I. Introduction 637 I. Introduction 13.1 Delineation of the subject Adverbial when-clauses specify an Adv-time. Semantically and diachronically, they are ‘headless’ relative clauses, i. e. relative clauses whose relative pronoun ‘contains’ a co- vert antecedent. In the same way as what he wanted means ‘that which he wanted’, when he came means ‘then when he came’, which is equivalent to ‘at the time at which he came’. ‘Narrative’ when-clauses, which do not specify the time of the head clause situation but ‘push forward’ the action (e. g. I had just gone to bed when the phone rang) are not adverbial when-clauses and will therefore be disregarded. 13.1.1 When-clauses can be used in various ways (e. g. relative clauses, object clauses, adverbial clauses). In this chapter we will only be concerned with adverbial when-clauses. Like any other time-specifying adverbial, an adverbial when-clause specifies an Adv-time. This Adv-time is interpreted as punctual if the time of the full situation of the when-clause is punctual (as in John arrived when I left) and as durative if the time of the full situation of the when-clause is durative (as in John arrived when I was in my study). Adverbial when-clauses deserve investigating in this book on tense for sev- eral reasons. They present one of the rare cases in which the tense form of the subclause is bound by a time of orientation other than the situation time of the head clause. This follows from the temporal structure of when, which, as we will see, means ‘at the time at which’. Moreover, a combination of a head clause and a when-clause realizes one of at least nine possible configurations of temporal relations. When-clauses allow a special type of ‘indirect binding’ and also allow other tense choices which cannot be found in most other types of subclause. In sum, they are interesting to the use of tenses in many respects. 13.1.2 Semantically and diachronically, when-clauses are headless relative clauses (or free relative clauses), i. e. relative clauses whose relative pronoun ‘contains’ a covert antecedent. In the same way as what he wanted means ‘that which he wanted’, when he came means ‘then when he came’, which is equivalent to ‘at the time at which he came’. The only difference is that ‘that which he wanted’ is an NP, while ‘at the time at which he came’ is a prepositional phrase functioning as a temporal adverbial. In other words, in the same way as what he wanted is commonly called a ‘nominal relative clause’, when he came can be re- ferred to as an ‘adverbial relative clause’, at least as far as its syntactic function is concerned. As will be explained in more detail in 13.3, when has the internal tem- 638 13. Adverbial when -clauses and the use of tenses poral structure ‘at the time at which’, in which ‘which’ represents an implicit ori- entation time which binds the situation time of the when-clause. (This explains, among other things, why adverbial when-clauses referring to the post-present use the ‘Pseudo-t 0 -System’ rather than the ‘Absolute Future System’ Ϫ see 10.1Ϫ2.) For a good understanding of this chapter it is very important to keep this starting-point in mind: adverbial when-clauses are really restrictive relative clauses depending on a prepositional phrase (‘at the time’) or adverb (‘then’) functioning as Adv-time. 13.1.3 A type of when-clause which is perhaps not always easy to distinguish from the adverbial type is the ‘ narrative when -clause’, examples of which are to be found in the following sentences: She had just picked up the revolver when movement caught her eyes. (www) Yesterday evening I was sitting in the living-room, watching TV, when suddenly a policeman came in. I was just having a chat with the vicar when he was called away. We had hardly sat down to rest when the darkness fell upon us. (www) Scarcely will the farmer finish ploughing when the seed planted will be ripe for harvest. (www) I know Tom. Hardly will he have left the country when he will already regret his decision. In examples like these it is the head clause situation that functions as time indication for the when-clause situation, rather than the other way round. In other words, the when-clause does not specify the time of the head clause situation but ‘pushes forward’ the action. This means that such a narrative when-clause does not create an Adv-time but establishes a temporal domain of its own. This explains why it uses an absolute tense form (e. g. a form from the Absolute Future System, as in the last two examples). Since narrative when-clauses are not adverbial when-clauses (i. e. clauses indicating an Adv-time), we will disregard them in this chapter. 1 13.2 When-clauses as situation-time adverbials or as orientation-time adverbials The when-clause can specify either the situation time of the head clause or an orienta- tion time which binds the situation time of the head clause in terms of T-anteriority or T-posteriority. In other words, the when-clause can be used either as a situation-time 1. For a full treatment of narrative when-clauses, see Declerck (1997: 212Ϫ229). I. Introduction 639 adverbial or as an orientation-time adverbial. In both cases the time specified (con- tained) by the Adv-time will be called the ‘contained orientation time’. 13.2.1 It was noted in 2.24Ϫ5 that a time-specifying adverbial can function either as a ‘ situation-time adverbial’orasan‘orientation-time adver- bial’. In the former case the Adv-time ‘contains’ (in terms of inclusion or coincidence) the situation time of the clause involving the time-specifying ad- verbial, as in John left yesterday or John left at five. We speak of an ‘orienta- tion-time adverbial’ when the orientation time which the Adv-time contains is not the situation time but another orientation time in the tense structure of the clause, as in At five o’clock John had already left the office. (In this example the Adv-time contains the orientation time to which the situation time is T- anterior). 2 The relation ‘Adv-time contains situation time’ can be represented in the ways shown in Figure 13.1. The temporal structure of At five o’clock John had already left the office, in which the ‘contained orientation time’ (see 13.2.2) is not a situation time, can be represented as in Figure 13.2. Adv-time situation time OR x x situation time Adv-time Figure 13.1. Representations of ‘Adv-time contains situation time’. The conventions used in these figures and in the others that will be given below are as follows. An orientation time is represented by an x, irrespective of whether it is a situation time or not, and regardless of whether it is punctual or durative. The Adv-time is represented as in Figure 13.1, again irrespective of whether it is punctual or durative. This means that the representations in Figure 13.1 in fact cover four possibilities: (a) durative Adv-time including punctual situation time (e. g. John left yesterday); (b) durative Adv-time includ- ing durative situation time (e. g. I wrote that letter yesterday); (c) durative Adv- time coinciding with durative situation time (e. g. Yesterday I was in London 2. In some cases the Adv-time contains both the orientation time to which the situation time of the head clause is related and the situation time of the head clause itself. This is true, for example, of the Adv-time established by yesterday in Yesterday John had al- ready left the office at four o’clock. For the sake of simplicity, such ‘multiple-orientation- time adverbials’ (see 2.26) will be disregarded here. 640 13. Adverbial when -clauses and the use of tenses Adv-time x x situation time Figure 13.2. The temporal structure of At five o’clock John had already left the office. all day); and (d) punctual Adv-time coinciding with punctual situation time. (e. g. John left at five). 13.2.2 For ease of reference we will call the orientation time that is specified by an Adv-time the ‘ contained orientation time’. As explained in the previ- ous section, the contained orientation time in the tense structure of the head clause is the situation time (of the head clause) if the when-clause is used as a situation-time adverbial and is another orientation time (binding the situation time of the head clause) if the when-clause functions as an orientation-time ad- verbial. 13.2.3 The following is an overview of some terms and meanings: Adv-time: time specified by an adverbial Contained orientation time: orientation time contained in the Adv-time, in terms of inclusion or coincidence Situation-time adverbial: adverbial specifying an Adv-time whose contained orientation time is a situation time Orientation-time adverbial: adverbial specifying an Adv-time whose con- tained orientation time is not a situation time but another (in this case ‘implicit’ Ϫ see 2.14) orientation time which binds a situation time II. The temporal structure of adverbial when -clauses 641 II. The temporal structure of adverbial when - clauses 13.3 When-clauses and temporal structure The temporal structure expressed by when is that of a ‘common Adv-time’ containing both an orientation time from the tense structure of the head clause (the ‘contained 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’. 13.3.1 Adverbial when-clauses differ from nonclausal time-specifying adver- bials like yesterday or some time earlier in that they do not name an Adv-time directly but relate two orientation times (viz. the situation time of the when- clause and the contained orientation time) to each other. However, in doing so adverbial when-clauses do establish an Adv-time, and they therefore function either as situation-time adverbials or as orientation-time adverbials: I left when John arrived. (when-clause as situation-time adverbial: the contained orientation time of the head clause is the situation time of the head clause) When John arrived, I had already left. (when-clause as orientation-time adverbial: the situation time of the head clause is T-anterior to the contained orientation time) I had left when John arrived. (The sentence is ambiguous because the when-clause may be either an orientation-time adverbial Ϫ yielding the reading ‘When John ar- rived I had already left’ Ϫ and a situation-time adverbial Ϫ as in I was no longer there at four because I had left at the same time as John arrived, which was at three.) The temporal structure of such sentences is determined both by the tense forms and by the semantics of when. As we have seen, when can be paraphrased ‘at a/the time at which’. This follows from the fact that, although when is usually treated as a temporal conjunction, it is really a free (headless) relative adverb (see 13.1.2). In the same way as what in I know what I like means ‘that which’, when is semantically equivalent to ‘then when’ (with then as a cataphoric pro- nominal adverb depending for its interpretation on the modifying when- clause). It follows that a sentence like (1a) receives the same interpretation as (1b): (1a) John left when Bill arrived. (1b) John left at the time when Bill arrived. 642 13. Adverbial when -clauses and the use of tenses The temporal structure of (1b) is fairly transparent. At the time when Bill arrived establishes an Adv-time which contains the situation time of the head clause (ϭ the time of John’s leaving). In the relative clause when Bill arrived, the relative when is a relative adverb and therefore also establishes an Adv- time, which ‘contains’ an orientation time from the tense structure of the rela- tive clause. In this example, the contained orientation time of the when-clause is an implicit orientation time to which the situation time of the relative clause is T-simultaneous. This means that there are two Adv-times in the sentence: ‘[at the time] when Bill arrived’ functions as Adv-time in the head clause, and when functions as Adv-time in the relative clause. Since one of the functions of a relative is to express coreferentiality between the antecedent and the wh- constituent of the relative clause, when identifies the two Adv-times with one another. Because (1a) [John left when Bill arrived] differs from (1b) only in that the antecedent is not overtly expressed but incorporated into the free (headless) relative, when has exactly the same function in (1a) as it has in (1b): it identifies the Adv-time of the head clause with the Adv-time of the when-clause. The result is that the meaning of (1a) can be paraphrased as follows: ‘There is a time in the past at which Bill arrived, and that time is the time at which John left’. Quite similar remarks can be made in connection with (2a), which is inter- preted in the same way as (2b): (2a) John left when Bill had already arrived. (2b) John left at a time when Bill had (already) arrived. (As shown in Figure 13.3 below,) in (2b), at a time when Bill had already arrived establishes an Adv-time which contains the situation time of the head clause (ϭ the time of John’s leaving). Let us call this situation time, which is the orientation time that is contained by the Adv-time established by the when- clause, ‘orientation time i ’. In the relative clause when Bill had already arrived, the relative when is a relative adverb establishing an Adv-time, which contains an orientation time from the tense structure of the relative clause. In this exam- ple, the contained orientation time is an orientation time to which the situation time of the relative clause is T-anterior. Let us refer to this implicit contained orientation time as ‘orientation time ii ’. There are, then, two Adv-times in (2b). First, ‘[at the time] when Bill had (already) arrived’ functions as Adv-time in the head clause. Let us call this Adv-time 1 . Second, when functions as Adv- time in the relative clause. Let us call this Adv-time 2 . Because when is a head- less relative and a relative expresses coreferentiality between the antecedent and the wh-constituent of the relative clause, when identifies the two Adv- times with one another. Since (2a) differs from (2b) only in that the antecedent is not overtly expressed but contained in the free relative, when has exactly the same function in (2b): it identifies the Adv-time 1 of the head clause with the II. The temporal structure of adverbial when -clauses 643 Adv-time 2 of the when-clause. The result is that the meaning of (2a) [John left when Bill had already arrived] can be paraphrased as follows: ‘There is a time in the past at which Bill had already arrived, and that time is the time at which John left’. 13.3.2 The above analysis implies that the following relations form part of the semantic structure of (2aϪb): Adv-time 1 contains orientation time i (ϭ the situation time of the head clause) Adv-time 2 contains orientation time ii The situation time of the when-clause is anterior to orientation time ii Adv-time 1 ϭ Adv-time 2 This can be represented as in Figure 13.3, in which the two parallel vertical lines represent the ϭ sign. This figure can be further simplified to the represen- tation given in Figure 13.4 (in which the symbols representing the containment relation of the Adv-times are fused into one more complex symbol): head clause situation time x Adv-time 1 Adv-time 2 x x when-clause situation time Figure 13.3. The temporal structure of John left when Bill had already arrived: repre- sentation 1. head clause situation time x common Adv-time x x when-clause situation time Figure 13.4. The temporal structure of John left when Bill had already arrived: repre- sentation 2. 13.3.3 For ease of reference, a further couple of terms will be introduced. We will speak of the ‘ Adv-time of the head clause’ and the ‘Adv-time of the . it identifies the Adv-time 1 of the head clause with the II. The temporal structure of adverbial when -clauses 643 Adv-time 2 of the when-clause. The result is that the meaning of (2a) [John. structure of the head clause is the situation time (of the head clause) if the when-clause is used as a situation-time adverbial and is another orientation time (binding the situation time of the head. situation-time adverbials or as orientation-time adverbials The when-clause can specify either the situation time of the head clause or an orienta- tion time which binds the situation time of the head