A Nonmanual Marking the Perfect Tenses in ASL
Donovan Grose
Purdue University
The current analysis argues that the Tense system in ASL expresses the Perfect Tenses,
as well as the absolute Tenses. The absolute Tenses are expressed through manual Tense
markers identified by Neidle et al (2000). The Perfect Tenses, indicating an event
occurring before a reference time, are marked by a single downward movement of the
head, glossed here HN. Previous analyses claimed that this same nonmanual was an
optional marker of conditionals (Liddell (1986), and a marker of closed events (Nowell
1988). The current study accounts for the function of the HN as a Perfect Tense marker,
within a Reichenbachian Tense system. This approach argues that all finite clauses
encode for three temporal points. These temporal points are: the time of utterance (S),
understood has either Speech or Sign time, the reference time (R), and the event time (E).
These three points generate two relationships, one between S and R time (S/R) and
another between R and E time (R/E). These points may be simultaneous, as S and R are
in the Present Tense, or they may be ordered sequentially. In the Perfect Tenses, E occurs
before R (E_R), regardless of the relationship (S/R). This allows for Perfect Tenses in
the Past, Present and Future.
In the syntax, these two Tense relationships require two Tense phrases (T1 and T2). T1
encodes for (S/R). (R/E) is encoded by T2, sometimes referred to as a Perfective Aspect
Phrase. These Tense phrases are located within a basic event structure modified from
that proposed by Tenny (2000). In this structure, each Tense phrase dominates a
functional phrase associated with outer and inner Aspect respectively (F1 and F2). These
Aspect phrases in turn dominate two verb phrases (V1 and V2), required to account for
event structure. The resulting structure (1) is built up from the semantic scope
requirements of the elements it contains.
(1)
[T1[F1[V1[T2[F2[V2]]]]]]
In clauses with Broad Focus, the HN occurs over a verb or Aspectual sign (2). In clauses
with Narrow Focus, the HN may occur in clause final position over the focused element
(3).
(2)
HN
ENTER SCHOOL.
Enter -PT school
‘ I started school.’
(3)
HN
I READ BOOK FINISH
1sg read book finish-PT
‘I finished reading the book.’
The HN also occurs in clause final position in the subordinate clauses of bi-clausal
sentences. The Sequence of Tense analysis (Hornstein 1990) accounts for the temporal
relationships between the events in these structures. The occurrence of the HN is
predictable based on these temporal relationships. In hypothetical conditionals (4), the
matrix, or ‘if’ clause, serves as the R-time for the event in the subordinate clause,
producing the relationship E before R between the events in the two clauses, represented
(E_R). Generalization conditionals do not have this relationship and do not occur with
the HN.
(4)
t
br HN Aff-hn++
PICNIC IF RAIN
CANCEL
Picnic if rain-PT cancel
‘If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled.’
A similar analysis applies to sentences expressing sequenced and simultaneous events
(so-called 'when-statements'). I also argue that the status of events as open or closed is
accounted for within the Tense system. When R and E are simultaneous (R,E) the event
is open. When E occurs before R (E_R), the event is closed, and is marked with a HN. If
R occurs before E (R_E), the event is irrealis, distinct from either open or closed events.
The current analysis is consistent with previous analyses of FINISH as a marker of the
Perfective Aspect. The HN is blind to event structure and grammatical with both telic and
atelic events, FINISH is only grammatical with telic events, so while these two elements
often occur together, they have distinct functions and also occur independently from each
other.
References
Comrie, Bernard. 1985. Tense. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Fischer, Susan D., and Bonnie Gough. 1972. Some unfinished thoughts on FINISH.
reprinted in Sign Language and Linguistics. 2.67-77.
Giorgi, Alessandra, and Fabio Pianesi. 1997. Tense and Aspect: From Semantics to
Morphosyntax. New York/Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Hornstein, Norbert, 1990. As Time Goes By: Tense and Universal Grammar. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Liddell, Scott K. 1986. Head thrusts in ASL conditional marking. Sign Language Studies.
52.243-262.
Neidle, Carol, Judy Kegl, Dawn MacLaughlin, Benjamin Bahan, and Robert G. Lee.
2000. The Syntax of American Sign Language. London/Cambridge: MIT Press.
Nowell, Liz. 1988. Head Nods in ASL. MA thesis Gallaudet University.
Tenny, Carol. 2000. Core events and adverbial modification. Events as Grammatical
Objects: the Converging Perspectives of Lexical Semantics and Syntax. ed. by Carol
Tenny and James Pustejovsky. 285-334. Stanford, CA: CLSI Publications.
Wilbur, Ronnie B. 1997. A prosodic/pragmatic explanation for word order variation in
ASL with typological implications. Lexical and syntactic constructions and the
construction of meaning. ed. by Kee Dong Lee, Eve Sweetser and Marjolijn
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