.
"N" is reserved for potential handshape use: see Extensions)
> toward the signer's dominant side
< toward the signer's nondominant side
z alternately from side to side
t *Toward the signer (symbol resembles capital "T")
f away *From the signer (with a little imagination, symbol
resembles the base of a printed "f")
= to and fro (symbol resembles a capital "I", but "I" is needed
for handshape; if you omit the vertical stroke of "I", leaving
only the serifs, you get "=")
a supinate the wrist -- actually, the forearm (symbol resembles
handwritten "a").
b pronate the wrist (symbol resembles "b" with a short stem)
w twist the wrist alternately supine and prone
n nod or bend wrist
] open the hand to a more open handshape (do not confuse with
"[" for torso location)
# close the hand to a more closed handshape
e wiggle finger(s) (symbol resembles script "e")
@ circular
) approach (do not confuse with "(" meaning interchange)
x contact
g *Grasp (a printed two-loop "g", turned sideways, resembles the
symbol)
+ cross (symbol is a double-barred cross; "+" is a single-barred
cross)
o enter
: diverge
( interchange (do not confuse with ")" meaning approach)
DIACRITICAL MARKS AND ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS
Several diacritics can be applied to a single symbol. The notes
given here on order of diacritics are also included under Order of
Writing, below.
HANDSHAPE. These diacritics modify handshapes only:
` thumb extended. (This character is the grave accent, also
called backquote [96/x60/o140][6].)
" fingers crooked or bent
DASL also uses the symbols for opening and closing movement as
subscripts to indicate open or closed variants of handshapes.
ORIENTATION. DASL uses the directional symbols as subscripts to
handshape to indicate the orientation of the hand, though not in a
fully consistent way and with some implicit conventions and
dependencies (especially with B, where they may refer to either
the fingertips or the palm). DASL also uses the "supinate" and
"pronate" symbols as subscripts for "palm up" and "palm down".[7]
Write orientation diacritics after any handshape diacritics that
may be present.
FOREARM PROMINENCE. DASL attaches the "forearm" symbol to the
left side of a handshape symbol to indicate that the forearm is
prominent. I recommend writing the forearm "j" AFTER the
handshape character(s) and any handshape and orientation
diacritics.
SPATIAL RELATION. DASL uses diacritical marks to indicate the
initial spatial relation between the dominant hand and the
location or the co-active nondominant hand. Write these after any
handshape, orientation, and forearm diacritics.
In addition to the symbols for the movements "cross", "grasp", and
"enter" ("+", "g", "o"), the following diacritics express spatial
relation:
- above (hyphen)
_ below (underscore [95/x5f/o137].)
' side by side. (Apostrophe[8] [39/x27/o47].)
q in front of OR in back of (see Extensions)
MOVEMENT. DASL stacks one movement symbol above another to
indicate that the movements are being performed *simultaneously*.
Stacks[9] are written from left to right corresponding to *sequence*
of movements. In ASCII-Stokoe, commas separate sequential
movements; simultaneous movements are written adjacent with no
intervening comma. In transliterating DASL read each stack of
simultaneous movements from top to bottom (see description of "!",
below).
DASL expresses no more than two simultaneous movements in a single
stack; sometimes three simultaneous movements are written as a
stack of two followed by the third one alone (e.g., the second and
third variants of the sign glossed as 'be busy' at the top of p.
92, O'O/ex@ and O'O/ex= ). This limit of two is apparently due to
printing restrictions. ASCII-Stokoe imposes no limit on the
number of movements that can be written as simultaneous, though
three may be the maximum occuring in ASL.
These diacritical marks modify movements:
. repeated. (Period [46/x2e/o56].) Since a repetition of a
movement follows the basic movement, use a comma before this
character. DASL also stacks the repetition dot above a
directional symbol; transliterate such a stack like any other
stack, using a comma to separate it from preceding and
following stacks, and reading it from top to bottom. E.g.,
J/B/x,.t,. 'improve', p.202.
! emphatic. DASL puts a dot above a single movement symbol or a
simultaneous stack. In my dissertation database I wrote the
exclamation point after the symbol or stack, parallel to its
use as punctuation in the Roman alphabet. While this may not
have been a wise decision, if I ever manage to recover that
database from tape and make it available to researchers, they
will find it the "!" in that position.
~ alternating
{} final handshape(s) after opening or closing movement are
enclosed in braces. (DASL uses square brackets "[]", but
ASCII-Stokoe needs those for "torso" and "opening".)
"COMPOUNDING". DASL uses a double broken vertical line to link
articulations sequentially, something like a hyphen in writing
with the Roman alphabet. The ASCII-Stokoe equivalent is the
vertical line "|" [124/x7C/o174]. E.g.: l/Ht/x|Ba/Hb/x '(postage)
stamp', p. 165. In the Order of Writing table the units separated
by this symbol are referred to as "articulations" for want of a
better word.
ORDER OF WRITING AND CONVENTIONS
The order of characters in ASCII-Stokoe basically follows DASL,
with modifications to linearize the two-dimensional arrangements
and to make it easier to search for patterns programmatically.
The basic order is the same, location - handshape - movement. For
my dissertation database I used tab characters to keep the
elements (including the nondominant active hand) in separate
fields, but when writing for human readers, I recommend a slash
between the fields: location/handshape(s)/movement. If embedding
the sign notation in text, don't put spaces within it, and DO put
spaces between the sign and any surrounding punctuation. It may
look strange, and it is contrary to American punctuation style,
but it is the only way to avoid ambiguity, since almost every
punctuation mark in the ASCII character set also has a meaning in
ASCII-Stokoe.
If the location is neutral space, you can drop the leading zero
and space ("Q/"), and the fact that there is only one slash will
make the sign's structure clear. DASL puts a space after a
nondominant-handshape used as location, and no space when both
hands are active. This convention is not expressed explicitly in
DASL, and has sometimes caused confusion among dictionary users.[10]
Within each field the diacritics should be written after the
central character in decreasing order of their direct relevance to
it. Handshape diacritics " (quotation mark, "bent fingers") and
"`" ("extended thumb") affect the position of the digits in the
handshape itself, so they follow the handshape character
immediately. Since orientation refers to the hand as a whole, but
not the forearm, orientation diacritics follow handshape
diacritics but precede the "j" that means "forearm prominent".
And spatial relation, which applies between the entire articulator
(whether body part, torso, arm, or hand) and the next-named part
of the sign, is written last of all.
The order of characters in writing a sign in ASCII-Stokoe is
summarized below. This table contains all the possible elements
of a sign, not all of which are usually present and some of which
cannot coexist. For example, most signs do not have the multiple
sequential articulation that DASL calls "compounding", and the
nondominant hand cannot be both inactive (= "base hand") and
active. But a sign can have both a body location and a base hand,
a possibility that DASL uses without discussion: hB/G/e! and
hB/A/e`! 'photograph' (p. 115), are examples. If the sign is
articulated in neutral space, the "Q" for neutral space can be
omitted; if there is also no base hand, there is no written
location, so omit the first slash as well.
----------------------------------------------------------------
STRUCTURE OF A SIGN IN ASCII-STOKOE NOTATION
FIRST ARTICULATION:
body:
body location
spatial-relation diacritics
base hand:
handshape
handshape diacritics
orientation diacritics
forearm-prominent diacritic
spatial-relation diacritics
SLASH /
active nondominant hand:
handshape
handshape diacritics
orientation diacritics
forearm-prominent diacritic
spatial-relation diacritics
active dominant hand:
handshape
handshape diacritics
orientation diacritics
forearm-prominent diacritic
SLASH /
first movement stack:
movement
simultaneous movement
simultaneous movement
emphatic diacritic (EXCLAMATION POINT)
COMMA ,
second movement stack: (same structure as the first)
(repeat comma and stack-structure as many times as necessary)
VERTICAL BAR |
SECOND ARTICULATION OF "COMPOUND"
(repeat vertical bar and articulation-structure as many times
as necessary)
----------------------------------------------------------------
EXTENSIONS
The following sections describe additional characters and
conventions that allow ASCII-Stokoe to express more information
about a sign than strict DASL notation does. I urge anyone who
uses ASCII-Stokoe with these or other extensions to mention them
explicitly at the beginning of the data, for the benefit of anyone
with whom the data is shared, especially since some of the
extensions (such as "d") imply a modification to the meaning of an
unextended ASCII-Stokoe character. For that matter, it would be a
good idea to list your extensions even at the head of your own
private collection of data, lest you come back to it after an
interval and forget, or lend it to someone else and forget to tell
them.
HANDSHAPES: I've used combinations of capital letter plus digit
for the 5, 3, and open-8 handshapes for several reasons. First of
all, Stokoe associates the handshapes with letters and numbers,
and puts these three handshapes into his alphabetical order in the
same positions that these digraphs put them in ASCII sort order.
Second, I hoped to facilitate automated searching. And since
there are too many handshapes to represent with the alphabet
alone, some kind of digraph is needed in any case, and this method
seemed as good as any, allowing almost indefinite extension within
a clearly-defined set.
LETTER + DIGIT HANDSHAPE EXTENSIONS: Here are the letter + digit
combinations that I have either found helpful for my research or
thought might be helpful to other researchers. If there is to be
any standard in the use of ASCII-Stokoe, these have at least the
advantage that everyone reading this first publication about
ASCII-Stokoe knows about them.
First of all, the digit 1 after any letter handshape means the
handshape of that letter in the ASL manual alphabet. In the
following list, the distribution of numerals 6-8 is per DASL.
(Note: while 1 can be used to flag initialized signs, and I have
listed some other such "flags" [e.g., F9], these digits as
presented do not provide a complete and consistent system for such
flagging. See "Initialized handshape", below.)
A1 letter A, fist with thumb flat alongside. I mention this
specially because there is no other way to explicitly
distinguish this handshape from the following one. Note that
even in unextended ASCII-Stokoe A` unequivocally represents
the fist with thumb extended, the "thumbs-up" handshape.
A2 letter S, "fist". This is the default allophone of the fist
handshape in ASL, but DASL (and hence unextended ASCII-
Stokoe) uses the symbol A for it.
A3 letter T
B4 numeral 4
B5 numeral 5 (same in unextended ASCII-Stokoe)
F2 letter F with thumb and index finger crossed (thumb on
outside)
F9 numeral 9 if you want to distinguish it morphologically
G2 letter G (distinguished from G for the extended index finger)
G3 letter Q (in initialization; shape identical to letter G)
H2" letter N
H3 letter U (in initialization; shape identical to letter H)
K2 letter P (in initialization; DASL describes shape as identical
to letter K, but it may not always be so)
L3 numeral 3 (same in unextended ASCII-Stokoe)
W2" letter M
W6 numeral 6
Y2 "horns", the extended index and pinky fingers
Y2` "horns" with extended thumb, a classifier for airplanes and
the "ILY" monogram handshape of the "I love you" sign[11]
Y7 numeral 7
Y8 the "open-8" handshape (same in unextended ASCII-Stokoe)
Y8# numeral 8 (same in unextended ASCII-Stokoe)
ALTERNATE SINGLE-CHARACTER HANDSHAPE EXTENSIONS: Then again, if
you're not concerned with extensibility and letter-based searching
and sorting, you may prefer to use single characters for the
handshapes. The following seem the best candidates for such
treatment. "D:" introduces the (closest) equivalent DASL notation
for the handshape; "A:" introduces the (closest) equivalent in
ASCII-Stokoe with no changes to the basic characters. Anyone
using these in data to be shared should mention it explicitly.
1 the pointing index-finger handshape. D: G ; A: G . Those who
object fervently to DASL's use of the letter G for this
handshape may prefer 1.
3 D: 3 ; A: L3
4 D: B ; A: B4
5 D: 5 ; A: B5
6 numeral 6, mostly in numerical signs. D: W ; A: W6
7 numeral 7, mostly in numerical signs. D: Y ; A: Y7
8 numeral 8, mostly in numerical signs. D: "open-8" or "open-8"
plus the "closed" diacritic; A: Y8#
8` D: "open-8", A: Y8` (the non-numerical "open-8" plus the "thumb
extended" diacritic)
9 numeral 9 if you want to distinguish it morphologically from
F. D: F ; A: F9
D letter D, mostly in initialized signs. D: G ; A: G2
M letter M, mostly in initialized signs. D: W ; A: W2
N letter N, mostly in initialized signs. D: H plus the "bent
fingers" diacritic; A: H"
P letter P, mostly in initialized signs. D: K ; A: K2
S "fist" handshape, same as letter S. D: A ; A: A2
T letter T, mostly in initialized signs. D: A ; A: A3
INITIALIZED HANDSHAPE: The numeral extensions above still don't
let you mark unequivocally when a handshape is used with letter or
numeral value. I suggest an asterisk before the handshape.
ANGLED HANDSHAPE: In Lynn Friedman's ASL research group at
Berkeley we used several extensions to (handwritten) DASL
notation.[12] One of these was a circumflex "^" above a handshape
symbol to indicate an "angled" shape: bent at the
metacarpophalangeal joints (at the base of the fingers), but with
the fingers themselves held straight (the interphalangeal joints),
as in part of the ASL sign for 'box' or 'room', or in the "flat-O"
handshape seen in the sign for 'give (general, not as a gift)'.
DASL includes this with the "bent fingers" diacritic. (The
SignFont notation has one diacritic for "angled" fingers and
another for "curved" or "hooked" fingers (bent at all joints, or
at the interphalangeals but not the metacarpophalangeals).) To
any researcher who wants this distinction I suggest lowercase "y"
as a handshape diacritic. (Mnemonic: in print, the left branch
and the descender form an angle.) Note that the use of this
diacritic would implicitly restrict the "bent" diacritic (") to
curved or hooked shapes, and so should be explicitly specified.
SPATIAL RELATION "IN FRONT" VS. "IN BACK": DASL combines "active
hand ahead of base hand" and "active hand behind base hand" into
the single symbol represented as "q". To distinguish these two
and complete the parallelism between spatial relation and
movement/orientation, I suggest reserving "q" for "active hand
behind base hand" (i.e., closer to the body along the front-back
axis) and using its physical inverse "d" for "active hand in front
of base hand" (farther from the body).[13]
TWO-PART ORIENTATIONS: Another Friedman-group extension was the
specification of orientation in two parts. Stokoe's orientation
for the very common flat handshape (B) seems to be based on which
way the palm is facing, though it's not always clear and may
involve the fingertips. We found it useful to specify two
directions: where the palm is facing, and where the metacarpals
are pointing. (The metacarpals are the bones in the palm, one for
each finger; this direction is the same way the fingers point if
they are all extended and held together, as in the flat (B) hand.)
If you combine orientation symbols to indicate intermediate
directions (e.g., f< for "forward and toward the nondominant
side"), you can separate the two parts of an orientation with a
comma or semicolon.
DEICTIC DIRECTIONS: I have found it very useful to be able to
indicate a direction that depends on deixis, e.g., in writing the
root form of a directional verb. In handwritten Stokoe notation I
use a small triangle, or capital delta. Though I never needed
deictic notation in ASCII-Stokoe, I think a question mark would
serve the purpose. By prefixing a question mark to a character
used for orientation or movement (e.g., in the form DASL uses as
citation form) one could indicate that the phonological form
depends on deixis in the situation. We could extend the
convention to cover locations, e.g., '3rd pers. sing. (left) gives
to 3rd pers. singular (right)' as ? (i.e., supine O-hand
starts at left and moves to right), or generically 'give' as
?/Oa/? . A series of locations could be coded numerically as ?1 ,
?2 , etc. I haven't tried to work this out in detail, and am
suggesting it as a direction for researchers who may find it
useful.
WHICH FINGER? Many signs that incorporate numerical morphology
distinguish different values by using different fingers of the
dominant or the base hand. DASL has no way to specify which
finger is in use unless it is the thumb, or if the handshape is
modified. See, for example, the top entry on p. 248, B5/B/o< ,
glossed 'intermission, interval', and the third on p. 249,
B5/G/x , glossed 'student': the signer marks the specific year of
student life, or position of the break (between quarters of a
football game) or summer (between academic years), by the finger
or inter-finger gap used on the base hand.
Use of numbers for fingers is not only confusing when it doesn't
coincide with the semantics of the sign (student years go from
pinky to thumb), but also ambiguous: I have seen professional
articles number the digits differently. When handwriting Stokoe
notation I have used subscript i,m,r,p, for the index, middle,
ring, and pinky fingers; the gaps between them are also i (between
index and thumb), m, r, and p (between pinky and ring). To avoid
confusion and facilitate finding such morphology in a database I
suggest borrowing labels for the fingers from the ASL numerals in
which one fingertip touches the thumbtip -- 6 = pinky, 7 = ring,
8 = middle, 9 = index -- and prefixing a percent sign to
distinguish these modifiers from handshape extensions. A gap is
indicated if the movement or spatial relation is "entering", o ,
(or "grasping", g , for the active hand); otherwise the finger is
meant. This extension diacritic goes after handshape diacritics
and before orientation diacritics. Examples: B5%7/G/x 'freshman';
B5%8/B/o< 'summer between sophomore and junior years'; B5%7a/Gb/>x
'third week of the month' (a form of the first sign on p. 236,
though not discussed there).
WHERE ELSE ON THE HAND? This use of the percent sign can be
generalized to indicate generally which part of the hand is
involved in a sign. This has been considered a minor parameter
called "Contacting Region" (Klima & Bellugi 1979), "Action Area"
(Newkirk 1987), and probably other names as well. I suggest the
following symbolizations:
%a palm (or palmar side of digit)
%b back (or back of digit)
%- radial edge (the thumb's edge of the hand)
%_ ulnar edge (the pinky's edge of the hand)
%f metacarpal end
%t wrist end/heel
%^ pad of finger- or thumb-tip
%v elbow
(I have borrowed this organization of contacting regions from
Newkirk 1987.) The inventive researcher can certainly come up
with more combinations as needed; the usual caution about
explicating extensions applies.
CHARACTERS NOT USED: The following characters are not used in
*unextended* ASCII-Stokoe:
capital letters: D M N P S T U Z
lowercase letters: d y
digits: 1 2 4 6 7 9
other characters: $ % & * ; ? \
Most of these letters and all the digits are used in the
extensions mentioned above: all the capital letters except U and Z
are in the alternate single-character handshape extensions, d is
"in front of", and y is "angled handshape". One of the other
characters could be used before a handshape to indicate
initialization; I suggest the asterisk. I disrecommend use of the
backslash "\" for any purpose, since it has special significance
to so very many programs.
EXAMPLES
[to be supplied]
NOTES
1. All page references in this article are to DASL.
2. I will generally use "character" to mean "character of the 7-
bit ASCII set" and "symbol" to mean "symbol of Stokoe notation as
presented in DASL".
3. Many sign linguists eschew much of Stokoe's terminology,
preferring in some cases terms common in the linguistics of spoken
languages, and in others new terms that are specific to sign
linguistics. "Parameters" are roughly equivalent to Stokoe's
"aspects" (with significant theoretical differences that are not
necessary to go into here).
4. Stokoe's "tab", "dez", and "sig".
5. Stokoe's "allochers".
6. I will use this format to give the decimal, hexadecimal, and
octal representations of a character's ASCII value.
7. In terms of anatomy and body movement (kinesiology), supination
and pronation are not equivalent to palm-up and palm-down position
or movement. For example, in Bf/f 'your' (p.19) and l/Bv/^x,.
'sweet' (p.149) the hand is anatomically prone and supine,
respectively. In fact, supination and pronation are movements of
the entire forearm, not the hand.
8. Or acute accent on some keyboards.
9. Or single movement symbols, which can be considered stacks of
one movement.
10. For example, on p. 16 of DASL, in the second entry (glossed
'help'), compare the first sign with the third. In ASCII-Stokoe
they are: A_Ba/^ and A_/Ba/x,.,. . When hand-writing standard
Stokoe notation for a sign with a base hand, I find it useful to
put a period between the symbols for the base handshape and the
active handshape.
11. In Lynn Friedman's research group we handwrote "horns" with a
symbol like a tuning fork, something like this:
|_| . The "airplane"/"ILY" handshape was the same symbol plus
| the "extended thumb" diacritic.
12. I think that most of these extensions were invented by Lynn,
but at this remove in time I can't be sure.
13. If memory serves, Friedman's group turned DASL's symbol for
"in front" upside-down for this, capturing the visual parallelism
between "forward"/"backward" and "in front"/"in back".
REFERENCES
Klima, Edward S., & Ursula Bellugi
1979 _The Signs of Language_. Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard
University Press.
[Newkirk, Don]
1976 _SignFont Handbook_. [Architect: Final Version.] San
Diego: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies [and]
Emerson & Stern Associates, Inc. Work supported in
part by grants from NIH, NIH/NINCDS, and NSF.
Stokoe, W., C. Casterline & C. Croneberg
1976 _A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic
Principles_. [Silver Spring, Md.]: Linstok Press.
last modified 2007-04-01