The past time-sphere is con-ceived of as separated from the present time-sphere, whereas the pre-present zone forms part of it, but the actual distance between the situation time and t0i
Trang 1‘present zone’; and the portion that follows t0(and starts immediately after t0)
is the ‘post-present zone’
To locate situations in these three zones we use the present perfect, the
present tense and the future tense (or a ‘futurish form’ ⫺ see 7.3.1),
respec-tively Each of these tenses shows present (nonpast) morphology
Ihave already read that article (Have read is a present perfect tense form locating
its situation time somewhere in the pre-present zone.)
Iam very angry with her (Am locates its situation time at t 0 )
I {will / am going to} be in France tomorrow (Note that am going to be locates its
situation time in the post-present As stressed in 2.13.2, the situation time is the time
of the actualization of the predicated situation, not the time of anticipation of that
actualization See also the definition of ‘tense’ in 2.12.1 and the discussion of futurish
forms in 7.3.)
8.7 Visual representation of time-spheres and zones
As noted in 2.36, the linguistic conceptualization of time in terms of
time-spheres and zones can be represented as in Figure 8.1 In this diagram the time
line is represented as consisting of two time-spheres The dotted line in the
middle of the time line represents the fact that there is felt to be a break
between the two time-spheres (As stressed in 2.36, the diagram should not be
interpreted as representing the pre-present as more recent, i e closer to t0, than
the past⫺ see also 2.39.)
Figure 8.1 Linguistic conceptualization of the time line in English.
8.8 Absolute zones
Whereas the present time-sphere is automatically divided into three zones by
t0, the past time-sphere consists of a single time-zone, which is defined as lying
completely before t0 The past time-sphere and the three present time-sphere
zones can therefore be said to make up the set of absolute zones, i e the
four time-zones that are defined in direct relation to t0 (Note that, because the
past time-sphere consists of only one zone, it does not really matter whether
we speak of ‘past zone’ or ‘past time-sphere’.)
Trang 28.9 The length of the time-spheres and zones
Except for the present zone, which is by definition conceived of as punctual (see 2.35), the length of the time-spheres and the zones cannot be defined in terms of objective time As noted in 2.39, everything depends on how the speaker conceptualizes time Thus, the pre-present can be conceived of either
as very short (e g I have just met your brother) or as stretching indefinitely
far back (e g The universe has always existed), while the past time-sphere
may be conceived of as distant from t0(e g.In those days Cleopatra ruled over Egypt) or as almost reaching up to it (e g The manager left his office a minute ago) It follows that one and the same situation can often be conceptualized
either as lying in the past time-sphere or as lying in the pre-present (compare
I met her just now with I have just met her) This is in keeping with the
observation (made in 2.36) that the past time-sphere is not conceptualized as more distant from t0than the pre-present zone (The past time-sphere is con-ceived of as separated from the present time-sphere, whereas the pre-present
zone forms part of it, but the actual distance between the situation time and
t0is immaterial to this conceptualization.)
8.10 Absolute vs relative tenses
An absolute tense relates its situation time (⫽ the time of its predicated situation) directly to t0by locating that situation time in one of the absolute zones As we have seen, English uses the (absolute) past tense, the present perfect, the present tense and the future tense (or one of the ‘futurish tense forms’⫺ see 2.9) to locate a situation in the past, the pre-present, the present and the post-present, respectively
Arelative tenserelates its situation time to an orientation time other than
t0 In doing so it expresses a T-relation in a temporal domain (see 8.11 below) The two terms can be illustrated by the sentence Yesterday I already knew that I was getting ill Here knew is an absolute past tense form representing its
situation time as lying in the past, while was getting is a relative past tense
form representing its situation time as T-simultaneous (⫽ coinciding) with the situation time ofknew.
8.11 Temporal domain
8.11.1 Atemporal domain has been defined as a structured set of tion times with the following characteristics: (a) except for the ‘central orienta-tion time’ ⫺ see 8.15, each orientation time is temporally related to another orientation time in the domain by means of a tense; (b) at least one of the
Trang 3orientation times in the domain is a situation time (see 2.15.4) A domain is
established by an absolute tense form and expanded by relative tense forms
Thus, in John said he had worked hard all day, the reference is to a past
domain This is established by the absolute past tense formsaid and expanded
by had worked, which is a relative tense form representing its situation time
as T-anterior to the situation time ofsaid See Figure 8.2.
Figure 8.2 The tense structure of John said that he had worked hard all day.
When representing a temporal domain by means of a diagram, we observe the
following conventions The domain is represented by a Venn-diagram because
it is a set of orientation times (each related to another orientation time by a
tense form) The ‘central orientation time’ (see 8.15) is the only orientation
time that is placed on the time line, since it is the only orientation time that is
directly related to t0 A vertical line is used to represent the relation of
T-simultaneity, whereas a slanting line represents either T-anteriority or
T-poste-riority A situation time that is T-anterior to its binding orientation time is
located to the left of the latter; a situation time that is T-posterior to its binding
orientation time is located to the right of the latter All orientation times and
situation times are represented by a cross (or ‘x’), irrespective of whether they
are durative or punctual
8.11.2 A domain isunexpandedwhen it consists of just one situation time
In that case the set of orientation times forming the domain is a singleton An
example of this is He left at five and I will leave at eight, where each tense
form establishes a domain of its own (the one in the past, the other in the
post-present), neither of which is further expanded
8.12 Two past tenses: the absolute preterite vs the
relative preterite
English has anabsolute past tense, which establishes a past domain, as well
as a relative past tense, which expresses T-simultaneity in a past domain
Trang 4The semantics of the absolute preterite is ‘The situation time is located in the past time-sphere (defined relative to t0)’; the semantics of the relative preterite is: ‘The situation time is T-simultaneous with an orientation time in a past domain’.4Arguments for this distinction are adduced in sections 8.23⫺32 below 8.13 Past vs present (time-sphere) tenses
The past (time-sphere) tenses are the tenses showing past tense morphology: the absolute past tense, the relative tenses expressing a single relation in a past domain, viz the relative past tense simultaneity), the past perfect (T-anteriority) and the ‘conditional’ tense (T-posteriority), and the complex-rela-tive tenses with past tense morphology, viz the ‘conditional perfect’ tense (would have V-en) and such (nameless) tenses as are built with had been going
to, would have been going to and would have been going to have V-en.
The present (time-sphere) tenses are the tenses showing present tense mor-phology These are the present tense, the present perfect, the future tense (plus the present tense of the ‘futurish’ tense forms) and the absolute-relative tenses (i e the future perfect and such (nameless) tenses as are built withhave been going to, will have been going to and will have been going to have V-en).5
8.14 Temporal subordination or temporal binding
(T-binding)
By this we mean the phenomenon that a tense form T-relates a situation time
to another orientation time in a domain Thus, in John said he would do
4 This is actually a simplification In 9.17.1 we will see that a post-present binding orienta-tion time may be treated as if it were t 0 , i e as a ‘pseudo-t 0 ’, and that in that case we can speak of a ‘pseudo-past time-sphere’ and ‘pseudo-past subdomains’ A pseudo-past subdomain is established by a ‘pseudo-absolute’ past tense and expanded by the relative tenses typical of (true) past domains:
(i) [Even if there are witnesses to the hold-up we are planning] they will no doubt say
to the police that theydidn’t notice what was going on.
In this example,didn’t notice is a absolute past tense form establishing a
pseudo-past subdomain in the post-present domain established bywill say; was going on
ex-presses T-simultaneity in that pseudo-past subdomain ⫺ see section 9.18.3 It follows that the correct definition of the semantics of the relative past tense is: ‘The situation time is T-simultaneous with an orientation time in a past or pseudo-past domain or subdomain’ (Another example of a relative past tense expressing T-simultaneity in a pseudo-past (sub)domain is when a pre-present domain is developed as if it were a past one:He’s told me once or twice that he was an only child ⫺ see 9.10.1.)
5 Judging from the Internet, some of these ‘nameless’ tenses are hardly ever used, but this does not alter the fact that they are theoretically possible and that their semantics (i e the structure of temporal relations which they express) is fully transparent.
Trang 5it, the situation time of would do is temporally bound by (⫽ temporally
subordinatedto) the situation time ofsaid The latter is thebinding
orien-tation time In order to avoid any confusion with other meanings attributed to
the terms ‘bind’, ‘binding’ and ‘bound’ in the linguistic literature (e g ‘bound
pronouns’, ‘bound variables’) we will regularly use ‘T-bind’, ‘T-binding’ and
‘T-bound’ in our discussion of T-relations (i e temporal relations expressed
by tenses ⫺ see 2.16.1)
It is important to see that T-binding is only possible within one and the
same temporal domain A T-relation between a situation time and t0is not a
T-binding relation: in a clause using an absolute tense, the situation time is by
definition not T-bound (i e not temporally subordinated)
Trang 6II Temporal domains: further terminological
apparatus
The one orientation time that is not T-bound by any other in a domain is the central
orientation time The absolute zone in which it is located determines the overall
tempo-ral nature of the domain Thus, in (He said) he would do it tomorrow, the situation
time referred to bywould do forms part of a past domain, established by the past tense
form said (or, in the absence of a head clause in the past tense, by an unspecified
central orientation time located in the past zone) There is a certain correlation between
temporal subordination and syntactic subordination: for one, the use of a relative tense
to express T-simultaneity is excluded in a syntactically independent clause; for another, the use of an absolute tense is excluded in some types of subclauses
If a situation time is represented as T-simultaneous with another situation time, the
exact duration and temporal location of the T-bound situation time is unidirectionally determined by the binding situation time Thus, in I noticed at once that Jim was ill,
the situation time expressed by [Jim] was [ill] strictly coincides with the time of my
noticing it, which is merely a point (rather than a durative interval) in the past time-sphere Of course, the full situation time of Jim being ill will be extralinguistically interpreted as much longer than, and as properly including, the time of me noticing it and may possibly even include t0, which shows that W-simultaneity is a concept quite
different from T-simultaneity
Sometimes the speaker does not use a relative tense form, expanding an already
established domain, but instead uses an absolute tense form, causing a shift of domain,
either within the same time-zone or from one time-zone to another When the shift of domain is within the same zone, the hearer may draw clues as to the temporal ordering
of the situation times from such sources as the presence of temporal adverbials, the order of appearance of the clauses, the linguistic and extralinguistic context, his prag-matic knowledge of the world or, as will be summarized below in 8.45, the (non)-bounded representations of the situationsreferred to
We speak of a shift of temporal perspective when a situation intended to be
interpre-ted as locainterpre-ted in one absolute zone is referred to by a tense form that is characteristic
of another zone, as when the present tense is used with reference to the post-present zone (e g They’re leaving soon), to the past zone (e g Napoleon strikes back) or to
the pre-present zone (e g.I hear John has been promoted).
8.15 Central time of orientation (central orientation time) Thecentral orientation timeis the one orientation time in the domain that
is not T-bound by any other orientation time in the domain but is directly
Trang 7related to t0 In most cases the central orientation time is the situation time of
the clause which establishes the domain by using an absolute tense form (as in
He left yesterday) When an absolute-relative tense is used (e g He will have
left by tonight) the central orientation time is the unspecified post-present
ori-entation time (here ‘contained’ in the Adv-time specified bytonight) to which
the situation time is temporally subordinated As noted in 2.42.2, the central
orientation time is the only orientation time of the domain that is put on the
time line when we represent the semantics of a tense (i e the tense structure)
by means of a tense diagram
8.16 The temporal nature of the domain
The temporal nature of the domain is determined by the absolute zone in which
the central orientation time is located Thus, inHe said he would do it
tomor-row the reference is to a past domain, established by said The form would do
locates its situation time in that past domain, even though the ‘doing it’ is
W-understood as lying in the post-present Similarly, inHe would do it tomorrow
(interpreted as free indirect speech), the situation time forms part of a past
domain because the unspecified central orientation time (⫽ the time of ‘his’
thinking, saying, etc.) which T-binds the situation time is located in the past
time-sphere This definition of the nature of a temporal domain accords with
the claim that a relative tense expresses no temporal relation other than a
domain-internal relation between a T-bound situation time and a T-binding
orientation time (As pointed out in 2.16.1, tenses express T-relations, not
W-relations.)
8.17 The definition of T-simultaneity
8.17.1 As noted in 2.16.1, the simultaneity relation expressed by a relative
tense form can be referred to asT-simultaneity(‘tense simultaneity’) in order
to distinguish it fromW-simultaneity(‘world simultaneity’⫺ see also 8.18.1)
In section 2.17, T-simultaneity was defined as a relation of strict coincidence.
This is in keeping with the distinction made between a situation time (the time
of a ‘predicated situation’⫺ see 8.1.3) and the time of a full situation: what is
represented as T-simultaneous with an orientation time is always a situation
time, not the time of a full situation.6 Thus, in I noticed at once that Jim
was ill, the situation time expressed by [Jim] was [ill] and represented as
T-simultaneous (coinciding) with the situation time of [I] noticed is only a
subin-6 Of course, if the situation is L-bounded, the situation time is also the time of the full
situation ⫺ see 2.12.2.