The grammar of the english verb phrase part 23 pps

IV. The present and past time-spheres 147 IV. The present and past time-spheres 2.33 The conceptualization of ‘time-spheres’ English tenses appear to reflect a mental division of time into past and nonpast. The main evidence for this is that all tenses carry either a past or a nonpast (present) tense morpheme. There is no future tense morpheme. We will represent this division of time as involving two time-spheres: a past time-sphere and a present time-sphere. In English, the use of tenses implies a conceptual division of time into two ‘time-spheres’: the present time-sphere and the past time-sphere. (Note that a time-sphere is a length of time and should not be visualized as something spherical (round).) The claim that English speakers conceptualize linguistic time as divided into two, not three (viz. past, present and future), time-spheres is based on several observations. Firstly, all the tenses make use of an inflectional tense morpheme which expresses either past or nonpast. 17 There is no inflectional future tense morpheme in English: the future tense is formed with the help of the present tense form of an auxiliary (will), i. e. a ‘free’ morpheme rather than a ‘bound’ one. Thus, will do (which realizes ‘PRESENT ϩ will ϩ do’) contains a present tense inflectional morpheme, and would do (which expresses ‘PAST ϩ will ϩ do’) contains a past tense inflectional morpheme. Secondly, it is in keeping with this that the future tense use of shall and will has developed from their use as forms expressing present nonepistemic modality (more specifically, some kind of volition). Thirdly, in order to temporally relate a situation time to a future situation time, English uses the same tense system as it uses to temporally relate a situation time to t 0 : compare I am ill with [Next time, he will pretend that] he is ill, and He has left with [I will do it when] he has left (see 7.6.2). This means that English treats a future situation time which functions as a starting point for the temporal location of other situation times as a ‘pseudo-t 0 ’. This accords perfectly with the view that the post-present is a portion (‘zone’ Ϫ see 2.35) of the present time-sphere. (Note that this argument is not refuted by the observation that the present tense can also refer to the past, viz. in the ‘historic present’ use. The point is that in [Next time, he will pretend that] he is ill and [I will do it when] he has left, the forms is and have left cannot be replaced with will be and will have left, respectively, while a historic present form can 17. If the tense form consists of more than one verb form, the tense morpheme is always to be found in the first auxiliary (the so-called ‘operator’ of the tense form). 148 2. Towards a theory of tense and time always be replaced by a past tense form. This means that the use of the present tense with future time reference is normal and obligatory in the above exam- ples, whereas the use of the present tense with past time reference is special and optional.) 2.34 Defining the time-spheres The past time-sphere lies wholly before t 0 , while the present time-sphere includes t 0 and extends either side of it for an indefinite amount of time. 2.34.1 The past time-sphere is conceived of as a timespan of indefinite length which lies wholly before t 0 and is disconnected from t 0 . The absolute tense locating a situation time in the past time-sphere is the preterite (past tense). (As explained in 2.41, an absolute tense is a tense that relates a situation time directly to t 0 and not to another orientation time.) I left the house around midnight. (Left locates its situation time in the past time- sphere, which is defined in direct relation to t 0 .) 2.34.2 The present time-sphere (or nonpast time-sphere) is conceived of as a timespan of indefinite length which includes t 0 . 2.35 Present time-sphere zones The present time-sphere is conceived of here as containing the present zone, which coincides with t 0 , the pre-present zone, which leads up to t 0 , and the post-present zone, which begins immediately after t 0 . To locate a situation in one of these zones, we use the present tense, the present perfect or the future tense (or a futurish tense) respec- tively. The zero-time (t 0 ) is taken to divide the present time-sphere into three zones. The portion of the present time-sphere that precedes t 0 is the pre-present zone ; the portion that coincides with t 0 is the present zone; and the portion that follows t 0 is the post-present zone (or ‘future zone’). It should be stressed that these three zones follow each other without overlap. This means that the post-present starts from t 0 but does not include it, and that the pre-present IV. The present and past time-spheres 149 leads up to t 0 but does not include it. (In 5.2 it will be shown that the latter claim does not run counter to the observation that the present perfect receives a ‘continuative’ interpretation in We’ve been living here for six weeks now.) To locate situations in these three zones we use the present perfect, the present tense and the future tense (or a ‘futurish form’ Ϫ see 2.9), respectively. Each of these tenses shows present (nonpast) morphology. I have already spoken to John. (Have spoken is a present perfect tense form locating its situation time somewhere in the pre-present zone.) I am very happy with her. (Am locates its situation time at t 0 .) I{will / am going to} be there tomorrow. (Not only will be but also am going to be locates the situation time in the post-present. As noted in 2.13, the situation time is the time of the actualization of the predicated situation, not the time of anticipa- tion of that actualization.) 2.36 Visual representation of time-spheres and zones The linguistic conceptualization of time in terms of time-spheres and zones can be represented as in Figure 2.1. In this diagram the time line is represented as consisting of two time-spheres. The dotted line in the middle of the time line is meant to represent the fact that there is felt to be a break between the two time-spheres. (There is a slight but hard to avoid technical problem with this diagram: it makes the pre-present look as though it is more recent, i. e. closer to t 0 , than the past. That this impression is false is stressed in 2.39.) Figure 2.1. Linguistic conceptualization of the time line in English. 2.37 Absolute zones The past time-sphere is conceived of as consisting of a single zone (the past time-zone). To locate a situation in the past time-zone we use the past tense. The four zones (pre- present, present and post-present plus past) that are defined in direct relation to t 0 are 150 2. Towards a theory of tense and time called the ‘absolute’ zones. The tenses used to locate situations in these absolute zones are referred to as ‘absolute tenses’. Whereas the present time-sphere is automatically divided into three zones by t 0 , the past time-sphere consists of a single time-zone, which is defined as lying completely before t 0 and as disconnected from t 0 . The past time-sphere and the three present time-sphere zones together constitute the set of absolute zones (or absolute time-zones), i. e. the four time-zones that are defined in direct relation to t 0 . (Note that ‘zone’ is equivalent to ‘time-sphere’ where the past is concerned and equivalent to ‘portion of the time-sphere’ where the pre-present, present and post-present are concerned.) (To a layman, the use of ‘time-zone’ to refer to t 0 may seem odd, because t 0 is conceived of as punctual, but the concept ‘punctual interval’ is well-established in the literature on tense.) 2.38 Past vs pre-present Situation times that precede t 0 can in principle be located either in the pre-present zone or in the past time-sphere, but the choice depends on whether the speaker’s ‘temporal focus’ is on the present or on the past. There is a generally accepted intuition that the use of the present perfect in English implies that the speaker is somehow concerned with the present (see 5.1.3). In our tense model this is reflected in the claim that the time of a situation referred to by a present perfect is not located in the past, but rather in the ‘pre-present’. Situation times that precede t 0 can in principle be located either in the pre-present zone or in the past time-sphere, but the choice depends on whether the speaker’s ‘temporal focus’ (see 11.1) is on the present or on the past. This explains why the present perfect is incompatible with adverbials like yesterday, two weeks ago, etc., which place the temporal focus on the past. The choice of temporal focus is more important than the notion of ‘current relevance’, because only the former has to do with the location of the predi- cated situation in time. Since tense is the grammaticalization of locating a situation in time by means of a verb form (see 2.1), adverbials of past time are incompatible with the present perfect, even if there is an idea of current rele- vance. This is clear from the following examples: IV. The present and past time-spheres 151 [I know what Paris looks like.] I have visited it several times. [I know what Paris looks like.] I {visited /*have visited} it several times two years ago. 18 2.38.1 To avoid any misunderstanding, we would like to point out that a situation can be viewed as past even when it is represented as contained in an Adv-time (ϭ adverbially indicated time interval) that also includes t 0 ,asinI had a copious breakfast today. In this case the speaker has the situation time (which here coincides with the time of the full situation) in mind, which is a past situation time, even though it is included in a larger Adv-time which also includes t 0 . Here, as in other cases, the tense form does not relate the situation time to the Adv-time, but rather to an orientation time (in this case: t 0 , since had is an absolute past tense form). 2.39 The length of the time-spheres and zones The present zone coincides with t 0 and is thus punctual. However, the length of the other zones is purely a matter of how they are conceptualized on a given occasion. (Compare The elephant has just arrived with The Asian elephant has been worshipped for centuries.) The interval between a past situation and t 0 does not determine whether the situation is located in a past time-zone or in a pre-present time-zone. (Compare The elephant has just arrived and The elephant arrived just a moment ago.) Except for the present zone, which is by definition conceived of as punctual (see 2.35), the length of the time-spheres and the zones cannot be defined in terms of objective time. Everything depends on how the speaker conceptualizes time. For example, the pre-present can be conceived of either as very short (e. g. I have just seen him) or as stretching indefinitely far back (e. g. The earth has existed for billions of years), while the past time-sphere may be conceived of as distant from t 0 (e. g. Things were different in ancient Rome) or as almost reaching up to it (e. g. The phone rang a minute ago). It follows that one and the same situation can often be conceptualized either as lying in the past time- sphere or as lying in the pre-present (compare I met Ann just now with I have just met Ann). This is in keeping with the observation (made in 2.36) that the past time-sphere is not conceptualized as more distant from t 0 than the pre- 18. The constraint that the present perfect is incompatible with a past temporal focus is typical of English. It does not hold for other Germanic languages, like Dutch and Ger- man. Thus, the German and Dutch equivalents of *I have seen him yesterday are per- fectly grammatical: Ich habe ihn gestern gesehen; Ik heb hem gisteren gezien. 152 2. Towards a theory of tense and time present zone. (The past time-sphere is conceived of as separated from the pres- ent time-sphere, whereas the pre-present zone forms part of it, but the actual distance between the situation time and t 0 is immaterial to this conceptualiza- tion.) 2.40 Present time-sphere tenses vs past time-sphere tenses The past tense, the past perfect, the conditional tense, and the conditional perfect typically locate situation times in the past time-sphere. The present tense, the present perfect, the future tense and the future perfect typically locate situation times in the present time-sphere. There are four tenses that typically represent a situation time as belonging to the past time-sphere. We call them the past (time-sphere) tenses: the past tense, the past perfect, the conditional tense (realized as ‘would ϩ infinitive’) and the conditional perfect (realized as ‘would have ϩ past participle’). These tenses all involve a past tense inflectional morpheme. The other four tenses typically represent a situation time as lying in the present time-sphere. We call them the present (time-sphere) tenses: the pres- ent tense, the present perfect, the future tense and the future perfect. These tenses all involve a present tense inflectional morpheme. V. Temporal domains 153 V. Temporal domains 2.41 Absolute tenses vs relative tenses We have seen that an absolute tense relates a situation time directly to t 0 , whereas a relative tense relates a situation time to an orientation time other than t 0 . 2.41.1 An absolute tense relates a situation time directly to t 0 . English has four absolute tenses: the present tense, the absolute past tense, 19 the present perfect and the future tense. They locate the situation time in the present, past, pre-present and post-present time-zone, respectively. A relative tense relates a situation time to an orientation time other than t 0 , i. e. to another situation time, an unspecified orientation time (see 2.14.c), an (otherwise unspecified) time contained in an Adv-time (see 2.14.d) or an implicit orientation time (see 2.14.e). Thus, the past perfect is a relative tense, because it relates its situation time as anterior to an orientation time which is not t 0 .For example, in John said he had worked hard, the past perfect represents the situa- tion time of had worked hard as T-anterior to the situation time of said. The rela- tive tense does not itself relate the time of working to t 0 , even though we can usually deduce that the working, as well as being T-anterior to the time of John’s saying, is also W-anterior to t 0 . (However, this is not always the case, witness the fact that the situation referred to by had cleaned is interpreted as W-posterior to t 0 in He said he would do it tomorrow after he had cleaned the floor.) 2.41.2 While the four absolute tenses are always realized by the four forms referred to above, it will be argued below that the same forms may sometimes also have the function typical of relative tenses. This occurs either (in one case, that of the past tense) because there are two homonymous tenses or (in a second case, namely when a post-present domain is expanded) because the semantics of the set of absolute tenses is ‘hijacked’ for use in a relative manner. 2.42 Temporal domain A temporal domain consists of various orientation times (situation times or not) which are temporally related to one another. Only the orientation time which establishes the 19. It will be argued in 2.44 that English has two past tenses: an absolute one and a rela- tive one. . the situation time in the post-present. As noted in 2.13, the situation time is the time of the actualization of the predicated situation, not the time of anticipa- tion of that actualization.) 2.36. which place the temporal focus on the past. The choice of temporal focus is more important than the notion of ‘current relevance’, because only the former has to do with the location of the predi- cated. as consisting of two time-spheres. The dotted line in the middle of the time line is meant to represent the fact that there is felt to be a break between the two time-spheres. (There is a slight