Along the Time Line: Tense and Time Adverbs in Italian Sign

47 Pages·2006·0.2 MB·English

Along the Time Line:
Tense and Time Adverbs in Italian Sign Language
SandroZucchi
Universita` degli StudidiMilano
July 24, 2006
Along the Time Line:
Tense and Time Adverbs in Italian Sign Language
Abstract
InItalianSignLanguage(LIS),whenpastorfuturetimeadverbsarepresent,
thesignsforverbsexhibitthesame manualconfigurationswhetherthesen-
tencereportsapasteventorafutureevent. Factsofthiskind,alsoobserved
forAmericanSignLanguage(ASL)andothersignlanguages,haveledsome
authors(Friedman1975,amongothers)toconcludethattheselanguages,on
aparwithspokenlanguageslikeChinese,lackgrammaticaltense. Neidleet
al. (2000)andJacobowitzandStokoe(1988)have challenged thisviewfor
ASL and have argued thatASL sentences contain tense markers. I present
somedatashowingthatLISverbsinflectfortense. Iargue,moreover,thatthe
apparentlackoftense inflectionwhenLIS pastandfuturetimeadverbs are
presentisduetothefactthattheseadverbsshiftthespeechtimeandthatLIS
pastandfuturetensesare absolutetenses. Iprovideaformalaccountofthe
LIStense system basedonthese assumptions. The accountisimplemented
inHeim’s(1997)analysisoftense.
1 The starting point
ConsiderthefollowingsentencesofItalianSignLanguage(LIS):1
(1) GIANNIHOUSEBUY
“Gianniisbuyingahouse”
(2) TIME-AGOGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“SometimeagoGianniboughtahouse”
(3) TOMORROWGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“TomorrowGianniwillbuyahouse”
One difference betweentheseLIS sentencesand theirEnglishtranslationsisthat,
while the English verbs are inflected for tense, in LIS the sign for the verb ap-
pears in its citational form. Similar facts have also been observed for American
SignLanguage(ASL)andhaveledsomeauthors2 toconcludethatthesesignlan-
guages,onaparwithspokenlanguageslikeChinese,lackgrammaticaltense. Nei-
dle,Kegl,MacLaughlin,BahanandLee(2000)andJacobowitzandStokoe(1988)
have challenged this view for ASL and have argued that ASL sentences contain
1Ifollowthestandardpracticeofusingwordsincapitalletterstorepresentsigns.Alltheexample
sentencesinthepaperarefromLIS,unlessindicatedotherwise.
2SeeFriedman(1975)forASLandPizzuto,Cameracanna,CorazzaandVolterra(1995)forLIS.
1
tensemarkers. Inparticular,Neidleetal. claimthatASLhasasetoflexicaltense
markers located in the head positionof TP that differ, both morphologicallyand
distributionally,from related timeadverbs; Jacobowitzand Stokoeargue thatcer-
tain movement features of ASL verbs encode tense inflection. In this paper, I’ll
presentsomedatashowingthatLISverbsarealsoinflectedfortense,andI’llargue
that,contrarytowhat(1)-(3)suggest,matrixclausesaretense-markedinLIS.
I’llproceedasfollows. Insection2,I’lldescribehowtemporalinformationis
encodedinLISandI’llshowthatLISverbsinflectfortense,thoughtenseinflection
andtimeadverbsinteractdifferentlyinLISandinspokenlanguageslikeItalianand
English. In section3, I’ll present an informal sketch of how the interpretationof
tense and time adverbs worksin a paradigmatic tense-inflected language: Italian.
Insection4,I’lldescribetheintuitiveideasonwhichmyaccountoftheinteraction
oftenseandtimeadverbsinLISisbased. Section5containstheofficialproposal:
a formal account of the LIS tensesystem and of its interactionwith time adverbs
based on Heim’s (1997) analysis of tense. Section 6 discusses some related data
from LIS. Section 7 tackles some issues left open by the analysis and leads to a
refined descriptionof the typologyof LIS adverbs. Section 8 containssome final
considerations.
2 Time in LIS
ThereareatleastfourwaysofconveyingtemporalinformationinLIS:
(i) bymeansoftimeadverbs,
(ii) bymeansofsuprasegmentalfeaturesco-occurringwiththeverb,
(iii) bymeansoflexicalmarkerslikeDONE3andMUST,
(iv) bymeansofcontext.
Sentences (2)-(3) in the previous section are examples of (i). Sentences (4)-(6)
belowinstantiate(ii):
shoulderstraight
(4) GIANNIHOUSE BUY
“Gianniisbuyingahouse”
shoulderbackward
(5) GIANNIHOUSE BUY
“Gianniboughtahouse”
3ThissignistraditionallyglossedinItalianasFATTO.Here,I’llkeeptheEnglishglosssinceits
meaningismoretransparentforEnglishreaders.
2
shoulderforward
(6) GIANNIHOUSE BUY
“Gianniwillbuyahouse”
In these sentences, the positionof the shoulderwhilethe verb is beingsignedin-
dicatesthattheactionispresent,pastor future: iftheshoulderisalignedwiththe
restofthebody,theactionisclaimedtobetakingplaceatthetimeofutterance;if
theshoulderistiltedbackward,theactionisclaimed totakeplacebeforethetime
of utterance; if the shoulder is tilted forward, the action is claimed to take place
afterthetimeofutterance.4
Sentences(7)-(8)areinstancesof(iii):
(7) GIANNIHOUSEBUYDONE
“Giannihasboughtahouse”
(8) GIANNIHOUSEBUYMUST
“Gianniwillbuyahouse”
The sign DONE in (7) indicates that the action is completed before the time of
utterance and the sign MUST in (8) indicates that the action takesplace after the
timeofutterance.5
Finally,temporalinformationmaybegatheredfromthecontext. Forexample,
in discourse (9) below the first sentence specifies that the action of going to the
moviesoccurredyesterdayandthefollowingsentenceisunderstoodasdescribing
a past actionas well, althoughit lacks an overt marker indicatingthat the time is
past:
(9) YESTERDAYGIANNIMOVIE-THEATERGOTHEREMARIA
HIMMEET
“YesterdayGianniwenttothemovie-theater. Mariamethimthere”
Data (4)-(6) above suggest that the view that LIS lacks grammatical tense
should be reconsidered. The positionof the shoulder co-occurring with the sign
of the verb seems to play the same role as tense inflection on the verb in spoken
languageslikeItalianandEnglish,whatchangesissimplyhowgrammaticaltense
is marked: by means of suffixes or stem modification in Italian and English and
by means of a suprasegmental element, the position of the shoulder, in LIS. On
thebasisoftheseconsiderations,Iwillassumethattheshoulderpositionwhilethe
4ThisuseoftheshouldertoconveytemporalinformationismainlyfoundinthevarietyofItalian
SignLanguageusedintheSouthofItaly.
5Theuseoflexicallycontentfulelementstoperformgrammaticalfunctionsiscommoninsign
languagesandinCreoles. Onthispoint, seeFischer(1978),FischerandGough(1999),andMeir
(1999).
3
verbissignedinLISisawayofinflectingtheverbfortense,and,fromnowon,I’ll
glossthesuprasegmentalfeature ontheverb in(4)-(6) aspresent,pastandfuture,
respectively:
pres
(4) GIANNIHOUSEBUY
“Gianniisbuyingahouse”
past
(5) GIANNIHOUSEBUY
“Gianniboughtahouse”
fut
(6) GIANNIHOUSEBUY
“Gianniwillbuyahouse”
Evenifweregarddata(4)-(6)asinstancesoftenseinflection,andthusasevidence
that LIS is unlike Chinese and more like Italian and English with respect to the
markingofgrammaticaltense,thereisstillaconspicuousdifferenceinhowtenses
andtimeadverbsinteractinLISandinspokenlanguageslikeItalianandEnglish.
In Italian and English, past and future tense inflection co-occurs with past and
futuretimeadverbs. InthecorrespondingLISsentencescontainingpastandfuture
timeadverbs,ontheotherhand,pastandfutureinflectionontheverbisabsent: in
(2) and(3) belowtheshoulderpositionisstraight,and notbackwardandforward
respectively,asitshouldbeiftheLISverbBUYwereinflectedforpastandfuture
tenses.
(2) TIME-AGOGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“SometimeagoGianniboughtahouse”
(3) TOMORROWGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“TomorrowGianniwillbuyahouse”
Indeed, if we add past and future inflections to the verb in (2)-(3), the resulting
sentencesareanomalous:
past
(10) *TIME-AGOGIANNIHOUSE BUY
“SometimeagoGianniboughtahouse”
fut
(11) *TOMORROWGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“TomorrowGianniwillbuyahouse”
This is the problem we face then: explaining why verbal inflection and past and
futuretimeadverbsinteractdifferentlyinLISandinspokenlanguageslikeItalian
andEnglish.
4
Noticethatthequalificationregardingpastandfuturetimeadverbsisimportant
here. Thelackofpastandfutureinflectionontheverbdoesnotarisewithalltypes
of time adverbs in LIS. Indeed, with adverbs that in Italian and English fail to
locate the event time relative to the utterance time, past and future inflectionsare
possible. For example, theEnglishadverb today,by itself, doesnot locateevents
in the past, present, or future with respect to the utterance time, as shownby the
factthatthisadverbcanco-occurwithpast,present,andfuturetenses:
(12) a. TodayJohnboughtahouse
b. TodayJohnisbuyingahouse
c. TodayJohnwillbuyahouse
AdverbsofthiskindinLIS,likeinEnglish,canco-occurwithdifferenttenses:
past
(13) a. TODAYGIANNIHOUSEBUY
pres
b. TODAYGIANNIHOUSEBUY
fut
c. TODAYGIANNIHOUSEBUY
Finally,beforeIgoonwiththeplot,Ishouldpointoutthatthelackofpastand
future tenseinflectionswithpastandfuture timeadverbs isno exclusiveproperty
of sign languages. Some spoken languages behave in a way similar to LIS in
this respect. England (1983) reports that in Mam, a Mayan language spoken in
Guatemala and Mexico, past tense particles are obligatorilyomitted when a past
timeadverbispresent:
(14) o chin jaw tz’aq-a
past1st-abs. direct. slip-1st
“Islipped”
(15) eew chin jaw tz’aq-a
yesterday1st-abs. direct. slip-1st
“Islippedyesterday”
Comrie(1985)reportsthatsimilar,thoughlessstrict,co-occurrencerestrictionsare
foundinJamaicanandotherCreolelanguages.
In the next section, I’ll prepare the ground for my account by providing an
intuitivepictureoftheinteractionoftenseandtimeadverbsinItalian(I’llbeusing
ItalianratherthanEnglishastheparadigmatictense-inflectedspokenlanguagefor
reasonsthatwillbeclear later). Insections4-5, I’llcome back totheLISfactsin
5
(2)-(3). Thedatain(13)willbeaddressedlateroninsection7.
3 Tense and time adverbs in Italian
AccordingtoReichenbach(1947),naturallanguagetensesexpressrelationsamong
times. In his theory, the time parameters at stake are three: the speech point, the
eventpoint,andthereference point. Thereference pointplaysaroleindescribing
the behavior of perfect tenses in English, while for the simple tenses the refer-
ence pointcoincides with the event point.6 Since in the followingdiscussionthe
reference point will not play a role, I’ll assume for simplicitythat tenses express
relationsbetweentwotemporalparameters: thespeechpointsandtheeventpoint
e. If we make this assumption, one might describe Italian (as well as English)
simpletensesinthisway: thesimplepresenttenserequiresthespeechtimetoco-
incidewiththeeventtime,thesimplepasttenserequirestheeventtimetoprecede
the speech time, and the simple future tense requires the event time to followthe
speechtime.
Simplepast: e<s
Simplepresent: e=s
Simplefuture: e>s
Theintendedresultofthischaracterizationisthat,forexample,sentences(16)-(18)
beloware trueifthetimeofthehousebuyingeventprecedes, coincideswith,and
follows,respectively,thetimeofutteranceof(16)-(18).
(16) Giannicompro` unacasa
“Johnboughtahouse”
(17) Giannicompraunacasa
“Johnisbuyingahouse”
(18) Giannicomprera` unacasa
“Johnwillbuyahouse”
Howdotimeadverbsinteractwithsimpletenses? IntheItaliansentencesin(19)-
(20) below (and in their English translations), the time adverbs specify the event
time. In (20), the time adverb tells us that the time of the house buying event is
includedinthedaythatfollowsthetimeofutteranceandtheinflectionontheverb
6Thisisnotquitetrueforthesimplefuturetense,forwhichReichenbachalsoallowsaninterpre-
tationwherethereferencepointcoincideswiththespeechpoint.
6
redundantlyspecifiesthatthistimeisinthefuture. In(19),theadverbtellsusthat
theeventtimeisinthepastandthetensereiteratesthisinformation.
(19) TempofaGiannicompro` unacasa
“SometimeagoJohnboughtahouse”
(20) DomaniGiannicomprera` unacasa
“TomorrowJohnwillbuyahouse”
ThisinteractionbetweentensesandtimeadverbsisillustratedinFigure1(wheret
istheintervalspecifiedbythepasttimeadverb).
e s
t
Figure1: TemporalrelationswithItaliansimplepasttenseandpasttimeadverbs
There are several ways in which this preliminary sketch of the workings of
tensesandoftheirinteractionwithtime adverbsneedstoberevised. For thetime
being, I’ll ignore most of the complex issues that arise in this respect. However,
there is one point that needs to be clarified for the purpose of our discussion. I
observed that, accordingto the relationalanalysisof tense, present tense requires
theeventtimetocoincidewiththespeechtime. Asiswellknown,however,present
tensemay alsobeusedtoreporteventsthatprecede thetimeof utterance. Thisis
showninthefollowingexamplesfromItalianandEnglish(duetoBertinetto1991
andHornstein1990):7
(21) Stavamoaspettandoiltreno. All’improvviso,giungetrafelatoEnrico. Ha
appenaparlatoconilcapostazioneedicecheilrapidoarrivera` conmolto
ritardo. Fucos`ıchedecidemmodiprenderel’espresso.
7Presenttensemayalsobeusedtoreporteventsthatfollowthetimeofutterance,asshownby
thefollowingItalianexamples:
(i) Nel prossimimesimesi, eccolo scenariocheci aspetta. Nell’aprile del2006, Berlusconi
perdeleelezioni,inmaggiosiinsediailnuovogoverno,inluglioletruppeitalianevengono
ritiratedall’Iraq.
“Thisisthescenarioforthenextmonths. InApril2006,Berlusconilosestheelections,in
Juneanewgovermentisformed,inJulytheItaliantroopswillbewithdrawnfromIraq.”
(ii) Ilprossimoluglio,esattamentetranovemesi,arrivaDavid.(Bertinetto1991)
“NextJuly,exactlyninemonthsfromnow,Davidarrives.”
7
“We were waiting for the train. Suddenly, Enrico arrives in a hurry. He
has just spokento the stationmaster and says that the rapidowill arrive
withalongdelay. Thatwashowwedecidedtotaketheexpresstrain.”
(22) It was 1812, just before the Battle of Borodino. The anticipationof the
coming struggle is palpable. Napoleon has just woken. He is getting
ready to inspect the troops and see that they are ready for the battle that
willdeterminethefateofEurope.
How can this use of the present tense be reconciled with the assumption that the
simple present identifiesthe event time withthe speech time? The answer isthat
the term “speech time” for the temporal parameter s needs tobe qualified. In the
simplecase, thistime intervalisidentifiedwiththe timeof utterance, but, ingen-
eral, itneed notcoincidewithit. In thehistoricalpresent examples (21)-(22), the
speechtimeisshiftedbackwithrespecttothetimeofutteranceandtheeventtime
isidentifiedwiththeshiftedspeech time.8 Figure 2 illustratestherelationamong
time of utterance, speech time, and event time in the historical present (c is the
T
timeofutterance).
e,s c
T
Figure2: Temporalrelationsinhistoricalpresentsentences
Therelationamongtimeofutterance,speechtime,andeventtimeinItaliansimple
pastsentenceswithpasttimeadverbsisnowillustratedinFigure3.
e c ,s
T
t
Figure3: Locationofe,s,c withItaliansimplepasttenseandpasttimeadverbs
T
8Theideathatthespeechtimemaybedistinctfromthetimeofutteranceisalreadypresentin
Dowty(1982),wherethespeechpointisshiftedinthescopeofcertaintenseoperators. Hornstein
(1990)suggeststhatthepossibilityofanchoringthespeechtimetotimesotherthanthetimeofut-
terancemayaccountforthehistoricalpresent. InZucchi(2005),Iarguethatthiswayofanalyzing
thehistoricalpresentaccountsforitsaspectualanddiscourseproperties. InZucchi(2001),thetem-
poralpropertiesofmodifierslikeInthenovelareexplainedbyassumingthatthesemodifiersshift
thespeechtimebutnotthetimeofutterance.
8
4 Tense and time adverbs in LIS
Nowthatwehaveseenanintuitivesketchofhowtensesandtimeadverbsinteract
inItalian,let’scomebacktotheLISfactsin(2)-(3),(5)-(6):
(2) TIME-AGOGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“SometimeagoGianniboughtahouse”
(3) TOMORROWGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“TomorrowGianniwillbuyahouse”
past
(5) GIANNIHOUSEBUY
“Gianniboughtahouse”
fut
(6) GIANNIHOUSEBUY
“Gianniwillbuyahouse”
Atfirstblush,thesedataseemtoshowthat,althoughLISverbscanbeinflectedfor
tense,tenseinflectionisabsentwhena pastorfuturetimeadverbispresent. Why
shouldtherebethisco-occurrencerestrictionontensesandtimeadverbsinLIS?
A goodruleof thumb totellsomeone whowantstolearn how theinteraction
of tenses and time adverbs works in LIS is this: past and future tenses (i.e., the
shoulder positions co-occurring with the signs of the verbs to indicate past and
futuretimes)areusedonlywhentheactionisn’talreadylocatedinthepastorinthe
futurebyanadverb;ifthetimespecificationintroducedbythetenseisredundant,
tense is dropped. This intuitiverule leads us to expect that pastand future tenses
shouldbedroppedin(2)-(3),asitindeedhappens. However,effectiveasitmaybe
forpredictingthebehavioroftensesinLIS, appealtoredundancytoexplainwhat
blocks the occurrence of past and future inflections in (2)-(3) is not satisfactory.
RedundancyinLISdoesnotyieldanomaly,astheacceptabilityof(23)shows:9
(23) IN-PASTYEARS-AGOMANYPARISGO
“Inthepast,severalyearsago,IwenttoParis”
Moreover, appeal to redundancy fails to answer a natural question raised by the
LIS data: whyisn’tthe same co-occurrence restrictionalso presentin othertense
inflectedlanguageslikeItalianandEnglish? Aswehaveobserved,fromaseman-
9OnecouldsuggestthatredundanttemporalinformationisbarredinLISonlywhentheinforma-
tionprovidedbythetenseisredundantwithrespecttotheinformationprovidedbythetimeadverb.
Thiscorrectlydescribesthefacts,butindicatesthattheunacceptabilityof(10)-(11)cannotbesimply
derivedfromapragmaticprinciplebarringredundancy:itisthewaytensesandtimeadverbsinteract
inthegrammarofLISwhichisresponsiblefor(2)-(3).
9