Cognitive Semantics : Meaning and Cognition

140 ELISABETH ENGBERG-PEDERSEN
The time lines in Danish Sign Language, which are represented in Figure
4, all have different meanings. The deictic time line is primarily used for
deictic reference, the mixed time line may be used with a deictic or an
anaphoric reference point, while the other time lines are used only with an
anaphoric reference point.
The following example of the use of a time line, in this case the deictic
time line, comes from a monologue in which a signer talked about a conference
that took place in the month of January preceding the time when she told
her story. She made reference to January in the following way: 4
(6) RECENTLY CONFERENCE / JANUARY+deictic-tl-before BEFORE+deictic-tl
MONTH+deictic-tl-before DET+deictic-tl-before /
‘Recently there was a conference - I think it was in January.’
The signer modified the signs JANUARY, BEFORE, MONTH and the determiner
for a locus behind her right shoulder by making the signs close to her
shoulder instead of in neutral space outside her right side. Later she referred to
the conference in the following way: DET+deictic-tl-before CONFERENCE,
i.e. ‘the January conference’.
Figure 4. Time lines in Danish Sign Language a. the deictic time line, b. the anaphoric time
line, c. the sequence line, d. the mixed time line (drawing by Hanna Orlof, reprinted with
permission from Signum Press).
What I call the anaphoric time line has a reference point represented by a
point a little outside the signer’s center. This reference point always has a
value established somewhere in the linguistic context. It seems that the anaphoric
time line has no future part. When signers want to talk about the future