3.2.1. Time lines
Time expression in Catalan Sign Language (LSC) is located on different temporal axes (basic, anaphoric, and sequential) depending on the type of information that is being expressed.
For the expression of chronological time (present, past and future), LSC uses a basic axis that starts behind the dominant shoulder of the signer and ends in the signing space in front of the signer. Signs referring to the past are signed in the part of the axis located over the shoulder, and signs related to the future are signed in the signing space in front of the signer. In the following examples, you can see different locations in the chronological axis for the sign year that correspond with different locations in time (past, present and future).
a) three_years_ago holidays berlin go.
‘Three years ago, I went to Berlin on holidays.’
b) year ix christmas island canary go.
‘This year I am going to the Canary Islands for Christmas.’
c) year next conference oporto go.
‘Next year I will go to a conference in Oporto.’
The basic axis, as well as the anaphoric and sequential axis, are also used in order to express temporal adverbials [LEXICON 3.5.2, PRAGMATICS 8.2].