The grammar of the english verb phrase part 32 ppsx

These three W-readings are distinguished according to the way adverbials and aspectual, contextual and prag-matic factors interact with the ambiguous se-mantics of the present perfect to

210 5 The absolute use of the present perfect

5.31 The up-to-now reading versus the continuative reading 289 5.32 The up-to-now reading versus the indefinite interpretation 291

VIII Factors blocking the location of a situation in a ‘period up to now’ 295

In this chapter we discuss the present perfect

tense as it is used to locate a ‘T-bygone’ situation

in time As we saw in the previous chapter, this

is also the function of the absolute past tense,

but we argue that a speaker using the present

perfect tense is concerned with NOW rather

than with THEN⫺ see chapter 7 for a separate

treatment of the choice between these two

tenses

Part I (⫽ sections 5.1⫺5.2) deals with the

se-mantics of the present perfect We argue that the

core meaning conveyed by the present perfect is

‘The situation time is located in (i e is

con-tained by) the pre-present time zone’ This

meaning is compatible with two ‘T-readings’,

namely the readings on which the situation time

is, respectively, included in or coincident with a

time span that is thought of as starting before

and leading up to ‘now’ (Compare, for

exam-ple,I have already met that man and I have been

working in the garden).

In part II (⫽ sections 5.3⫺5.6), we discuss

three interpretations with respect to the time of

the ‘full’ (rather than the ‘predicated’) situation,

referring to them as ‘W(orld)-interpretations’⫺

the ‘indefinite’, the ‘continuative’ and the

‘up-to-now’ interpretations On the indefinite

read-ing, the time of the full situation lies at some

distance from t0 On the continuative reading

the full situation lasts throughout the

pre-pres-ent and is still continuing at t0 On the

up-to-now reading the full situation fills the entire

pre-present but does not include t0 These three

W-readings are distinguished according to the way

adverbials and aspectual, contextual and

prag-matic factors interact with the (ambiguous)

se-mantics of the present perfect to yield a

particu-lar temporal relationship between the time of

the predicated situation, the time of the full

situ-ation and the time of the pre-present time zone

In section 5.6 we then provide an interim

sum-mary of the core meaning of the present perfect,

its two related T-readings concerning the

tempo-ral location of the predicated situation, and the three W-interpretations concerning the temporal location of the full situation

Parts III (⫽ sections 5.7⫺5.9), IV (⫽ sections 5.10⫺5.16) and V (⫽ sections 5.17⫺5.22) zoom

in, respectively, on the continuative W-inter-pretation, the indefinite W-interpretation (in-cluding the so-called ‘experiential perfect’ use, the ‘hot news’ reading, the ‘resultative reading’ and the ‘recency’ reading), and the up-to-now interpretation Within the last we distinguish between an ‘unmarked up-to-now W-reading’, which can have an ‘explanatory-resultative’ function, and a ‘constitution W-interpretation’, which has a ‘specificational’ function and is con-cerned with the situational constitution of the pre-present We include a discussion of two-clause structures, like the ‘It’s been X amount of time since Y’ type of construction.

In part VI (⫽ sections 5.23⫺5.29) we discuss the interplay between grammatical aspect (pro-gressive vs nonpro(pro-gressive verb forms) and the various W-readings

Part VII (⫽ sections 5.30⫺5.32) is concerned with multiple W-readings that exist for some clauses using the present perfect

In part VIII (⫽ sections 5.33⫺5.35) we have a look at two cases in which the use of the present perfect is excluded on semantic grounds: when there is reference to entities that no longer exist (e g.My late uncle {was / *has been} a commer-cial traveller), and when a verb of creation is

combined with a definite ‘effected’ object NP (e g.John {wrote / *has written} this poem).

In part IX (⫽ sections 5.36⫺5.37), finally, we discuss our view on the notions of ‘current rele-vance’ and ‘present result’, which are often asso-ciated with the present perfect in the linguistic literature⫺ justly in the case of the former no-tion, and less so in the case of the latter

A summary of chapter 5 is provided in part X (section 5.38)

212 5 The absolute use of the present perfect

The present perfect locates the situation time in the pre-present, i e in that portion of the present time-sphere that precedes t0 (without including it) The pre-present thus

‘contains’ the situation time in terms of inclusion or coincidence The pre-present may

be indicated adverbially or may remain implicit The fact that the speaker chooses the present perfect (rather than the past tense) to locate a W-bygone situation in time means that he is concerned with NOW (rather than with THEN)

5.1 Introduction

5.1.1 We will argue that the function of the present perfect is to locate a situation in the pre-present zone (i e in that portion of the present time-sphere that precedes t0⫺ see 2.35) The semantics of the present perfect is therefore:

‘The situation time is located in the pre-present zone of the present time-sphere’ In other words, the pre-present contains the situation time in terms

of inclusion or coincidence.1 It is important to keep in mind that the pre-present zone is conceived of as leading up to t0without including t0(see 2.35) The theoretical necessity of this analysis will be corroborated by the discus-sion below

5.1.2 As noted in 2.39, the pre-present zone is an interval which is conceptual-ized, not a zone whose length is determined in any objective way If the clause contains a time-specifying adverbial, as in I haven’t seen him since last week,

the pre-present zone is taken to be the Adv-time (i e the interval indicated by the time-specifying adverbial) If there is no time-specifying adverbial, the pre-present is interpreted as the shortest possible time span leading up to t0that is

in keeping with the semantics and pragmatics of the clause and its context (see also 5.1.6 below) Thus,I have already had lunch will be interpreted as

mean-ing that the pre-present is thatpart of today which began when I started having

lunch and which leads up to t0, and not, say, a period starting a week ago (because lunch is eaten every day)

5.1.3 To locate a ‘T-bygone’ (see 4.2) situation in time, the speaker can in principle choose between the past tense and the present perfect Generally

1 Note that in this respect the pre-present is no different from the other nonpresent abso-lute time-zones: when an orientation time is located in the past or post-present, the past

or post-present time-zone also contains the situation time in terms of either inclusion or coincidence For example, compareHe left yesterday (⫽ inclusion) with He was living

in the country until now (⫽ coincidence), and He will leave tomorrow (⫽ inclusion)

withFrom now onwards you will have free access to the internet (⫽ coincidence).

speaking, this choice is determined by whether the speaker is concerned with

(some aspect of) the bygone situation itself or with the structure of the world

at t0: a speaker who uses the present perfect is thinking of NOW, not of

THEN⫺ see chapter 6 Whereas the past tense requires that the speaker should

place the ‘temporal focus’ (see 11.1) on the past, the present perfect is a sign

that the speaker is primarily concerned with the present In fact, the

observa-tion that the present perfect reveals a concern with NOW is the main reason

for our claim that a distinction needs to be made between a pre-present and a

past time-zone, and that the present perfect locates a situation time in the

present time-sphere (more specifically, in the pre-present zone) rather than in

the past time-sphere

The speaker’s concern with NOW, which is a consistent feature of the

pres-ent perfect, carries with it a requirempres-ent that the situation referred to, or a

result produced by it, should be deemed relevant at t0 and should therefore

form part of the speaker’s t0-world⫺ see 5.37

5.1.4 As we will see, locating a situation time in the pre-present zone is

com-patible with more than one interpretation of the relation between the time of

the full situation and t0 When a situation time is located in the pre-present

zone, the time of the full situation may be W-bygone, as inHe’s been to Spain,

or it may lead up to t0without including it, as inWhere have you been?, or it

may be interpreted as including t0, as inI’ve been living here for three months

now There are various factors (such as the type of time-specifying adverbial

used, if any) that help to determine these interpretations

5.1.5 Locating a situation time in the pre-present means locating it in a time

span that is conceived of as beginning before t0 and leading up to t0 but not

including it As we will see, the time of the full situation may sometimes be

interpreted as including t0, but the situation time (⫽ the time of the predicated

situation⫺ see 2.12⫺13) never includes t0

The use of the present perfect therefore requires that the speaker should

have a pre-present period (period up to t0)2in mind In many cases the idea of

a pre-present period is evoked by an adverbial of the type since 1970, up to

now, so far, etc.

I have visited Rome twice {since 1996 / since I was born}

So far nothing has happened

He’s been abroad for the last three weeks

In such examples the adverbial denotes an Adv-time leading up to t0 (An

Adv-time is an adverbially specified Adv-time span which ‘contains’ the situation Adv-time

in terms of either inclusion or coincidence ⫺ see 2.23.1.)

2 Throughout this chapter, ‘period up to t 0 ’ or ‘period up to now’ should be interpreted

as ‘pre-present period’, i e as a period which leads up to t but does not include it.

214 5 The absolute use of the present perfect

5.1.6 When there is no time-specifying adverbial or context specifying the length of the pre-present, the pre-present remains ‘implicit’ In that case it is normally interpreted as the shortest time span leading up to now that is rel-evant to the discourse and is in keeping with the semantics and pragmatics of the sentence and its context

Have you seen my car keys? (This only makes sense if interpreted as maximally indicating a period ‘since I last used the car’ ⫺ so usually, ‘in the last few hours’ or

‘since I got in yesterday’.)

Have you had breakfast yet?(The implicit period leading up to now is ‘today’; an answer like Yes, I did three weeks ago would therefore be quite inappropriate, as it would imply that breakfast is eaten only once in a period of at least three weeks.)

John has already visited Tokyo.(The time span leading up to now may be contextu-ally identified as, for example, the particular journey through Japan which John is making at this moment; otherwise it will be interpreted as John’s lifetime.)

I’ve been waiting for him (The length of the period leading up to t 0 will be clear from the context If it is said by a mother waiting for her son at the gates of the school, it will be a relatively short time If it is said by someone waiting for a sailor

to come home, it is likely to be the time since the sailor left.)

Have you seen John? (e g {since you arrived at the party / in the last twenty minutes})

Have you been to the Van Gogh exhibition?(since it has been open to the public)

5.2 The semantics and the T-interpretations of the

present perfect

The semantics of the present perfect is: ‘The pre-present contains the situation time in terms of inclusion or coincidence This semantics allows two ‘T-interpretations’ Firstly,

on the ‘before now’ T-interpretation, the situation time is included in the pre-present and covers a portion of the pre-present that is not adjacent to t0 For example: I have already met that man Secondly, on the ‘co-extensive’ T-interpretation, the situation

time is co-extensive with the pre-present and therefore leads up to t0 For example, in

I have been working in the garden.

5.2.1 In the tense model used here, the core meaning(⫽ semantics) of the present perfect is its tense structure: ‘The situation time is located in the pre-present zone of the pre-present time-sphere’ In 5.1.1 we saw that this is equivalent

to ‘The pre-present contains the situation time’ Since ‘containment’ means either inclusion or coincidence, this means that from a tense-structural (⫽ se-mantic) point of view there are two possibilities: either the situation time fills

the entire (subjectively conceived) period up to now or it is included in it Since

the pre-present is defined as the time-zone which forms part of the present

time-sphere and precedes t0 in the sense that it leads up to t0 but does not

include t0, these two possibilities can be formulated as follows: either the

situa-tion time is conceived of as leading up to t0, i e as stopping just before t0but

without any temporal space between the right bound of the situation time and

t0, or the situation time is conceived of as lying at a certain distance from t0

(Note that all this is a matter of conceptualization rather than of what is the

exact temporal location of the situation relative to t0in the real world When

a person comes back from somewhere I can ask him What have you been

doing? or Where have you been? In the real world there has to be some interval

(however short) between the situation referred to and my asking the question,

but that interval is linguistically irrelevant: it does not prevent the situation

time as being conceived of as leading up to t0.)

Within the two T-interpretations allowed by the semantics of the present perfect, we can distinguish three ‘temporal W-interpretations’: the ‘indefinite reading’ (i e the full situation comes to an end before t0), the ‘continuative reading’ (i e the time of the full situation includes t0) and the ‘up-to-now reading’ (i e the terminal point of the full situation is adjacent to t0)

5.2.2 In sum, the semantics of the present perfect is ‘The pre-present contains

the situation time’ Since ‘containment’ means either inclusion or coincidence,

this means that the present perfect is semantically (⫽ tense-structurally)

ambig-uous between two meanings (which we will refer to asT-interpretations):

(a) The ‘before now’ T-interpretation: the situation time is included in the

pre-present and covers a portion of the pre-present that is not adjacent to

t0 This meaning is realized, for example, in I have already spoken to

that man.

(b) The ‘co-extensive’ T-interpretation: the situation time is co-extensive

with the pre-present and therefore leads up to t0 This meaning is realized,

for example, inI have been working in the garden.

In both (a) and (b), the beginning of the pre-present zone can be indicated by

adverbials like since then, within the last three weeks, etc If there is no such

adverbial, the pre-present zone is conceptualized as the shortest period up to

t0 that is in keeping with the semantics and pragmatics of the clause and its

context (see 5.1.6)

It should be clear from the above paragraphs that, unlike the situation time

(i e the time of the ‘predicated situation’ ⫺ see 2.12⫺13), the time of the full

216 5 The absolute use of the present perfect

situation does not play a part in the semantics of the present perfect, nor in the ensuing two T-interpretations It does play a part, however, in the definition

of the three temporal W-interpretations that can be assigned to present perfect clauses These will be discussed in section 4, where we will distinguish between the ‘indefinite reading’ (i e the full situation comes to an end before

t0), the ‘continuative reading’ (i e the time of the full situation includes t0) and the ‘up-to-now reading’ (i e the terminal point of the full situation is adjacent

to t0) The last two W-readings are illustrated by the following examples, in which I have been working in the garden each time receives a co-extensive

T-interpretation but receives two different W-T-interpretations:

[“What have you been doing for the last hour?”]⫺ “I have been working in the garden.”

Ihave been working in the garden [for two hours now, and I still haven’t finished.]

In the first example, I have been working in the garden may be uttered by

someone who has just come inside (and has therefore stopped working in the garden), whereas in the second example it is uttered by somebody who is still working in the garden This means that within the co-extensive (⫽ ‘situation time up to now’) meaning two different temporal interpretations of the location

of the full situation relative to t0 are possible (We will speak of the ‘up-to-now reading’ and the ‘continuative reading’, respectively.) These readings are W-interpretations: they belong to the same semantic type of present perfect and are triggered by factors having to do with the linguistic or extralinguistic context Moreover, they refer to the location of the time of the full situation

relative to t0

5.2.3 In sum, as far as temporal interpretation is concerned, we have to distin-guish between the following three levels:

(a) The core meaning of the present perfect is its semantics, i e the tense structure which it expresses This core meaning is: ‘The situation time is contained in the pre-present’ The pre-present is that zone of the present time-sphere that is conceptualized as starting before t0and leading up to

it, without including it

(b) There are two ‘T-interpretations’ which are in keeping with the seman-tics of the present perfect They have to do with the location of the situa-tion time (⫽ the time of the ‘predicated situation’ ⫺ see 2.13) relative to

t0 These T-interpretations are: ‘The situation time lies wholly before t0’ (⫽ ‘situation time before now’) and ‘The situation time is co-extensive with the pre-present’ (⫽ ‘situation time up to now’) The existence of these T-interpretations follows naturally from the fact that the statement The situation time is contained in the pre-present can mean either ‘The

situa-tion time is included in the pre-present’ or ‘The situasitua-tion time coincides with the pre-present’