The grammar of the english verb phrase part 100 ppt

Thebefore-clause establishes a dura-tive Adv-time which contains the situation time of the head clause, or another orientation time from the tense structure of the head clause, in terms

This chapter deals with the use of tenses in

sen-tences consisting of a head clause and an

adver-bial time clause if the latter is introduced by

be-fore or after Until-clauses are also included in

the discussion

Part I deals withbefore-clauses We begin by

explaining the temporal structure of before,

which is interpreted as ‘before the time at

which’ The implicit orientation time lexicalized

asthe time in this paraphrase is called the

‘An-chor time’ Thebefore-clause establishes a

dura-tive Adv-time which contains the situation time

of the head clause, or another orientation time

from the tense structure of the head clause, in

terms of inclusion or coincidence The situation

time of thebefore-clause can function as Anchor

time or is T-related to the Anchor time by a

rela-tive tense form

In section B of part I, we investigate the

tenses that can be used in the head clause and

thebefore-clause if the latter functions as a

situ-ation-time adverbial (i e if the situation time of

the head clause is the orientation time that is

contained in the Adv-time denoted by the

be-fore-clause) We come to the conclusion that

there are several possible temporal

configura-tions, the most important of which are

il-lustrated byJohn left before Bill arrived (which

represents both situations as past facts), John

had left before Bill arrived (where the head

clause receives a resultative reading) andJohn

left before Bill had arrived (where the past

per-fect underscores the ‘not-yet-factual-at-t’

read-ing of the before-clause, i e the idea that Bill

had not (yet) arrived when John left)

In section C of part I, we examine the excep-tional cases in which a before-clause functions

as an orientation-time adverbial

Section D of part I is concerned with the vari-ous factors (including the choice of tense) which can induce thebefore-clause to be interpreted as

factual (as in John left before Bill arrived),

counterfactual (as in John died two weeks be-fore he would have celebrated his 30 th birthday)

or not-yet-factual-at-t (as inJohn left before Bill had arrived).

In section E of part I, a comparison is made betweenbefore-clauses and until-clauses.

Part II is devoted toafter-clauses We start by

examining the temporal structure ofafter, which

is interpreted as ‘after the time at which’ The implicit orientation time lexicalized asthe time

in this paraphrase is called the ‘Anchor time’ Theafter-clause establishes a durative Adv-time

which contains the situation time of the head clause, or another orientation time from the tense structure of the head clause, in terms of inclusion or coincidence The situation time of the after-clause can function as Anchor time or

is T-related to the Anchor time by a relative tense form

In the rest of Part II, the possible tense config-urations are examined which can be realized in

a sentence consisting of a head clause and an

after-clause.

In Part III, the main findings of this chapter are summarized

I Adverbial before-clauses

A Introduction

14.1 Terminology

The terminology that will be used here is largely the same as has been used in

the discussion of adverbial when-clauses in chapter 13 The superordinate

clause on which an adverbialbefore-clause syntactically depends will be called

thehead clause We will call the time of the (‘predicated’⫺ see 2.12.1)

situa-tion referred to in the head clause the situation time of the head clause

We will similarly speak of the situation time of the before-clause The

function of an adverbialbefore-clause, and in fact of any time-specifying

adver-bial, is to create anAdv-time, i e to specify a (punctual or durative) interval

which contains (in terms of inclusion or coincidence ⫺ see 2.23.1) either the

situation time of the head clause (in which case the before-clause is a

situa-tion-time adverbial ⫺ see 2.24) or another orientation time to which the

situation time of the head clause is related by the tense form of the head clause

(in which case the before-clause functions as an orientation-time

adver-bial ⫺ see 2.25) The orientation time (from the tense structure of the head

clause) that is contained by the Adv-time will be called the contained

orien-tation time

14.2 The temporal structure of before

The temporal structure of the conjunction before is shown in Figure 14.1.

14.2.1 The conjunctionbefore is semantically equivalent to ‘before the time

{that / at which}’ This is in keeping with the fact that the conjunctionbefore

has actually developed from a phrase of the form ‘before the time that’ or

‘before then that’ (variously realized in Old English astoforan ¤am timan ¤e,

foran to ¤am timan ¤e and toforan ¤am ¤e) The sentence John left before Bill

arrived can therefore be paraphrased ‘John left at a time before the time

{when / at which} John arrived’.1 In this paraphrase, a time before … refers

to the Adv-time, at expresses the containment relation between this Adv-time

1 Since there is no semantic difference between ‘X actualized before the time that Y

actual-ized’ and (the more unwieldy) ‘X actualized at a time before the time that Y actualactual-ized’,

we treat the latter as a valid paraphrase of the former.

and the contained orientation time, and the secondtime refers to the terminal

point of the Adv-time Let us refer to the latter point as the ‘Anchor time’ of the before-clause The temporal structure of the conjunction before can be

represented as in Figure 14.1 (Remember that the contained orientation time

is represented by an x irrespective of whether it is included in the Adv-time or coincides with it.)

Figure 14.1 Representation of the temporal structure of before.

14.2.2 As is clear from Figure 14.1, the conjunctionbefore establishes a

dura-tive Adv-time whose right boundary is an Anchor time (lexicalized asthe time

in the paraphrase ‘before the time that’) The Adv-time contains the contained orientation time (in terms of inclusion or coincidence) If there is inclusion,

before means ‘at some time in the course of the period before’; if there is

coincidence, before means ‘throughout the period before’ As we will see, the

Anchor time may be either the situation time of the before-clause itself or

another (implicit) orientation time to which the situation time of the

before-clause is T-related By contrast, the contained orientation time is nearly always the situation time of the head clause itself (In this respect,before-clauses differ

fromwhen-clauses, which are more easily used as orientation-time adverbials.)

For example:

Johnleft before Bill arrived (The situation time of the head clause, i e the time of John’s leaving, is the contained orientation time, while the situation time of the before-clause is the Anchor time.)

John will leave before Bill arrives (The situation time of the head clause is the contained orientation time, while the situation time of the before-clause is repre-sented as T-simultaneous with the implicit Anchor time.)

14.3 Temporal structures involving a head clause and a

before-clause

14.3.1 It follows from the previous section that at least the following two temporal structures involving a head clause and a before-clause are possible.

In both cases the before-clause functions as a situation-time adverbial.

(a) Firstly, the situation time of the head clause may be contained in the

Adv-time, while the situation time of thebefore-clause is T-related to an implicit

Anchor time (by a relative tense form):

John will leave before the pub closes (The situation time of the head clause is

included in the Adv-time The before-clause uses a ‘Pseudo-t 0 -System form’ ⫺ see

10.2 ⫺ to T-relate the situation time of the before-clause to the implicit Anchor

time The temporal structure of the sentence is shown in Figure 14.2.)

[I hoped that] the convict would be treated well before he was executed (The

situation time of the head clause coincides with the Adv-time The before-clause

uses the relative past ⫺ see 8.12 ⫺ to represent the situation time of the

before-clause as T-simultaneous with the Anchor time Because the past tense in the

be-fore-clause is not an absolute preterite, the situation referred to is not interpreted

as t 0 -factual ⫺ see 14.4.2 below.)

Heleft long before I had arrived (The situation time of the head clause is included

in the Adv-time The before-clause uses the past perfect to represent its situation

time as T-anterior to the implicit Anchor time.)

John will leave before the pub closes (The situation time of the head clause is

included in the Adv-time The situation time of the before-clause is represented as

T-simultaneous with the Anchor time.)

[I expected that] hewould leave before the pub closed (The situation time of the

head clause is the contained orientation time The before-clause uses a ‘relative

past tense’ to represent the situation time of the before-clause as T-simultaneous

with the implicit Anchor time.)

Johnwould leave before the pub had closed (The situation time of the head clause

is the contained orientation time The situation time of the before-clause is

repre-sented as T-anterior to the implicit Anchor time.)

Figure 14.2 The temporal structure of John will leave before the pub closes.

In the above examples, the before-clause each time functions as a

situation-time adverbial, i e it specifies an Adv-situation-time which includes the situation situation-time of

the head clause The situation time of thebefore-clause is each time temporally

subordinated to (⫽ bound by) the Anchor time by means of a relative tense

(As to the head clause, it uses either an absolute or a relative tense form This

is not relevant to the present discussion.)

(b) Secondly, the situation time of the head clause may be contained in the Adv-time (which therefore functions as a situation-time adverbial), while the situation time of thebefore-clause is the Anchor time (This possibility

corresponds exactly to the temporal structure presented in Figure 14.1.) For example:

The mankilled his wife and children before he shot himself (The situation time

of the head clause is included in the Adv-time The situation time of the before-clause is the Anchor time, i e the terminal point of the Adv-time.)

Hewas a well respected citizen before he killed his wife (Similar, except that the situation time of the head clause now coincides with the Adv-time This is another form of ‘being contained’ in the Adv-time.)

Johnhad left before the pub closed.

14.3.2 There are also cases in which thebefore-clause functions as an

orienta-tion-time adverbial (i e the contained orientation time is not the situation time

of the head clause but an implicit orientation time binding the situation time

of the head clause) The following (not very likely) example illustrates nicely how the temporal structure may then look like:

(1) [If the National Health Service is dismantled further] some peoplewill be about

to die before they get medical treatment.

This sentence realizes the structure represented by Figure 14.3

Figure 14.3 The temporal structure of Some people will be about to die before they

get medical treatment.

Sentence (1) can be paraphrased as follows:

(1⬘) In the period before the time when (⫽ at which) they get medical treatment, it

will be the case that some people are about to die

Paraphrase (1⬘) reveals the various temporal relations:

(a) The time referred to byit will be the case is the contained orientation time

of the head clause

(b) In the period indicates this containment relation.

(c) Before expresses that the Adv-time is a time span that lies before (i e.

leads up to) an Anchor time (This ‘before’ relation is expressed by the

conjunction, not by either of the tense forms.)

(d) The Anchor time is indicated by the second occurrence ofthe time in (1⬘).

It remains implicit in (1)

(e) The situation time of the before-clause is bound by the Anchor time in

terms of T-simultaneity: the Pseudo-t0-System formget is used for this.

(f) The string it will be the case that some people are about to die in the

paraphrase reflects the fact that the verb form of the head clause of (1)

(will be about to die) is an absolute-relative tense form: it both establishes

a post-present domain and expresses posteriority in it:2the situation time

of the head clause (i e the time of people dying) is represented as

T-posterior to the implicit contained orientation time (which coincides with

the Anchor time and is the central orientation time of a post-present

do-main)

(g) The situation time of the head clause and the situation time of the

before-clause are bound by different orientation times, which are the (implicit)

‘central orientation times’ (see 8.15) of two different post-present domains:

the situation time of the head clause is bound by the implicit contained

orientation time of the head clause, while the situation time of the

before-clause is bound by the Anchor time

The temporal structure of (1) is rather intricate, but in later sections we will

discuss sentences like the following, whose temporal structures are equally, if

not more, complex:

Before they had gone very far, Jill had already sprained her ankle

Mother will have gone to bed before I have finished my homework

2. Be about to can be used as a ‘futurish’ form expressing posteriority ⫺ see 2.9.1.

14.4 The nature of past tense forms in before-clauses

The situation time of the before-clause may be T-related to the Anchor time (⫽ the

terminal point of the Adv-time, lexicalized as the time in the paraphrase ‘before the

time that’) or may be the Anchor time itself In the former case thebefore-clause uses

a relative tense form, in the latter it uses an absolute tense form This section provides evidence for this claim

In one of the arguments it is noted that before-clauses are ‘factual at t0’ (or ‘t0 -factual’) if they represent their situation as actualizing in the past (e g.John left before Bill arrived) However, when the before-clause forms part of an opaque (intensional)

context, it is interpreted as ‘not-yet-factual at the binding time’ (or ‘not-yet-factual at t’), i e as not yet a fact at the time of the situation time of the head clause (e g.John wanted to leave before Bill arrived).

14.4.1 In section 14.3.1 we have stated that the situation time of the

before-clause may be T-related to the Anchor time (⫽ the terminal point of the Adv-time, lexicalized as the time in the paraphrase ‘before the time that’) or may

be the Anchor time itself In the former case the before-clause uses a relative

tense form, in the latter it uses an absolute tense form

The claim that abefore-clause can use a relative tense form is confirmed by

examples like the following:

I will switch off the lights before I {leave / *will leave} the house (Pseudo-t 0 -System form expressing T-simultaneity with the Anchor time)

[I hoped that] he would switch off the lights before he {left / *would leave} the

house.(Left is a relative past tense form expressing T-simultaneity with the Anchor time; would leave, which would effect ‘indirect binding’, is not grammatical.)

At first sight it would not seem to be as easy to prove the claim that a

before-clause can also use an absolute tense, because (for reasons explained in 10.7.2)

an adverbial before-clause cannot normally use an Absolute Future System

form:

He will leave before the pub {*will close / closes}.

However, there are some exceptions⫺ see 14.5.2 below:

It will be a long time before that {will become / becomes} possible.

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