AUSLAN Past/Present tense forms

[Richard Arnold]

I would agree with both Des and Adam that what you saw was most probably
Australian Signed English rather than AUSLAN. Like AUSLAN, New Zealand SL
uses the same DO sign but doesn't have a DID sign. NZSL uses a lexical marker
to represent tense in the same way as ASL does.

The glossed sign in NZSL FINISH is -two fists held up at neutral space, with
thumbs extended, then twisted at the wrists repeatedly. This has a similar
role to ASL's FINISH (5-hand).

There's also a perfective aspect DONE (first person only) :

O-hand is held up at shoulder height, the fingers are flicked outwards as the
hand is moved back towards the signer's chest the wrist bending until the
fingertips contact the right side of the chest. Signer usually mouths "finish"

or an alternative is:

Make the 8 handshape (ASL 8), which is held up in front of the signer, then
the middle finger and thumb are flicked outwards as the hands moves
forward/down a little. Signer usually mouths "finish"

Are these found in AUSLAN and/or BSL ??

Richard Arnold
former Compilation Editor to NZSL Dictionary
Austin, Texas


In a message dated 2/21/01 5:00:04 AM Central Standard Time,
Adam.Schembri at BRISTOL.AC.UK writes:

> Yes, I would agree with Des. In terms of DO and DID, this signer
> appears to have been using some borrowed vocabulary from Australasian
> Signed English (ASE). The ASE sign for DO is in fact borrowed from the
> ASL fingerspelt D-O, and DID is a similar form with, I think, a
> slightly different handshape and orientation. The ASE sign is, however,
> regularly used by some Auslan signers.
>
> As for SEE and SAW, there are signs in ASE for these two, but it is
> possible that the signer in question could have been using an Auslan
> sign SEE + FINISH (which may also mean 'witness' in certain contexts).
>
> Generally, like ASL and other signed languages, Auslan verbs are not
> marked for tense. In ASE, irregular past tense forms all have separate
> signs (i.e., the sign for SWIM is produced with a B handshape, but for
> SWAM, the same sign is produced with an S handshape).
>
> Adam
>
>


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