The grammar of the english verb phrase part 113 potx

Glossary 777 but it was not yet a fact at the time of the head clause situation and the speaker leaves it vague whether Bill eventually arrived or not.) Factual full situation: In clauses in one of the perfect tenses with a continuative reading, this term refers to that part of the full situation that has actualized in a period leading up to the relevant orientation time (which is the temporal zero-point in the case of the present perfect). Thus, in Meg has been talking to the elephant for an hour now, the temporal adverbial specifies not only the length of the pre-present zone but also the duration of the situation time coin- ciding with that pre-present zone. The full situation may or may not include t 0 and extend into the post-present. If it does, it consists not only of a part that is factual at t 0 but also of a ‘potential’ present and post-present part. The part that is factual at t 0 is called the ‘factual full situation’. The entire situation, including both the t 0 -factual part and the potential part, is called the ‘potential full situation’. Finite clause: clause whose verb form is a finite verb form. Finite verb form: verb form that is marked for at least one of the grammatical categories tense, mood, person and number. For example, the finite verb form works is marked for tense (present), mood (indicative), person (third) and number (singular). (By contrast, a verb form that is an infinitive, gerund or participle is a nonfinite verb form.) Focalizing when -clause: when-clause which does not specify the time of the head clause situation (or a time to which the time of the head clause situation is related) but expresses the speaker’s temporal focus on a time of evaluation or observation. In one subtype, the when-clause suggests the idea of a travelling observing consciousness (e. g. When you travel to Washington, Boston, Chicago or New York, the same problems exist), in another, the focalizing when-clause indicates the ‘epistemic time of evaluation’, i. e. the time when the conclusion is reached that the statement made in the head clause is true (e. g. When you look at the economics, this company needs a Japanese and a European partner to make it work). Foreground: in a narrative text, the linguistic material (sentences and clauses) which ‘pushes forward’ the story through time. (This material is said to have a ‘foregrounding’ function.) It is the foregrounding sentences and clauses of a story that form the ‘backbone’ of the story. Foregrounding: see foreground. Free indirect speech: type of represented speech in which an utterance or thought is represented in the form of an independent clause (which is not a quotation) rather than in the form of a subclause depending on a reporting 778 Glossary clause (as is the case in indirect reported speech sentences like [He said] that he was ill and had to stay at home). For example: [He let me know that he couldn’t come.] He was ill. He had to stay at home. In free indirect speech, what is reported is more often a thought than an utterance: [He took her threat seriously.] She would not hesitate to carry it out. The report retains some typical characteristics of a direct speech clause. Thus, it can have the form of a direct question (i. e. with inversion) (e. g. [The constable looked at me uncomprehendingly.] Why ever did I insist on being arrested?), it can be fol- lowed by a question tag (e. g. So, that was what they were going to do, was it?), etc. Free relative clause (or headless relative clause, nominal relative clause): rela- tive clauses without an overt antecedent (ϭ head), i. e. whose antecedent is incorporated into the relative pronoun itself. For example: what he wanted (which means ‘that which he wanted’). Because there is no overt noun as ante- cedent, the relative clause itself functions syntactically like a noun phrase. Thus, in What he wanted was unreasonable, the free relative clause has the nominal function of subject. (This is why we can speak of ‘nominal relative clause’.) Full situation: the complete situation (referred to in a clause) as it actualizes in whatever possible world is being referred to. The full situation should be distinguished from the predicated situation. The latter is that part of the full situation (possibly all of it) about which a claim is made in the clause. As is clear from Two minutes ago John was in the library (which does not exclude that John is still there), it is the predicated situation rather than the full situa- tion that is located in time by the use of a particular tense. Full verb: see lexical verb. Future: (a) As a noun, future can be short for ‘future tense’ or can be used as a nontechnical term meaning ‘post-present zone’. (b) As an adjective, future is usually linked up with post-present time reference. For example, future situa- tion means ‘post-present situation’, which is short for ‘situation whose situa- tion time is located in the post-present zone’. Similarly, when we speak of future time reference, we normally mean ‘reference to a time lying in, or being coextensive with, the post-present time-zone’. Occasionally future indicates a relation of posteriority to an orientation time other than the temporal zero- point. For example, we can say that in Ten years later Bill {was to / would} be the richest man in town, the verb form was to be or would be expresses ‘future in the past’ or (more correctly) ‘future from the past’, i. e. future relative to a past orientation time.) Future continuous: progressive form of the future tense. Future perfect: see future perfect tense. Glossary 779 Future perfect tense (or future perfect): tense which is formed by combining the future tense auxiliary will (or shall) with a perfect infinitive. The future perfect is an absolute-relative tense, because it combines an ‘absolute relation’ with a relative one: will expresses T-posteriority to the zero-point, thus estab- lishing a post-present domain, while have V-ed expresses T-anteriority to the pseudo-zero-point in this post-present domain. This anteriority is similar either to the relation of anteriority to t 0 expressed by the absolute past tense – com- pare John left at five with [John will no longer be there at six because] he will have left at five – or (more commonly) to the relation of anteriority to t 0 expressed by the present perfect – compare John has already left with John will already have left (by then). Accordingly, the semantics of the future perfect is: ‘The situation time is located anterior to the central orientation time of a post-present domain.’ Since that central orientation time is treated as a pseudo- zero-point, this comes down to saying that a future perfect form creates either a pseudo-past subdomain or a pseudo-pre-present subdomain. In addition, the future perfect can also be used as a ‘pseudo-absolute-relative’ tense, as in [He will say that] he will have finished before 5 o’clock, where the origin of the T- posteriority relation expressed by will is not the (real) zero-point but a post- present pseudo-t 0 (viz. the situation time of will say). Future tense: tense whose forms combine the present tense form of one of the auxiliaries will or shall (the latter in the first person only) and a present infini- tive (e. g. will come). The basic use of the future tense is to locate a situation time in the post-present zone of the present time-sphere. However, in a post- present domain, it can also be used as a pseudo-absolute tense (e. g. [I will say that] I will be absent the next day.) Future tense auxiliary: the auxiliary will or shall (the latter in the first person only) when it helps to build a form of the future tense (as in It will be cold tomorrow) or of an absolute-relative tense like the future perfect (as in He will have left by then). Futurish tense form: verbal expression which arguably combines future time reference with present time reference, more specifically, which links the post- present actualization of a situation to a particular kind of present state. Exam- ples of futurish tense forms are the present progressive in I’m leaving in a minute,‘be going to ϩ present infinitive’ in It’s going to rain, and ‘be to ϩ present infinitive’ in The Queen is to leave for Canada tomorrow. Like future tense forms, futurish tense forms establish a post-present temporal domain. Futurish verb form: see futurish tense form. Futurity: see posteriority. Generic sentence: universal sentence that predicates a typical characteristic of a kind (species), e. g. Horses do not eat meat. The term is also sometimes 780 Glossary applied to habitual sentences that predicate a typical and permanent (nontem- porary) characteristic of an individual (e. g. Bill’s cat chases dogs). Gerund: nonfinite verb form used in a gerund clause (e. g. [I want to avoid her] getting [upset]). See also present gerund and perfect gerund. Gerund clause: nonfinite clause whose verb form is a gerund and which is typically used as a nominal clause, e. g. being gay in By next week, you will write an essay on being gay {in antiquity / today / in the world of tomorrow}. As this example shows, the situation time of being gay can be interpreted as anterior, simultaneous or posterior to the situation time of the situation re- ferred to in the head clause. Grammatical aspect: the use of a special grammatical form (more specifically: an inflectional suffix, an auxiliary or a combination of the two, as in the Eng- lish progressive form) to express one of various meanings which have to do with how the speaker views the internal temporal structure of a situation. Grammatical auxiliary: auxiliary with a purely grammatical function, e. g. the perfect tense auxiliary have. Gricean Maxims: four principles of conversation, described by Grice (1975), which are conventionally observed by cooperative speakers and hearers, and which can trigger implicatures. See also Maxim of Quantity and Maxim of Re- lation. Habit: situation that is characteristic of the referent of the subject noun phrase for an extended period of time (e. g. John smokes; Bill mostly walks to work). Because it is a characteristic, a habit is by definition a state. It does not neces- sarily involve repetition (e. g. I used to be afraid of the dark), but a habit is mostly a habitual-repetitive situation. Habitual: being or expressing a habit. John smokes is a ‘habitual sentence’. It refers to a ‘habitual situation’. It has a ‘habitual meaning (interpretation)’, but is not an instance of habitual aspect because it does not contain a special verb form grammatically marking the situation as habitual. (The form smokes can also be used with a nonhabitual interpretation, e. g. in the historic present.) Habitual aspect: kind of grammatical aspect characterized by the fact that the speaker uses a special verb form to represent a situation as a habit (i. e. as a situation which is characteristic of the referent of the subject NP over an ex- tended period of time). (e. g. She used to come and talk to him when she had finished working). Habitual-repetitive sentence: sentence referring to a habitual-repetitive situa- tion. Glossary 781 Habitual-repetitive situation: habit involving repetition, i. e. habitual situation consisting of a number of similar or identical subsituations (e. g. She comes to see me every night). A habitual-repetitive situation is an example of a hyper- situation. Habitual sentence: sentence interpreted as referring to a habitual situation. Habitual situation: situation which is interpreted as being a habit, i. e. as being characteristic of the referent of the subject NP over a certain period, e. g. the situations referred to in John smokes, We’re eating outside while this spell of good weather lasts, His dog is black. See also habitual-repetitive situation, permanent habit, temporary habit. Head (of a phrase): see phrase. Head clause: clause which forms part of a complex sentence and on which another clause (i. e. a ‘subclause’, ‘subordinate clause’, ‘dependent clause’, ‘em- bedded clause’) is syntactically dependent. In John left after he had promised he would finish the report, the matrix clause is John left. This clause is the head clause on which the subclause with had promised depends. The latter clause is itself the head clause of the subclause with would finish. As this example shows, a head clause (or ‘superordinate clause’) may or may not be the matrix of a complex sentence. Headless relative clause (or free relative clause or nominal relative clause): relative clause whose relative pronoun ‘contains’ a covert antecedent. For ex- ample: what he wanted (which means ‘that which he wanted’). For more infor- mation, see free relative clause. Heterogeneous (or nonhomogeneous): (a) Ontological feature of a telic kind of situation: ‘not homogeneous’. For example, the verb phrase run three miles denotes a telic situation-template; it refers to a kind of situation which is not interpreted as homogeneous (ϭ the same all the way through); this means that the verb phrase is only applicable to the kind of situation as a whole: there is no part of the situation type referred to by run three miles that can also be referred to by this (nonprogressive) verb phrase; (b) On the level of the clause, ‘heterogeneous’ is a characteristic of the actualization of a concrete situation; John is going to run three miles is a ‘heterogeneous clause’ because it can only be used to refer to the post-present situation as a whole: there is no part of the future (actualization of the) situation that can be satisfactorily referred to by the same clause. As regards clauses and the actualizations they refer to, there is a perfect correlation between the features [ϩ heterogeneous] and [ϩ bounded]. Sheila drank a glass of beer refers to an actualization which is bounded, and therefore heterogeneous, so that we can speak either of a ‘bounded sentence’ or of a ‘heterogeneous sentence’; (c) ‘Heterogeneous’ (or 782 Glossary ‘nonhomogeneous’) can also be applied to the (actualization of) a situation: a bounded (or heterogeneous) clause refers to a bounded (or heterogeneous) situ- ation; (d) The term ‘heterogeneous’ is also applied to an Adv-time and to the adverbial indicating it: a heterogeneous Adv-time adverbial can only refer to the Adv-time as a whole, not to any smaller portion of it (e. g. from 1983 to 1986). The Adv-time in question is then also said to be heterogeneous. Historic present (or historical present): use of the present tense to locate the situation time of a bygone situation in the present in order to represent this situation vividly, as if it were actualizing here and now (e. g. Last night I’m having a drink at the local pub. Suddenly this guy walks in and …). Homogeneous: the opposite of ‘heterogeneous’. (a) On the level of the verb phrase, ‘homogeneous’ is an ontological feature of a durative situation-tem- plate: it means that a kind of situation is conceptualized as ‘the same all the way through’, i. e. as consisting of parts which are all of the same kind as the situation-template as a whole (e. g. drink beer). On this level, ‘homogeneous’ can be applied both to the kind of situation (which is then always atelic) and to the verb phrase denoting it. (b) On the level of clauses, ‘homogeneous’ is an inherent feature of nonbounded (actualizations of) situations. The sentence She drank beer can be called either a ‘homogeneous sentence’ or a ‘nonbounded sentence’. The actualization of the situation referred to, and by extension the situation itself, can also be called ‘nonbounded’ or ‘homogeneous’. A homogen- eous clause can refer not only to (the actualization of) a situation as a whole but also to any representative part of it. Thus, if John was walking truly de- scribes what John was doing between 2 o’clock and 4, it can also be used to describe what John was doing between 2 and 3, and between 2.30 and 3, etc. (c) In respect of Adv-times, homogeneity means that the Adv-time-adverbial can indicate not only the Adv-time as a whole but also portions of it. For example, today is a ‘homogeneous Adv-time-adverbial’ because any part of today, whether bygone, present or future, can be referred to as today. This explains why any of the absolute tenses is compatible with today: I had no time for breakfast today, I haven’t seen him yet today, I’m 21 today, I’m feeling queasy today, I will visit him today. Hot news reading (or hot news interpretation): a particular usage type (func- tional reading) of the indefinite perfect: the sentence in the present perfect is used to ‘announce’ a bygone situation, i. e. to present the bygone actualization of the situation in question as very recent and as having high current signifi- cance. For example: [Have you heard?] Kim Clijsters has won the US Open!. Hypersituation: repetitive situation, i. e. situation whose actualization involves the actualization of a number of similar subsituations, e. g. [All the time I was speaking] John was nodding assent; She stabbed him six times with her pen- knife. Glossary 783 Iconic sequencing: the unmarked interpretation of a sequence of two or more bounded clauses using an absolute tense form: the situations referred to are interpreted as actualizing in the temporal order in which they are referred to. Thus, the unmarked interpretation of Bill hit John, who hit him is that John hit Bill first, and then Bill hit John. (This unmarked interpretation can easily be overruled by the context, as in Bill hit John, who hit him the day before, or by pragmatic knowledge, as in The policeman arrested John, who robbed the bank). Illocutionary force: the illocutionary force of an utterance is the intention of the speech act (e. g. promise, request, piece of advice, rebuke, etc.) performed by the speaker by making the utterance. For example, Will you help me?, Shall I drive you there? and You will do as I say! have the illocutionary force of a request, an offer of service and an instruction, respectively. Imperfective aspect: cover term for inchoative, progressive or egressive aspect. Imperfective aspect is expressed by verb forms which do not refer to the actual- ization of a situation as a whole, but only to its beginning, middle or end. In English, progressive aspect is the only kind of imperfective aspect that is grammaticalized. Imperfective meaning: meaning conveyed by a verb form expressing imperfec- tive aspect. Imperfective verb form: verb form which expresses imperfective aspect, i. e. which explicitly refers to only the beginning, middle or end of (the actualization of) a situation, not to the complete situation. For example, in I was writing an essay [when Henry came in] the progressive verb form was writing refers to the middle of the situation only (hence the possible paraphrase ‘I was in the middle of writing an essay [when Henry came in].’). Implicate: to express an implicature, i. e. to suggest that something is the case unless there is a contextual or pragmatic indication to the contrary. For exam- ple, in clauses referring to a homogeneous situation the past tense implicates that the actualization of the situation referred to is over at the temporal zero- point. Thus, Tim was very angry suggests that Tim is no longer angry, but this implicature can be blocked or cancelled by the context: It is blocked (prevented from arising) by the presence of already in Tim was already very angry yester- day, and it is cancelled (explicitly denied) in Tim was very angry – in fact he still is. Implicature: aspect of interpretation which does not follow from the semantic meaning of a word, constituent or construction but which either follows from contextual information or pragmatic knowledge of the world or results from the application of conversational principles, such as the Gricean Maxims. It is . not interpreted as homogeneous (ϭ the same all the way through); this means that the verb phrase is only applicable to the kind of situation as a whole: there is no part of the situation type referred. post-present part. The part that is factual at t 0 is called the ‘factual full situation’. The entire situation, including both the t 0 -factual part and the potential part, is called the ‘potential full. to the kind of situation (which is then always atelic) and to the verb phrase denoting it. (b) On the level of clauses, ‘homogeneous’ is an inherent feature of nonbounded (actualizations of)