The grammar of the english verb phrase part 91 pptx

[I could hardly speak.] www 12.17 Tense choice with adverbials indicating a recent indefinite bygone time Four adverbials that indicate a ‘recent indefinite bygone time’ viz.. recently,

I have never heard such nonsense {in my life / before}.

I still haven’t seen him.(in a period up to t 0 )

(At the time) I still did not want to live in London

12.16.2 With actualization adverbials implying a period up to t0, Am E often

uses the past tense, especially in spoken language In colloquial Br E too, the

past tense is sometimes used withalways, ever, and (less frequently) with never:

I already did that (Am E.)(Br E uses I’ve already done that instead.)5

I (have) always said he was not to be trusted

Graham {has always been / always was} a brilliant scientist

{Have you ever seen / Did you ever see} such a beauty?

[One day he pulled me apart in front of the staff.] Inever felt so small in my life.

[I could hardly speak.] (www)

12.17 Tense choice with adverbials indicating a recent

indefinite bygone time

Four adverbials that indicate a ‘recent indefinite bygone time’ (viz recently, just, this minute, lately) can co-occur with an indefinite present perfect However, there are cases

in which the past tense can be used too This use is investigated here for each of the four adverbials

12.17.1 On an indefinite interpretation, the present perfect co-occurs with

four adverbials that indicate a recent indefinite bygone time, viz recently,

just, this minute, lately.

This telegram has just arrived

I have this minute heard that the deal is off

I have recently met him

There haven’t been any burglaries here lately

However, there are cases in which the past tense can be used too In the next

subsections we investigate this use for each of the four adverbials

5 The British National Corpus does contain a couple of examples, though, in which

al-ready combines with the past tense where the present perfect would normally be used:

[“Perhaps we’d better think seriously about getting you away from here, after all.”⫺

“I ain’t going,” said Dolly.] “I alreadytold you so.”

“Very useful advice Shame I alreadygot it from Cowley.”

12.17.2 Br E normally uses the present perfect withthis minute.6

I’ve this minute seen her in the street

However, the past tense is occasionally found when the ‘closeness to now’ (recency) is sufficiently clear:

Excellent timing ⫺ I just this minute stepped into the garden [to be greeted by a

frantic shrieking noise and noticed a Peregrine Falcon with an unfortunate starling

in its talons] (www)

I just this minutetelephoned them [and thankfully, Sundays are fine for them, so ⫺

despite a little initial panic⫺ it needn’t disrupt my planned moving] (www)

I onlyheard about it this minute.

[Well then You haven’t heard?] Sergeant Archer and his mates justleft this minute;

[I would have thought you’d have passed them in the hall.] (www) 12.17.3 Recently combines with the present perfect if it is interpreted as

indi-cating a period leading up to now or when it functions as an adverbial specify-ing a ‘recent indefinite bygone time’ It combines with the past tense if it func-tions as an indefinite specifier of a time which is treated as past

They’ve recently bought a second car.(Recently indicates a ‘recent indefinite bygone time’, i e it is an indefinite specification of a bygone time in a period leading up to now The present perfect receives an indefinite interpretation.)

They recently bought a second car.(Recently is used as an indefinite specification of

a time which is treated as past There is no clear difference of meaning between this example and the previous one.)

I {have recently seen / recently saw} a picture of him in the paper

I haven’t seen Jim recently.(Recently indicates a period leading up to now What is said is that the situation of the speaker seeing Jim has not actualized in that pre-present period The pre-present perfect thus receives an indefinite interpretation.)

It’s only recently that I’ve had time to read newspapers (Recently indicates a period leading up to now The present perfect receives a continuative interpretation.)

He has been considering changing his job recently.(continuative)

12.17.4 Lately is similar to recently, except that it does not combine with the

past tense in Standard Br E

I haven’t seen Jim lately.(Lately indicates a period leading up to now What is said

is that the situation of the speaker seeing Jim has not actualized in that pre-present period The present perfect thus receives an indefinite interpretation.)

Have you been to the dentist lately?(The speaker asks if a particular situation has actualized in a pre-present period The present perfect receives an indefinite inter-pretation.)

6 Of course, we disregard those cases in whichthis minute means ‘right now’:

You put that chain saw away this minute! (www)

He’s only lately begun working here.(Lately is an indefinite specification of a bygone

time in a period leading up to now The present perfect receives an indefinite

inter-pretation.)

The petrochemical market has lately started recovering [after having experienced a

quite sharp recession in 1998.](similar)

It’s only lately that I’ve had time to read the newspaper (Lately indicates a period

leading up to now The present perfect receives a continuative interpretation.)

She has lately been concentrating on writing and recording other genres of music

(continuative) (Examples like these sound rather old-fashioned It is only with only

lately that a continuative interpretation sounds quite natural, as in the preceding

ex-ample.)

12.17.5 When it specifies a time lying immediately before t0,just usually

com-bines with the present perfect in Br E., but (under Am E influence) the past

tense is also occasionally heard

Ihave just had a long talk with the man at the centre of the crisis (LOB)

Shehas just made her first record for Philips, called ‘Kiss Me’ (LOB)

I justmet a friend of yours, Andy Wilson.

12.17.6 With just now, the choice of tense depends on its interpretation,

which is related to its accentuation pattern and position in the clause:

(a) Just now can be used as a synonym of temporal just In that case now is

accented while just is not, and just now follows the verb or takes final

position in the clause This kind ofjust now normally combines with the

past tense rather than the present perfect:

Iheard just now that the deal is off.

I {found / *have found} the missing papers just now.

What was that youwere singing just now?

Examples with the present perfect are extremely rare The BNC only contains

the following two:7

Ihave said just now they must try and stop this coming in because …

Once you’ve got your objectives then you select those themes or ideas from what

you’ve done just now to support that objective.

7 The following are www examples:

Martin Sixsmith was trying to approach it [⫽ the question] from the point of view of

the Civil Service and he, of course, as wehave heard just now from Mr Baume, met

a very vigorous specialist adviser who was prepared, on media matters, to put another

case forward

I’ve been thinking just now about how scared I was, even as a child, to fail to live up

to others’ standards

I’ve said a prayer just now for you and your Bill ( ) Please take good care.

(b) When just now means ‘only just’ (in the sense of ‘only a very short time

ago’),just is more accented than now and just now is normally placed in

pre-verb position, i e before the verb if there are no auxiliaries and other-wise after the first auxiliary In this use,just now combines with the present

perfect and not with the past tense

I {have just now heard / *have heard just now} that the deal is off (The emphasis

is more strongly on recency.)

I have just now noticed that every time I post on blogger, it always shows my

previous post instead of the new one (www) July 27.I’ve just now transferred everything over to our brand new flat (www)

Oh my god,it has just now dawned on me that I will be eighteen soon! (www)

Ihave just now returned from seeing the new E T Special Edition! (www)

(c) Just now can also mean ‘right now’, with now referring to t0 In that case

it combines with the present tense

I’m busy just now [Can’t you come back tomorrow?]

“He’s staying at my flat just now,” said Celia (LOB)

No, Mr Martin, he’s out just now (LOB)

No doubt there will be many readers with new gardens who just noware thinking

of making a vegetable garden for the first time (LOB)

12.18 Tense choice with once

(a) When the adverb once means ‘once upon a time’, it normally collocates

with the preterite, not with the present perfect:

There were once three squaws [One sat on a leopard skin One sat on a doe

skin .] (www)(The present perfect cannot be used.)

(b) The past tense is also the rule whenonce means ‘in the past, but not now’:

TV sets are much cheaper now than they {once were / were once / *have once been}.

Gunswere once common in schools [Until 1969, virtually every public high school

in New York City had a shooting club.] (www)

“What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits” is my favourite Doobies album (www) (c) Once can also mean ‘at a certain time’ Since it is a matter of

conceptual-ization whether ‘at a certain time’ means ‘at a certain time in the past’ or

‘at a certain time in the pre-present’, both the past tense and the present perfect can then be found:

He {oncepromised / has once promised} to help me.

All grownups {were once / have once been} children ⫺ although few of them

remember it

It’s amazing how things thatwere once important are no longer as important [It

can be a gradual change⫺ or sometimes overnight.] (www)

By daylight the bower of Oak’s newfound mistress (…) presented itself as a hoary

building of the Jacobean stage of Classical Renaissance as regards its architecture,

and of a proportion which tells at glance that, as is frequently the case, ithas once

been the manorial hall on a small estate (BNC)

Peat is a soil-like material made up of partly rotted organic matter (things that

have once lived) [It is still used in many composts.] (www)

(d) When once is used in pre-verb position (i e after the first auxiliary or

before the only verb form) and means ‘there has been an occasion when

…’, the present perfect is used:

[John is somebody who spies on his neighbours.] I’ve once seen him opening their

dustbins and searching the contents

[Don’t be afraid to ask.] The chances are these peoplehave once been in a similar

situation themselves (www)

I’m sure you have once posted something, then regretted it! [Think About it!]

(www)

It pains me to say that Ihave once booed one of my team’s players (www)

All our members have once been in the same position, in fact that’s why we

started! (www)

(e) The present perfect is used when the sentence with once can be

para-phrased ‘once X has happened, Y’:

What wehave once enjoyed we can never lose (www) (⫽ ‘Once we have enjoyed

something, we can never lose it.’)

And if youhave once demonstrated your skill at copying chairs, you can get on

with meeting all the requests you will surely have from family and friends (BNC)

Hence we find those whohave once quarrelled carry themselves distantly, and are

ever ready to break the truce (www)

(f) Ifonce means ‘one single time’ (as against twice, three times, etc.) it may

collocate with any tense, including the present perfect In that case it does

not normally fill the pre-verb position

My late Uncle Harry saw the sea only once in his lifetime (⫽ ‘only once in a

past period’)

Ihave read the book only once (⫽ ‘only once in my life, which is a period leading

up to now’) (quantificational constitution reading)

I’ve slept here once only (quantificational constitution reading)

[I don’t think any of the others caused the injury.] Ihave once before heard of this

happening to a Lionhead belonging to a friend of my son (www) (g) Once again and once more can similarly combine with any tense, including

the present perfect

Relationswere once more worsening between them.

Wehad once again had a busy year (www)

Abbeydale and Sheffieldhave once again shown their commitment to developing

world class facilities with this development (www) His tales of wedding planshave once again focused me on the event (www)

All praise the mighty Wharf, for theyhave once again tried something new, exciting

and may I say better (www) Relations have once more seriously worsened between Iraq and the UN Special

Commission (UNSCOM) investigating Iraq’s weapons-of-mass-destruction (www)

III Summary

12.19 Types of temporal adverbials

12.19.1 Temporal adverbials can be categorized as deictic (e g.yesterday, the

day before) or nondeictic (e g at some time or other, at five o’clock) depending

on whether or not they are related to a temporal ‘anchor’ The former can be

further categorized as either absolute deictics (e g.yesterday) or relative

deic-tics (e g. the day before) depending on whether the temporal anchor is t0 or

another time, and as either single-zone adverbials (e g. yesterday) or

multi-zone adverbials (e g.today) depending on whether they refer to only one

abso-lute zone (e g the past zone) or to a time span which includes the present zone

plus the post-present and the pre-present or the past Nondeictic adverbials are

automatically zone-independent.

12.19.2 Temporal adverbials can also be categorized as homogeneous (e g.in

1983) or heterogeneous (e g from 1983 to 1986) depending on whether or not

they can refer to the time interval (Adv-time) in its entirety as well as to any

subpart of it Within the latter class, we can formally distinguish between

inclu-sive adverbials, introduced by (with)in, and noninclusive ones.

12.20 Tense choice with temporal adverbials

12.20.1 Nondeictic adverbials, by virtue of being unanchored, are compatible

both with the past tense and with the present perfect (on an indefinite, often

repetitive reading) Compare:

(a) I got upat two a.m.

(b) [You don’t believe I’ve ever got upat two a.m.? I can assure you.] Ihavegot up

at two a.m [Several times.]

(a) I workeduntil three in the morning.

(b) [“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!]”

(a) I got upbefore 5 o’clock.

(b) You think I’ve never got up before 5 o’clock? I can assure you Ihave got up

before5 o’clock Many times.

12.20.2 Past-zone adverbials are only compatible with the past tense, not with

the present perfect (not even when there is a clear idea of present relevance or

resultativeness):