The grammar of the english verb phrase part 90 pot

12.13.3 Anuntil-adverbial specifying a period up to a past orientation time is compatible with the past tense but is seldom used in combination with the present perfect.. It follows that

12.13 Until-adverbials

12.13.1 Prepositional phrases and adverbial clauses introduced by until (or

up to, till, up till) can be used as pure duration adverbials (specifying the

duration of the full situation) In that case the adverbial is compatible with various tenses

I {had worked / worked / would work / have worked / will work / will have worked} until three in the morning

12.13.2 The combinationnot … until X is often used in the sense of ‘as late

as X’, ‘only at X’

John didn’t leave until midnight.(⫽ ‘John only left at midnight’, ‘John left as late

as midnight’, ‘It was midnight before John left’)

The boss wasn’t in his office until noon.(This is ambiguous between ‘It is not true that the boss was in his office until noon’ and ‘It was noon before the boss was in his office’ On the former interpretation, not has wide scope over the whole sentence,

on the latter it only has scope over until noon.)

In such sentences, thenot … until adverbial answers the question When? rather

thanHow long? This means that such a not … until adverbial functions as a

time-specifying adverbial (indicating a punctual time), not as a pure duration adverbial

In the remainder of section 12.13, we will disregard this Adv-time use of

not … until.

12.13.3 Anuntil-adverbial specifying a period up to a past orientation time

is compatible with the past tense but is seldom used in combination with the present perfect The present perfect is only possible if the period indicated by the until-adverbial is interpreted as an Adv-time-up-to-t0

I {stayed / *have stayed} with the body until the police came.

Hehas stayed with his wife’s body until now.

Up till now I’ve lodged only one complaint against her.

It should be noted, however, that in negative sentences involvinguntil now, up

to now, up till now, etc., the past tense can be used to express a contrast

between what was not the case before now but is the case now or is soon going

to be the case:

[Hazardous waste experts know that certain bacteria can essentially eat toxic waste, reducing it to less noxious substances.] But until now theydidn’t know what

mecha-nisms allowed these bacteria to devour chemicals (www)(contrast with the present: now they do know)

[I have finally enabled permanent links for each post, which appear to be working

fine, and provided you with the ability to leave comments.] Sorry I didn’t do that

until now (www)

[That’s true, but it can be easily fixed.] Ididn’t do that until now because I thought

that … (www)

The use of the past tense in the latter example means that the speaker treats

his ‘not doing that’ as a past situation This does not mean that he is actually

doing it at t0.Now usually refers to an interval which is somewhat longer than

the punctual t0 The sentence is therefore fine if the speaker has decided to ‘do

that’ soon What counts is that the speaker has mentally detached himself from

the situation of ‘not doing that’, i e that he perceives this as a situation from

the past

In positive sentences involving until now, the present perfect can often be

used as an alternative to the past tense Compare:

We {had / have had} a small car until now, but yesterday we bought a people-carrier.

We had a small car until now (implies: but that has now changed or is now going

to change)

We have had a small car until now (This also implies that a situation is envisaged

which entails that the situation that has held until now is no longer the case.)

Similarly:

Until now I {always shopped / have always shopped} locally, {but now I mostly

shop on-line / but I’m looking into the possibility of shopping on-line}

Until now I {alwaysshopped / have always shopped} locally (This suggests that the

situation referred to is now over or is soon going to be over This interpretation is

due to the Gricean Maxim of Relevance: if the speaker is still shopping locally, he

will normally say I always shop locally or I have always shopped locally The

addi-tion of until now is only relevant if the situaaddi-tion has now changed or is now going

to change.)

We {had / have had} a small car until now, but yesterday we bought a people-carrier.

12.13.4 Until now is also compatible with a present perfect receiving a

conti-nuative interpretation:

Until now I {have lived / have been living} in the country (continuative

interpreta-tion: implies that I am still living in the country)

The function of theuntil-adverbial here is that of a bifunctional adverbial It

specifies the period-up-to-t0 throughout which the situation actualizes as well

as the duration of thefactual full situation (It leaves open the possibility that

the actualization will continue in the (as yet nonfactual) post-present, in other

words that thepotential full situation is longer than the actual one.)

12.13.5 Until now can also combine with the present perfect in sentences

receiving a nonquantificational constitution reading or an unmarked up-to-now reading:

[There you are!] Where have you been until now?

Until now she has worked intermittently for various companies

Until now I’ve lived in London, Paris, New York, Brussels and Berlin

[Since 1888, the solo parts have been sung by professionals.] From then until now, these soloistshave either already had international recognition or have been young

soloists who have gone on to have very successful careers (www) 12.13.6 On a quantificational constitution reading,until now does not specify

the duration of the individual subsituations It only indicates the Adv-time-up-to-t0 However, in this caseuntil now is normally replaced with up until now,

up till now or up to now:

{Up until now / up till now / up to now / ? until now} I’ve met him three times.

12.13.7 The addition ofuntil now to an indefinite perfect sentence as a rule

results in ungrammaticality if the sentence is positive, not if it is negative:

I have already met her (*until now)

I know Pisa because I have visited it a couple of times (*until now)

I don’t know Pisa because I’ve never visited it until now

12.13.8 Until-adverbials other than until now (or one of its synonyms) cannot

indicate an Adv-time-up-to-t0 It follows that they can only appear in a present perfect sentence on an indefinite interpretation, in which case they function as pure duration adverbials

[Since I have been a student] I have always stayed in college until two days before Christmas

Sentences which do not contain another adverbial (specifying the required period up to now) can only use an indefinite present perfect if they are used in

a contradictive way This implies that the until-adverbial does not represent

new information and that the nuclear accent of the sentence falls onhave:

Ihave(already) worked until three in the morning

This requires a suitable context, such as the following:

[“You’re a lazy bastard You’ve never worked until three in the morning.”⫺ “That’s not true!] I have (already) worked until three in the morning [Several times, in fact!]”

Here the new information is that, contrary to what has been claimed, the situation of the speaker working until eight in the evening has actualized in

the past

12.14 Before-adverbials

12.14.1 Abefore-adverbial is a time-specifying adverbial, not a pure duration

adverbial or bifunctional adverbial Depending on the temporal location of X

inbefore X, it can combine with virtually any tense:

I {left / had left / would leave / would have left / will leave / will have left}

be-fore dark

Abefore-adverbial can only combine with the present tense in habitual

senten-ces, in sentences using the ‘Special Present Time-sphere System’ ⫺ see

3.2⫺10):

I leave before dark every day.(habitual present)

That day they already meet in the cottage before midday.(historic present)

I’m leaving before dawn tomorrow.(present tense used as a futurish form)

The present perfect can combine with before now and with before if this is

interpreted as ‘before t0’

I’ve seen that man {before now / before / *before breakfast this morning}

If X in ‘before X’ is a time other than t0, the adverbial can combine with an

indefinite present perfect, but only to convey an (at least potentially) repetitive

reading in which thebefore-adverbial forms part of the description of the

situa-tion that is located in the pre-present⫺ see 5.11.1:

You think I’ve never got up before 5 o’clock? I can assure you Ihavegot up before

5 o’clock Many times

[When I’ve requested that our positions be posted on certain web sites,] the

adver-tisement period has sometimes closed before the webmaster has updated his/her

list (www)

[Difficulties have arisen under the current arrangements in so far as] the 21 day

periodhas sometimes begun before the CAA has received all the information that it

has needed to consider a planning application (www)

12.14.2 A present perfect combining with before (now) can only yield an

indefinite reading or a quantificational constitution reading

I know you We’ve met before, haven’t we? (indefinite reading)

This kind of diseasehas occurred in our village only twice before (quantificational

constitution reading)

Have you been living in this house?(continuative reading: we cannot add before on

this reading)

Have you ever heard this before?(indefinite reading)

How often have I told you this before?(quantificational constitution reading)

12.14.3 The idea ‘before t0’ usually lexicalizes asbefore rather than as before now This is in keeping with the fact that t0is by definition given

12.14.4 The use of tenses in sentences involving abefore-clause will be

exam-ined in detail in chapter 14

12.15 The present perfect with adverbials referring to

the present

With adverbials referring directly to the present (at present, now, nowadays, these days), it is sometimes possible to use the present perfect (but obviously not the past

tense) when evaluating the present state of affairs resulting from a pre-present situation

12.15.1 Needless to say, a past tense cannot co-occur with a time adverbial referring to the present On the other hand, the present perfect can be used withnow and/or at present in sentences evaluating the present state of affairs

resulting from a pre-present situation We can distinguish between four types First, the sentence may contain a quantificational NP and ‘measure’ the pro-gress which the situation starting before t0 has made at t0 In this case at present can be used, but not now:

{At present / *now / up to now} only half of the goods have been sold [We will have to make a special effort to sell the rest.]

{At present / *now / up to now} I’ve only met two of his four sisters

In this type, the VP (e g sell half of the goods) is ‘telic’ (see 1.39), and so is

the kind of situation represented by the VP minus the quantifier (e g sell the goods) It is the telicity of the latter VP that is relevant: the speaker expresses

how far the situation (which develops towards an inherent terminal point) has developed at t0 (The quantifierhalf of indicates the result of this measuring.)

The present perfect naturally receives a quantificational constitution reading The second type is similar, but now the VP is not telic and what is measured

is the length of a situation that started before t0and still continues at t0 Both

now and at present are acceptable.

At present we’ve been living here for three months [That’s not a very long time.] We’ve walked quite a long way now [Isn’t it time we had a rest?]

I’ve been working for seven hours on end now

Such sentences typically contain a pure duration adverbial or measure phrase They naturally receive a continuative reading

In the third type, the speaker sums up what is the latest state in the

actualiza-tion of a chain of dynamic situaactualiza-tions The sentence is interpreted as ‘Now it is

the case that X is the latest event’:

[He’s completely out of control Last week he stole a bike.] Now he’s been arrested

for dealing hash.(indefinite interpretation)

[He’s completely out of control Last week he stole a bike.] Now he’s been dealing

hash.(nonquantificational constitution reading or unmarked up-to-now reading)

In these examples, we cannot substituteat present for now.

In the fourth type, the speaker evaluates a given state of affairs The sentence

is interpreted as ‘Now X appears to be the case’ or, more generally, ‘The latest

state of affairs is that state X holds as a result of the actualization of Y’

It has become clear now that he is not to be trusted

12.15.2 Nowadays can combine with the present perfect in the fourth of these

meanings only:

{At present / *nowadays} I’ve only met two of his four sisters.(interpretation 1)

{At present / *nowadays} we’ve been living here for three months.(interpretation 2)

[He’s completely out of control Last week he stole a bike.] {Now / *nowadays] he’s

been arrested for dealing hash.(interpretation 3)

It has become unclear nowadays whether … (www)(interpretation 4)

Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare (www)(interpretation 4)

12.15.3 In Standard English,these days usually combines with the present tense:

We’re caring more for our environment these days.

Young actors have a greater instinct these days for film than they do for the stage.

(BNC)

These days Konitzplays everything from standards to samba (BNC)

However, the present perfect is possible too on the resultant state reading (⫽

the fourth interpretation pointed out in 12.15.1):4

These days wehave dealt very satisfactorily with the problem (BNC)

4 The following examples reveal another, American English, use, which does not belong

to Standard British English (yet?) In this use,these days can combine with a present

perfect yielding a continuative interpretation.

[Osama bin Laden had no comment.] He’s been awfully uncommunicative these

days (www)

Oh Well Ihaven’t gotten much done these days [I’ve just been letting everything pass

me by recently.] (www)

We’ve been pretty honest these days, and all of us have talked about our own

inade-quacies and the inadeinade-quacies of our institutions (www)

With women’s magazines these days warts have taken on an entirely new

dimen-sion (BNC) [Keith would hit them Or raher he wouldn’t, but he would want to.] These days he

has decided to be the sort of man who does not hit people (BNC)

These days, I’ve actually reached the point where I’ll just phone friends who e-mail

me [This makes no sense, of course.] (www) I’ve not only matured these days and act more my age, [but also I’ve grown

spiritu-ally by leaps and bounds in recent months.] (www) [I asked these right-wing Bushites:] “Is that the new tone in Washington and the character and dignity we’ve been hearing so much about these days?” (www)

12.16 Tense choice with actualization adverbials

‘Actualization adverbials’ (e g.already, always, not … yet, ever, never, still) referring

to (non)actualization in a past period combine with the past tense Those referring to (non)actualization in a period leading up to now combine with the present perfect, but

in (especially spoken) Am E and to a lesser extent in colloquial Br E., the past tense

is often used as an alternative

12.16.1 Byactualization adverbialswe mean such indefinite time expres-sions as already, always, not yet, ever, never and still, which do not

inher-ently indicate a particular time but refer to (non)actualization in a particular period They combine with the past tense if the period in question is a past one, i e is a period which precedes t0 and is completely cut off from it, and with the present perfect if the period in question is a period leading up to now

In the latter case, a continuative reading is excluded

The trees were already shedding their leaves.(focus on the past time when the situa-tion was in progress)

I’ve never spoken to the President (The perfect receives either an indefinite read-ing ⫺ never ⫽ ‘never in my life up to now’ ⫺ or, in a context askread-ing when or how often I have spoken to the President, a quantificational constitution reading.)

Did you ever beat him?(e g when both of you were still professional players)

Have you ever beaten him?(e g in your life)

I have already paid the bill.(indefinite perfect, with a resultativeness implicature)

I have already been reading poetry.(In spite of the progressive form, the only pos-sible reading is noncontinuative: ‘There has already been a period-before-now during which I was reading poetry.)

The opposition has not yet reacted to Mr Major’s speech