The location of past in space during narrations
As final talk of the International Lecture Series in this semester, Prof. Terry Janzen, PhD (University of Manitoba, Canada) gave an eye-opening talk about how American signed language speakers situate the past in space while narrating a story, under the title „When the past is in front of you: Revisiting past spaces in American Sign Language“.
A widely discussed phenomenon is the understanding of future present past on the sagital timeline, from which Janzen started: Speakers situate with their gestures the past behind and the future in front of them - We leave the past behind or We go ahead are typical examples. This TIME IS SPACE-metaphor along the sagittal line exists also in American Sign Language (ASL).
It faces the metaphor KNOWING IS SEEING. We can see what is in front of us and, other than the future, we know the past. Logically, it would follow that the past is not behind, but in front of us.
But there are different ways to place time in space: According to Terry Janzen, in ASL, verbs are not marked for tense. In the example illustrating his talk, the story started with the question: „Do you want a story about a mouse?“ (Translated from ASL). There is no time marker at all, and yet we know it is a story that happened in the past. In the following narration of the story, the past space and the present space both occupied one space in front of the signer, as Terry Janzen illustrated.
The subsequent discussion was a fruitful exchange. We thank Terry Janzen for his visit and revealing lecture.
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