Narrative Architecture and Temporal Marking
ASL has a rich storytelling tradition — from ABC stories (narratives where signs are chosen to progress through the manual alphabet) to classifier narratives and adapted English-language stories. Understanding narrative structure in ASL means learning both the universal elements of story (setup, conflict, climax, resolution) and the ASL-specific linguistic tools for marking time, building suspense, and controlling pacing.
Temporal marking in ASL works differently from English tense. Rather than verb endings indicating past, present, or future, ASL uses time-line metaphor (the future is ahead of the body, the past is behind it) and temporal adverbials (YESTERDAY, LONG-AGO, WILL, NEXT-WEEK, RECENTLY) established at the start of a time segment. Once a time frame is established, verbs do not need to be separately marked — the context carries the temporal information. A narrator who establishes LONG-AGO at the start of a story can continue signing all subsequent events without re-marking past tense on every verb.
Aspectual modifications alter the verb's movement to convey information about duration, repetition, or distribution. The habitual aspect (repeated circular motion of a verb) means "regularly/habitually." The continuative aspect (long, slow, continuous motion) means "for a long time." The iterative aspect (repeated motion) means "again and again." The inceptive (a quick, sharp beginning motion) marks the start of an action. These modifications add narrative richness that English achieves through adverbs like "always," "continuously," or "suddenly" — but in ASL they are grammaticalized into the verb form itself, making the signing visually compact and vivid.