The grammar of the english verb phrase part 22 pptx

140 2. Towards a theory of tense and time If there is more than one Adv-time, as in He left at 4 p.m. on 1 May 1999, the relation between the various Adv-times is also Adv-time-simultaneity: 1999 includes on1May, which includes at 4 p.m. It is the last (i. e. shortest) of these Adv-times that contains the situation time. 2.30 Punctual Adv-times and durative bounded situations When a durative situation is bounded, it is (by definition) nonhomogeneous and there- fore the situation time cannot be a punctual portion of the time of the full situation. Rather, the situation time has the same duration as the time of the full situation. This means that a durative bounded situation cannot be located at a punctual time (such as t 0 or at five o’clock). However, a durative bounded situation may be referred to in a clause containing a punctual adverb as long as the description of the situation can be interpreted as inchoative or terminative. (For example, The elephant will have a bath at four locates the beginning of the bathing, not the entire process, at four o’clock). 2.30.1 When a durative situation is represented as L-bounded or interpreted as W-bounded, the situation time coincides with Ϫ i. e. has the same length as Ϫ the time of the full situation (because a bounded situation is by definition heterogeneous Ϫ see 1.45). It goes without saying that such a durative situation time cannot coincide with t 0 or with a punctual Adv-time, and cannot be con- tained in an Adv-time that is shorter than the time of the full situation. *I write a book. (A bounded durative situation cannot coincide with t 0 .) I am writing a book. (Here the full situation is homogeneous, so that the situation time can be a punctual portion of the time of the full situation. That punctual situation time can be represented as coinciding with t 0 .) *I wrote a book at five o’clock. (Ungrammatical because a bounded durative situa- tion cannot coincide with (or otherwise be contained in) a punctual Adv-time.) I was writing a book at five o’clock. (Here the full situation is homogeneous, so that the situation time can be a portion of the time of the full situation. Since that portion can be punctual, the situation time can be represented as coinciding with the punc- tual Adv-time.) 2.30.2 The constraint that a durative bounded situation time cannot be con- tained in (ϭ coincide with) a punctual Adv-time does not automatically render any combination of a punctual adverbial with a bounded description of a dura- tive situation ungrammatical. If the adverbial specifies a past or future point of time, the combination is often grammatical on a special interpretation, viz. a partly inchoative or partly terminative reading. Compare: III. The role of temporal adverbials 141 At seven o’clock he was eating a three-course dinner. (This sentence is fine on a coincidence interpretation because the progressive form represents the telic situation as nonbounded and homogeneous, which means that the situation time can be a punctual portion of the time of the full situation and can therefore be represented as coinciding with the punctual Adv-time denoted by at seven o’clock.) At seven o’clock he ate a three-course dinner. (This sentence is ungrammatical if it is to express that the situation time coincided with the punctual Adv-time, because the nonprogressive form of a telic verb phrase represents the durative situation as bounded (and therefore as heterogeneous), which means that the situation time is also the time of the full situation, which is durative and therefore cannot coincide with a punctual Adv-time. However, when such a sentence is uttered by a coopera- tive speaker, a cooperative hearer will look for a suitable reading and assume the ‘partly inchoative’ interpretation ‘He ate a three-course dinner and started doing so at seven o’clock’. Note that we speak of a ‘partly inchoative interpretation’ because ‘(purely) inchoative interpretation’ means that only the beginning of the actualiza- tion is referred to. This is not the case in this example: the sentence asserts the actualization of the full situation. What is inchoative about it is that the time adver- bial specifies only the beginning of the situation.) John came to the station at 4. (The most suitable interpretation here is a ‘partly terminative’ one: ‘John came to the station and arrived there at four’.) At 8 p.m. John will come here. (Ambiguous between an inchoative reading Ϫ John will leave (somewhere) at 8 p.m. to come here Ϫ and a terminative reading Ϫ John will arrive here at 8 p.m. (having come from somewhere).) It should be noted that a partly inchoative or terminative reading is not auto- matically possible when a punctual Adv-time is combined with a durative- bounded description of a situation. Compare: At five o’clock I wrote a letter. *At five o’clock I wrote a book. Only the former of these is acceptable on a partly inchoative reading. Given the minimal difference between the examples, it must be something pragmatic that blocks the partly inchoative reading of the second sentence. However, it is not at all clear what the blocking factor is. Granted that at five o’clock is pragmatically odd as a starting time for such a large enterprise as writing a book, a particular day should not sound absurd and yet the following are also completely unacceptable on an inchoative interpretation: On 27th September I wrote a book. (only acceptable if I wrote a complete book on 27 th September) At the end of September I wrote a book. (similar; there is no acceptable partly inchoative reading) 142 2. Towards a theory of tense and time 2.31 The role of pure duration adverbials 2.31.1 Whereas a time-specifying adverbial indicates a (punctual or durative) Adv-time which contains the situation time of the situation referred to, a pure duration adverbial like for two weeks only measures (i. e. indicates the length of) an interval of time. The interval in question is the time of the full situation, not the time of the predicated situation (i. e. the length of the situa- tion time), unless the two coincide (see 2.16.2). John told us that he was working in Portsmouth for two weeks. (The situation time indicated by was working coincides with the (almost punctual) situation time indi- cated by told. For two weeks indicates the length of the full situation of John work- ing in Portsmouth. In other words, for two weeks belongs to the description of the full situation: at the time of John’s speaking, the situation of John-working-in- Portsmouth-for-two-weeks was in progress. Notice that the fact that the speaker knows about the length of the situation means that the situation must have been pre-determined, i. e. planned in advance.) (telephone conversation with somebody travelling through France) [“Where are you today?”] Ϫ “Today I’m here in Rennes until six. [At six I’m leaving for Paris.]” (The situation time is that part of the time of the speaker’s being in Rennes that coincides with t 0 . The adverbial until six indicates the duration of the remaining part Ϫ the part following t 0 Ϫ of the full situation of the speaker’s being in Rennes. This knowl- edge is available to the speaker only if the full situation has been scheduled in ad- vance. In other words, the adverbial forms part of the description of the full situa- tion: what is going on at t 0 is the speaker’s-being-in-Rennes-until-six. The situation time can be a punctual subinterval (of that full situation) which coincides with t 0 because I’m here in Rennes until six represents its situation as homogeneous: at any point between t 0 and six the speaker can truly say I am here in Rennes until six. Today refers to the whole of ‘what counts as today’ (here, roughly the working day); this Adv-time includes t 0 as well as the situation time coinciding with t 0 .) I am only in my office for two hours. (The situation time (ϭ time taken up by the predicated situation) is that part of the time of the full situation that coincides with t 0 . The adverbial for two hours indicates the (pre-determined) duration of the full situation and belongs to the description of that situation.) John had come for two hours. (For two hours can only indicate the duration of the time of the full situation. The only possible readings that are in keeping with this are ‘John had come and stayed for two hours’ or ‘John had come with the intention of staying for two hours’.) 2.31.2 There are a couple of cases in which the situation time coincides with the time of the full situation. In these cases a pure duration adverbial measures not only the length of the time of the full situation but also the length of the situation time. (a) The situation time and the time of the full situation coincide if the situation is L-bounded (see 1.44). In that case the predicated situation is represented III. The role of temporal adverbials 143 as heterogeneous (see 1.45), which means that it is incompatible with a time-specifying adverbial indicating an Adv-time that is shorter than the situation time (because the Adv-time has to either include the situation time or coincide with it Ϫ see 1.46.2). Compare: I worked on my thesis for five and a half years. (The situation time coincides with the time of the full situation because the duration-measuring adverbial represents the situation as bounded, i. e. as reaching a terminal point.) *Last week I worked on my thesis for five and a half years. (The duration-measur- ing adverbial for five and a half years represents the situation as bounded, which means that the situation time is also the time of the full situation. The sentence is pragmatically unacceptable because the Adv-time specified by last week is too short to contain a situation time that lasts for five and a half years.) When I was in my twenties, I worked on my thesis for five and a half years. (This time the Adv-time is long enough to contain the situation time.) (b) In clauses in one of the perfect tenses, the period indicated by a duration adverbial with for again coincides with the time of the full situation. In addition, this period may sometimes be interpreted as being the period that leads up to t 0 or to a past or post-present binding orientation time. 16 Compare: For the past two years she has worked intermittently for various companies. (The situation of working intermittently for various companies took up the whole of the past two years, i. e. the entire two-year period up to t 0 .) {*For / in} the past two years she has worked once or twice. (For cannot be used because there is no reference to a situation of working once or twice which lasts throughout the two-year period up to now.) However, in some sentences (in one of the perfect tenses) the for-adverbial only indicates the length of the time of the full situation: Have you ever been abroad for longer than two weeks [since you came to live here]? (The relevant ‘period up to orientation time’ in which the present perfect tense lo- cates one or more situation times is a ‘period up to t 0 ’. The for-adverbial indicates the duration of these situations (if any), not the length of the period leading up to t 0 .) [When I went to Australia] I had been away for longer than two days only twice in my life. (The relevant ‘period up to a past orientation time’ presupposed by the past perfect is a period leading up to the past situation time of the when-clause. The for-adverbial specifies the duration of the full situations corresponding with the two situation times that are located in this period.) Under certain conditions a perfect tense can receive a ‘continuative’ interpreta- tion, i. e. the reading in which the full situation starts before some orientation 16. As noted before, a ‘binding’ orientation time is an orientation time to which a situation time is temporally related by a tense (see 2.49). 144 2. Towards a theory of tense and time time and continues up to (and into) the orientation time in question, as in I’d been waiting for her for two hours [before she finally arrived] Ϫ see 5.3.2. In that case the period whose length is specified by the durational adverbial is the time of the full situation (which is interpreted as containing the orientation time in question Ϫ see 5.3.2). This ‘time of the full situation’ is the time of actualization of the situation in the actual world. However, such a continuative interpretation does not exclude the possibility that the situation will continue in the (not-yet-factual) future world: I’ve lived here since 1998 suggests that the situation may well continue after t 0 . The function of a for-adverbial accom- panying a ‘continuative present perfect’ (ϭ the representation, by means of a clause in the present perfect, of a situation as starting before t 0 and as still actualizing at t 0 ) is to specify the duration of the factual full situation,i.e. the full situation covering the period up to t 0 plus t 0 itself, but leaves open the possibility that the actualization will continue in the (not-yet-factual) post- present, in other words that the potential full situation is longer than the factual one. I’ve been waiting for her for two hours now. (For two hours now indicates the length of the factual full situation, i. e. the full situation as it has actualized up to now. Nothing is said about the length of the potential full situation.) In two weeks’ time Maggie will have been in prison for exactly three years. (For exactly three years specifies the length of the full situation up to the time (point) indicated by in two weeks’ time. This situation is assumed to be a factual situation. The sentence leaves it vague whether or not this factual full situation will potentially extend beyond the post-present point indicated by in two weeks’ time. Only world knowledge can tell us this, i. e. can tell us whether Maggie is due to serve exactly three years or more.) 2.32 Summary of section III We have distinguished three types of adverbial that give temporal information. Time-specifying adverbials (e. g. at seven o’clock) temporally locate an orienta- tion time (which may be a situation time) by specifying a particular time (an Adv-time) which may be durative or punctual and which contains (i. e. coin- cides with or includes) the orientation time. Pure duration adverbials (e. g. for seven hours) specify the length of time occupied by a full situation, but do not locate it in time. Bifunctional adverbials (e. g. from six to eight) both tempo- rally locate a situation time and specify the length of the corresponding full situation. Thus in Sam worked in the garden from six to eight, the temporal adverbial locates the situation time (the time of the predicated situation) at the time indicated by from six to eight and measures the (time of the) full situation (as taking up two hours). To sum up: time-specifying adverbials locate orienta- III. The role of temporal adverbials 145 tion times (including situation times), pure duration adverbials measure the length of the time of a full situation, and bifunctional adverbials simultaneously locate a situation time and specify the length of the corresponding full situa- tion time. As we have seen, a time indicated by a time-specifying adverbial (ϭ an Adv- time) contains the situation time (or other orientation time) whose temporal location it specifies. The situation time may be shorter than the Adv-time (i. e. it is included in it) or it may be exactly the same length (i. e. it coincides with it). In either case we can speak of Adv-time-simultaneity. Adv-time-simultaneity differs from W-simultaneity in that it is linguistically expressed and it is unlike T-simultaneity in that it is not expressed by a tense and it allows for a relation of proper inclusion as well as one of strict coincidence, though it does not allow for mere overlap. When there is more than one Adv-time in a clause, the relation between the Adv-times is also one of Adv-time-simultaneity Ϫ i. e. proper inclusion or coincidence. When the Adv-time is punctual, the situation time, in order to be included in the Adv-time, must of necessity be punctual. A durative situation can be represented as simultaneous with a punctual Adv-time provided that the situa- tion is homogeneous (nonbounded). (The situation time is then the time of a punctual portion of the situation which is representative of the whole situa- tion.) The fact that a progressive clause can combine with an adverbial specify- ing a punctual Adv-time means that a progressive clause represents the predi- cated situation as a punctual situation which is representative of the longer full situation. When a durative situation is bounded, it is (by definition) nonhomo- geneous and therefore the situation time cannot be a punctual portion of the time of the full situation. Rather, the situation time has the same duration as the time of the full situation. This means that a durative bounded situation cannot be located at a punctual time (such as t 0 or at five o’clock). However, a durative bounded situation may be referred to in a clause containing a punc- tual adverb as long as this adverb can be interpreted as indicating the beginning or end of the full actualizing situation. For example, We’ll have lunch at one p.m. locates the beginning of the situation of having lunch, not the entire situa- tion, at one o’clock. (This does not alter the fact that the speaker envisages the entire situation as actualizing in the future.) In a given context, a time-specifying or bifunctional adverbial may contain (i. e. by inclusion or coincidence) a situation time, an orientation time other than a situation time, or several orientation times (usually situation times). We speak, respectively, of situation-time adverbials, orientation-time adverbials and multiple-orientation-time adverbials. As we have seen, a pure duration adverbial measures the time of the full situation. In Midge said that the baby was crying for two hours, the predicated situation expressed by the baby was crying for two hours must be punctual 146 2. Towards a theory of tense and time because it is T-simultaneous with the (more or less) punctual situation time indicated by said. However, the full, i. e. the implied, situation is measured as lasting for two hours. Usually the time of the full situation is longer than the time of the predicated situation and so the duration adverbial only measures the time of the full situation, but in some cases, notably when the situation is explicitly bounded, the situation time coincides with the time of the full situa- tion. In those cases, of course, the adverbial time indirectly also measures the predicated situation. . indicates the length of) an interval of time. The interval in question is the time of the full situation, not the time of the predicated situation (i. e. the length of the situa- tion time), unless the. Paris.]” (The situation time is that part of the time of the speaker’s being in Rennes that coincides with t 0 . The adverbial until six indicates the duration of the remaining part Ϫ the part following. hours’.) 2.31.2 There are a couple of cases in which the situation time coincides with the time of the full situation. In these cases a pure duration adverbial measures not only the length of the time of the