6.5 The present perfect vs the preterite in when-questions 329 6.5.4 In the previous section we have seen that if the speaker of a when- question is asking about the time of actualization of a bygone situation, the fact of actualization of the situation is taken for granted, and it is the past tense that is used: When {did you mislay /*have you mislaid} all the butter that I bought yesterday? However, there are cases in which a when-question asks the addressee to supply an occasion or occasions on which a situation has actualized, rather than ask- ing for the temporal location of the actualization of a situation (which is thus presupposed to have actualized). In these cases, the present perfect (with number-quantifying constitution interpretation) can be used. Typically, such when-questions are rhetorical and are used to imply that no occasion of actual- ization of the situation referred to exists. For example: [Sixty-seven minutes Ϫ hell’s bells.] When have I ever spent more than an hour in front of one picture in a gallery? [You wouldn’t think it was so much to ask after all this time, would you Alfred?] When have I asked anything from him? (www) [Batman has everything known to man inside his utility belt.] When has he ever been in a situation where his utility belt was not able to save him? (www) Such when-questions in the present perfect can be used to challenge an explicit or implicit assumption on the part of the addressee or someone else (including the speaker). Thus the speakers of the following challenge the implicit assump- tion that they would possibly lie: [“Ask me a question and I’ll answer it; it’s as simple as that.” Ϫ “But I won’t know if you’re telling the truth.”] Ϫ “And when have I lied to you?” (www) [“You snapped up the cutest guy in school before the rest of us even saw him!” Jean blushed. “Really?” Ororo rolled her eyes.] “When have I ever lied to you?” Ϫ [“Never.” Ϫ “There, then.”] (www) The message is: ‘Your suspicion implies that it’s possible that I would lie to you, but that belief is unreasonable since you have no experience of my having lied on past occasions.’ Similarly, the speaker of [Whew! I ain’t seen this stuff before, either, so I take no responsibility for what it says] (but then when have I ever taken responsibility for anything?). (www) rejects the implication of his own utterance: normally refusing to do something implies that it is possible in theory that one would or could do that thing. The speaker rejects this implication of ‘I could take responsibility for what it says’ by pointing out that there is no evidence that such responsibility-taking has ever occurred, so it is not reasonable to assume that there was ever a chance that he would take responsibility. 330 6. The present perfect vs the preterite in clauses without temporal adverbials [“Can I go over to the island?” Ϫ “You don’t need my permission to go over to the island.] When have I ever stopped you?” (adapted from www) The past tense too can sometimes be found in such examples: [“But mum … I’m not lying! She’s the one that’s lying!” Ϫ “Just go to bed, won’t you? I’m too angry to deal with you.” Ϫ “You’re an idiot!] When did I ever lie to you!” (www) [I have problems managing stress, that’s true, but] when did I ever ask him to handle my problems? (www) [Sixty-seven minutes Ϫ hell’s bells.] When did I ever spend more than an hour in front of one picture in a gallery? [Previous personal best was probably 0.6 minutes in front of a Vermeer in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam during Euro 2000.] (www) (Despite the follow-up to the question, the question should still be taken to mean ‘I’ve never spent more than an hour in front of one picture’, because the follow-up does not so much answer the question as back up the assertion ‘I’ve never spent long in front of one picture’.) It should be noted, finally, that, although the speaker of these when-questions (in the present perfect or past tense) clearly believes in each case that the answer to the question is ‘never’, the utterance is still not equivalent to an assertion that the situation referred to has never taken place. Thus it is not impossible for the question to be treated by the hearer and/or the speaker as (to some extent, at least) a genuine challenge to cite instances of actualizations of the situation referred to: [“Do you believe John Kerry voted for this war?” Ϫ “Yes I do.”] Ϫ “When has he ever said he voted for the war? [Tell me the interview. I want to look it up.” Ϫ “I don’t know exactly Ϫ well, go to gop.com. There’s about Ϫ there’s 11 minutes of different interviews.” Ϫ “He never says he voted for the war.” Ϫ “Well, I’m not saying in that interview, but I’m saying in some.” Ϫ “Which one?” Ϫ “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t have that in front of me.” Ϫ “OK. I don’t think he ever said it. But anyway, we’ll look … I will continue my search …”] (www) [“He has never ever said that he wanted to cut pensions or cut child benefit or cut the benefits that go to disabled people. He has never said that.” Ϫ “He did actually, according to this quote.”] Ϫ “When did he ever say that he was going to cut bene- fits?” Ϫ [“It has been pointed out to me that in Newsweek of 7 October 1996 he said ‘Our priorities should be to re-order public spending so that we are spending less on welfare and more on areas like education.’”] (www) 6.6 Summary 6.6.1 In order to locate a situation time entirely before t 0 , the speaker has the choice, as far as time reference is concerned, between a past tense form and an indefinite present perfect. The present perfect is used when the speaker is con- 6.6 Summary 331 cerned with the relevance of the bygone situation to the present. As we have seen in chapter 4, the past tense is used when there is focus on the actualization of the bygone situation itself. (That is, focus on the actualization as a whole or on some aspect of it, such as when or how the situation took place). The indefinite present perfect is used to introduce a bygone situation that is relevant to the present, but once a situation can be treated as ‘given’ in the discourse, reference to it involves actualization focus, and it is the past tense that is used. For example, I’ve just seen Meg. She was washing an elephant. Sometimes a situation can be treated as given because it is implied by the (linguistic or extralinguistic) context, rather than because it has been explicitly introduced. Here, too, the present perfect is not appropriate. For example, in How did you get that scar on your cheek? the existence of the scar is presup- posed, which means, given our world knowledge, that we can assume that the hearer got the scar at some time in the past. The actualization of a bygone situation of getting the scar is ‘given’, and the present perfect cannot be substi- tuted for the past tense. 6.6.2 In most wh-questions, the speaker has the choice, in principle, between using the past tense and using the present perfect, depending on whether the focus is on THEN or NOW. For example, in the first example below, the speaker focuses on the past activity of putting the butter somewhere; he may not even want to know where it is now. In the second example the focus is on the present Ϫ the same activity is the subject of the question, but the speaker is looking for a response that will tell him where the butter is now. Where did you put the butter? Where have you put the butter? 6.6.3 However, one sort of wh-question, namely when-questions, is more re- stricted. If the speaker of a when-question is asking about the time of actualiza- tion of a bygone situation, the fact of actualization of the situation is taken for granted, and it is the past tense that is used: When {did you mislay /*have you mislaid} all the butter that I bought yesterday? However, there are cases in which a when-question asks the addressee to supply an occasion or occasions on which a situation has actualized, rather than ask- ing for the temporal location of the actualization of a situation (which is thus presupposed to have actualized). In these cases, the present perfect may be used, but with a number-quantifying constitution meaning rather than with an indefinite one. [What makes you happy? In looking over your life, where and] when have you been the happiest? [Where were you, and what were you doing?] (www) When have you successfully executed a project within a tight time-frame and with a limited budget? 332 6. The present perfect vs the preterite in clauses without temporal adverbials The past tense can often be used in such examples, too, but not when it is unacceptable to presuppose the actualization of a specific instance or specific instances of the sort of situation referred to. For example, in a discussion of the use of experts in general (and not of any particular expert), we find: [Another area to explore is the expert’s past history as a witness.] Where and when has she testified, and how often? [Has it been more for plaintiffs or the defence? (…) Has he ever served the opponent before, or been represented by that firm?] (www) To substitute the past tense here, as in: Another area to explore is the expert’s past history as a witness. Where and when did she testify, and how often? would be to presuppose that the situation of the expert testifying has actualized at some time in the past. This would significantly change the interpretation of the sentence, since Where and when has she testified? leaves open the possibility that the witness in question has actually never testified before. (This is inherent in the meaning of an indefinite perfect.) The presupposition (inherent in the past tense) that she has done so is not easily acceptable, since the NP ‘the expert’ is a generic NP, which refers to witnesses in general. In the world as we know it, many people that are called as witness have never been in the witness box before. The presupposition accompanying the past tense thus runs counter to our pragmatic knowledge of the world. 6.6.4 When-questions with a number-quantifying constitution perfect are often rhetorical and are used to imply that no occasion of actualization of the situation referred to exists. For example: [Sixty-seven minutes Ϫ hell’s bells.] When have I ever spent more than an hour in front of one picture in a gallery? Such when-questions in the present perfect can be used to challenge an explicit or implicit assumption on the part of the addressee or someone else (including the speaker). Thus the speaker of the following challenges the implicit assump- tion that he would possibly lie: [“Ask me a question and I’ll answer it; it’s as simple as that.” Ϫ “But I won’t know if you’re telling the truth.”] Ϫ “And when have I lied to you?” The message is: ‘Your suspicion implies that it’s possible that I would lie to you, but that belief is unreasonable since you have no experience of my having lied on past occasions.’ Similarly, the speaker of [Whew! I ain’t seen this stuff before, either, so I take no responsibility for what it says] (but then when have I ever taken responsibility for anything?). (www) rejects the implication of his own utterance: normally refusing to do something implies that it is possible in theory that one would or could do that thing. The 6.6 Summary 333 speaker rejects this implication of ‘I can take responsibility for what it says’ by pointing out that there is no evidence that such responsibility-taking has ever occurred, so it is not reasonable to assume that there was ever a chance that he would take responsibility. 7. Absolute tense forms referring to the post-present I. ‘Future tense’ forms vs ‘futurish’ forms 337 7.1 Definition of ‘future tense’ 337 7.2 Dual time conceptualization in sentences referring to the post-present 338 7.3 ‘Futurish’ tense forms 338 7.4 Modal implication: not-yet-factual-at-t 0 340 7.5 The distribution of shall and will in the future tense 340 7.6 The various meanings of shall and will 341 7.7 The progressive future tense (without progressive meaning) 344 II. Remarks on be going to 345 7.8 ‘Be going to ϩ infinitive’: futurish form or future tense form 345 7.9 ‘Be going to ϩ infinitive’ as futurish form: general meaning 346 7.10 Be going to expressing a present intention 346 7.11 Be going to expressing present predictability of a post-present actualization 350 7.12 A special use of be going to in if-clauses 352 7.13 Constraints on the use of be going to 352 III. Futurish forms other than be going to 356 7.14 Be about to and be on the point of 356 7.15 The auxiliary be to 356 7.16 The present tense 357 IV. Summary 358 . specific instances of the sort of situation referred to. For example, in a discussion of the use of experts in general (and not of any particular expert), we find: [Another area to explore is the expert’s. Summary 331 cerned with the relevance of the bygone situation to the present. As we have seen in chapter 4, the past tense is used when there is focus on the actualization of the bygone situation. tense and using the present perfect, depending on whether the focus is on THEN or NOW. For example, in the first example below, the speaker focuses on the past activity of putting the butter somewhere;