Sign Language Structure
Alternate
Stokoe, Jr.
~
indicates that sig motion is performed in alternation by
double dez
Reverse
indicates that left hand is dez, right is tab, etc.
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4.25 Symbols for gestures with syntactic significance:
Name Symbol
Affirm 1
Description
head bends very slightly forward and returns, or eyes lower
and raise, or both together (written before symbols for sign
nearest it in time)
Query
2
face ‘opens’, eyebrows raise, eyes open wide, chin or mouth
lowers (written after symbols for sign nearest it or at the end
of a stretch of signing)
Negate
3
head shakes (written before symbols for sign nearest its
occurrence or at the beginning of a stretch of signing)
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4.26. Conventions of sign language notation:
4.261. Signs are written left to right.
4.262. Left place symbol is tab.
4.263. Middle place symbol is dez.
4.264. Right place symbol or symbols are sigs.
4.265. Sig symbol to the right of another indicates successive motions.
4.266. Sig symbol under another indicates simultaneous motions.
4.267. Sig symbols as subscripts to tab or dez symbols indicate orientation of the configuration.
Example: G v indicates the Index hand pointing down.
4.268. Separation or juncture of compound signs is shown by slant bar or colon, / or :
4.269. A bar used with a tab symbol indicates relative position of tab and dez. Ex: B B a: , ‘open’,
begins with the flat hands, palm down, in contact along the index fingers, and its sig is a separation
accompanied by rotation outward from the elbow (supination). f B f , ‘window’, is signed by
twice touching the little finger edge of the right hand (dez) against the index finger edge of the tab.
A/A , ‘follow’, begins with the right hand half of the double dez behind and to the right of the left;
then keeping same spacing both move away from body to the left. A dot used with a tab symbol
indicates point of contact dez makes. Ex.: G × , ‘conscience’.
5. Bibliography
American annals of the deaf.
1847ff.
Official organ of the Conference of Executives of American Schools of the Deaf
and the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf. Editorial offices:
SASLJ, Vol. 2, No. 2 – Fall/Winter 2018
54