The grammar of the english verb phrase part 116 pptx

In this work we distinguish between the absolute past tense or ‘absolute preterite’, which locates a situation time in the past time-sphere and in doing so establishes a past domain, and

would do it tomorrow, but that is irrelevant to the definition of ‘past temporal

domain’ A domain is a past domain if and only if its central orientation time

is located in the past time-sphere

Past tense (or preterite): (a) The tense realized in such tense forms as ran, walked, was, etc In this work we distinguish between the absolute past tense

(or ‘absolute preterite’), which locates a situation time in the past time-sphere and in doing so establishes a past domain, and the relative past tense (or ‘rela-tive preterite’), which expresses T-simultaneity in a past domain (For example,

inJohn said he was feeling tired, said is an absolute past tense form and was feeling is a relative past tense form.); (b) Both ‘past tense’ and ‘preterite’ are

sometimes used (sloppily) in the sense of ‘past tense form’ (as inThe preterite

‘left’ in ‘John left early’ is an absolute preterite.); (c) The plural form past tenses (but not *preterites) is sometimes used as an abbreviation of ‘past

time-sphere tenses’ (i e the four tenses used to locate a situation time in a past domain, viz the preterite, the past perfect, the conditional tense and the condi-tional perfect)

Past time-sphere: time-sphere conceptualized as a time span of indefinite length

which lies wholly before the temporal zero-point (t0) and is disconnected from t0

Past time-sphere tense: cover term for any of the four tenses which typically

represent a situation time as forming part of a temporal domain that is estab-lished in the past time-sphere: the past tense (or preterite), the past perfect, the conditional tense (realized as ‘would ⫹ infinitive’) and the conditional perfect

(realized as ‘would have ⫹ past participle’) These tenses all involve a past

tense inflectional morpheme

Past time-zone: see past zone.

Past zone (or past time-zone): alternative term for ‘past time-sphere’ (The

terms zone and time-sphere are equivalent where the past is concerned, but not where the present time-sphere is concerned, which involves three time-zones, viz the pre-present, the present and the post-present.)

Past-zone adverbial: single-zone time-specifying adverbial which specifies a

time in the past zone Such an adverbial can combine with the past tense but not with the present perfect For example:The doctor {came / *has come} yes-terday.

Perfect: shorthand for present perfect, present perfect tense form or perfect

tense The use of the term in any of these senses is avoided in this work: the full terms are used instead

Perfect auxiliary: see perfect tense auxiliary.

Perfect gerund: nonfinite verb form which is made up of the present gerund

form having followed by a past participle form and which has a nominal

syn-tactic function, e.g having made in I admit (to) having made a mistake The

perfect gerund, though nontensed in our account, expresses anteriority to the

time of the head clause situation

Perfect infinitive: nonfinite verb form made up of the present infinitive form

have followed by a past participle form, e g have eaten, have been eaten The

perfect infinitive, though nontensed in our account, expresses anteriority to the

time of the head clause situation

Perfect of experience (or experiential perfect): (in this work), a particular usage

type (⫽ a functional reading) of the indefinite perfect, namely one which refers

to the actualization of one or more W-bygone situations which are not

neces-sarily recent but which are ‘carried along’ as part of one’s experience and

knowledge For example:Have you ever been to Casablanca?.

Perfect tense auxiliary: the grammatical auxiliary have, which combines with

a past participle to form a perfect tense form

Perfect tenses: cover term for any of the four tenses whose tense forms involve

the perfect tense auxiliary have: the present perfect (e g I have done it), the

past perfect (e g I had done it), the future perfect (e g I will have done it)

and the conditional perfect (e g.I would have done it).

Perfective aspect: kind of grammatical aspect: the speaker’s choice of verb form

(which is necessarily nonprogressive) reflects his wish to refer to (the

actualiza-tion of) a situaactualiza-tion in its entirety There is no specific reference to any of the

portions (beginning, middle or end) of the actualizing situation

Perfective meaning: the idea that the verb form refers to the actualization of a

situation in its entirety For example, unlikeJohn was drawing a circle, which

expresses imperfective (more particularly progressive) meaning, John drew a

circle expresses perfective meaning.

Performative speech act: speech act that is performed by the very uttering of a

sentence For example, by uttering the sentenceI wish you a merry Christmas,

the speaker actually performs the act of wishing the hearer a merry Christmas

Periphrastic auxiliary: the grammatical auxiliary do, which is used for

do-support, i e which is inserted into a verb phrase that does not contain an

auxiliary when that verb phrase is to be used in a construction that requires

an auxiliary (e g “I don’t love her Do you love her?” ⫺ “ Yes I do; I do

love her.”).

Permanent habit: habit that is not represented as being restricted in time For

example:I don’t drive to work I take the bus or walk.

Phrase: syntactic unit consisting of a word functioning as a ‘head’ or

‘nucleus’-potentially accompanied by one or more other words or word groups clustering around the head The nature of the phrase is determined by the word class of the head Thus, in the sentence Most people in their thirties need money, we

have a five-word noun phrase (NP)most people in their thirties (with people

as head), a three-word prepositional phrasein their thirties, a two-word verb

phrase (VP) need money, and a one-word noun phrase money.

Pluperfect: see past perfect tense.

Point of view: term introduced in the discussion of temporal focus, to capture

the observation that, by making a marked tense choice, a speaker may repre-sent the actualization of a situation from someone else’s viewpoint, e g from the temporal standpoint of a character in a past-tense narrative For example,

They climbed the Matterhorn, which was very steep differs from They climbed the Matterhorn, which is very steep in that by using the past tense the speaker

assumes the point of view of the climbers:was makes it clear that it was they

who experienced then and there that the Matterhorn is steep In other words, whileis triggers a transparent reading (i e reveals the speaker’s point of view

at t0), was triggers an intensional (opaque) reading.

Polar question (or yes / no -question or wide scope question): interrogative

sentence or subclause expressing a question to which the expected reply isyes

orno The clause does not contain a question word, and the question has scope

over the entire proposition For example:Is the house humid? (⫽ ‘Is it the case

that the house is humid?’)

Positive polarity item: see assertive item.

Possible world: way that things are or might be The actual world is the way

things actually are at speech time A nonfactual world is an alternative way of conceptualizing things, such as a future world, the hypothetical world of the imagination of the speaker, a counterfactual world, etc Thus,Paris is the capi-tal of France is true in the actual world, whereas the proposition ‘Paris be the

capital of Italy’ inIf Paris had been the capital of Italy [the Pope would have been living there] is true in a counterfactual world Similarly, the proposition

‘You be married’ expressed inI thought you were married! is true in the

speak-er’s past world of thinking but assumed (by implicature) to be counterfactual

in the actual world

Posterior: following in time: time A is posterior to B if it follows B See also

T-posterior and W-posterior

Posteriority: type of temporal relation A given time A is posterior to a given

time B if A follows B in time Posteriority is W-posteriority if A is interpreted

as posterior to B in the possible world referred to Posteriority is T-posteriority

if it is a relation that not only exists in interpretation but is formally expressed

by the tense form of the clause Thus, in John said he would do it the next

day the situation time of would do is represented as T-posterior to (⫽

follow-ing) the situation time of said.

Post-present: (a) shorthand for post-present zone; (b) can also be used as an

adjective modifying the nounsituation, this combination then being short for

‘situation whose situation time is located in the post-present time-zone’

(Simi-larly, when we speak of thepost-present actualization of a situation, we mean

its actualization in the post-present zone.)

Post-present domain: temporal domain whose central orientation time lies in

the post-present zone Such a domain can be established directly by the use of

the future tense or by a futurish tense form (e g He’s going to leave; I’m

leaving tonight) It may also be established indirectly by expressions implying

future time reference, such as imperatives or certain verbs whose lexical

mean-ing implies posterior actualization of the situation referred to in its complement

clause, like expect [to V] or intend [to V].

Post-present time-zone: see post-present zone.

Post-present zone (or post-present zone): portion of the present

time-sphere that is conceptualized as following the temporal zero-point (t0) For

example,I will leave and I’m going to leave both locate the time of the

actual-ization of the situation of ‘my leaving’ in the post-present zone

Potential full situation: In clauses using one of the perfect tenses and receiving

a continuative reading, this term refers to the factual full situation plus that

part of the full situation that may potentially continue beyond the relevant

orientation time (which in the case of the present perfect is the temporal

zero-point) Thus, in Meg has been talking to the elephant for an hour now, the

potential full situation is longer than an hour (since one hour is the adverbially

specified length of the factual full situation)

Predicate: (a) syntactically: shorthand for predicate constituent; (b)

semanti-cally: what is said (or asked) about the referent of the subject of a clause

Predicate constituent: the syntactic unit functioning as predicate within a

clause It is made up of all the elements of a clause except the subject, in other

words, of the verb phrase and of additional optional phrases, if any

Predicated situation: that part of the full situation (possibly all of it) about

which an assertion is made (or a question is asked) in a tensed clause In other

words, the predicated situation is that part of the full situation (possibly all of

it) that is located in time by a tense form InFive minutes ago John was in the

kitchen the predicated situation is that part of the situation that is represented

as contained in (which here means: temporally coinciding with) the punctual Adv-time indicated by five minutes ago The full (⫽ complete) situation may

take up a much longer period (which may include the temporal zero-point), but the sentence does not tell us anything about this It just makes a claim about (i e predicates something of) that part of the (actualization of the) situa-tion that coincides with the time indicated by five minutes ago.

Predicational sentence: any sentence that is not a specificational sentence; in

other words, a predicational sentence merely says (or asks) something about the referent of the constituent functioning as topic (theme) of the sentence An example of this is John has already read this book, provided there is no

con-trastive (⫽ extra heavy) accent on one of the constituents (A contrastive accent always entails a specificational reading: Johnhas already read this book means

‘It is John who has already read this book’.)

Predictability: the expression, by means of the future tense (withwill as

auxil-iary), of the probability of the truth of a conclusion about a present situation,

e g.That will be the milkman, when interpreted as ‘It is predictable that that

is the milkman’

Prediction: the expression of an assumption that a situation will actualize in

the post-present (or, in the case of would, at a time posterior to the time of

making the prediction), e g.John will be there, when interpreted as ‘It is my

opinion that John will be there’ (rather than as ‘It is predictable that John is there’ – see predictability)

Preparatory phase reading: interpretation produced by the use of a progressive

form of a verb denoting a transitional situation (like dying) Because a pro-gressive form only refers to the middle part of a durative situation, He was dying (as opposed to He died) is interpreted as only referring to the phase

leading up to the transition (from life to death); in other words,He was dying

does not state that he died but only refers to the durative process which was interpreted as leading up to his death: the sentence refers to the ‘preparatory phase’ only, not to the actual transition (which may even be denied, as in He was dying [when we found him, but he pulled through in hospital.]).

Pre-present: (a) shorthand for pre-present zone; (b) can also be used as an

adjective modifying the nounsituation, this combination then being short for

‘situation whose situation time is located in the pre-present zone’ (Similarly, when we speak of the pre-present actualization of a situation, we mean its

actualization in the pre-present zone.)

Pre-present domain: temporal domain that is established by a present perfect

tense form which locates its situation time in the pre-present zone of the present

time-sphere This situation time functions as the central orientation time of the

pre-present domain that is established

Pre-present time-zone: see pre-present zone.

Pre-present zone (or pre-present time-zone): portion of the present time-sphere

that is conceptualized as leading up to the temporal zero-point (t0) and whose

endpoint is conceived of as adjacent to t0 (In other words, the pre-present zone

is conceptualized as leading up to t0without including t0.) To locate a situation

time in the pre-present English uses the present perfect tense

Pre-present-zone adverbial: single-zone time-specifying adverbial which

speci-fies a pre-present zone, e g from the beginning of May until now; over the

past four years; so far; etc.

Present: (a) (as a noun) shorthand for present zone; occasionally also shorthand

for ‘present tense’, when there can be no confusion, as in the combination

‘(non)progressive present’; (b) (as an adjective) ‘located in the present’, e g a

present situation is a situation whose situation time is located in the present

zone; ‘present relevance’ refers to the fact that the pre-present actualization of

a situation is still relevant at the temporal zero-point

Present continuous: progressive form of the present tense (synonym of

pro-gressive present)

Present domain: temporal domain established by a present tense form which

locates a situation time in the present zone (i e represents the situation time

as coinciding with the temporal zero-point)

Present gerund: nonfinite verb form involving the suffix -ing (e g walking,

being hit, swimming) and forming part of a nominal clause, e g walking in

the dark in I don’t like walking in the dark A present gerund differs from a

perfect gerund in that it does not involve the -ing form of the perfect tense

auxiliaryhave.

Present infinitive: nonfinite verb form as it appears as an entry in a dictionary

(e g eat, which is also the stem of the verb); also, the passive counterpart of

the dictionary form (e g be eaten) The present infinitive is nontensed but is

interpreted in terms of a single temporal relation, which is usually that of

simultaneity with the time of the head clause situation, but occasionally a

relation of posteriority: inI hope to see her tomorrow, the time of the situation

referred to by the infinitive clause is interpreted as posterior to the time of the

head clause situation

Present participle: nonfinite (and therefore nontensed) verb form consisting of

the stem of the verb plus the suffix-ing and which can either have an adjectival

function or form part of a progressive verb form, e g the formcausing in The hotel guests causing a disturbance {last night / at the moment / tonight} will

be arrested tomorrow As this example shows, the time of the situation referred

to by a participial clause with a present participle can (according to the context) be interpreted as anterior, simultaneous or posterior to the time of the head clause situation

Present perfect: tense which is formed by combining a present tense form of

the auxiliaryhave with the past participle of the main verb The semantics of

this tense is: ‘The situation time is located (i e ‘contained’) in the pre-present zone’ Since ‘containment’ means either proper inclusion or strict coincidence, there are two T-interpretations that are in keeping with this core meaning: a

‘before now’ reading (‘The situation time lies wholly before t0’) and a ‘co-extensive’ reading (‘The situation time leads up to now and therefore coincides with the pre-present zone’)

Present subjunctive: type of mood In English, the present subjunctive form is

homonymous and homophonous with the present infinitive (e g if the truth

be told…; [It is vital that] she see her physician for treatment).

Present tense: tense which is formed by using the stem of the verb, except for

third person singular subjects, which require the verb form to take an added

-(e)s ending (There are some well-known exceptions, notably the verb be, the

verbhave and the auxiliaries.) When used as an absolute tense, the most basic

meaning of the present tense is that the situation time coincides with the tempo-ral zero-point When used as a relative tense (as in [I will be happy] if she comes), it represents the situation time as T-simultaneous with a post-present

situation time which is treated as a pseudo-present time

Present time-sphere (or nonpast time-sphere): time-sphere conceptualized as a

time span of indefinite length containing the present zone, which coincides with the temporal zero-point (t0), the pre-present zone, which leads up to t0, and the post-present zone, which begins immediately after t0

Present time-sphere tense: cover term for the four tenses which typically locate

a situation time in the present time-sphere: the present tense (as absolute tense), the present perfect, the future tense and the future perfect These tenses all involve a present tense inflectional morpheme

Present time-zone: see present zone.

Present zone (or present time-zone): portion of the present time-sphere that

coincides with the temporal zero-point Since t0is conceived of as punctual, so

is the present zone

Presuppose: ‘presuppose something’ means ‘treat something as being a

presup-position (of a certain linguistic expression)’ For example, in It was John who