The grammar of the english verb phrase part 94 ppt

Thus, in 2a the Adv-time of the head clause contains the situation time of the head clause, whereas the Adv-time of thewhen-clause contains an implicit orientation time to which the situ

when-clause’ As we will see in 13.11, the interval of time referred to as ‘Adv-time of the head clause’ will normally be interpreted as the same interval as that referred to as ‘Adv-time of thewhen-clause’ When concentrating on the

fact that these two Adv-times are identical, we will use the term ‘common Adv-time’ to refer to either of them In (2b), the common Adv-time is the time interval lexicalized by the antecedent (a time) of the relative clause In (2a), the

common Adv-time remains implicit, i e there is no NP naming the interval

in question

As noted in 2.23.1, the orientation time which is specified (i e contained)

by an Adv-time will be called the ‘contained orientation time’ This may

be either the situation time or another (nonlexicalized) orientation time to which the situation time is temporally related Thus, in (2a) the Adv-time of the head clause contains the situation time of the head clause, whereas the Adv-time of thewhen-clause contains an implicit orientation time to which the

situation time of the when-clause is T-anterior Using the terminology

intro-duced in 13.2 above, we can say that in (2a) [John left when Bill had already arrived] the when-clause as a whole functions as a situation-time adverbial

with respect to the head clause, whereaswhen (meaning ‘at which time’)

func-tions as orientation-time adverbial in the when-clause itself: the sentence is

interpreted as ‘John left at timet, at which time Bill had already left’.

In John died when he was in Spain it is the situation time of the head

clause that is the ‘contained orientation time of the head clause’, i e the orientation time from the structure of the tense in the head clause that is con-tained by the common Adv-time InJohn had already left when Bill arrived it

is the orientation time to which the situation time of the head clause is anterior that is the contained orientation time of the head clause Similarly, the ‘ con-tained orientation time of thewhen-clause’ is either the situation time of thewhen-clause (as in John left when Bill arrived) or another orientation time

to which the situation time of the when-clause is T-related (as in John left when Bill had already arrived).

13.3.4 In sum, the semantic structure of when is as represented by Figure

13.5 (Because the contained orientation time of the head clause and the con-tained orientation time of the when-clause may both in principle be either

durative or punctual, and because an Adv-time may either include the con-tained orientation time or coincide with it, this representation covers all pos-sibilities: all three elements (contained orientation time of the head clause, contained orientation time of thewhen-clause and common Adv-time) may in

principle be durative or punctual, so that the common Adv-time may either include both contained orientation times or coincide with them or include the one and coincide with the other.)

common Adv-time

x

contained orientation time

of the head clause

contained orientation time

of the when-clause

Figure 13.5 The semantic structure of when.

It should be clear that the above analysis accords perfectly with the fact that

when is interpreted as ‘at a/the time at which’ It accounts for the presence of

each constituent in this paraphrase: the firstat expresses the containment relation

between the Adv-time of the head clause and the contained orientation time of

the head clause; the NPthe time indicates the Adv-time of the head clause; the

secondat expresses the containment relation between the Adv-time of the

when-clause and the contained orientation time of thewhen-clause; finally, the pronoun

which indicates the Adv-time of the when-clause and, as a relative pronoun,

iden-tifies the Adv-time of thewhen-clause with the Adv-time of the head clause.

As will become clear when we discuss the temporal structures ofbefore and

after in chapter 14, there are no other temporal conjunctions whose temporal

structure is anything like that represented by Figure 13.5 The reason is simply

thatwhen is not really a temporal conjunction at all, but is a headless relative.

The temporal structure represented by Figure 13.5 can only be that of a

head-less relative (This is clear from the original representation in Figure 13.3.)

13.3.5 The analysis also explains why adverbialwhen-clauses referring to the

post-present use the present tense rather than the future tense:

John will leave when Bill {arrives / *will arrive}.

The temporal structure of this sentence is shown in Figure 13.6:

t 0 will leave

—————— ——— —————x—————

t0

—— —— ———

x

x

arrives

Figure 13.6 The tense structure of John will leave when Bill arrives.

As predicted by our theory (see 10.3), the head clause uses the future tense

to establish a post-present domain, while the Adv-time-clause uses the present tense (as a form of the Pseudo-t0-System⫺ see 10.2) to represent the situation time of thewhen-clause as T-simultaneous with the contained orientation time

of thewhen-clause In more detail:

(a) The future tense form will leave locates the situation time of the head

clause in the post-present

(b) Because it contains the situation time of the head clause, the common Adv-time ⫺ i e the element ‘time’ in the ‘at the time at which’ meaning of

when ⫺ must also lie in the post-present.

(c) Because the common Adv-time also contains the contained orientation time of thewhen-clause (i e the ‘at which [time]’ element in the meaning

ofwhen), the latter must also lie in the post-present.

(d) The relation of coincidence between the situation time of thewhen-clause

and the contained orientation time of thewhen-clause has to be expressed

by the present tense (used as part of the Pseudo-t0-System) As noted in 10.2, the Pseudo-t0-System uses the present tense to represent a situation time as coinciding with a binding orientation time which is treated as a post-present ‘pseudo-t0’ (The binding orientation time in question is the contained orientation time of thewhen-clause.)

13.3.6 The analysis presented here also explains why the use of a tense form expressing T-simultaneity in the when-clause does not automatically provoke

an interpretation in which the situation time of thewhen-clause is taken to be

simultaneous with the situation time of the head clause Let us consider the sentence John will leave when Bill arrives, whose temporal structure contains

the following relations:

(a) There is a common Adv-time established bywhen This contains both the

contained orientation time of the head clause and the contained orientation time of thewhen-clause.

(b) The contained orientation time of the head clause is the situation time of the head clause (will leave), which is punctual.

(c) The contained orientation time of the when-clause is an implicit

orienta-tion time which binds the situaorienta-tion time of thewhen-clause in terms of

T-simultaneity (coincidence)

(d) Since the situation time of the when-clause is punctual and coincides with

the contained orientation time of thewhen-clause, the latter is also

punc-tual

(e) It follows that the two contained orientation times are punctual

As we will see, if the two contained orientation times are punctual, the com-mon Adv-time containing them is normally (i e by implicature) also conceived

of as punctual The unmarked interpretation of John will leave when Bill

ar-rives is therefore for the situation time of the head clause and the situation

time of thewhen-clause to coincide However, John will leave when Bill arrives

will also turn out to be true if John’s leaving takes place immediately after

Bill’s arrival This follows from the fact that the implicature can be blocked or

cancelled, in which case the common Adv-time may be durative even if the

two situation times (and hence the two contained orientation times)3are

punc-tual Strictly speaking,John will leave when Bill arrives expresses no more than

that John’s leaving and Bill’s arrival will actualize within the common

Adv-time: they need not actualize at exactly the same moment

That the common Adv-time can be conceived of as durative follows from

the absence of a temporal NP lexicalizing it: the length of the common

Adv-time remains unspecified because there is no lexical item imposing boundaries

on it (When the Adv-time is lexicalized as yesterday, last week, at five, in the

afternoon, etc., its boundaries are clear But without lexicalization no

bound-aries are specified.) However, it will be pointed out below that there is an

implicature saying that, failing an indication to the contrary, the common

Adv-time should be conceived of as having the same length as the situation Adv-time of

the when-clause This explains why the unmarked interpretation of John will

leave when Bill arrives is for the two situations to actualize simultaneously If

the situation time of the when-clause is punctual, the contained orientation

time of the when-clause binding it in terms of T-simultaneity (coincidence)

must also be punctual; if, moreover, the situation time of the head clause

(which is the contained orientation time of the head clause contained in the

common Adv-time) is also punctual, then the common Adv-time is by

implica-ture also conceived of as punctual It follows that in that case the situation

time of the head clause is interpreted as coinciding with the situation time of

thewhen-clause However, there is also a marked interpretation, on which the

common Adv-time is longer and the two situation times contained in it do not

coincide This reading can be triggered, for example, by a causal reading of

the when-clause: if John will leave because of Bill’s arrival, then he will leave

after Bill’s arrival (probably immediately after it).

13.3.7 The observation that the two situation times are not related to each

other, except indirectly (i e both are contained in the common Adv-time, as

in John left when Bill left, or are related to an implicit orientation time

con-tained in the common Adv-time, as in John left when Bill had already left)

thus accounts for the fact that when-clauses are sometimes interpreted in a

way similar to conditional clauses that are interpreted in terms of ‘sloppy

W-3 We use the word ‘hence’ because in the head clause it is the punctual situation time that

functions as contained orientation time, whereas in thewhen-clause the punctual

situa-tion time is T-simultaneous ( ⫽ coinciding) with the contained orientation time.

simultaneity’ (see 9.20.4.), e g You’ll arrive at 8.35 if you take the 7.56 bus (Take is a form expressing T-simultaneity, but the two situations are not

interpreted as W-simultaneous.) Consider examples like the following:

When John receives your letter, he will phone the police

Here the when-clause uses a tense form expressing T-simultaneity in spite of

the fact that the situation time of thewhen-clause is not really W-simultaneous

with the situation time of the head clause Of course, the fact that this is possible is not surprising once it is seen that the tense of thewhen-clause does

not directly relate the situation time of the when-clause to the situation time

of the head clause, but it probably does look special to those who are not aware of this because they are not aware of the fact that there are three covert constituents in the temporal structure of when, viz the contained orientation

time of the head clause, the contained orientation time of thewhen-clause and

the common Adv-time containing both The first two of these constituents are orientation times which are involved in the tense structure of the tense of the head clause and thewhen-clause, respectively In sum, if (for convenience) we

go on to use the term ‘sloppy simultaneity’ (which, in a sense, we can do because the situation time of the when-clause is not interpreted as

T-simulta-neous with the situation time of the head clause in spite of the fact that the

when-clause uses a tense expressing T-simultaneity), then we have to be aware

of the fact that the phenomenon has nothing to do with a special use of T-simultaneity tenses (as in the case of conditional clauses) but with the nonappli-cation of the implicature that the two orientation times contained in the com-mon Adv-time should be interpreted as coinciding with each other For this reason we will henceforth speak ofpseudo-sloppy simultaneitywhere

when-clauses are concerned

The following examples further illustrate the possibility of when-clauses

receiving a pseudo-sloppy simultaneity reading:

When John’s carcrashes, he will buy a new one.

When Johngoes on holiday he will give the key of his house to a neighbour.

The implicit common Adv-time here contains the situation time of the head clause and the implicit orientation time with which the situation time of the

when-clause is T-simultaneous For pragmatic reasons (viz our knowledge of

the actual world), these situations are not interpreted as W-simultaneous with each other (Two times are W-simultaneous with each other if they have at least one point in common ⫺ see 8.18.) In the actual world, it is normal to buy a new carafter the old one crashes but not in the course of its crashing.

As already noted, this analysis makes it clear that it is not the case that the tense form of thewhen-clause expresses sloppy simultaneity (as in the case of

open conditionals likeIf John’s car crashes, he will probably buy a new one):

the tense form of thewhen-clause expresses true T-simultaneity (⫽ coincidence)

between the situation time of the when-clause and the contained orientation

time of the when-clause In those cases where the common Adv-time includes

the contained orientation time of the when-clause (which coincides with the

situation time of the when-clause) and also includes the contained orientation

time of the head clause (which is the situation time of the head clause if the

when-clause is used as situation-time adverbial), the two contained orientation

times may be located at different times within the common Adv-time It follows

that the situation time of the head clause does not need to be interpreted as

actually coinciding with the situation time of the when-clause, in spite of the

fact that thewhen-clause is used as a situation-time adverbial and uses a tense

form expressing coincidence Such a ‘pseudo-sloppy simultaneity’ reading is a

marked reading, enforced by the context or by pragmatic considerations The

unmarked interpretation (if thewhen-clause is used as a situation-time

adver-bial and uses a tense form expressing T-simultaneity) is for the common

Adv-time to coincide with the contained orientation Adv-time of the when-clause, and

hence with the situation time of the when-clause (since the tense form of the

when-clause represents the situation time of the when-clause as coinciding with

the contained orientation time of the when-clause) Since the common

Adv-time contains the situation Adv-time of the head clause, the latter is then

automati-cally interpreted as W-simultaneous with (because contained in) the situation

time of the when-clause Out of context, John left when Bill arrived receives

this unmarked interpretation This is because the natural interpretation of ‘at

a time at which (time) Bill arrived, at that time John left’ is that John’s leaving

occurred at the same time as Bill’s arrival However, the pseudo-sloppy

simulta-neity reading can be triggered by contextual or pragmatic considerations, for

example, by the fact that it is common knowledge that John cannot stand Bill

and always leaves the room immediately after Bill comes in

13.3.8 Since the ‘common Adv-time’ is implicit, the speaker may in principle

conceive it as having any length he likes Still, it is clear that there must be

pragmatic restrictions on the possibility of representing two non-simultaneous

situations as falling within the same interval of time if the interval in question

is not specified In accordance with the Gricean Maxims, the hearer will

inter-pret the interval as the shortest interval that is in keeping with the pragmatics

of the sentence and its context Thus, in the sentence When John got up, he

put on his best clothes, the common Adv-time will be taken to be a subinterval

of a particular morning (or day) It will not be interpreted as being, say, a

particular week⫺ an interpretation which would allow the possibility that the

two situations actualized on different days Moreover, an interpretation in

terms of W-sequence (pseudo-sloppy simultaneity) will only be selected if the

reading in which the situation time of the head clause is taken to be

W-simulta-neous with the situation time of the when-clause is ruled out, or rendered

implausible, by the context or by pragmatic knowledge As noted above, the unmarked interpretation is for the common Adv-time to coincide with the situ-ation time of thewhen-clause, hence for the situation time of the head clause

to be contained in the situation time of thewhen-clause.

13.3.9 A final piece of evidence in favour of the above analysis is that it offers

a natural explanation of the fact that it sometimes seems irrelevant to the temporal interpretation which of the two situations is processed as head clause situation and which aswhen-clause situation Compare:

Josephine Baker was 68 years old when she died

Josephine Baker died when she was 68 years old

Since in both cases both situation times are represented (directly or indirectly)

as contained in a common Adv-time, there is no clear difference in temporal interpretation between these two sentences Which of them will be used in a particular context will be determined by factors that have to do with the sen-tence’s information structure (i e the distribution of given and new informa-tion) and communication structure (i e the choice of topic and comment), not

by considerations that have to do with temporal interpretation

adverbials

13.4.1 If a clause contains several time adverbials, the various Adv-times are related in terms of containment Thus, inHe left after lunch yesterday the

Adv-time established byyesterday includes the Adv-time established by after lunch,

which itself functions as the Adv-time that contains the situation time In sen-tences like this, one of the time adverbials may be awhen-clause:

He left this morning when he had finished his homework

The next day, when Hal returned from school, there was the bird in a wooden cage with bars in front (LOB)

13.4.2 When the when-clause itself contains a time adverbial, the Adv-time

established by the latter contains the Adv-time of the when-clause (expressed

bywhen) in terms of inclusion or coincidence (It follows that it also contains

the contained orientation time of the head clause.)

He was merely 51 when he died in 1950 (In 1950 establishes an Adv-time which includes ‘the time when’ he died.)

He seemed agitated when he left at 5.15 p.m.(At 5.15 p.m establishes an Adv-time which coincides with ‘the time when’ he left.)