Tense, Time, and Adverbs in Italian Sign Language

45 Pages·2005·0.18 MB·English

∗
Tense, Time, and Adverbs in Italian Sign Language
SandroZucchi
Universita` degli StudidiMilano
August13, 2005
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
∗The data presentedin this paper were collectedfrom native signersof LIS from the Napoli-
Salerno area in the South of Italy. I thank Giuseppe Amorini and Giammarco Eletto, my main
informants, for providing the data and for discussingthem with me. Special thanks to Marilina
Cortazziforhelpinunderstandingthedata.IthankIlariaFrana,DanielaFinizio,andDanielDonato,
whoparticipatedincollectingthedataandhelpedmetothinkaboutsomeoftheissuesIdiscusshere.
VersionsofthispaperwerepresentedatGoingRomance2002andattheWorkshoponIntensionality
at ESSLI2002, I thanktheir audiencesfor discussion. Finally, I thankthe studentsof my course
onsignlanguageandlinguisticsattheUniversityofSalernoforprovidinganattentiveaudienceon
whichIcouldtrysomeofmyideas.
1I follow the standardpracticeof usingcapitalizedwordsto representsigns. All the example
sentencesinthepaperarefromLIS,unlessindicatedotherwise.
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
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,tenseinflectiondoesnotworkdifferentlyin
LISandinspokenlanguageslikeItalian.
In section 2, I’ll describe how temporal information is encoded in LIS and
I’llshowthatLIS verbsinflectfortense,thoughtenseinflectionandtimeadverbs
interact differently in LIS and in spoken languages like Italian and English. In
section3,I’llpresentaninformalsketchofhowtheinterpretationoftenseandtime
adverbsworksinaparadigmatictense-inflectedlanguage: Italian. Insection4,I’ll
describetheintuitiveideasonwhichmyaccountoftheinteractionoftenseandtime
adverbs in LIS is based. Section 5 containsthe official proposal: formal account
of the LIS tense system and of itsinteractionwith time adverbs based on Heim’s
(1997)analysisoftense. Section6discussessome relateddatafrom LIS. Section
7tacklessomeissuesleftopenbytheanalysisandleadstoarefineddescriptionof
thetypologyofLISadverbs. Section8containssomefinalconsiderations.
2 Time in LIS
ThereareatleastfourwaysofconveyingtemporalinformationinLIS:
(i) bymeansoftimeadverbs,
2SeeFriedman(1975)forASLandPizzuto,Cameracanna,CorazzaandVolterra(1995)forLIS.
2
(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”
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
3ThissignistraditionallyglossedinItalianasFATTO.Here,I’llkeeptheEnglishglosssinceits
meaningismoretransparentforEnglishreaders.
4Here,Ishouldmentionthatthisuseoftheshouldertoconveytemporalinformationismainly
foundinthevarietyofItalianSignLanguageusedintheSouthofItaly.
5Theuseoflexicallycontentfulelementstoperformgrammaticalfunctionsiscommoninsign
languagesandinCreoles. Onthispoint, seeFischer(1978),FischerandGough(1999),andMeir
(1999).
3
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) suggestthattheview thatLIS lacksgrammatical tense shouldbe
reconsidered. The positionof the shoulderco-occurring withthesign of theverb
seems to play the same role as tense inflection on the verb in spoken languages
likeItalianandEnglish,whatchangesissimplyhowgrammaticaltenseismarked:
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 the basis
of these considerations, I will assume that the shoulder position while the verb
is signed in LIS is a way of inflecting the verb for tense, and, from now on, 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
tense.
4
(2) TIME-AGOGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“SometimeagoGianniboughtahouse”
(3) TOMORROWGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“TomorrowGianniwillbuyahouse”
Indeed, if we add past and future inflection to the verb in (2)-(3), the resulting
sentencesareanomalous:
past
(10) *TIME-AGOGIANNIHOUSE BUY
“SometimeagoGianniboughtahouse”
fut
(11) *TOMORROWGIANNIHOUSEBUY
“TomorrowGianniwillbuyahouse”
Thisistheproblemwefacethen: thatofexplainingwhyverbalinflectionandpast
and future time adverbs interact differently in LIS and in spoken languages like
ItalianandEnglish.
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,future,andpresenttenses:
(12) a. TodayJohnboughtahouse
b. TodayJohnisbuyingahouse
c. TodayJohnwillbuyahouse
AdverbsofthiskindinLIS,likeinEnglish,canco-occurwithdifferenttenses:
past
(13) a. TODAYGIANNIHOUSEBUY
pres
b. TODAYGIANNIHOUSEBUY
past
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
5
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
(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
6Thisisnotquitetrueforthesimplefuturetense,forwhichReichenbachalsoallowsaninterpre-
tationwherethereferencepointcoincideswiththespeechpoint.
6
The intended result of this characterization is that, for example, sentences (16)-
(18) beloware true ifthetime ofthe housebuyingevent precedes, coincides,and
follows,respectively,thetimeofutteranceof(16)-(18).
(16) Giannicompro` unacasa
“Johnboughtahouse”
(17) Giannicompraunacasa
“Johnisbuyingahouse”
(18) Giannicomprera` unacasa
“Johnwillbuyahouse”
Howdotimeadverbsinteractwithsimpletenses? IntheItaliansentencesin(19)-
(20)(andintheirEnglishtranslations),thetimeadverbsspecifytheeventtime. In
(20),thetimeadverbtellsusthatthetimeofthehousebuyingeventisincludedin
thedaythatfollowsthetimeofutteranceandtheinflectionontheverbredundantly
specifies that this time is in the future. In (19), the adverb tells us that the event
timeisinthepastandthetensereiteratesthisinformation.
(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. There is,
however, one pointthat 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
7
showninthefollowingexamplesfromItalianandEnglish(duetoBertinetto1991
andHornstein1990):
(21) Stavamoaspettandoiltreno. All’improvviso,giungetrafelatoEnrico. Ha
appenaparlatoconilcapostazioneedicecheilrapidoarrivera` conmolto
ritardo. Fucos`ıchedecidemmodiprenderel’espresso.
“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.7 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.
7Theideathatthespeechtimemaybedistinctfromthetimeofutteranceisalreadypresentin
Dowty(1982),wherethespeechpointisshiftedinthescopeofcertaintenseoperators. Hornstein
(1990)suggeststhatthepossibilityofanchoringthespeechtimetotimesotherthanthetimeofut-
terancemayaccountforthehistoricalpresent. InZucchi(2005),Iarguethatthiswayofanalyzing
thehistoricalpresentaccountsforitsaspectualanddiscourseproperties. InZucchi(2001),thetem-
poralpropertiesofmodifierslikeInthenovelareexplainedbyassumingthatthesemodifiersshift
thespeechtimebutnotthetimeofutterance.
8
e c ,s
T
t
Figure3: Locationofe,s,c withItaliansimplepasttenseandpasttimeadverbs
T
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
oftensesandadverbsworksinLISisthis:pastandfuturetenses(i.e.,theshoulder
positionsco-occurringwiththesignsoftheverbstoindicatepastandfuturetimes)
are used only when the action isn’t already located in the past or in the future
by an adverb; if the timespecificationintroducedbythe tenseis redundant,tense
is dropped. This intuitive rule leads us to expect that tenses should be dropped
in (2)-(3), as it indeed happens. However, effective as it may be for predicting
the behavior of tenses in LIS, appeal to redundancy to explain what blocks the
occurrence offuture and pastinflectionin(2)-(3) isnotsatisfactory. Redundancy
inLISdoesnotyieldanomaly,astheacceptabilityof(23)shows:
(23) IN-PASTYEARS-AGOMANYPARISGO
“Inthepast,severalyearsago,IwenttoParis”
9
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-
tic standpoint, tense in (20) is no less redundant than it is in (2)-(3), yet (20) is
perfectlyacceptable:
(20) DomaniGiannicomprera` unacasa
“TomorrowJohnwillbuyahouse”
Noticethat,ifindeedweviewthedatain(2)-(3)asshowingthattenseinflection
is absent when a past or future time adverb is present, this raises a puzzle for
grammaticaltheory. Itisusuallyassumedthattherearetwopossiblewaysinwhich
nominativecase isassigned: by tense or byagreement.8 In LIS, however, person
agreement showsupinthecomplementofraisingverbswherethesubjectNPhas
undergoneraising:9
(24) HESEEMLEAVE DONE
3rdpers.
“heseemstohaveleft”
Sincein(24)thesubjecthasmovedtoreceivecase, itfollowsthatinLISnomina-
tive case cannot be assigned by agreement.10 Thus, the only optionavailable for
LIS isthat nominativecase is assignedbytense. But, if tenseis absent in(2)-(3)
above,howiscaseassignedtothesubjectthere? Again,appealtoredundancyfails
toanswerthisquestion.
A possible hypothesis is that LIS, Italian, and English differ in this respect:
in LIS, but notinItalian or English,time adverbs somehowfulfillthe functionof
tense. Tosee howthisproposalmaybe statedmore precisely,let’sconsidersome
factsaboutASL.Neidleetal.,aswementionedabove,haveclaimedthatASLhas
a set of lexical tense markers located in the head positionof TP. One example of
suchalexicaltensemarkeristhesignFUTUREinASLsentence(25):
(25) JOHNFUTURE BUYAHOUSE (ASL)
tns
“Johnwillbuyahouse”
The claim that these lexical items are indeed grammatical tense markers and not
time adverbs is supported by the fact that they can be distinguished from time
adverbs both from a distributional point of view and from an articulatory point
8SeeChomskyandLasnik(1993)andChomsky(1995)
9Following Bahan(1996) andPadden(1988), I assumethat sign languageverbs may express
agreementwiththeirargumentsbyspatialmovement.
10CaseassignmentmayworkdifferentlyinLISandItalian,ifGiorgiandPianesi(1997)areright
inclaimingthatcaseisassignedbyagreementinItalian.
10