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Tense The temporal interpreta/on of sentences
Tense The temporal interpreta/on of
sentences
• Reichenbach 1947 Speech Time / U;erance Time Reference Time / Asser/on Time Event Time / Situa/on Time a. Henry was born in 1980. b. Henry will be 30 next January. c. Henry’s son will already have been born next
January.
Comrie 1985 Tense relates ST & RT – The Reference Component Aspect relates RT & ET – The Rela1on Component Existen1al status of a sentence: the rela/on between the reference component and the rela/on component
a. At five I was polishing the silver. b. I have polished the silver. c. He had polished the silver at five o’clock.
Temporal adverbials:
• anchored, deic/c, ST-‐oriented: now, yesterday, the day before yesterday, next year, last year
• unanchored: in June, in a week
Temporal adverbials
• dura/onal: for an hour • frequency: every hour • comple/ve: in an hour
Present Simple
1. Present: • generic, habitual • instantaneous • atemporal 2. Past 3. Future
Generic/habitual value
• characterizing sentences • what is the difference? John drinks wine. Milk is good for the bones. Cats drink milk. A cat drinks milk. Cats are widespread.
• non-‐sta/ve predicates in the simple present tense in English have default habitual reading
John drinks wine.
Habitual predicates
• stage-‐level • disposi/ons, poten/al for individuals (object-‐level)
• generaliza/ons over /me, pa;erns of events • usu. with frequency Av, bare plurals, mass nouns a. John drinks a glass of wine every evening. b. John drinks wine. c. John eats sandwiches.
Habitual sentences
• true if there are enough events to warrant a generaliza/on – also presuppose future occurrences
• pragma/c factors: Mary murders children. Mary reads the Times.
Mary drinks beer. contexts: 1. What should I serve Mary? 2. I only have beer. 3. Is Mary a teetotaler?
*Mary drinks a glass of wine. vs. Mary drinks a glass of wine when she’s upset. -‐> overtly quan/fied environment The new guy is a pig. He always eats every donut. *He eats every donut.
Generic sentences
• analy/cal • kind-‐level or object-‐level subject • atemporal
• predicates that only occur with kind-‐level subjects: die out, be widespread, be in short supply, be common, be indigenous to, come in all sizes
• kind-‐referring expressions: bare plurals, definite singular NPs, mass nouns
Dinosaurs are ex/nct. The dinosaur is ex/nct. *A dinosaur is ex/nct.
A dinosaur is a nice toy to give to a child. A symphony has four movements. • basic stage level predicates recategorized as individual level predicates
• generaliza/ons, characterizing sentences, i-‐generics
• describe property which holds for most members: excep/ons!
• generalize over proper/es, not pa;erns of events (habituals)
Instantaneous Simple Present u marked use of the perfec/ve viewpoint
• performa/ve verbs: I agree. I hereby declare… • percep/on predicates: I see the moon. • running commentaries and demonstra/ons I add two cups of flour and fold in gently Here comes the bus.
• atemporal use (commentaries, synopses, TV programmes, stage direc/ons, cap/ons, illustra/ons, recipes, history books)
A snowy owl sits on the awning of an office building in downtown Washington
Past value • informal It wasn’t more than about half a minute when one of these palookas suddenly pulls out a young carving knife and s/cks me in the wish-‐bone with it. Good and hard it s/cks me, and it got me plenty sore. And I says to myself, what the hell? • narra/ve (novels) His lordship had no sooner disappeared behind the trees of the forest, but Lady Randolph begins to her confidante the circumstances of her early life.
• with verbs of communica/on
I hear you're in London. I have just seen Angela, and she tells me she is engaged to this Bo;le. Le;ers were wri;en, he tells me, which had to be seen to be believed.
Future value
• obligatory /me Av • high degree of certainty: calendar, cyclic events, scheduled events
This year Easter falls on April 12th. School begins September 15th.
• subordinate clauses: /me and condi/onal
I will bring it to you when I have it. If I find it, you will be the first to know.
a. The Red Sox play the Yankees tomorrow. b. *The Red Sox defeat the Yankees tomorrow. c. The Red Sox will defeat the Yankees
tomorrow.
The Past Simple
• deic/c/existen/al value • non-‐deic/c: narra/ve Ø narra/ve /me advances with perfect event sentences
Ø bounded events occur in sequence Ø states are simultaneous with the /me of the preceding event
a. He liped the lid from a huge pot and took a sniff; then he rushed over and dipped a finger into a barrel of s/cky yellow stuff and had a taste; then he ran over to another machine, a small shiny affair that kept going phut-‐phut-‐phut-‐phut-‐phut. b. In the caravanserai all was bustle and hum. Animals were cared for, horses, camels, bullocks, asses, goats, while other, untameable animals ran wild: screechy monkeys, dogs that were no man’s pets. Turbaned coolies in red shirts and dho/s ran ceaselessly hither and yon with bundles of improbable size and weight upon their heads.
a. Then he ran over to another machine, a small shiny affair that kept going phut-‐phut-‐phut-‐phut-‐phut, and every /me it went phut, a large green marble dropped out of it into a basket on the floor. b. In the caravanserai all was bustle and hum. Animals were cared for, horses, camels, bullocks, asses, goats, while other, untameable animals ran wild: screechy monkeys, dogs that were no man’s pets. Shrieking parrots exploded like green fireworks in the sky.
• past progressive: temporal frame: Mrs Gedge was in the office of her lawyer in London. His opera/ons on her behalf in the ma;er of evasion of English Income Tax had dissa/sfied her, and she was talking pre;y straight to him. Lady Beatrice Bracken was in the garden of her father’s seat in Dorsetshire. She was reading for the third /me Packy’s le;er announcing his departure for St Roque. Senator Opal was taking a brisk walk in the grounds.
Băiatul se urni de lângă poartă și intră în /ndă. Alături de vatră, prinsă între două cărămizi, clocotea o oală cu ceva verde înăuntru. Câțiva miei săriseră pe prispă și lingeau sare. Una dintre ele, care stătea alături de băiat, frecă pământul cu copita ei mică și se culcă încet, suspinând. Era o oaie bătrână și blândă, care mergea totdeauna în urma cârdului. Dimineața ne vestea o arzătoare zi de iulie. Cu cât înaintam, cu atât mai grele ni se păreau boccelele noastre. Mergeam alene și tăcuți. Poteca, pe unde mergeam, se deschidea la vale lungă și dreaptă. Tot pe aceeași potecă mergea ca la o zvârlitură de băț înaintea noastră un băietan, care ținea pe cap o pu/nă, era înalt și zdravăn, pu/na de pe cap îl mai lungea încă.
• report: deic/c (reporter) Britain's Royal Mint unveiled a new coinage portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday. Produc/on of the new coins began Monday, and they will appear in circula/on later this year, the Royal Mint said. A week that began in violence ended violently here…
• habitual Susan rode a bicycle last summer. Susan moved last year. <-‐ pragma/c knowledge ü progressive: Whenever I looked up he was looking.
• past perfect value a. Aper she listened to the explana/ons, she
said… b. The night before he returned she slept
poorly.
c. He shaved and listened to the radio. d. He knocked and entered.
a. When Harry woke up Mary was sleeping. b. When Harry woke up Mary slept. c. When he was a student he slept poorly. d. When he got the le;er he burned it. e. *When he read the le;er he burned it. f. When he had read the le;er he burned it.
• modal remoteness Ø present reference: I wish they were alive. If they were alive they would be horrified. Ø past reference: I wish he had lep. If they had lep they would not have told her. • backship She said she had too many commitments.
Last week top White House officials warned the way it's been handled has damaged /es between the two na/ons. Netanyahu acknowledged during his Monday address that disagreements between the U.S. and Israel are "only natural from /me to /me," because there are "important differences" between the two na/ons. He said that Israel exists in a far more dangerous region of the world.
• a{tudinal past I wanted to ask you something. I want to ask you something.
The Perfect
• marker of ASPECT: represented as the spa/o-‐temporal predicate AFTER (Demirdache&Uribe-‐Extebarria)
She may have lep last week. Her having lep early surprised everyone.
Present Perfect • ‘par/cipant property’ (Smith 1991) -‐ current relevance
*Einstein has lived in Princeton. Princeton has been visited by Einstein. • differences in situa/on type + context => different values of the perfect (resulta/ve, con/nua/ve) -‐> no differences in interpreta/ons of the perfect itself
• Reference Time: PRESENT, interval including PRESENT
She has lived in London (since she married). She has broken her leg.
Ø con/nua/ve • open, in the absence of contextual indica/ons -‐> future
They have always been friends.
Ø experien/al : He has wri;en many books. Ø resulta/ve : I have repaired the car. • focus on present relevance • par/cipant property • resul/ng state: valid at present moment Ø recent past: indefinite past Malcolm Jones has just been assassinated!
• present perfect progressive: recently finished ac/vi/es the effect of which is s/ll apparent
a. I’ve been chopping onions. b. You’ve been figh/ng again.
c. He has not been coughing since noon.
We’ve already discussed this yesterday. He has got up at five o’clock (before). John has open lep at four. -‐> resulta/ve
• states: experien/al/con/nua/ve: ambiguity We have lived in London. • ac/vi/es: resulta/ve/con/nua/ve Mary has rehearsed since noon. cf. Mary has been rehearsing since noon.
• ambiguous adverbs: Peggy has been in Asia (ever) since January. I’ve been a teacher for 30 years. For 30 years, I’ve been a teacher. -‐> sentence ini/al posi/on: ambiguity resolved
Present perfect in /me clauses
• varia/on with simple present Ø situa/on type: dura/ve/non-‐dura/ve Come over and see us when our guests leave/have lep. We can go out as soon as we have had /*have dinner.
• narra/ve fic/onal value + present simple When he learns that his long-‐/me barber has passed away, Sheldon decides to embrace his inner hippie in an a;empt to match his new shaggy hairstyle. Here, the Analy/cal Chemist (who has evidently formed a very low opinion of Mor/mer’s story) concedes a li;le claret to the Buffers; who, again mysteriously moved all four at once, screw it slowly into themselves with a peculiar twist of enjoyment.
• present perfect vs. past tense
RT = ST RT before ST + space-‐/me coordinates + circumstances ‘What about a teaspoon?’ ‘I’ve s/rred it, Grandma. I s/rred it well.’ Where/How/Why/When did you get/*have you got it?
ADVERBS THAT OCCUR WITH:
Simple Past not Present Perfect
both Simple Past and Present Perfect
Present Perfect not Simple Past
…ago once (=formerly) the other day those days last … in 1930 at 3 p.m. aper/before the war no longer
long since in the past once (1x) today in my life for… recently just now open yet always ever never already before this morning
at present up /ll now so far as yet during … herewith lately since… before now
before ST context dependent ST oriented
a. *I was ill lately.-‐> ST oriented b. I have been / was ill recently. c. Now my ambi/on has been fulfilled. d. Now my ambi/on was fulfilled. e. He was once an honest man. f. I have visited the Highlands once.
The Present Perfect Puzzle (Giorgi&Pianesi 1998) Ø ban on specific temporal adverbs with present perfect
Ø P(osi/on)-‐Definiteness Constraint (Klein 1992) RT and ET cannot both be independently P-‐definite present tense: P-‐definite: linked to NOW -‐> clash with specific past Av past tense: non-‐P-‐definite: unspecified past -‐> any past Av ‘there are many wases but only one is’
Means of expressing future /me
o present simple o present progressive o going to o will o be to, be about to, etc.
Ø modalized future • no future tense
Present Simple: FUTURE AS FACT
• present tense: high degree of certainty • obligatory /me Av • future situa/on <= the state of the world now • the clause must involve smth. that can be assumed to be known
It’s Christmas tomorrow. *It snows tomorrow.
Present Progressive
• personal plans: arrangement already made • human agency
I’m spending Christmas with my sister. *The sun is rising at 5 tomorrow. *It is raining tomorrow.
• imminence a. She has her opera/on tomorrow. b. She’s having her opera/on tomorrow. c. ?She’s having her opera/on in three months’
/me. d. It expires tomorrow/in five years. e. It’s expiring tomorrow /?in five years.
• imminence: a. I’m phoning her tonight. = she’s expec/ng my call b. I phone her tonight. = I phone her every Monday (today is Monday) = I phone her tonight and then tomorrow we go and talk to the witnesses and then we have three weeks to prepare our defence because we go to court on the 30th. c. I’m going to phone her tonight. = inten/on: she does not know about it
BE GOING TO q future fulfillment of present inten/on I’m going to call her tonight. q future fulfillment of present cause -‐> predic/on Look out, the boxes are going to fall down! It’s going to rain. If Winterbo;om’s calcula/ons are correct, this planet is going to burn itself out 200,000,000 years from now. -‐> remote events *I wonder whether she’s going to know you. *If you accept this job you are never going to regret it. (future cause)
WILL • predic/on What will follow? Hearing him a;acked, my Cousin Angela's womanly heart will be as sick as mud. The maternal /gress in her will awake. • voli/on I will marry you. I will do my best to make you a good wife. If you will throw your mind back to the evening of our arrival. I’ll make some tea.
WILL + PROGRESSIVE
• aspectual meaning: This /me next week I will be sailing across the Atlan/c. RT aper ST, ET includes RT
• future meaning: future as a ma>er of course • ≠ voli/on
a. I’ll drive into London next week. (voli/on) b. I’ll be driving into London next week.
c. Will you put on another play soon (voli/on) d. Will you be pu{ng on another play soon?
e. ??The United States will be declaring war on Iraq.
• modalized future; no ‘neutral’ way of expressing future: no future tense
a. He visits the cathedral tomorrow. -‐> official schedule, future as fact
b. He is visi/ng the cathedral tomorrow. -‐> personal plan
c. He is going to visit the cathedral tomorrow. -‐> inten/on
d. He is going to be disappointed.-‐>predic/on e. He will/won’t visit the cathedral tomorrow. -‐>
voli/onal colouring f. He will be visi/ng the cathedral tomorrow. -‐>
future as a ma;er of course
Future in the past • would -‐> actualized • going to – (non)-‐actualized a. One day, a hundred years from now his descendants
would see the tent pulled down and all his glory vanish.
b. He pinched him just in /me, hard enough to make him forget what he was going to /*would say.
c. I suddenly remembered the recent misunderstanding, and with a flash of clear vision saw that this was where it was going to come in handy.
a. A birthday present for Lucille! He groaned in bi;erness of spirit. She would be coming back to-‐night, dear girl, all smiles and happiness, wondering what he was going to give her tomorrow. And when to-‐morrow dawned, all he would be able to give her would be a kind smile.
b. If Squiffy was going to stop drinking because he thought he had seen an imaginary snake, be;er not to let him know that the snake was a real one.
c. I suggested that, as I was dining out, why didn't he take the evening off and go to some improving picture or something.
d. And he was a;ending that fancy-‐dress ball, mark you-‐-‐not, like every other well-‐bred Englishman, as a Pierrot, but as Mephistopheles.
Sequence of Tenses
He had a sore throat. -‐ deic/c He said he had a sore throat. -‐> non-‐deic/c (RT = ETsaid) 1. the tense of the MCl is past 2. the /me of the MCl is past: I remember telling her he had a sore throat.
Sequence of Tenses
He broke his leg. -‐ deic/c He said he had broken his leg. -‐> non-‐deic/c (RT = ETsaid) 1. the tense of the MCl is past 2. the /me of the MCl is past
• not confined to indirect reported speech That he had a sore throat was unfortunate.
• free indirect speech It was a terrifying thing to be doing. What would happen if the dream didn’t work? No one would believe a word of her story. The Queen was bound to have a shock. Who wouldn’t? It was a 50p piece! Had somebody just dropped it? Then was it his, this 50p? Could he have it?
• op/onal backhship: u;erance is applicable and relevant
• speaker believes/endorses u;erance
a. He said he has a sore throat, so he can’t sing in the concert.
b. He said he had a sore throat, but he sounds fine to me.
a. She said they were coming on Sunday (which Sunday?).
b. She said they are coming on Sunday (next Sunday: deic/c – more informa/ve).
c. I thought she was/*is singing in the concert. (but I don’t think so anymore)
• simplifica/on a. She asked when I was born. -‐> unambiguous = had been, ≠?She asked ‘When are you born?’ b. She said she wrote it herself. c. She said she (had) liked sports when she was a girl. ≠?She said ‘I like poetry when I am a girl’ d. She said she believed him ≠She said she had believed him.
a. He said she was the daughter of the Prince. b. The monarch remembered his prophecy with
amazement. But he said he didn’t recall doing it, so the emperor was lep to ques/on his memory.
c. He said his name was Rumpels/ltskin.
