The grammar of the english verb phrase part 92 doc

630 12. Preterite vs present perfect in clauses with temporal adverbials I {stayed / *have stayed} with the body until the police came. (Adv-time up to a past orientation time) [I know what it means to be in the army.] I {served / *have served} during the Falklands war. 12.20.3 Noninclusive heterogeneous pre-present-zone adverbials normally combine with the present perfect only: I {*was / have been} fascinated by insects from childhood. (continuative reading) At least a dozen accidents have happened here over the past four years. (quantifica- tional constitution reading) Nothing much has been done about it over the last three years. (indefinite reading) 12.20.4 Noninclusive homogeneous pre-present-zone adverbials mostly (and those of the type for the {past / last} two weeks exclusively) combine with the present perfect, but the past tense is sometimes used, though seldom in Br. E., to imply a break between the past and the present: It has been highly successful in the past [and with your support this success will continue.] (www) The profession of a doctor was respectable in the past [but today society has changed]. (www) 12.20.5 Inclusive pre-present-zone adverbials can in principle combine with either the past tense or the present perfect. The choice of tense depends on the speaker’s temporal focus. [“When did he disappear?”] Ϫ He disappeared within the last month. (focus on THEN.) Security awareness has increased significantly within the last year. (www) (focus on NOW) 12.20.6 Multi-zone temporal adverbials can in principle combine with either the past tense or the present perfect; the choice of tense depends on the speak- er’s temporal focus. I’ve been working hard this month. I went to the museum today, [but it was closed]. I{have spoken / spoke} with Tim today. 12.20.7 With since -adverbials the rules are as follows. If the adverb since or a prepositional phrase with since indicates a period up to t 0 , the clause in which it is used has to be in the present perfect: I haven’t seen him {since / since that night}. If the since-adverbial is a since-clause indicating a period up to t 0 , the head clause uses the present perfect, whereas the since-clause uses the present perfect if the situation referred to leads up to t 0 and the past tense if III. Summary 631 the situation in question is a bygone situation: I haven’t seen him since I {have been living here / came to live here}. A possible exception is a cleft of the type It {is / has been} a long time since I {went / have gone} to a restaurant.The use of the present perfect in the since-clause is then only possible if the situation in question could in principle have actualized several times in the pre-present period. Thus, the present perfect is ungrammatical in It {is / has been} a long time since my wife {died /*has died}. There are also some exceptional cases in which a head clause in the present tense can collocate with a since-construction, especially in a conversational style (see 12.11.5). 12.20.8 A for -adverbial functioning as a pure duration adverbial is compati- ble both with the past tense and with the present perfect. If it functions as a pure time-specifying adverbial or bifunctional adverbial establising a pre-pres- ent Adv-time, it is compatible with the present perfect but not with the past tense: I {lived / have lived} in London for three years. (pure duration adverbial) [“When did you last see him?”] I {*didn’t see / haven’t seen} him for three years. (pure time-specifying adverbial indicating a period up to now) I {*lived / *was living / have been living} here for six months now. (bifunctional adverbial indicating a period up to now) We have also addressed the question which of the three temporal inter- pretations of the present perfect (indefinite, constitution, continuative) com- bines with which of the three uses of the for-adverbial (see 12.12.2Ϫ6). 12.20.9 In section 12.13 we have investigated the (in)compatibility of the preterite and the present perfect with various kinds of until -adverbials.We have shown, amongst other things, that until now is typically followed by a present perfect, in which case the indefinite, continuative and up-to-now W- readings are all available, subject to restrictions. Until now I {have lived / have been living} in the country. (continuative interpreta- tion) Until now she has worked intermittently for various companies. (up-to-now reading) I don’t know Pisa because I’ve never visited it until now. (indefinite reading; requires a negative clause) However, to express a contrast with the present, the past tense is often used, especially in negative clauses (see 12.13.3): [I have finally enabled permanent links for each post, which appear to be working fine, and provided you with the ability to leave comments.] Sorry I didn’t do that until now. (www) 632 12. Preterite vs present perfect in clauses with temporal adverbials 12.20.10 With adverbials referring directly to the present (at present, now, nowadays, these days), it is sometimes possible to use the present perfect (but obviously not the past tense) when evaluating the present state of affairs result- ing from a pre-present situation: At present only half of the goods have been sold. [We will have to make a special effort to sell the rest.] I’ve been working for seven hours on end now. Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. These days we have dealt very satisfactorily with the problem. 12.20.11 Actualization adverbials (e. g. already, always, not … yet, ever, never, still) referring to (non)actualization in a past period combine with the past tense. Those referring to (non)actualization in a period leading up to now combine with the present perfect, but in (especially spoken) Am. E. and to a lesser extent in colloquial Br. E., the past tense is often used as an alternative: Did you ever beat him? (e. g. when both of you were still professional players) Have you ever beaten him? (e. g. in your life?) Graham {always was / has always been} a coward. (was is colloquial) 12.20.12 On an indefinite interpretation, the present perfect co-occurs with four adverbials that indicate a ‘recent indefinite bygone time’, viz. recently, just, this minute, lately. However, there are cases in which the past tense can be used too. With this minute (in the sense of ‘very recently’) the present perfect is nor- mally used in Br. E., although the past tense can be found when the idea of recency is sufficiently obvious: I’ve this minute seen her in the street. [Well then. You haven’t heard?] Sergeant Archer and his mates just left this minute; [I would have thought you’d have passed them in the hall.] (www) Recently and lately combine with the present perfect if they are understood as referring to a period leading up to now or as specifying a ‘recent indefinite bygone time’. Recently can combine with the past tense when it specifies an indefinite time treated as closed off from now. They’ve {recently / lately} bought a second car. They recently bought a second car. When just refers to a time lying immediately before t 0 it usually combines with the present perfect in Br. E., but the past tense is not uncommon. The alterna- tive just now (with an accent on now) is normally used with the past tense. When just now (with a heavier accent on just than on now) means ‘only just’, it is used with the present perfect only. III. Summary 633 I{just met / have just met} a friend of yours, Andy Wilson. I {found / *have found} the missing papers just now. I{*just now heard / have just now heard} that the deal is off. 12.20.13 With once , either the past tense or the present perfect is used, de- pending on the meaning of this adverb. For example: There {was once / *has once been} a butterfly who wished for a bride. (‘once upon a time’) TV sets are much cheaper now than they {once were / *have once been}. (‘in the past, but not now’) He {once promised / has once promised} to help me. (‘at a certain time {in the past / in the pre-present’}) I’ve once heard democracy described as controlled civil war. (www) (‘there has been an occasion when …’) What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. (www) (‘once X has happened, Y’) 13. Adverbial when-clauses and the use of tenses I. Introduction 637 13.1 Delineation of the subject 637 13.2 When-clauses as situation-time adverbials or as orientation-time adverbials 638 II. The temporal structure of adverbial when -clauses 641 13.3 When-clauses and temporal structure 641 13.4 Combining when-clauses with other time-specifying adverbials 650 13.5 The relation between the situation time of the head clause and the Adv-time of the head clause 651 13.6 The definition of ‘simultaneity’ and ‘situation time’ 654 III. Configurations of temporal relations 655 13.7 Possible combinations of tenses in head clause and when-clause 655 13.8 Further remarks on the configurations 657 IV. Direct and indirect binding in when -clauses 660 13.9 Definitions of direct and indirect binding in when-clauses 660 13.10 The use of indirect binding in when-clauses 660 V. Pseudo-sloppy simultaneity 667 13.11 Definition of pseudo-sloppy simultaneity 667 13.12 Further remarks on pseudo-sloppy simultaneity 668 VI. The expression of irrealis or tentativeness in when -clauses 673 13.13 Counterfactual when-clauses 673 13.14 Tentative when-clauses 674 VII. Adverbial when -clauses using an absolute tense form 675 13.15 Summaries, etc. 675 13.16 Other cases in which the when-clause is in the future tense 675 13.17 Habitual-repetitive sentences 676 VIII. When -clause and head clause referring to different times 680 13.18 Head clause referring to the past and when-clause referring to the present 680 13.19 Head clause referring to a past domain and when-clause referring to the post-present 681 13.20 Head clause referring to the pre-present and when-clause referring to the present 681 IX. Summary 683 636 13. Adverbial when -clauses and the use of tenses Abstract In this chapter an analysis is presented of the temporal structure expressed by when and we examine the possibilities of tense choice in ad- verbial when-clauses and in the head clauses supporting them. In part I (ϭ sections 13.1Ϫ2) we define the use of when-clauses as ‘situation-time adverbi- als’ and as ‘orientation-time adverbials’. Part II (ϭ sections 13.3Ϫ6) is devoted to the temporal structure of when-clauses. It is shown that this structure consists of a ‘common Adv- time’ containing both an orientation time from the tense structure of the head clause (the ‘con- tained orientation time of the head clause’) and an orientation time from the tense structure of the when-clause (the ‘contained orientation time of the when-clause’). This temporal structure, which is the semantics of when, can therefore be paraphrased as ‘at a/the time at which’. It is also argued that the when-clause can specify either the situation time of the head clause or an orien- tation time which binds the situation time of the head clause in terms of T-anteriority or T-poste- riority. (In other words, the when-clause can be used either as a situation-time adverbial or as an orientation-time adverbial.) In each case the when-clause uses a relative tense, which repre- sents the situation time of the when-clause as T-anterior, T-simultaneous or T-posterior to the contained orientation time of the when-clause. It follows that there are nine unmarked con- figurations of temporal relations, realizing nine different temporal structures involving the com- mon Adv-time expressed by when. These nine configurations are discussed in part III (ϭ sec- tions 13.7Ϫ8). They have in common that the situation time of the when-clause is bound by the contained orientation time of the when- clause, and can be considered as forming the set of unmarked options as far as tense choice is concerned. As the examples show, all nine of them are compatible with reference to the past as well as with reference to the post-present. Apart from the unmarked options, there are some marked uses of tenses in adverbial when- clauses. Under certain conditions the when- clause can use the past perfect (but not the con- ditional tense or conditional perfect) to effect ‘indirect binding’, i. e. to relate the situation time of the when-clause to an orientation time which is not the contained orientation time of the when-clause (and which is not t 0 either). This possibility is examined in part IV (ϭ sec- tions 13.9Ϫ10). Part V (ϭ sections 13.11Ϫ12) deals with sen- tences in which the two situations are not inter- preted as W-simultaneous, although the when- clause uses a form expressing T-simultaneity, e. g. When I receive his letter, I will write a reply at once. It is shown that this is not a ‘sloppy W- simultaneity’ interpretation (due to a ‘sloppy’ use of tenses Ϫ see 9.20.4) but follows from the temporal structure of when, which does not re- quire the two contained times of orientation to coincide. The phenomenon is therefore called ‘pseudo-sloppy simultaneity’. There are also cases in which the when-clause uses the conditional tense or conditional perfect in order to express irrealis, i. e. in order to repre- sent the actualization of the when-clause situa- tion as imaginary or contrary to fact, or in order to express modal tentativeness. These cases are considered in part VI (ϭ sections 13.13Ϫ14). Part VII (ϭ sections 13.15Ϫ17) treats some contexts in which the when-clause ‘shifts the do- main’, while part VIII (ϭ sections 13.18Ϫ20) considers some exceptional cases in which the when-clause and the head clause refer to dif- ferent time-zones. Part IX, finally, summarizes the chapter. . when-clauses with other time-specifying adverbials 650 13.5 The relation between the situation time of the head clause and the Adv-time of the head clause 651 13.6 The definition of ‘simultaneity’. orientation time from the tense structure of the head clause (the ‘con- tained orientation time of the head clause’) and an orientation time from the tense structure of the when-clause (the ‘contained. the question which of the three temporal inter- pretations of the present perfect (indefinite, constitution, continuative) com- bines with which of the three uses of the for-adverbial (see 12.12.2Ϫ6). 12.20.9