The grammar of the english verb phrase part 21 ppt

John was in London yesterday.durative Adv-time containing the durative situationtime in terms of inclusion ⫺ John was in London at or for some time yesterday ⫺ or coincidence ⫺ John was

John was in London yesterday.(durative Adv-time containing the durative situation

time in terms of inclusion ⫺ John was in London at or for some time yesterday ⫺

or coincidence ⫺ John was in London all day yesterday)

2.22.2 Pure duration adverbials do not identify an Adv-time but only

specify duration, more specifically the duration of the full situation

John was here for a couple of hours.(pure duration adverbial: it specifies the

dura-tion of John’s visit but offers no clue as to when it took place)

As will be noted in 2.31.1, a pure duration adverbial specifies the duration of

the full situation and not of the situation time (except indirectly, when the two

happen to coincide⫺ see 2.31.2.) Thus in, Today John is in London for most

of the day, the situation time is punctual (because it coincides with t0 ⫺ see

2.21.2) andfor most of the day indicates the (pre-determined) duration of the

full situation of John being in London

Needless to say, it is important to distinguish carefully between pure

dura-tion adverbials and durative time-specifying adverbials Durative

time-specify-ing adverbials indicate the Adv-time containtime-specify-ing the situation time but do not

necessarily specify the duration of the situation time (as in John had a walk

yesterday), whereas pure duration adverbials specify the duration of the full

situation but do not specify its time, i e the precise temporal location of the

situation time in the absolute zone in which the tense places it (e g John

walked for three hours).

2.22.3 Bifunctional temporal adverbials have a double function: they

function as time-specifying adverbial and duration adverbial at the same time

For example:

[“What were you doing from Monday to Thursday?”]⫺ “I was abroad from

Mon-day to ThursMon-day.” (The adverbial specifies the time as well as the duration of the

predicated situation The latter may happen to coincide with the full situation but

is more likely to be a portion of it.)

[“When were you abroad?”] ⫺ “I was abroad from Monday to Thursday.” (The

adverbial specifies the time as well as the duration of the predicated situation

Be-cause the adverbial gives the information that is asked for, the Gricean Maxim of

Quantity stipulates that the duration indicated must be the duration of the full

situa-tion In other words, in this W-bounded reading, the situation time coincides with

the time of the full situation.)

They were together the whole morning

It rained heavily all afternoon

I’ve been waiting for her for two hours now (For two hours now indicates the

duration of the predicated situation, which is also the ‘factual full situation’, i e the

full situation as it has actualized up to now ⫺ see 2.31.2 Because the situation time

fills the entire period leading up to now, the adverbial also specifies the relevant

pre-present period In doing so it functions as a time-specifying adverbial: the Adv-time

is the period up to now, which contains the situation time, in this case in terms of coincidence.)

As is clear from the last example, duration adverbials are always bifunctional

if they are ‘anchored’ to t0by now.

2.23 The function of a time-specifying adverbial

As we have seen, a time indicated by a time-specifying adverbial (an Adv-time) contains the situation time (or other orientation time) whose temporal location it specifies The situation time may be shorter than the Adv-time (i e it is included in it) or it may be exactly the same length (i e it coincides with it) In either case we can speak of ‘Adv-time-simultaneity’ When the Adv-time is punctual, the situation time is necessarily included in a punctual time and must therefore itself be punctual A durative situation can be represented as simultaneous with a punctual Adv-time provided that the situa-tion is homogeneous (nonbounded) (The situasitua-tion time is then the time of a punctual portion of the situation which is representative of the whole situation.) The fact that a progressive clause can combine with an adverbial specifying a punctual Adv-time means that a progressive clause represents the predicated situation as a punctual situation which is representative of the longer full situation

2.23.1 As we have seen, tenses only express (one or more) T-relations between orientation times (One of these orientation times is necessarily a situation time, viz the time of the situation referred to by the tensed clause.) This means that tenses do not express a T-relation between a situation time and the time specified by an adverbial However, as noted in section 2.16.1, there is an ‘Adv-time-relation’ between an adverbially specified time interval (henceforth: Adv-time) and an orientation time This relation is a relation of ‘containment’ Containmentcovers two possibilities:

(a) inclusion: the included orientation time is shorter than the Adv-time; it

may coincide with the beginning or end of the Adv-time or with some middle part of the Adv-time

(b) coincidence: the contained orientation time coincides with the Adv-time.

In other words, the boundaries of the Adv-time coincide with the bound-aries of the contained orientation time

In both cases the contained orientation time is simultaneous with the Adv-time

in a well-defined sense In 2.29 we will call this relation ‘

Adv-time-simultane-ity’, which is to be distinguished from T-simultaneity (expressed by certain

tenses) and W-simultaneity (which is a question of interpretation in context)

2.23.2 The following sentences illustrate the two kinds of

Adv-time-simulta-neity, viz inclusion and coincidence

John left yesterday (The past tense form left locates its situation time in the past

time-sphere Its exact location there is specified by yesterday, which specifies a

dura-tive Adv-time which includes the situation time of John leaving.)

John had already left yesterday.(Let us consider the reading ‘John left before

yester-day’ The past perfect form had left then represents its situation time as T-anterior

to a past orientation time This past orientation time is an unspecified orientation

time ⫺ see 2.14 However, the precise location of the unspecified orientation time

in the past time-sphere is indicated by yesterday, which refers to a durative

Adv-time containing the unspecified orientation Adv-time prior to which John left.)

John left at four o’clock (At four o’clock indicates a punctual Adv-time which

coincides with the situation time of John leaving.)

[“Where was John during the lecture?”] ⫺ “John was in the library during the

lecture.”(During the lecture denotes an Adv-time which coincides with the situation

time of John being in the library: the interpretation is that John was in the library

throughout the lecture In other words, the time of the predicated situation is exactly

as long as the time interval indicated by during the lecture Obviously the time of

the full situation of John being in the library may be considerably longer than this.)

[It can’t have been John you saw yesterday.] He was in India yesterday (Yesterday

denotes an Adv-time which either includes the situation time of John being in India

(in which case the interpretation is that John was in India for some time yesterday,

but not all day) or coincides with the situation time (in which case the interpretation

is that John was in India all day yesterday) In the latter interpretation, the time of

the full situation of John being in India may extend beyond the boundaries of the

Adv-time: the sentence is true, e g if John has been in India for the past week.)

By four o’clock John will have left.(The Adv-time denoted by four o’clock contains

(in the sense of: coincides with) the unspecified orientation time to which the

situa-tion time is T-anterior and which is itself T-posterior to t 0 )

2.23.3 The following sentence is similar toJohn left at four o’clock above:

John was reading at four o’clock (At four o’clock indicates a punctual Adv-time

which coincides with the situation time of John reading.)

Examples like this naturally raise the question of whether this analysis entails

that the situation referred to by a clause with a progressive verb phrase and a

punctual time-specifying adverbial is represented as punctual The answer is

that it does The situation represented by the progressive tense form is the

situation time This situation time is punctual because it is contained in (in the

sense of: coincides with) the punctual Adv-time This analysis accords with the

fact that John was reading at four o’clock is not a suitable answer to When

was John reading?, unless there was only one moment that John was reading

and that moment coincided with four o’clock That is, if John’s reading took

up a certain time, the reply John was reading at four o’clock is not false, but

it is pragmatically unacceptable because it is insufficiently informative The Gricean Maxim of Quantity sees to it that (except in special contexts) the question When was John reading? is interpreted as asking information about

the length of the full situation An answer likeJohn was reading from 2 p.m.

to 4 is a suitable reply to this, because it specifies an Adv-time that is long

enough to be able to contain (coincide with) a situation time that is the time

of the full durative situation An answer likeJohn was reading at four o’clock

is not normally a suitable reply to When was John reading? because it is not

sufficiently informative: it specifies an Adv-time that is punctual and therefore cannot contain (coincide with) a situation time that is the time of the full situation, except in the very unlikely case that John’s reading took up just one moment In other words, When was John reading? asks for a specification of

the complete period when John was reading, whileJohn was reading at four o’clock normally only specifies a point in the course of that period.

Of course, the fact that such a clause with a progressive verb phrase and a punctual time-specifying adverbial represents its situation time as punctual does not prevent such a clause from being pragmaticallyinterpreted as referring

to a durative situation This is because the progressive form implies that the situation time is only a portion of a longer, homogeneous situation Our knowl-edge of the world too tells us that reading is not normally a punctual situation

As explained in 2.21.2, the full temporal interpretation of a clause is not deter-mined by the choice of tense and Adv-time only: the interpretation is based on pragmatics as well as semantics

2.24 Situation-time adverbial

In a given context, a temporal adverbial may contain (i e by inclusion or coincidence)

a situation time, an orientation time other than a situation time, or several orientation times (usually situation times) We refer, respectively, to ‘situation-time adverbials’,

‘orientation-time’ adverbials’ and ‘multiple-orientation-time adverbials’

A time-specifying adverbial denoting an Adv-time which contains the situation time (in either of the senses described in 2.16.2, viz inclusion or coincidence) will be called asituation-time adverbial

I left there yesterday.(Yesterday is a situation-time adverbial because the Adv-time that it denotes includes the situation time, i e the time of my leaving.)

2.25 Orientation-time adverbial

An orientation-time adverbial is a time-specifying adverbial denoting an

Adv-time which contains (in either of the two senses) an orientation time other

than a situation time

At five o’clock John had already left.(At five o’clock specifies an Adv-time which

contains the unspecified orientation time to which John’s leaving is represented as

T-anterior.)

[I don’t know how people will react to the next news bulletins, but] right now only

two of the guests are going to interrupt their holiday tomorrow because of the

approaching tornado (Now is an orientation-time adverbial, tomorrow is a

situa-tion-time adverbial The orientation time contained in (⫽ coinciding with) ‘now’

is t 0 )

She intends to come at six, when most people will have left (The when-clause is

used here as a relative clause in which when has an adverbial function: when means

‘at which time’ and functions as orientation-time adverbial in the relative clause.

That is, when does not specify (contain) the situation time (i e the time of the people

leaving) but the implicit orientation time to which the situation time is T-anterior.)

2.26 Multiple-orientation-time-adverbial

A multiple-orientation-time adverbial denotes an Adv-time which

con-tains more than one orientation time (The orientation times in question are

usually situation times.)

Yesterday John left before Bill arrived.(Before Bill arrived, which means ‘at a time

before Bill arrived’, is a situation-time adverbial in the head clause: it denotes an

Adv-time which includes the situation time of John’s leaving Yesterday, which

indi-cates an interval including both the situation time of John’s leaving and the situation

time of Bill’s arrival, is a multiple-orientation-time adverbial.)

2.27 The relation between one Adv-time and another

When there is more than one time-specifying adverbial, the various adverbially

specified time intervals are normally related to each other in terms of

contain-ment (i e inclusion or coincidence) The situation time is contained in the

shortest of these intervals (Remember that an Adv-time interval may be

dura-tive or punctual.)

I left at 5 a.m in the morning on Tuesday last week.(The situation time is contained

in the Adv-time specified by at 5 a.m., which is included in the Adv-time specified

by in the morning, which is itself included in the Adv-time specified by on Tuesday, which in its turn is included in the Adv-time specified by last week.)

Exceptionally, we can find a combination of a time-specifying adverbial speci-fying (⫽ containing) a situation time and an adverb referring to t0 as a ‘time

of evaluation’:

Now there will be no water left for the rest of the day.(This is interpreted something like ‘Now that X has actualized, there will be no water left for the rest of the day’.)

At present we have answered two-thirds of these letters

2.28 Durative time-specifying adverbials referring to the

present Adverbials like today, at present, these days, etc denote a durative Adv-time

which includes t0 The temporal zero-point resembles a punctual Adv-time in that

it contains (in the sense of ‘coincides with’) the situation time of the clause This means that a predicated situation that is located at t0must be punctual, hence that the full situation has to be either punctual or homogeneous This is illustrated by the grammaticality ofAt this very moment I’m writing a letter versus the

ungram-maticality of *At this very moment I write a letter: the situation time can only be

located at (i e represented as coinciding with) t0if it is punctual, and in the case

of writing a letter this condition is only satisfied if the durative situation is repre-sented as homogeneous by the use of the progressive form This is also true when there is a durative adverbial liketoday, these days, etc The situation time again

coincides with t0, which is a point of time that is included in the Adv-time denoted

by the durative adverbial For example:

[As you can see,] we’re eating on the verandah today

The temporal interpretation of this sentence is determined by the following factors: (a) The progressive form represents the (full) situation as homogen-eous; (b) The present tense represents the situation time as T-simultaneous with

t0; (c) Because t0 is punctual, the situation time must be punctual too: this follows from the definition of T-simultaneity as being a relation of strict coinci-dence (see 2.17); (d) Because today indicates a longer period including t0, and because the situation time is understood as forming part of a longer homogen-eous full situation, the time of the full situation will be interpreted as coinciding with a durative subinterval of the Adv-time indicated by today (or even with

the Adv-time as a whole, but this is pragmatically unlikely)

If, in the same sentence, the Adv-time is indicated by these days, the factors

determining the full temporal interpretation of the sentence (We’re eating on the verandah these days) are the following: (a) The full situation is

homogene-ous because it is a temporary habit: as noted in 1.23.3, a habit is a state and,

unless it involves a ‘bounding adverbial’ (see 1.48.2) like from 3 to 5, the

representation of a state is by definition homogeneous; (b) The present tense

represents the situation time as T-simultaneous with t0; (c) Because t0is

punc-tual, the situation time must be punctual too (cf the definition of

T-simultane-ity): the time of the predicated situation (⫽ situation time) is therefore a

‘mo-ment-of-a-habit’; (d) Because these days indicates a longer period including t0,

and because the situation time is pragmatically understood as forming part of

a longer homogeneous full situation (of which it may be any moment, including

the initial and terminal points), the time of the full situation is interpreted as

coinciding with the Adv-time indicated by these days.

2.29 Adv-time-simultaneity

Adv-time simultaneity is unlike W-simultaneity in that it is linguistically expressed and it

is unlike T-simultaneity in that it is not expressed by a tense and it allows for a relation of proper inclusion as well as one of strict coincidence, though it does not allow for mere overlap When there is more than one time in a clause, the relation between the Adv-times is also one of Adv-time simultaneity⫺ i e proper inclusion or coincidence

In the previous sections we have seen that an Adv-time can contain a situation

time, or t0, or another orientation time This containment relation, which may be

either inclusion (provided the Adv-time is durative) or coincidence, is a kind of

simultaneity relation However, it is not T-simultaneity, since the containment

relation does not form part of the semantics of any tense, and it is not

W-simulta-neity, since it is not a question of pragmatic interpretation Like T-simultaW-simulta-neity,

it is a linguistic relation: it is inherent in the English language system that the

temporal information provided by an adverbial specifying an Adv-time is always

interpreted in terms of simultaneity (containment) In section 2.16 we have

there-fore distinguished between three kinds of simultaneity: T-simultaneity (expressed

by some tense forms), W-simultaneity (which is a question of

interpretation-in-context) and Adv-time-simultaneity The last is the relation of containment

be-tween an Adv-time and a situation time, t0or another orientation time.15

15 Because an Adv-time by definition contains a situation time, Adv-time-simultaneity is

the only possible temporal relation between the contained orientation time and the

con-taining Adv-time There is no such a thing as ‘Adv-time-anteriority’ or

‘Adv-time-posteri-ority’ That is, the relation between the contained orientation time and the containing

Adv-time cannot be such that the orientation time precedes or follows the Adv-time.

When we speak of anteriority or posteriority, what we have in mind can only be a

T-relation or a W-T-relation.