The grammar of the english verb phrase part 111 pdf

In this book it refers to the phenome-non that a present time-sphere tense or an absolute past tense in the ‘original’ direct speech utterance seems to be adapted into, respectively, a c

but without including it (or part of it) Anteriority is W-anteriority if A is

interpreted as anterior to B in the possible world referred to Anteriority is

T-anteriority if it is expressed by a tense form Thus, inJohn was born in London

and died in Glasgow, the former situation is interpreted as W-anterior to the

latter, but it is not represented as T-anterior to it: the two past tense forms

merely locate the times of the two situations in the past The same is true of

He said he got up early By contrast, in He said he had got up early, the time

of the getting up early is not only interpreted as W-anterior to the time of the

saying but is also represented as T-anterior to it by the use of the past perfect

form had got up.

Argument: any of the constituents that a verb requires to be used grammatically

in a normal finite clause: a subject, sometimes called the ‘external argument’

(because it does not belong to the predicate constituent), and possibly one or

more ‘internal arguments’, usually called complements (e g a direct object)

Aspect: in this work we distinguish between ‘ontological aspect’ (or ‘lexical

aspect’ or ‘Aktionsart’), ‘grammatical aspect’ and ‘actualization aspect’ Out

of context, the unmarked interpretation of aspect is grammatical aspect.

Aspect auxiliary: the grammatical auxiliarybe, which is used for building

pro-gressive verb forms (Propro-gressive aspect is the only kind of grammatical aspect

that can be systematically expressed by verb forms in English.)

Aspectualizer: lexical verb likebegin, start, commence, quit, stop, finish,

con-tinue, go on, etc., which is placed before a nonfinite clause and which expresses

the situation described by this clause as beginning, ending or ongoing Thus,

go on is an aspectualizer inLet’s go on working.

Assertion (or statement): the illocutionary force of a declarative sentence

Sen-tences likeI love you and I don’t love you ‘make an assertion’.

Assertive clause: A clause is assertive when the message (but not necessarily

the form) of the clause is that of an affirmative assertion Otherwise (i e when

the message is negative and / or interrogative) the clause is nonassertive Only

nonassertive clauses can contain nonassertive items (‘negative polarity items’)

A negative assertion likeI didn’t lift a finger to help him is assertoric (⫽ makes

an assertion) but nonassertive ⫺ hence the use of the nonassertive item lift

a finger.

Assertive item: word or phrase (often also called ‘positive polarity item’) which

can normally only be used in an assertive clause, i e which cannot occur

(ex-cept, sometimes, echoically) within the scope of a negator or question For

example,already is an assertive item: it can be used in positive (⫽ affirmative)

statements (e g.I have already met him) and in interrogative clauses expecting

a positive reply (e g Have you already seen him?), but not in (nonechoic)

negative statements (e g.I haven’t met him {yet / *already}), nor in

interroga-tive clauses that do not expect a posiinterroga-tive reply (e g.Have you seen him yet?).

Another example is ‘far from ⫹ adjective’: He {is / *isn’t} far from satisfied).

Assertoric: A clause is assertoric if it realizes the illocutionary act of making

an assertion An assertoric clause is usually declarative, but there are cases in which an interrogative clause also makes an assertion: (a) if it expresses a rhetorical question, i e if the clause is interrogative in form but is interpreted

as being declarative (e g Need I say more? on the interpretation ‘Surely, I

needn’t say more.’) and (b) if the interrogative clause expresses a ‘yes /

no-question’ (⫽ polar question) which is interpreted as an assertion followed by

a question tag asking for confirmation, e g.Is he your leader, then? Also

assert-oric are so-called declarative questions, i e sentences that have the syntactic form (word order) of a declarative sentence but are interpreted as asking a question, e g You’re his father?

Atelic: ontological feature, the opposite of telic Said of a situation-template

(denoted by a verb phrase) which does not represent the kind of situation referred to as telic, i e as tending towards a natural point of completion be-yond which the situation cannot continue Thus, inBetty ran, the verb phrase

ran is atelic (⫽ not telic) We also apply the label to the kind of situation that

is not represented as telic – thus, running is an ‘atelic situation’ – and, by further extension, to clauses containing an atelic verb phrase

Atemporal when -clause: see case-specifyingwhen-clause.

Attributive noun phrase: when used in Donnellan’s (1966) sense, said of a noun

phrase which has definite reference in the sense that the speaker assumes the hearer to be familiar with the expression (⫽ NP) in question, but not with the identity of the referent of the phrase For example, when a theft has been committed, the speaker can use the NPthe thief even if he does not know who

committed the theft and does not assume the hearer to know that either In other words, Donnellan (1966) applies the label ‘attributive’ to a linguistic expression which is definite in the sense that it gives a description which both the speaker and the hearer are familiar with, but which is not sufficient for either to ‘pick out’ the referent from a set of potential referents

Auxiliary: see auxiliary verb.

Auxiliary verb (or auxiliary): ‘helper’ verb, i e a verb which has the

grammati-cal function of helping the speaker to build a complex verb form (e g.will and have in will have put) Unlike a lexical verb (or ‘full verb’), an auxiliary has

little or no lexical meaning: it expresses either a grammatical notion (like ‘pas-sive’, ‘progres‘pas-sive’, ‘tense’) or a modal idea (like necessity, possibility,

permis-sion, etc.) or it has no meaning at all and is used simply because an auxiliary

is required in certain contexts (This is true of the ‘periphrastic auxiliary’ do,

as in“I don’t like it Do you?” ⫺ “Yes, I do.”) Morphosyntactically, an

auxil-iary differs from a lexical verb in that it has the NICE-properties, i e it does

not triggerdo-support in clauses that are negative, interrogative, used in code

or involving emphasis on the verb

Background: in a narrative text, the linguistic material which refers to durative

and descriptive situations and which provides subsidiary information about the

foreground (This material is then said to have a ‘backgrounding’ function

This means that it does not ‘push forward’ the story.)

Backshifting: (1) change of tense forms when there is a shift from a present

time-sphere temporal domain to a past time-sphere temporal domain For

ex-ample, Has he done it? is ‘backshifted’ to had he done it in indirect reported

speech after a verb in the past tense:I wondered if he had done it The speaker

can also use backshifting for various other reasons, e g for tentativeness:

{Will / would} you please help me? However, the term is especially used in

connection with past represented speech In this book it refers to the

phenome-non that a present time-sphere tense or an absolute past tense in the ‘original’

direct speech utterance seems to be adapted into, respectively, a corresponding

past time-sphere tense or a past perfect as a natural result of the fact that the

situation time which was ‘originally’ T-related to the temporal zero-point is

now T-related to the central orientation time of a past domain (Backshifting

is thus a semantically motivated phenomenon, viz the use of past time-sphere

tenses in a past domain) rather than a purely formal operation.) Compare, for

example,The shop {is / will be / has been / will have been / was} closed and

They said that the shop {was / would be / had been / would have been / had

been} closed (2) See modal backshifting.

Basic orientation time: the time of orientation in the structure of a tense from

which the temporal relations expressed by the tense begin to be computed In

most cases the basic orientation time is the temporal zero-point (t0) (e g He

has done it), but there are cases in which it is a post-present binding orientation

time which is treated as if it were t0(e g [If Jim does it] he will have to admit

to his wife that he has done it) In both examples, the present perfect form has

done locates the time of the situation of Jim’s doing it before the basic

orienta-tion time In the first example the basic orientaorienta-tion time is t0; in the second it

is a pseudo-zero-point, viz the post-present situation time (⫽ the time of

ad-mitting) which is treated as if it were t0 (See also Pseudo-t0-System.)

‘Before now’ interpretation: one of the two T-interpretations of the present

perfect, namely ‘The situation time is included in the pre-present and covers a

portion of the pre-present that is not adjacent to t0’, as in I’ve never seen

that girl before This T-interpretation corresponds to the inclusion sense of the

containment relation (between the pre-present zone and the situation time) that

is part of the core meaning of the present perfect

Bifunctional temporal adverbial: temporal adverbial that functions at the same

time as a time-specifying adverbial and as a duration adverbial In other words,

it specifies both the temporal location of the situation time and the length of the corresponding full situation, as inI was there from six to eight.

Binding (or temporal binding or temporal subordination): the phenomenon

that a situation time is T-related to another situation time (or another orienta-tion time) within a temporal domain For example, in Meg had seen Jill, the

situation time of had seen is bound by (or ‘temporally subordinated to’) an

orientation time which is not explicitly referred to but forms part of a past temporal domain (Strictly speaking, it is only situation times that can be bound, but by extension we can also apply the label to the situation itself In this way we can say that in Sue knew that Meg had seen Jill the situation of

knowing is the ‘binding situation’, while the situation of Meg seeing Jill is the

‘bound situation’.)

Binding orientation time: orientation time that serves as the starting point of a

temporal relation expressed by a relative tense Thus, inMeg said that she had seen Jill, the situation time of Meg’s speaking is a binding situation time

be-cause the time of her seeing Jill (⫽ the ‘bound situation’) is represented as T-anterior to it by the past perfect tense

Block (an implicature): prevent an implicature from arising See implicate Bound: see bound situation time.

Bound situation time: situation time that is T-related to (or ‘temporally

subor-dinated to’ or ‘temporally bound by’) an orientation time in a domain Thus,

in Meg said that she had bought a bike, the situation time of the situation of

buying is bound by (more specifically: represented as T-anterior to) the situa-tion time of the situasitua-tion of Meg’s speaking (which is the ‘binding situasitua-tion’)

Bounded: said of a particular instance of actualization of a situation, namely

if the actualizing situation is either linguistically represented or W-interpreted

as reaching a terminal point, i e as coming to an end Thus, the clauseJohn read the letter represents the situation of John reading the letter as having

come to an end, unlike the clauseJohn was reading the letter, which does not

tell us whether John actually finished reading the letter or not The term is also applied to clauses and sentences that represent (the actualization of) a situation as bounded

Boundedness: the quality of being bounded.

Bounding constituent: constituent (of a clause) which adds the idea of a

tempo-ral right boundary, thus rendering the clause L-bounded, e g the object

argu-ment in He read a poem, the duration adverbial in We worked for six hours

or the bifunctional temporal adverbial in Jane was in her study from two

to five.

Bygone: preceding the temporal zero-point, i e located in the past zone or in

the pre-present zone For example, bothHe did it and He has done it represent

the actualization of the situation referred to as bygone We speak of a ‘bygone

situation’ as well as of a ‘bygone time’ A further distinction is made between

‘T-bygone’ (⫽ linguistically represented as bygone by a tense) and ‘W-bygone’

(⫽ what is bygone in the actual world but is not necessarily represented as

bygone by a tense form)

Cancel (an implicature): deny that a suggested interpretation is correct See

im-plicate

Case-specifying when -clause (or atemporal when -clause): when-clause which

does not specify a time but describes the case(s) in which the head clause

situation actualizes (i e the case(s) in which the head clause proposition is

true) For example,Children are orphans when their parents are dead.

Central orientation time: the one orientation time in a temporal domain that

is not T-bound by any other orientation time in the domain but is directly

related to the temporal zero-point In most cases the central orientation time

is the situation time of the clause which establishes the domain by using an

absolute tense (e g knew in I knew that Tom hadn’t seen the film yet and

would want to go and see it) When an absolute-relative tense is used (e g He

will have left by tonight) the central orientation time is the orientation time

(here ‘contained’ in the post-present Adv-time specified by tonight) to which

the situation time is temporally subordinated

Central time of orientation: see central orientation time.

Clause: linguistic expression with a syntactic structure A prototypical clause

consists of a noun phrase functioning as subject and a verb phrase (and

option-ally some other constituents) functioning as predicate

Cleft (or cleft construction, cleft sentence, it -cleft): specificational sentence of

the form ‘It (or occasionally this or that) ⫹ be ⫹ focused constituent ⫹

wh-clause’ in which the wh-clause expresses the variable to which a value

(ex-pressed by the focused constituent) is given, e g.It was John who did it (This

is interpreted as ‘the x who did it was: John’.) Apart from a wh-clause, the

variable may also be expressed by a that-clause (e g It was John that did it)

or, provided the value is an indication of duration, asince-clause (e g It’s three

weeks since he left) In the latter case we speak of a since-cleft.

Cleft construction: see cleft.

Cleft sentence: see cleft.

Closed condition: a condition which the speaker assumes to be fulfilled in the

actual world (e g.If, as you say, you can’t accompany me tonight, [I’ll have to look for someone else]) or which he assumes to be going to be fulfilled in a

future possible world (e g.If, as you say, he will come here himself tomorrow,

[there is no point in phoning him now]) Clauses expressing a closed condition

are typically echoic

Code: the use of an auxiliary as pro-form for an entire verb phrase (as inJohn will not be sleeping, but I will).

Co-extensive interpretation: one of the two T-interpretations of the present

perfect, namely ‘the situation time is co-extensive with the pre-present and therefore leads up to t0’, as inI’ve been thinking about you This

T-interpreta-tion corresponds to the coincidence sense of the containment relaT-interpreta-tion (between the pre-present zone and the situation time) that is part of the core meaning of the present perfect

Coincidence: one form of containment relation (the other being inclusion)

Co-incidence may be the containment relation between the time of the full situation and a situation time which is strictly simultaneous with the former, as inJohn left at five o’clock) It may also be the containment relation between an

Adv-time (⫽ adverbially specified time) and a situation time, as in John left at five o’clock, or between an Adv-time and an orientation time to which the situation

time is T-related, as inAt five o’clock John had already left.

Common Adv-time: in a complex sentence involving a head clause and an

adverbial when-clause, the Adv-time of the head clause is interpreted as

coin-ciding with the Adv-time of the when-clause (This coincidence relation is due

to the semantics of when, which means ‘at a / the time at which’.) The term

‘common Adv-time’ is used to refer to these two coinciding Adv-times

Complement (or verb complement): a VP-internal argument of a verb, such as

a direct object (e g [I hit] him), indirect object (e g [I gave] him [a kite]),

subject complement (e g [Bill is] ill), object complement (e g [We called him]

a fool), prepositional object (e g [I looked] into the question [carefully]).

Complement clause: clause functioning as complement of a verb, such asthat

he was ill in He said that he was ill.

Complex relation (or complex T-relation): temporal relation of the sort

ex-pressed by a complex relative tense For example, the conditional perfect (would have V-ed) expresses T-anteriority to an orientation time which is itself

T-posterior to some other orientation time in a past domain The combination

of T-posteriority and T-anteriority is a ‘complex relation’

Complex relative tense: tense expressing two or more temporal relations at

once within the same temporal domain Examples are the conditional perfect

(e g would have left) and some nameless tenses with (very unusual) forms

such aswould have been going to leave or would be going to have left.

Complex sentence: sentence minimally consisting of one head clause and one

subclause A complex sentence may involve several subclauses, some of which

function as head clauses supporting other subclauses For example, inJohn left

after I had told him that his shirt was dirty, the clause after I had told him is

at the same time a subclause depending on John left (which is the ‘matrix’)

and the head clause on which depends the subclause that his shirt was dirty.

Complex T-relation: see complex relation

Compound sentence: sentence consisting of two or more coordinate clauses (⫽

clauses of equal rank), in other words, sentence in which none of the

constitu-ent clauses is syntactically subordinate to another, e g I will trim the hedge

and you will mow the lawn.

Conditional: As a noun, this term is short for either ‘conditional sentence’ (i e.

a combination of a conditional clause and a head clause) or ‘conditional tense’

Conditional perfect: see conditional perfect tense

Conditional perfect tense (or conditional perfect): complex relative tense whose

forms are built by combining the auxiliary would with the perfect infinitive

(have V-ed) of the main verb The semantics of this tense is: ‘The situation

time is T-anterior to an orientation time which is itself T-posterior to some

orientation time in a past domain or in a past or pseudo-past subdomain.’ For

example: [Bill {promised / had promised}] that he would have finished the job

by the end of the day.

Conditional sentence: combination of a conditional clause and a head clause

(e g.I won’t be sad if she dies).

Conditional tense: relative tense whose tense forms are a combination of the

auxiliary would and the present infinitive of the main verb The semantics of

this tense is: ‘The situation time is T-posterior to an orientation time that forms

part of a past domain, (e g [He promised] he would do it), or of a past

subdomain (e g [He admitted that he had promised] he would do it) or of a

pseudo-past subdomain (e g [Don’t always make promises Sooner or later

you will regret that you promised] you would do something)’.

Conjugated verb (form): verb (form) showing conjugation Synonym: finite

verb (form)