The grammar of the english verb phrase part 20 pps

The past perfect tense forms both represent their situation time as T-anterior to an unspecified past orientation time.. This is logical, since W-relations are not linguistically represe

126 2 Towards a theory of tense and time

tions, inferred from contextual information or pragmatic knowledge, between the times

of full situations and orientation times W-simultaneity occurs when at least one point

of one full situation coincides in time with any point of another full situation: strict coincidence of the times of the entire situation is not necessary

2.18.1 A situation may be interpreted as simultaneous, anterior or posterior

to another situation without this being expressed by a tense form or temporal adverbial In that case the temporal relations are not tense relations (T-rela-tions) or adverbially indicated relations (Adv-rela(T-rela-tions), but simply temporal relations that are inferred to exist in the real world (or in whatever world is being referred to) on the basis of the context or of the hearer’s pragmatic knowledge of the world in question We will refer to such temporal relations

asworld relations(W-relations)

[“What were they doing?”]⫺ “Betty was reading the paper, Bill was watching TV and Jeremy was sleeping on the sofa.”(The three past tense forms are absolute tense forms which do no more than locate the three situation times in the past In other words, none of them expresses T-simultaneity However, it is clear from the context that the three situation times must be interpreted as W-simultaneous with each other.)

When they had first visited the house, they hadn’t noticed the wet patch on the ceiling of the kitchen (The past perfect tense forms both represent their situation time as T-anterior to an unspecified past orientation time The relation of W-simulta-neity that is understood to exist between the two situations is not expressed by the tense forms.)

John told me he was involved in an accident in France.(The two absolute past tense forms merely locate their situation times in the past ⫺ see 1.10.3 Pragmatic knowl-edge tells us that John’s accident must be understood as W-anterior to his telling me about it.)

2.18.2 Unlike simultaneity expressed by a tense form (⫽ T-simultaneity), W-simultaneity is not a semantic relation but a pragmatic one In other words, while T-simultaneity forms part of the semantics of, for example, the relative past tense (see 2.17), W-simultaneity is to be inferred from a combination of linguistic information, the linguistic and nonlinguistic context, and other prag-matic knowledge It follows (a) that W-simultaneity is largely a question of pragmaticinterpretation rather than linguistic representation, and (b) that

W-simultaneity is less rigidly defined than T-W-simultaneity: whereas the latter is equivalent to coincidence, W-simultaneity can, according to context, be inter-preted as coincidence, overlap or inclusion In other words, two time intervals are W-simultaneous the moment they have one point of time in common This

is clear from the following examples, in which all the tense forms are

abso-lute preterites:

Suddenly somebody fired a gun I heard it (The two punctual situations coincide

with each other, at least in our everyday understanding of the actual world.)

I met John yesterday He was walking to work.(The full situation of John’s walking

includes the punctual situation of my meeting John.)

Whereas Mary was painting the front door, I was working in the garden.(The two

full situations may either coincide or overlap: one situation may have started at,

before or after the beginning of the other situation, and either of them may have

ended at, before or after the end of the other situation The two situations are

W-simultaneous in the sense that they have at least one point of time in common.)

As is clear from the comment added to these examples, a temporal W-relation

holds between times that are ‘the time of a full situation’⫺ see sections 2.12⫺

13⫺ rather than between situation times (⫽ the times of predicated situations)

This is logical, since W-relations are not linguistically represented, and full

situations are not either (except if the situation time is represented as bounded,

in which case the situation time coincides with the time of the full situation⫺

see section 2.12.2.) ‘Situation time’, by contrast, is a linguistic concept, which

is needed to explain how a situation is located in time by a tense form In other

words, both ‘W-relation’ and ‘full situation’ refer to nonlinguistic concepts, in

the sense that they have to do with pragmatic interpretation and not (or not

exclusively) with linguistic representation By contrast, ‘T-relation’ and

‘situa-tion time’ are the names of linguistic concepts, which have to do with the way

tense forms represent the temporal location of a situation

128 2 Towards a theory of tense and time

II Special uses of tense forms

In sections 2.15⫺17 we have pointed out the ‘normal’ uses of tenses as either absolute tenses (establishing a temporal domain) or relative tenses (expressing

a T-relation in a domain.) In this section we will have a brief look at some special uses of tenses which are clearly distinguishable from the normal uses

2.19 Modal uses of tenses

Past and past perfect tense forms can be used to express tentativeness or unreality The tentativeness may be social, as in I wondered if you might like this book or it may

concern the likelihood of actualization of a situation, as inIf you wanted to, you could write a book (Note that in the first of these, the past tense wondered is a literal past

tense ⫺ it has past time reference.) Both tentativeness and unreality are standardly expressed by past (perfect) tense forms in conditional sentences, as in the counterfactual

If I were President, I would cancel third world debt.

The past tense and the past perfect can be used to express such modal concepts

as tentativeness or unreality:

(a) With some verbs of volition the past tense can be used to represent a present wish or hope as more tentative (diffident, indirect, polite) than the present tense would do

Iwanted to ask you a favour.

[Will we see each other at the dance tonight?] Ihoped you might be there.

(b) Some verbs of volition can be used in the past perfect tense in order to express unreality, i e nonactualization of an initial expectation, inten-tion, etc

I had {wanted / meant / hoped / expected / intended} to be in London today

(implies: but I’m not)

(c) Inthat-clauses depending on a form of the verb wish and in clauses

intro-duced by if only or would that, the past tense or the past perfect can be

used in order to express unreality (counterfactuality) In that case these tenses do not realize their normal tense structures but (apart from express-ing counterfactuality) merely express T-simultaneity and T-anteriority, respectively

I {wish / wished / had wished / will probably wish} Ididn’t know his number.

(modal past; the situation time in question is T-simultaneous with the situation

time of the head clause.)

I {wish / wished / had wished / will probably wish} Ihad never met him (modal

past perfect; the situation time in question is T-anterior to the situation time of the

head clause.)

(d) The past tense can be used to add a tentative meaning to the if-clause of

a conditional sentence:

I’d be happy if youdid that for me (modal past: the reference is not to the past

but to future actualization, which is represented as tentatively possible.)

I’d be surprised if shearrived on time (more tentative than I’ll be surprised if she

arrives on time)

(e) Under certain conditions, either the past tense or the past perfect can be

used in a conditional clause so as to represent fulfilment of the condition

as counterfactual:

If Iwas a rich man, I would travel a lot (modal past: the reference is not to the

past but to the present, which is represented as counterfactual (unreal).)

If hehad been here today, he would have been very happy (modal past perfect:

the reference is not to the past but to the present, and the actualization of the

situation is represented as counterfactual.)

(f) There are still other environments in which a modal past or modal past

perfect can be used For example:

He looks as if hehad seen a ghost (modal past perfect, expressing

counterfactual-ity as well as T-anteriorcounterfactual-ity)

2.20 Shifts of temporal perspective

When the temporal location of a situation is obvious from the context, it is possible for

a speaker to represent a situation as lying in one time-zone whilstapparently locating it

in another time-zone In that way, by relying on the hearer to establish the temporal location from the context, the speaker combines correct time-reference with the conno-tations of location in a different time-zone For example, The train leaves at eight

represents a post-present situation as if it is already the case, thus emphasizing that the future is in this case seen as already fixed

There is ashift of temporal perspective if a tense is selected, not in order

to locate a situation time in a particular time-zone (e g the present or the

130 2 Towards a theory of tense and time

past ⫺ see section 2.37) but in order to represent it as if lying in that

time-zone The following illustrate two different typical cases:

And a week later I’m on Rupert’s lawn again And who should come squealing and

bellowing through the hedge but Bill Anddoes he ask about my trip to America?

No.Does he want my story of the upside down helicopter flight over Central Park?

Or the Watneys Red Barrel ride over Niagara? (…) Not him He’s jabbering about

his brand-new putty-knife,shrieking about his broken fretsaw and intent on

intro-ducing me to every single socket in the socket-set his dad got him for passing O-level French twenty years ago (www)(This use of the present tense, which is called the ‘historic present’ or ‘historical present’ is a way of describing past situations vividly, as if they were happening here and now ⫺ see 3.3.1.)

The soldiers {leave / are leaving} tomorrow

In the latter example, a future situation is represented as if it were actualizing

at t0 This use of the present tense is a means of expressing that the speaker thinks that there can be no doubt about the future actualization of the situa-tion The temporal domain that is established is a post-present one, but it is established as if it were a present domain Evidence that it is really a post-present domain is the presence of tomorrow and the possibility of adding an

adverbialwhen-clause: The soldiers are leaving tomorrow when they have fin-ished their job Such an addition is not possible to the corresponding sentence

establishing a present domain: compareThe soldiers are now leaving with *The soldiers are now leaving when they have finished their job.)

2.21 Universal sentences

An apparently special use of the present tense is found in ‘universal’ sentences, which refer to a state which holds at all times (Such sentences may cite universal truths or they may refer to permanent characteristics (including habits).) For example:Elephants never forget However, these are actually not special uses of the present tense, since

they refer to homogeneous situations and thus locate a punctual situation time⫺ which represents the time of a representative punctual section of the full situation⫺ simulta-neous with speech-time, in accordance with the meaning of the present tense

2.21.1 Sentences in the present tense sometimes refer to a state which holds

at all times or at every time in the existence of the referent of the subject Such sentences are called universal(orgnomic) sentences

Two and two is four

The sun rises in the east

Is Greenland a continent of its own?

Gnomic sentences that predicate a typical characteristic of a kind (species) are

also calledgeneric sentences

{A / The} horse is a four-footed mammal

Horses do not eat meat

Habitual sentences that predicate a typical and permanent (nontemporary)

characteristic of an individual are also sometimes called generic

Bill’s cat chases bikes

Most of us walk to work

2.21.2 In fact, gnomic sentences in the present tense do not really represent

a special use of this tense, because they are quite in keeping with our definition

of T-simultaneity in terms of strict coincidence (see 2.17 and 8.17.1) Like

habitual sentences, gnomic sentences express a characteristic As pointed out

in section 1.34.4, a characteristic is a state, and states are by definition

homo-geneous To illustrate this with a nongnomic example: if John was in the

kitchen can be truly predicated of the entire interval that John spent in the

kitchen, it can also be truly predicated of the various subintervals making up

this interval In the gnomic sentenceTwo and two is four, the situation time is

located at t0 Since ‘is located at’ means ‘is represented as T-simultaneous (i e

coinciding) with’, and since t0is conceived of as punctual in English (see 2.4),

the situation time (⫽ time of the ‘predicated situation’ ⫺ see 212.) is a punctual

subinterval of the time of the full situation The fact that the predicated

situa-tion is punctual does not prevent the situasitua-tion from being interpreted as gnomic

and making a statement about the full durative situation The fact that we

conceive of a state as unchanging and homogeneous renders that

interpreta-tion possible

In sum, in gnomic clauses⫺ and also in habitual and progressive clauses ⫺

the use of the present tense means that the situation time is punctual, because

it is represented as T-simultaneous (i e coinciding) with t0, which is conceived

of as punctual However, the fact that such clauses represent their situation

time as punctual does not prevent them from being pragmatically interpreted

as referring to a durative situation This is because the situation time is only a

point included in a longer, homogeneous situation The temporalinterpretation

of a clause usually concerns the time of the full situation rather than the

situa-tion time only (which is a quite abstract concept) The full temporal

interpreta-tion of a clause is not exclusively determined by the choice of tense and

Adv-time: pragmatic considerations (i e contextual information, knowledge of the

world and accepted principles of conversation) are often as important as the

semantics of the tense and the Adv-time (if any)

132 2 Towards a theory of tense and time

III The role of temporal adverbials

2.22 Definition and basic classification of ‘temporal

adverbials’

We distinguish three types of adverbial that give temporal information ‘Time-specify-ing’ adverbials (e g at six o’clock) temporally locate an orientation time (which may

be a situation time) by specifying a particular time (an ‘Adv-time’) which may be punctual or durative and which contains (i e coincides with or includes) the orienta-tion time Pure duraorienta-tion adverbials (e g.for six hours) specify the length of time

occu-pied by a full situation, but do not locate it in time Bifunctional adverbials (e g.from six to eight) both temporally locate a situation time and specify the length of the

corresponding full situation Thus inMeg watched the elephant from six to eight, the

temporal adverbial locates the situation time (the time of the predicated situation) at the time indicated by ‘from six to eight’ and measures the (time of the) full situation (as taking up two hours)

The termtemporal adverbialwill be used here in the wide sense of ‘adverbial that has to do with time’ This covers the following three types:

2.22.1 Time-specifying adverbialslocate an orientation time in time by in-dicating a specificAdv-time(‘adverbially indicated time’) which ‘contains’ the orientation time in question in terms of inclusion or coincidence⫺ see 2.23.1: John was here {yesterday / at five o’clock}

The Adv-time that is indicated by a time-specifying adverbial may itself be durative or punctual This leads to a second distinction, between durative time-specifying adverbials, which specify a durative Adv-time, and punc-tual time-specifying adverbials, which refer to a nondurative time, i e a moment or point in time In both cases the relevant orientation time is con-tained (in terms of inclusion or coincidence) in the Adv-time In the case of a punctual Adv-time the containment relation has to be a relation of coincidence; with a durative Adv-time it can also be inclusion

John left at five.(punctual Adv-time coinciding with the situation time)

John had already left at five (punctual Adv-time coinciding with the unspecified orientation time to which the situation time is T-anterior)

John was in London at five.(punctual Adv-time coinciding with the situation time; the situation time is included in the time of the full situation)

John left yesterday.(durative Adv-time including the punctual situation time)