Sign Language Structure
Stokoe, Jr.
sig downward, AA +v . Another example is ‘slavery’, AA +z . A sign similar in structure shows the
use of another morphocheremic symbol, the dot, to indicate repetition of a sig or sigs. With the
same double dez the sign ‘work’ repeats its sig so that the wrists touch twice, AA + . Some signers
are careful to touch the insides of the wrists together. This formation of the sign would be written:
A a A + . It is not necessary to show that the second A is prone, as knuckles-upward is the normal way
of holding the cheremic fist.
2.51. The common structuring of physical behavior of many kinds by the left-right
opposition is completely superseded by the tab-dez and other contrasts of the sign language.
Generally the right-handed person will use his right hand for dez, left for tab, when a hand tab is
required; but he may reverse this at will. Fatigue, visibility determined by relative positions of
signer and viewer or by direction of light source, and as yet undiscovered favors may occasion the
right-handed person’s use of left hand as dez. Since, however, there is no morphophonemic
significance attached to right-handedness, some signers utilize the right-left opposition for
rhetorical purposes. The allocation of right and left hand to two characters in a signed anecdote,
for instance, may be most effective, not only for the separation which English pronouns cannot
easily accomplish but also more graphically. One may imagine the right hand dez as one person
of the story and its sig as his action. If the sign is ‘hit’ the left hand tab may be imagined
momentarily to symbolize the other person as object, suffering the action; the action of the right
fist in striking the left palm thus gains graphic physical force and effect in addition to its arbitrary
linguistic denotation.
In the writing system employed in this study the dez symbol will be read as right hand, and
the tab, if it is a configuration of the hand, as left. In transcribing signs as they are observed, a
reversal of hands that seems important will be indicated thus: QA a . This would be ‘other’ made
with the left hand, the first rotated in supination, but, because it is left-handed, the motion to the
signer’s left.
2.52. Just as body-tab signs in frequent use may become zero-tab signs, two handed or
double dez signs in zero tab may become one-handed. Three such signs in very frequent use are
examples of three different kinds: ‘what?’ is, made with a (left) hand tab; ‘why?’with a body tab;
and ‘how?’ in zero tab, with double dez. The formal or standard forms of these are written: BG æ ,
uY × f , and MM × a . But in colloquial use they may appear thus: ‘what?’ G (with the dot above the
sig symbol to indicate a staccato movement); ‘why?’ Y v or Y e (the ‘wiggle’ sig shows that the
allocher of ‘Y’ is the one with which a wiggle is possible, the spread hand with one or more of the
medial fingers bent inward); and ‘how?’ M a .
The one-handed form of signs of which ‘how’ and ‘what’ are representative examples may
be selected for other reasons than those which determine whether a situation is formal or informal.
One of the signer’s hands may be occupied in a way that has nothing to do with the act of
communication except that it will be apparent to both parties that two handed signing is impossible
or inconvenient, and therefore allowance made. The signs used as examples above are questions,
so that is may happen that the signer’s other hand will be extended beyond the zero tab space even
to the limits of interpersonal distance and there as an index be admonishing or fixing the person
questioned, or by grasping a lapel, wrist, or arm be imploring or extorting; that is, one hand may
be paralinguistically (to sign language) or kinetically used while the other makes the strictly
linguistic symbol.
SASLJ, Vol. 2, No. 2 – Fall/Winter 2018
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