The grammar of the english verb phrase part 33 ppt

The temporal W-interpretations ofpresent perfect clauses 5.3 Introduction Since the situation time may coincide with the pre-present or be included in it, and since the time of the full

(c) As far as the full situation is concerned, there are 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

situa-tion includes t0) and the ‘up-to-now reading’ (i e the terminal point of the

full situation is adjacent to t0) These will be discussed in 5.3⫺4 below

5.2.4 Later on in this chapter we will explain that the present perfect has not

only one core meaning, two T-interpretations and three W-interpretations, but

also (at least in its ‘up-to-now’ W-interpretation) two functional readings, one

of which allows further possible readings Figure 5.1 gives an overview of all

these ‘meanings’ (in the nontechnical sense of the word) (What is not

men-tioned in this table is that, as we will see, it is sometimes possible to distinguish

a fewusage types within a given W-interpretation Thus, the so-called

‘resulta-tive perfect’, ‘hot news perfect’ and ‘perfect of experience’ are all (nontemporal)

W-readings which are assigned to certain present perfect sentences that receive

the indefinite temporal W-interpretation ⫺ see 5.13⫺16.)

Figure 5.1 The various readings of clauses in the present perfect.

II The temporal W-interpretations of

present perfect clauses

5.3 Introduction

Since the situation time may coincide with the pre-present or be included in it, and since the time of the full situation can similarly contain the situation time in terms of coincidence or inclusion, there are in principle four possibilities as far as the W-relation between the time of the full situation and the pre-present time-zone is concerned In practice, however, clauses in the present perfect can only receive three different tempo-ral W-interpretations concerning the location of the full situation relative to the pre-present: an ‘indefinite’, ‘continuative’ or ‘up-to-now’ reading The reading is ‘indefinite’

if the time of the full situation does not lead up to the endpoint of the pre-present zone, as inMeg has already washed the elephant The reading is ‘continuative’ if the

time of the full situation is taken to include t0, as inMeg has been washing the elephant for half an hour now The reading is an ‘up-to-now’ interpretation if the full situation

covers the entire pre-present but does not include t0, as in Where have you been?

(addressed to someone who has just come in)

5.3.1 Whereas the T-interpretations of a clause in the present perfect concern the location of the situation time (⫽ time of the predicated situation) relative

to t0, the temporal W-interpretations concern the relation between the time of the ‘full situation’ (see 2.16.1) and t0 Such a temporal W-interpretation de-pends in part on the semantics of the tense (i e on the location of the situation time in the tense structure) but also on other factors, such as ontological aspect (Aktionsart), grammatical aspect, actualization aspect (bounded vs

non-bounded ⫺ see 1.44.1), time-specifying adverbials, duration adverbials, and other contextual and pragmatic factors This is true of all W-interpretations Thus, the temporal W-interpretation ofAt five o’clock I was working involves

(at least) the following elements: (a) The situation time is located in the past time-sphere; (b) The situation time coincides with the Adv-time (⫽ at five o’clock); (c) The time of the full situation is not represented as bounded and

is longer than the situation time

5.3.2 A situation time may in principle either coincide with the time of the full situation or be a subpart of it ⫺ remember the discussion of Ten minutes ago John was in the library; perhaps he still is in 1.44.2 In other words,

irrespective of the tense used, the time of a full situation ‘contains’ the situation time in terms of inclusion or coincidence (Inclusion requires the clause to be homogeneous, i e the full situation must not be represented as bounded⫺ see

1.44.2.) When the present perfect is used, the pre-present similarly contains the

situation time in terms of inclusion or coincidence We can conclude from these

statements that there are four theoretical possibilities as to the temporal

rela-tion between the pre-present zone and the time of the full situarela-tion

(a) The first possibility is that the situation time coincides with the time of

the full situation and is included in the pre-present In that case the clause

receives a ‘before now’ T-interpretation This allows only one temporal

W-interpretation, viz that in which the time of the full situation lies

en-tirely before t0 in the pre-present This possibility is illustrated by the

fol-lowing:

[Nobody can enter the house, because] I have locked the door and hidden the key

(The full situations are interpreted as lying wholly before t 0 )

Because it is typical of this temporal W-reading that the precise temporal

loca-tion of the situaloca-tion in the pre-present zone remains indefinite, we call this the

indefinite readingof the present perfect (or, more correctly, of the clause in

the present perfect)

(b) The second theoretical possibility is that the situation time coincides with

the pre-present zone and is included in the time of the full situation (The

latter is only possible if the full situation is homogeneous and hence

non-bounded⫺ see 1.45.) In this case the full situation not only fills the entire

period leading up to t0but also extends beyond it That is, the full situation

also includes t0 and possibly part of the post-present, though the present

perfect itself does not say anything about the post-present (nor, directly,

about the inclusion of t0, because it is the situation time, not the time of

the full situation, that is relevant to the semantics of a tense) This

possibil-ity leads to a temporal W-interpretation which is traditionally referred to

as thecontinuative reading For example:

Ian’s been living in Lincoln since 1998.(continuative reading: the sentence is

W-interpreted as implying that Ian is still living in Lincoln)

For two months now there has been a famine in this country.(⫽ ‘There has been

a famine throughout the pre-present, and it is still continuing.’)

(c) The third theoretical possibility is that the situation time coincides with

the time of the full situation and with the pre-present zone This leads to

the temporal W-interpretation that the time of the full situation fills the

entire period leading up to t0 but does not include t0 We refer to this as

theup-to-now reading (In this label, ‘up-to-now’ has the same meaning

as in ‘period up to now’: in the same way as a pre-present period leads up

to t0 but does not include it, the up-to-now reading of a clause means

that the full situation is taken to lead up to t0 but without including t0.)

For example:

(said to someone who has just come in) Where have you been?

[Representative Jo Ann Emerson recently announced Dec 13 as the day traffic is anticipated to cross the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge “We couldn’t be more excited about this,” said MoDOT District Engineer Scott Meyer.] “We’ve been telling the public the bridge would be opened by the end of the year [and we are

very pleased to finally have an anticipated date for the bridge completion.”] (www) (d) The fourth theoretical possibility is that the situation time is included in (i e is shorter than) the pre-present and is also included in the time of the full situation Since the latter possibility requires the full situation to be homogeneous and nonbounded, this leads to the expectation that the situa-tion must be either a state or a dynamic (nonstative) situasitua-tion represented

as ongoing by the progressive form Let us consider these two possibil-ities separately

As regards states, it would at first sight seem to be impossible to find examples

of present perfect sentences in which the full situation is a state and the two conditions (viz the situation time is included in the pre-present and also in-cluded in the time of the full situation) are satisfied In all of the following examples the full situation is interpreted as bounded (⫽ having come to an end), which means that the situation time is interpreted as coinciding with the time of the full situation, so that the temporal W-interpretation is an indefinite reading: the full situation lies wholly before t0

John has been in the house

John has just been in the house

Has John ever been in the house?

The reason why the time of the full situation is W-interpreted as coinciding with the situation time is that this is the unmarked kind of containment relation between the time of the full situation and the time of the predicated situation (⫽ situation time) In these examples there is nothing triggering the marked interpretation that the situation time is only a portion of the time of the full sit-uation

However, the situation time of a stateis interpreted as included in the time

of the full situation if the state functions as ‘background’ situation for an in-tervening situation:

You’ve never been behind someone when all of a sudden they slow down for no

apparent reason and make a turn with no signal? (www)(The time of the predicated situation is the portion before the slowing down and the full situation continues during the slowing down.)

Clearly, this reading is not a new kind of reading but an ‘indefinite reading’

If the situation is not a state, the two conditions (viz the situation time is

included in the pre-present and also included in the time of the full situation)

can only be fulfilled if the progressive form is used As noted in 1.22.4, the

progressive form refers to some middle part of the full situation (because it

disregards the situation’s terminal point) That middle part is the situation

time Unlike an expression of state (e g be in the house), a progressive form

thus automatically represents the situation time as included in (i e shorter

than) the time of the full situation, which means that the second condition is

fulfilled Fulfilment of the first condition (viz the situation time is included in

the pre-present rather than co-extensive with it) is then also possible

It should be noted, however, that this use of the progressive form is

re-stricted to three types of present perfect sentences, illustrated by the

follow-ing:

(1) Who’s the man you’ve just been talking to?3

(2) Have you ever been working on a project?

(3) Have you ever been working on a project [when you had to give it up

temporar-ily for lack of funding]?

In (1), the full situation, which is longer than the situation time which coincides

with the Adv-time (just), can only be W-interpreted as having come to an end

before t0 This means that (1) receives an indefinite W-interpretation which is

a ‘recency interpretation’ (see 5.16 and 5.25.5) Sentence (2), which is not

ac-ceptable for some speakers, also receives an indefinite reading (which, however,

is not a recency reading) The speaker asks the hearer if the situation of his

working on a project has been in progress at one or more bygone times within

the pre-present Sentence (3), which is fully acceptable because thewhen-clause

provides the vantage point from with the situation is viewed as being in

pro-gress, receives a similar indefinite reading.4

In sum, possibility (d) does not give rise to a fourth type of W-interpretation:

all the examples given receive an indefinite reading, i e the same reading as is

engendered by possibility (a)

3 The following is an authentic example of this type:

Are you quite sure you haven’t just been speaking to the cryptic “K” herself? (DOC)

4 This kind of sentence is special in that thewhen-clause is not a time-specifying adverbial

but a ‘narrative’ when-clause, i e a clause which ‘pushes forward’ the action ⫺ see

13.1.3 This means that thewhen-clause does not specify the time of the head clause

situation It is rather the other way round: the head clause expresses the background

situation in the middle of which thewhen-clause situation actualizes This means that

this sentence is only acceptable if one mentally restructures it so that the perfect is

separated from the progressive: the perfect goes with the (indefinite) interruption⫺ have

you ever had to give up a project temporarily for lack of funding? ⫺ and the progressive

goes with the background situation⫺ while you were working on that project These

paraphrases make it clear that the sentence receives an indefinite reading.

5.4 The three W-interpretations of clauses in the

present perfect

This section goes further into the three temporal W-interpretations of clauses in the present perfect, viz the indefinite, continuative and up-to-now readings

5.4.1 As far as the W-relation between the time of the full situation and the ppresent time-zone is concerned, clauses in the present perfect can thus re-ceive three different temporal W-interpretations: an indefinite, continuative or up-to-now reading (When it comes to interpreting tensed clauses, it is the time of the full situation that is important This is because a full temporal W-interpretation depends not only on the semantics of the tense ⫺ i e the loca-tion of the situaloca-tion time⫺ but also on other factors, such as adverbials and aspectual, contextual and pragmatic factors.)

On the indefinite interpretation, the full situation is taken to actualize

at some indefinite time (or times) in the course of the pre-present (which leads

up to t0but does not include it) Even if the clause is L-homogeneous, as in I have lived in Rome or Have you ever been watching your favourite programme

[when unexpected visitors arrived]?, not only the situation time but also the

time of the full situation is taken to be included in the pre-present, i e the full situation is interpreted as not extending up to t0 (In other words, the situation

is interpreted as W-bounded, though it is L-homogeneous.) On the continua-tive interpretationthe speaker’s message is taken to be that the full situation not only covers the entire pre-present period but also includes t0 That is, the full situation is still continuing at t0 (For example: I’ve been waiting for him for two hours now.) Finally, on theup-to-now interpretation, the full situa-tion is taken to cover the entire pre-present, but without including t0 (For example: [Oh, there you are!] What have you been doing?)

The following sentences further illustrate the threefold distinction:

I’ve received e-mails from her before, you know.(indefinite reading; the full situation lies completely before t 0 )

Someone has opened the window!(similar)

[I know my way around here because] I’ve been working for this firm since 1998

(continuative reading: I am still working for this firm.)

I’ve had this car for a long time (continuative reading: I still have the car in ques-tion)

[Hello, Tom! It’s a long time since I last saw you.] What have you been doing? (up-to-now reading: the question concerns the addressee’s actions during the complete pre-present period, but these actions are not continuing at t 0 )

Three weeks have elapsed since then.(up-to-now reading: the reference is to a

dura-tion-specifying situation which fills the entire pre-present)

“How many times has Bill seen Sharon this week?”⫺ “Bill’s seen her three times.”

(up-to-now readings of the subtype which in 5.4.7 we will call the

‘number-quantify-ing constitution read‘number-quantify-ing’: both speakers are concerned with the question how many

times Bill has seen Sharon in a period leading up to now This means that they are

not concerned with the occurrence of one or two full situations at some indefinite

time(s) in the pre-present but rather with the situational constitution of a specific

period leading up to now In other words, speaker A asks speaker B to ‘measure’

the period leading up to now by counting the number of actualizations in it Speaker

B does so in his reply.)

[Helen is going through a depression I know because] I’ve seen her three times this

week [and each time she talked about how bad she felt.] (indefinite reading: the

speaker’s concern in this sentence is not with the situational constitution of the

period leading up to now, i e with the number of actualizations in this period, but

with adducing evidence for the claim that the speaker knows that Helen is going

through a depression.)

The last two examples illustrate an important point: the indefinite, continuative

and up-to-now readings are W-interpretations that are allowed by the

seman-tics of the present perfect but which the present perfect does not suggest on its

own Which reading is intended must be clear from the context (i e either

from elements inside the sentence⫺ e g an adverbial, the (non)homogeneous

representation of the situation ⫺ or from the context in which the sentence

is used)

5.4.2 The three temporal W-interpretations that can be assigned to a present

perfect clause are represented in Figures 5.2⫺4 (The circles around t0 are

meant to visualize the fact that the pre-present zone does not include t0, but

leads up to it The horizontal slanting line in Figure 5.4 means that the full

situation covers both the pre-present zone and t0.)

Figure 5.2 Representation of the indefinite reading.

5.4.3 It may be necessary to reiterate that in the examples given in 5.4.1 the

three readings concern the times of the full situations They are therefore