Stoke Notation

The Stookie notation system uses 55 characters, including: ^[3]

• 12 characters describing the place of execution of the gesture;
• 19 simple characters to indicate the configurations of the active element (hands or hands). These symbols are supported by diacritical marks (eg, “A” stands for the fist with the thumb pressed, while “oA” stands for the fist with the thumb set apart). The goal of diacritical marks is to show different hand configurations;
• 24 characters for a gesture image (movement / execution of a gesture). Lined upright, they show individual movements made synchronously; sequential actions are recorded from left to right.

Additionally, characters are used that are written below or above the main character - “subscripts” and “prescripts”, respectively. They do not indicate different configurations of the hands, but show important differences in the active element, that is, in the position or orientation of the hand ^[3] .

Also, in the future, Stokes, relying on Supalla and Newport ^[4], suggested adding additional symbols indicating the lexical difference between gestures of different types, for example, between verb gestures and nouns ^[3] .

In accordance with the developed notation, the written form of the gesture "mother" looks like this:

͜ 5 ^x

'͜' means that the gesture must be performed on the chin, '5' means that the hand is used with a brush ('5' in American sign language), and 'x' means that the thumb touches the chin. Stouki developed the terms tab (from tabula - place), death (from designator - acting element), and whitefish (from signation - action), meaning - place of execution of the gesture, shape of the hand and (way) of movement, respectively, to indicate different categories phonemes in American sign language. ^[5] It was their distinction that allowed Stokes to argue that sign language possesses the so-called. double division , and therefore, in accordance with the understanding of the differences in human languages ​​and animal communication systems , introduced by Andre Martine - is a full-fledged natural language . Stokey also notes the importance of aspects such as:

• facial expression,
• sight,
• head position ^[5] .

U. Stokey determined and fixed the order of the characters when recording the gesture: first, the place of the gesture was indicated, after the shape of the hand, at the end the nature of the movement of the hand.

Before Stokey developed his own system of notation, and together with co-authors, he worked on a dictionary of American sign language, based on the principle that the place of a gesture was determined by its own form of gesture (reflected in the transcription), sign language dictionaries were developed differently principle - to translate the gesture into English. Thus, Stookie's notation led him to create a different classification of gestures.

Stookie’s gesture recording system (notation) was later used to analyze other sign languages, but it found its application mainly among linguists and other scholars associated with the study of sign languages.

Stoke Notation System:

• It does not allow to fix the expression on the face, which is an integral part of many gestures.
• It is phonemic, which means that it allows you to record only those values ​​of the parameters of the gesture that were considered meaningful for the American sign language according to the theoretical views of W. Stoke.

Accordingly, the Stokey notation:

• it doesn’t allow us to describe such parameters for performing the gesture, which, as subsequent studies of this topic have shown, make a significant contribution to filling the gesture with meaning, and in particular, it does not describe - sharpness / smoothness and amplitude of movement, tension / relaxation of the hand, which, as shown by further studies of sign languages ​​make a significant contribution to the meaning of gestures.
• cannot be used without modification to distinguish between gestures and transcription of other sign languages.

Modified and supplemented versions of the Stookie notation are currently used to create dictionaries of various sign languages, and therefore, when speaking about Stoke notation, they mean a whole family of related transcription systems.

• Stouki U. The structure of sign language // Modern aspects of sign language. Sat articles . Comp .: A.A. Komarova. - M., 2006. - P.55-84.
• Stokoe, William C. 1970. Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles .
• Prozorova E.V. Russian sign language as a subject of linguistic research // Questions of linguistics. - M., 2007. - No. 1. - S. 44-61.

• Stokes Free Font