A measurement method for a surface-measuring measuring machine, in particular a coordinate measuring machine, comprising - a base, - a measurement component for producing and maintaining a contact-making or contactless, in particular optical, measurement connection to a surface to be measured, wherein the measurement component is connected to the base by at least one connection element, - at least one rotary encoder (9, 9'), which detects the rotation of the at least one connection element with respect to a receptacle and in each case has a code carrier (12, 12') and a sensor arrangement (13, 13'), wherein code carrier and sensor arrangement are rotatable with respect to one another about a defined axis of rotation as a first degree of freedom, and comprising • generating a code projection on the sensor arrangement (13, 13'), said code projection being dependent on the three-dimensional position of the code carrier (12, 12') relative to the sensor arrangement (13, 13'), and detecting at least part of the code projection, • determining a rotational position - relative to the defined axis of rotation - of the code carrier (12, 12') on the basis of the code projection, • determining the current measurement position of the measurement component relative to the base using the rotational position of the at least one rotary encoder (9, 9'), characterized in that for the at least one rotary encoder (9, 9'), on the basis of the code projection, a position value for at least one further degree of freedom of the code carrier (12, 12') relative to the sensor arrangement (13, 13') is determined and taken into account when determining the current measurement position, wherein the position value is used to determine a relative position - corresponding to the at least one further degree of freedom of the code carrier (12, 12') - of the connection element with respect to the receptacle and/or to determine the deformation of the connection element as a change in shape and/or size. - a base, - a measurement component for producing and maintaining a contact-making or contactless, in particular optical, measurement connection to a surface to be measured, wherein the measurement component is connected to the base by at least one connection element, - at least one rotary encoder (9, 9'), which detects the rotation of the at least one connection element with respect to a receptacle and in each case has a code carrier (12, 12') and a sensor arrangement (13, 13'), wherein code carrier and sensor arrangement are rotatable with respect to one another about a defined axis of rotation as a first degree of freedom, • generating a code projection on the sensor arrangement (13, 13'), said code projection being dependent on the three-dimensional position of the code carrier (12, 12') relative to the sensor arrangement (13, 13'), and detecting at least part of the code projection, • determining a rotational position - relative to the defined axis of rotation - of the code carrier (12, 12') on the basis of the code projection, • determining the current measurement position of the measurement component relative to the base using the rotational position of the at least one rotary encoder (9, 9'),