Tense in ASL and English: Implications for Interpreters

Introduction

The world we live in is vast and filled with a variety people, animals and climates.  Most living creatures in the world employ some means of communication, whether it is the bright colors of some plants which communicate their toxicity to beings that would consume them, or the dance of honey bees, telling the hive where pollen can be found.  Humans also employ a variety of communication systems ranging from a vast number of naturally occurring languages, to invented systems like the hand signals used by deep sea divers.  One of the features that separates languages from the communication systems used by animals, or communication systems invented by humans to fulfill specific needs is the concept of displacement.  Displacement is the ability of language to discuss ideas, events, and things that are removed by time or space from the time and place that the communication is taking place.  Bees, and divers on the other hand, cannot discuss future plans, or reminisce about the past.  Tense is a language’s way of marking time relevant to the present.  While all languages have means for discussing events in time, not all languages mark their verbs to show tense.  Some languages use time adverbs (Liddell, 2002) to establish a time frame (tense) and then use base form (present tense) verbs to discuss events displaced in time.  This paper will examine differences in how tense is expressed in English and in ASL and what the differences between the two systems means for interpreters. 

Tense in English

The use and expression of tense in English has a simple basic structure, which becomes more complex when the various uses of tense forms are examined.  English also has a small number of irregular verbs, which adds to the complexity of tense in English. English only marks verbs for two tenses, present and past.  Regular English verbs used in the present tense tend to use the base form of the verb, i.e. “I walk.”  Present tense verbs are only marked for person in the third person singular form, where the verb takes on the suffix “-(e)s” [where (e) may or may not appear] as in, “He walks.”  Regular English verbs used in the present tense are not marked for number.  In simple usage present tense verbs are used to discuss various present states like, “actual present” (Teschner & Evans, 2000, 67) events, “He walks to the store,” as a “performative” (Teschner & Evans, 67) verb, “I sentence you to five years,” as a “stative” (Teschner & Evans, 67) verb, “He has two dogs,” as a “durative” (Teschner & Evans, 68) verb, “You eat too much,” or in reference to a “timeless truth” (Teschner & Evans, 68), “The Brooklyn bridge is in New York.”  The last three examples, stative, durative, and timeless truth, are less connected to the actual present than are the performative, and actual present uses, as they refer to states of being rather that actions.  Finally, imperatives are always in the present tense since English does not have a means of commanding something to be done in the past, i.e. “Walk to the store!” but never, “*Walked to the store![i]”

Past tense verbs are not conjugated for person or number, all regular past tense verbs take the suffix “-ed” addition to show past tense, i.e. “walk” becomes “walked.”  In simple usage past tense verbs can be used to discuss a “single past event” (Teschner & Evans, 69), “I walked to the store,” an “enduring past event” (Teschner & Evans, 69) “Bill walked for three weeks,” or a “repeated/ habitual past event” (Teschner & Evans, 69), “I walked to the store every Tuesday.”

After these two forms expressions of tense in English become more complex.  In order to discuss future tense, conditionals, and progressives English relies on compound tenses rather than on verb conjugation.  The simplest example of a compound tense is the basic future tense construction of “will” + a base verb form as in the “synthetic future form” (Teschner & Evans, 69) “I will walk to the store.”  This basic future tense construction is also used in “predictions” (Teschner & Evans, 69), i.e. “I will graduate in May, 2004.”

English verbs also have progressive forms that generally indicate actions in progress.  Adding the suffix “-ing” to the base verb so that “walk” becomes “walking” produces the present participle of the verb and is used in these progressive constructions.  Progressive verb forms can be combined with a conjugated form of the verb “to be” and used in the present tense to describe actions “in progress” (Teschner & Evans, 71) “I am walking.”  They can also be used in future tense to describe, “scheduled or planned events” (Teschner & Evans, 71) “I will be walking,” and in the past tense to show events “repeated over time” (Teschner & Evans, 71), “They were always walking.”

Other English compound tenses include the perfect tense which consists of the conjugated modal “have”+ the past participle of the verb, i.e. “have walked;” and the conditional tense which consists of the modal “would” +the base verb form, i.e. “would walk.”  Perfect forms may be combined with future forms, “will have walked.”  Perfect

forms can also be used to show a relation ship between to actions in the past and their effect on the present.  Conditional forms may be combined with perfect forms, “would have walked,” progressive forms, “would be walking,” and perfect forms, “would have been walking.”  Conditionals may be used to express “the future in the present” (Teschner & Evans, 70), i.e. “He says he will walk to the store,” and “the future in the past” (Teschner & Evans, 70), i.e. “He said he would walk to the store.”

In addition to these compound tenses present tense forms can be used to discuss the future when the present tense form is used in a subordinate clause that is attached to main clause that in the future tense, i.e. “I will walk to the store when the game ends.”  Present tense forms may also be used when discussing the “historical present” (Teschner & Evans, 68).  In this case the speaker establishes the time as frame as past, “I was walking to the store when this guy walks up to me and starts to sign.  So I say...”  In this example the time frame is established by the use of the past tense form of the verb “be,” after which the rest of the story may be told using present tense verb forms.

Finally, English has a number of irregular verbs that are not conjugated according to the rules stated above.  The one condition that most irregular verbs is the addition of

“-(e)s” when producing the present tense third person singular form of the verb.  However there are four highly irregular English verbs that do not follow the third person singular conjugation previously discussed; these are, “be, do, have and say...Be is particularly exceptional as an eight form verb” (Teschner & Evans, 49) which has different forms for the base verb (be), first person singular present (am), second person present/ all present plurals (are), third person singular present (is), first an third person singular past (was), all remaining past forms (were), past participle (been) and present participle (being).  The other three deviate only in the third person singular, and past tense forms.  All other irregular verbs deviate only in the ‘past, and/ or past participle forms” (Teschner & Evans, 50).

Some irregular verbs are conjugated through a process called “ablauting (‘any vowel change that alternates’)” (Teschner & Evans, 48), for example, the vowel in the verb “run” changes in the past tense form “ran.”  Other irregular verbs conjugate through “consonant difference” (Teschner & Evans, 51), i.e. “have” and “had.”  Still other irregular verbs use both of these methods (ablauting, and consonant replacement) as in the case of, “catch” and “caught.”

Tense in ASL

            Generally ASL does not mark verbs for tense.  Like future tense expression in English, ASL uses adverbs to establish a time frame and then produces verbs in their base forms (present tense), i.e. “YESTERDAY PRO.1 GO[ii].”  ASL uses this system for all tenses.  The signer does not need to add an adverb every time they want to use a verb, at times the signer may use an adverb to establish tense (i.e. “HAPPEN YESTERDAY”), and then continue to use base verb forms until a new tense is established.  Also, when signers are involved in conversation one signer may continue to use base verb forms while assuming a tense established by another signer.  Liddell, (2002[iii]) notes that ASL does have a “tiny number of signs that show future tense” though he notes that there are not enough of these to claim that ASL has a tense system.

            Beyond this ASL does have a system for marking time relative to the present.  Valli & Lucas (1992) show that ASL uses a time line in which signs produced in the “area near the signer’s body has a general meaning of ‘present’, the area farther away has a meaning of ‘future’, and the area over the shoulder has a general meaning of ‘past’” (Valli & Lucas, 116).  Valli & Lucas then give examples of signs that follow this time line, i.e. UP-UNTIL-NOW, movement from shoulder to space near signer’s torso, and FROM-NOW-ON, movement from space in front of the signer forward.  Valli & Lucas note a group of signs whose production is partially linked to this timeline, but are also independent lexical items, i.e. YESTERDAY, RECENTLY, and LONG-AGO (backward movement), and NOW, TODAY, and FUTURE (forward movement).  Their evidence for this separation is that signs like NOW can be produced close to, or away from the torso and be modified to show emphasis without changing the time frame being discussed. That is, NOW produced away from the body does not necessarily mean “now in the future.”  Liddell (2002) indicates that this time line can be moved to the space in front of the signer and set up with time moving from the signer’s left (past) to the signer’s right.  This configuration is often used to discuss periods of time, i.e. events over the course of a day, week, year, etc.

            ASL shows progressive tense through the modification of sign morphology, rather than the addition of morphemes, as in the English “-ing.”  Valli & Lucas (1992) offer, “READ-with-repeated-movements” (Valli & Lucas, 124) and “SIT-with-tiny-circle-movements” as examples of this process.

Meaning for Interpreters

            Clearly interpreters working with ASL and English must have a firm grasp of how tense is expressed in each language.   Recognizing the ways in which each language discusses events displaced in time is essential for both receptive and expressive language use.  In short, if an interpreter does not understand tense in either language then interpreting any message that does not deal with the present is impossible.  Also, interpreters must be able to discern the meaning of the source language tense forms, and interpret them into the appropriate target language form.  This means recognizing the tense established at the beginning of an ASL utterance and interpreting into the appropriate English form.  Since ASL does not need to inflect every verb, or use time adverbs to establish tense in every sentence, the interpreter must also remain diligent in remembering the tense established in the ASL text, until a new tense is established.  Because ASL can use tokens to represent places, concepts, or time frames by naming the token, establishing it in space, and then either indexing or producing signs the established space, the interpreter must remember the when each token represents and be able to use the proper English tense marking forms.  Also, Valli & Lucas (1992) indicate that signers may establish tense for an event occurring prior to, or after the event being discussed by slightly shifting their body backward or forward.  This tense shift can also be accomplished by producing signs closer to or farther from the body, in relation to the signing space used to discuss the previously established action, or by shifting the head backward or forward.  Interpreters must be aware of these shifts, and the possible tense shifts they represent so that they may interpret into the appropriate target language forms.  Conversely, the interpreter must be able to recognize English tense markers, especially complex compounds, produce the previously discussed ASL features as necessary.

            One strategy that could help interpreters recognize, understand and reproduce tense markers in either language is the allowance of lag time.  Lag time, allowing the speaker to relate a portion of their message before beginning to interpret, also called processing time, has many benefits, the greatest of which is that it allows the interpreter to receive a larger chunk of text, which they may then interpret for meaning rather than form.  Part of interpreting for meaning includes being able to recognize source language tense markers, and develop a strategy for interpreting the utterance into the target language.  For example, when interpreting form English to ASL the interpreter must be able to recognize English tense markers, including complex compound constructions like conditional perfect progressive (i.e. “He would have been walking to the store had I let him go”), understand the meaning of the utterance, and then be able to produce an ASL sentence which uses the proper tense marking adverbs, and conveys the conditional aspect (shown through non-manual aspects of ASL) of the source utterance (i.e. “SUPPOSE PRO.1 PERMIT OK GO STORE, PRO.3 WILL GO”).  If the interpreter does not understand how tense is expressed in each language it is possible that the interpretation will follow the form of the source language thereby producing an unnatural target text.  

Translators already have the advantage of time and so they are able to craft an even more accurate translation.  Translators need to have the same ability discussed above in terms of comprehension and production of tense forms in each language.  Given the time that translators have to complete their task they should be able examine tense forms with greater depth than interpreters can.  Thus they should be able discern exactly when to use each type of tense construction in order to match the style, affect, and register of the speaker.  Let us look at a sample ASL utterance:

“INTERESTING HAPPEN.  PRO.1 OUT WALK. STREET WALK++. MAN CL: 1 (person approach PRO.1). rs:(man) WAVE (get attention) PRO.1+ NEED+ ONE-DOLLAR.  rs(narrator) NHS-(incredulous) FOR WHAT?” 

This sample narrative presents many interesting choices for a translator.  First the translator must consider what tense the to translate into, in this case the phrase “INTERESTING HAPPEN” establishes that the events occurred in the past.  An appropriate English translation must establish that the events being described occurred in the past without citing a specific time (i.e. yesterday, last week etc.) one possible translation could read, “Guess what happened,” where the past tense form of the English verb “happen” establishes that these events occurred in the past.  The next two sentences establish the “orientation,” (Labov, 1972) portion of the narrative, the scene and circumstances in which the event occurred.  Because the time frame “past” has been established the translator or interpreter would likely use past tense English verb forms for these two sentences, i.e. “I was walking down the street...” 

So far the decisions facing the translator have been fairly simple, how to open the narrative and set the scene so that the time frame is clear, the rest of the sample presents a stylistic choice for the translator.  Because the time frame (past) has been established at the beginning of the narrative, the signer will now use base verb forms until a new tense is established, therefore the form of the narrative takes on the characteristics of the present tense.  Also, the nature of ASL often requires the narrator to take up the role of each character and perform their actions in the first person.  This aspect of ASL is shown in the gloss notation “rs:” which indicates that the narrator has shifted roles and taken on a new persona for the following signs.  English has at least four ways of expressing the information contained in the rest of the narrative and the translator or interpreter must decide which strategies to adopt.  There are two choices that create the four options in question. First, the translator may maintain the tense established by using past tense English verb forms, i.e. “...when this guy came up to me and said...” or, the translator may choose to stay closer to the ASL form and use the acceptable “future in the past” (Teschner & Evans, 68) construction, which allows the narrator to shift their verb forms to the present tense, i.e. “...when this guy comes up to me and says...”  Next the translator must decide whether to use only the voice of the narrator, as is common in English, i.e. “...and says he needs a dollar,” or if they prefer to stay closer to the ASL form, employing the discourse feature called “reported speech” (Tannen, 1989) by also taking up the persona of the second character, i.e. “...and says ‘Hey, I need a dollar’.” 

Of course there are many factors that contribute to the decision making process that are not present in this sample.  For example, the sample given here is only a partial text, presented without any contextual information like who the speaker is, who the audience is, where/ why the story is being told, the register being employed, or the goal of the interaction.  All of these factors would help to guide the translator or interpreter in making the decisions discussed above.  Again, the translator has an advantage over the interpreter due to having a greater amount of time in which to render their translation.  Interpreters must be able to account for all of the contextual information, and then make these types of decisions on the fly, which emphasizes the need for, and importance of, lag time as part of the interpreting process.

Conclusion

            All languages have a means for discussing events that are removed in time or space from that in which the communication being produced.  Not all languages handle these tasks the same way, some add morphemes to mark verbs for tense, while others use time adjectives to establish tense and then use verbs in their base forms.  English uses both methods, while ASL uses only the latter.  It is important for interpreters to have a grasp of how tense is used in each language, and have the ability to properly interpret the meaning bound in source language tense forms into the target language.  This includes being able to recognize complex constructions including how space and tense are related in ASL, and how different tense forms in English can be used to describe time frames that do not correlate to the conjugations being employed.  Lag time can aid interpreters in understanding, and producing tense appropriately in each language.