The grammar of the english verb phrase part 120 pps

In the clause John left the house last night, the verb phrase is left the house last night.. W-anterior: time A is W-anterior to time B if it is anterior to B without neces-sarily being

speech act (i e assertion, question, instruction, etc.) that he makes by uttering the head clause For example: [You’d better hurry up,] because there’s going to

be a storm.

Value (of specificational sentence): that constituent of a specificational

struc-ture that is specified as value for a presupposed variable, e g.a book in It was

a book that I gave him, What I gave him was a book, I gave him a book, A

book was what I gave him The value constituent always receives a heavy (contrastive) accent

Value constituent: constituent representing the value of a specificational

sen-tence, e g a book in What I gave him was a book.

Vantage time: a point in time or a time interval from which (the actualization

of) a situation is viewed as ongoing (⫽ in progress) by the speaker referring to that progressive situation The vantage time is explicitly mentioned in sentences likeAt 7 p.m I was still working.

Variable (of specificational sentence): the (presupposed) constituent of a

specifi-cational structure for which a value is specified (or, in questions, asked) For example, in each of the following sentences the variable is ‘the x that I gave him’:It was a book that I gave him, What I gave him was a book, I gave him

a book, A book was what I gave him

Variable constituent: constituent representing the variable of a specificational

sentence, e g.What I gave him in What I gave him was a book.

Verb complement: a VP-internal argument of a verb (i e any argument of the

verb that is not the subject), 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).

Verb form: particular form of a verb In Bill sneezed, the verb form sneezed

consists of a conjugated form of the verb sneeze only; so does takes in Bill takes drugs; in Bill may have been working, the verb form consists of the

participle form of the main verb (working) preceded by three auxiliary verbs;

in John will leave now, the form consists of one auxiliary followed by the

present infinitive form of the main verb

Verb of creation: verb like write, form or build, which expresses the making

(bringing into existence) of something In clauses likeA problem has {arisen / cropped up}, the verbs arise and crop up are also called verbs of creation

because they refer to the coming into existence of something

Verb phrase (VP): phrase whose head is a main verb In the clause John left the house last night, the verb phrase is left the house last night In this case the

verb phrase constitutes the entire predicate constituent (The latter comprises

the verb phrase plus the optional adverbials, if any.) A verb phrase minimally

consists of a verb form It also includes the verb complement(s) and/or the

necessary adverbial(s), if any

Verb stem: that part of the verb that remains constant in the different forms

of the verb, e g unchain in unchains, unchained, unchaining As a rule, the

stem is identical in form with the present infinitive or the present subjunctive

form of he verb

Voice auxiliary: the grammatical auxiliarybe when it is used to build a passive

verb form

VP: conventional linguistic abbreviation of verb phrase.

W-anterior: time A is W-anterior to time B if it is anterior to B without

neces-sarily being represented as T-anterior to time B by a tense form

W-anteriority: anteriority that exists in the actual world (or in whatever

non-factual world is being referred to) but which is not necessarily expressed by

the tense used For example, in I left before John arrived, my leaving is

W-anterior to John’s arrival, but it is not represented as T-W-anterior to it by the

tense formleft.

W-bounded: said of a bounded situation whose boundedness is not a question

of linguistic representation – see L-bounded – but merely a matter of

interpreta-tion based on pragmatic inference For example, out of context the sentence

John was in the park this morning will be taken to imply that John is no longer

in the park at the temporal zero-point, but this implicature can be cancelled

by a contextual addition like and he told me he would stay there until you

came to fetch him, so you’d better hurry off In other words, in isolation the

sentenceJohn was in the park this morning is by implicature interpreted as

W-bounded, but is not L-bounded (⫽ linguistically represented as bounded)

W-bygone situation: situation which is conceived of as completely over at the

temporal zero-point, as inI’ve closed the door; Once upon a time there was a

princess who felt very lonely.

W-concept: concept which has to do with the interpretation of situations and

temporal relations in the actual world or in whatever alternative world is being

referred to (contrasted with T-concept)

Weak verb: see regular verb.

Weak intensional verb: verb like see or say, which establishes an intensional

domain but allows its object clause to create a new temporal domain so that

the clause in question receives a transparent interpretation rather than an

inten-sional (opaque) interpretation There is such a shift of domain, e g in Bill

{saw / said} that the bridge is rather mouldered See also strong intensional

verb

Wh-question: interrogative sentence or subclause containing a question word

(usually in initial position), with the question having narrow scope (over the questioned constituent only), e g.Who did that? – [I don’t know] who did that.

Wide scope negation: negation with scope over the entire clause or sentence,

as in These spiders are not dangerous (⫽ ‘It is not the case that these spiders

are dangerous’)

Wide scope question (or ‘polar question’ or ‘yes / no-question’): interrogative

sentence or subclause expressing a question which invites either yes or no as

an answer (e g.Did you tell him about me?) That such questions have wide

scope is illustrated by the fact that they allow a paraphrase likeIs it true that

…? or Is it the case that …?

W-interpretation: (a) in general: temporal reading which is not exclusively

based on the semantics of the chosen tense but also takes into account such elements as temporal adverbials, context, situation of speaking, knowledge of the (actual or nonfactual) world referred to and pragmatic principles such as the Gricean Maxims of conversation; (b) in connection with the present perfect: one of three possible readings related to the full situation: the ‘indefinite read-ing’ (i e the full situation comes to an end before the temporal zero-point), the ‘continuative reading’ (i e the time of the full situation includes t0) and the ‘up-to-now reading’ (i e the terminal point of the full situation preceding

t0is adjacent to t0)

W-nonbounded: said of (the time of actualization of) a full situation which is

notinterpreted as bounded, even though its situation time may be represented

as bounded For example, in From 9 to 12 Tom was not in his office, the

situation time is bounded by virtue of being contained by (in this case: coincid-ing with) the Adv-time specified by the heterogeneous time adverbial from 9

to 12 However, unless from 9 to 12 is taken to represent important new

infor-mation, the time of (actualization of) the full situation is not interpreted as bounded: Tom may also have been absent from his office before nine and/or after 12 In fact, it is theoretically possible that he hasnever been in his office.

In that case the (time of actualization of) the full situation of his not being in his office is clearly W-nonbounded, i e not interpreted as bounded Similarly, sentences likeJohn was reading the letter or John drank whisky do not involve

reference to a terminal point, so that the actualizations referred to are not represented as bounded (⫽ reaching a terminal point) However, it is possible that for pragmatic reasons (e g present knowledge of the actual world) the

actualization is interpreted as being over (and hence as bounded) If that is the

case, the (actualization of) the situation is L-nonbounded but W-bounded

World relation: see W-relation.

W-posterior: time A is W-posterior to time B if it is posterior to B without

necessarily being represented as T-posterior to B by a tense form

W-posteriority: posteriority that exists in the actual world (or in whatever

non-factual world is being referred to) but which is not necessarily expressed by

the tense used For example, in I left before John arrived, John’s arrival is

W-posterior to my leaving but is not represented as T-W-posterior to it by the tense

form left (T-posteriority would be expressed by had left.)

W-relation: temporal relation that exists between two times but is not

necessar-ily a T-relation (i e a relation expressed by a tense form) The unmarked

interpretation of the term ‘W-relation’ is: temporal relation not expressed by a

tense form In that case, the nature of the temporal relation can only be

iden-tified from pragmatic knowledge or inference A W-relation is either

W-anteri-ority, W-posteriority or W-simultaneity

W-simultaneity: simultaneity that exists in the actual world (or in whatever

nonfactual world is being referred to) but which is not necessarily expressed

by the tense used For example, inThere had been no one in the house when

he had first visited it, the two situations are (and are interpreted as being)

W-simultaneous with each other, but the past perfect tense forms represent both

as T-anterior to the same (unspecified) past orientation time Unlike

T-simulta-neity, W-simultaneity need not be a relation of strict coincidence: it is sufficient

that the two times in question have a point in common For example, inI live

in London, the (durative) full situation includes the (punctual) temporal

zero-point The containment relation between a situation time and the time (of

actualization) of the corresponding full situation is also an instance of

W-simul-taneity

W-simultaneous: time A is W-simultaneous with time B if it is simultaneous

with B but not necessarily represented as T-simultaneous with B by a tense

form Two times are W-simultaneous with each other if they have at least one

point in common See also W-simultaneity and W-simultaneous domains

W-simultaneous domains: separate temporal domains which are interpreted as

W-simultaneous For example, in He looked at the figure in the distance but

didn’t recognize it, both preterite forms establish a domain of their own, but

these are interpreted as W-simultaneous with each other

Yes / no-question (or polar 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?’)

Zero-conjunction: This term is used in cases of syntactic subordination, when

the subclause is not connected to the head clause by a subordinating conjunc-tion Thus, in I said you could trust me, the nominal clause (object clause) is

not introduced by the conjunctionthat.

Zero-point: see temporal zero-point (t0)

Zero-time: see temporal zero-point (t0)

Zone (or time-zone): cover term for any of the four portions of time that

together make up the two spheres: the three parts of the present time-sphere, namely the pre-present zone, the present zone and the post-present zone, plus the past zone (which coincides with the past time-sphere) Since these four zones (pre-present, present, post-present and past) are defined in direct relation to the temporal zero-point, they constitute the set of absolute zones (or absolute time-zones)

Zone-independent adverbial: see zone-independent time-specifying adverbial Zone-independent time-specifying adverbial (or zone-independent adverbial):

time-specifying adverbial which specifies a time which is not linked up with one particular time-zone, e g.at five o’clock Such an adverbial is compatible

with more than one absolute tense: He left at five o’clock; He will leave at five o’clock.

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