Words in Hand

Well, Clark certainly seems to have been to some fascinating places. I wonder if you managed to get all the information he presented, in particular the information about time.

You have probably noticed that in that bit, they actually mainly refer to the past time. Now, if you look at how I have just signed that, the 'past', I made the sign related to the past by signing over the right shoulder.

In fact, we think that in BSL it is something that we call a 'timeline', which you sign over the right shoulder. When we make a sign move forward, in front of the shoulder, that relates to the future. When we make a sign going backwards, over the shoulder, then that is normally related to the past. We will be looking at some examples of this in Clark's extract.

You might also have seen Clark use his left arm as a 'base' to show time. And again it starts at a centre point, near the wrist, and everything from there going backwards relates to the past. And then normally anything going forward relates to the future.

If we look at some specific examples, for example when Clark is talking about 4,000 years ago, he actually uses this sign, to show that it was a long time ago. But then he also uses two pointing signs: a thumb pointing back over the shoulder, and a finger pointing back over the shoulder. But then if he wants to show 'before' or 'a long time ago', he can use his arm to show this.

Have you noticed that he uses two different signs which could both be translated with the English word 'before'? The first one is this sign and the second one is this sign. Now, that second sign is most frequently used when we want to show that one thing happened before something else happened. So in this case we are talking about before Christ lived. So you will see that sign come up quite a lot in the extract on this tape. Sometimes 'before' is signed with two hands, like this.

The arm is also used for a number of signs when we want to emphasise that it was a long time ago. And we use facial expression to change the intensity of the sign. I wonder if you saw when Clark was talking about Stonehenge? He placed the information there and then when he wanted to show how Stonehenge links back in time, a long way back, he took the 'link' sign back to the shoulder. Again, using this arm as a timeline.

It seems to us in BSL that there are four timelines: we have mentioned two of them already, with two more to come. It sounds very complicated to give information about time but I think when you start looking at the examples, you will find it very easy.

Let's look firstly at a graphic of the four timelines. And then we will start to give you examples of Timeline A.

TIME LINES GRAPHIC

GRAPHIC (A)

Timeline A is probably familiar to you because most people tend to learn the way of showing the past early on when they are learning to sign. If you watch what I've just done, I used the simple sign for 'past', past time. There is a complementary sign for 'future'. Sometimes it is signed one-handed too.

We want to look at examples of both types of signs on this timeline, beginning with the past. So we have examples like this: before, past, some time ago, a long time ago, ages ago, and once upon a time.

You might notice that I used puffed cheeks in one of the examples to emphasise the length of time. You will also see some signs turn the head away from the sign itself, and again that is emphasis. Also signs like 'recently' or 'just recently', or another way of signing those is like this. Again, you can see when I signed 'just recently', I changed my face – in particular the top of my mouth – to show how recent it was: very, very recent.

There are other signs that occur on this timeline, but they start on the chin. So examples like: yesterday, two days ago, last week, or this sign for last week. It depends where you live to which sign for 'last week' you use. Some areas say 'seven days ago' like this, and others sign it like this. You also get examples like 'two weeks ago' (or 'two weeks ago').

If we now look at the future, we can see a similar group of signs. But this time the signs being used are moving forward, not backwards. Signs off the chin, for example, are: tomorrow, two days' time, next week (or next week), in two weeks' time (or in two weeks' time). Some examples don't involve contact with your chin, like: very soon, soon, some time soon, in the future, ages away. You will notice again that when I signed 'very soon', again I used my face to show how close in time it is.

It's also possible to combine past, present and future time on a timeline. So we have signs like 'until now' and other variations. They can be from the past into the future, or from the present into the future. We also have signs made on the chin which can also relate to past, present and future time. So we have signs like daily, every day, always, weekly (or weekly), week after week after week (or week after week after week). Now obviously I can talk about 'week after week after week' in relation to the past, present or future. I might say: You used to visit me regularly, week after week after week. Or I might say: I'm hoping you will visit me week after week after week.

Let's have a look now at Timeline B.

GRAPHIC (B)

Now we are going to look at some examples which are made with what we call Timeline B, using the arm. If we transfer a timeline from the shoulder onto your left arm, many of the same kinds of sign we made over the shoulder can now be made on the arm.

A few of the signs we show you are only made in specific areas. We will mention those when we come to them.

So, we have examples like: one week, two weeks, in two weeks' time, last week, and two weeks ago. Those examples relate to the week, and will only be used in some areas, but what you can notice is that the same kind of arrangement and movement already seen on your chin for 'every week' and 'week after week after week', can also be used on the arm. So we've got 'weekly' and 'week after week after week'. If we want to show 'this week' we can also use the face to emphasise that it's this week, the week happening now.

The arm can also be used to show signs like 'before' and 'after', and also indicate the amount – the extent – of time: a long time or a long, long time.

We also have the hand we can use as: in a minute, in a while, later on, during (or during), and until. Examples like: early, late, hour, hourly, and hour after hour after hour. Some people say that the hand represents a clock, but again the point for us to emphasise is the same variation in movement and the link with meanings, particular meanings. We’ve already seen the sign 'week after week after week', and it can be transferred to the hand: hour after hour after hour.

Let us look now at Timeline C.

GRAPHIC (C)

Timeline C is an imaginary line in front of your body. Normally we use that line to show continuation or duration. The sign for ‘continue’ itself uses that line. If I make the 'continue' sign longer, this shows that something has continued on in the future. If I want to show that something happened continuously, I sign this, repeating the movement.

If I signed something like 'it happened then' and then refer to 'now', you can see that I am using the centre point to clearly show the present - the now. And thus everything to the left is the past and everything to the right is the future. So I can say something happened 'back then', and talk about way into the future. You will find there are a number of signs connected to the present using the centre point. We have signs like 'now' or this sign for 'now'.

And it's also possible to combine Timelines A and C in examples like 'in the near future'. Or we will see that there are some signs that incorporates the sign and idea of 'continuing on' in the way it’s made. So the sign meaning 'it will always remain in my mind' can be signed like this, and it's actually using Timeline C. Or 'I haven’t seen him for a long time' is signed like this, again using Timeline C.

There are a number of other signs that seem to use a combination of Timelines A and C. If we take something like 'forever and ever and ever', you can see the sign moving forward, and along to the side. Forever and ever and ever. You could say the sign develops from the sign for 'next year'. We also have the signs for: last year, in two years' time, two years ago, annually, year after year after year. And again, you can see the same movement we've already seen on Timelines A and B.

Let us look now at Timeline D, the last of the timelines.

GRAPHIC (D)

You might be surprised that we are calling this area Timeline D, but it seems to us that it has an important part to play when we want to indicate certain information about time.

You already know the signs connected to growing up, like: child, adult, growing up, and shot up (in height). But what we also find is that signs can use this timeline to give meaning such as 'all through my life'. Or we can sign 'when I was a child' like this. And we also find some signs using information about their age by holding the number from the nose to the timeline, for example 'when I was 5 years old' can be signed like this.

Some signs seem to use the idea of stages in growth. We can argue that a sign like 'hereditary' or 'passed down from one generation to another' has some link with Timelines A and D.

Obviously this timeline doesn't have anything like the range of uses that Timelines A and B have as it's more specific.

Well, now that we've given you lots of examples, I think it's time for you to look at a bit of real signing from a deaf person and see if you can pick out some of the kinds of information we've been talking about.

We will show you an extract from George talking about his school days. We know that because he uses lots of fingerspelling and lots of numbers in this bit it may be hard for you, but have a go and see what you get.