Words in Hand

Well, how are your eyes? Are you still managing to see straight? Could you understand all the fingerspelling and all those dates? It's marvellous practice for reading.

The main thing we want you to notice about that piece is the way that George uses Timeline C. We've already seen Clark's examples and we've seen a clear use of Timeline A and B. But here we see how George uses the timeline here to show the past, present and future.

It is particularly noticeable when he's talking about a period of time from one date to another date. For example, he says from 1911 to 1919 but he signs 1911 until 1919. So he puts the earlier date on the left and the later date on the right.

When he says from the 17th century until now, he uses a much slower intense movement to indicate what a dramatically long time it is. Let me try again once more. So George said the 17th century until now.

You can compare this with a smaller and quicker movement when he is talking about 1850 – or 1850 – to 1928. But he says 1850 until 1928.

Obviously it depends on the signer when you are talking about what is regarded as a long time period or a shorter period. So sometimes you might think 2 hours is a long time or 70 years might be a short time – it depends on the signer.

You probably noticed a few other signs we talked about, such as 'during' or 'later on'. Again, using that same area in front of your body.

One of the things we haven't said very much about in this tape is that the signer can decide to mention a specific point of time that is located in space and refer back to that point in time again and again. In a way, George did something like that when he talks about the £40 was given in the 18th century. He compared this point in time and that amount of money (£40) with what it will be worth – and what he thinks it will be worth – at this point in time (he says £10,000). So he's using the space to indicate and compare particular points of time, like this.

Well, I think you've probably had enough explanation for one day. So we are going to leave you with a little bit of tape, which you will hopefully enjoy, and maybe you can still be alert enough to notice a few things about time.

Enjoy it, and bye until next time.