The grammar of the english verb phrase part 120 pps

826 Glossary speech act (i. e. assertion, question, instruction, etc.) that he makes by uttering the head clause. For example: [You’d better hurry up,] because there’s going to be a storm. Value (of specificational sentence): that constituent of a specificational struc- ture that is specified as value for a presupposed variable, e. g. a book in It was a book that I gave him, What I gave him was a book , I gave him a book ,A book was what I gave him. The value constituent always receives a heavy (contrastive) accent. Value constituent: constituent representing the value of a specificational sen- tence, e. g. a book in What I gave him was a book . Vantage time: a point in time or a time interval from which (the actualization of) a situation is viewed as ongoing (ϭ in progress) by the speaker referring to that progressive situation. The vantage time is explicitly mentioned in sentences like At 7 p.m. I was still working. Variable (of specificational sentence): the (presupposed) constituent of a specifi- cational structure for which a value is specified (or, in questions, asked). For example, in each of the following sentences the variable is ‘the x that I gave him’: It was a book that I gave him, What I gave him was a book , I gave him a book ,A book was what I gave him. Variable constituent: constituent representing the variable of a specificational sentence, e. g. What I gave him in What I gave him was a book . Verb complement: a VP-internal argument of a verb (i. e. any argument of the verb that is not the subject), such as a direct object (e. g. I hit him), indirect object (e. g. I gave him a kite), subject complement (e. g. Bill is ill), object complement (e. g. We called him a fool), prepositional object (e. g. I looked into the question carefully). Verb form: particular form of a verb. In Bill sneezed, the verb form sneezed consists of a conjugated form of the verb sneeze only; so does takes in Bill takes drugs;inBill may have been working, the verb form consists of the participle form of the main verb (working) preceded by three auxiliary verbs; in John will leave now, the form consists of one auxiliary followed by the present infinitive form of the main verb. Verb of creation: verb like write, form or build, which expresses the making (bringing into existence) of something. In clauses like A problem has {arisen / cropped up}, the verbs arise and crop up are also called verbs of creation because they refer to the coming into existence of something. Verb phrase (VP): phrase whose head is a main verb. In the clause John left the house last night, the verb phrase is left the house last night. In this case the Glossary 827 verb phrase constitutes the entire predicate constituent. (The latter comprises the verb phrase plus the optional adverbials, if any.) A verb phrase minimally consists of a verb form. It also includes the verb complement(s) and/or the necessary adverbial(s), if any. Verb stem: that part of the verb that remains constant in the different forms of the verb, e. g. unchain in unchains, unchained, unchaining. As a rule, the stem is identical in form with the present infinitive or the present subjunctive form of he verb. Voice auxiliary: the grammatical auxiliary be when it is used to build a passive verb form. VP: conventional linguistic abbreviation of verb phrase. W-anterior: time A is W-anterior to time B if it is anterior to B without neces- sarily being represented as T-anterior to time B by a tense form. W-anteriority: anteriority that exists in the actual world (or in whatever non- factual world is being referred to) but which is not necessarily expressed by the tense used. For example, in I left before John arrived, my leaving is W- anterior to John’s arrival, but it is not represented as T-anterior to it by the tense form left. W-bounded: said of a bounded situation whose boundedness is not a question of linguistic representation – see L-bounded – but merely a matter of interpreta- tion based on pragmatic inference. For example, out of context the sentence John was in the park this morning will be taken to imply that John is no longer in the park at the temporal zero-point, but this implicature can be cancelled by a contextual addition like and he told me he would stay there until you came to fetch him, so you’d better hurry off. In other words, in isolation the sentence John was in the park this morning is by implicature interpreted as W- bounded, but is not L-bounded (ϭ linguistically represented as bounded). W-bygone situation: situation which is conceived of as completely over at the temporal zero-point, as in I’ve closed the door; Once upon a time there was a princess who felt very lonely. W-concept: concept which has to do with the interpretation of situations and temporal relations in the actual world or in whatever alternative world is being referred to. (contrasted with T-concept) Weak verb: see regular verb. Weak intensional verb: verb like see or say, which establishes an intensional domain but allows its object clause to create a new temporal domain so that the clause in question receives a transparent interpretation rather than an inten- 828 Glossary sional (opaque) interpretation. There is such a shift of domain, e. g. in Bill {saw / said} that the bridge is rather mouldered. See also strong intensional verb. Wh -question: interrogative sentence or subclause containing a question word (usually in initial position), with the question having narrow scope (over the questioned constituent only), e. g. Who did that? – [I don’t know] who did that. Wide scope negation: negation with scope over the entire clause or sentence, as in These spiders are not dangerous (ϭ ‘It is not the case that these spiders are dangerous’). Wide scope question (or ‘polar question’or‘ yes / no -question’): interrogative sentence or subclause expressing a question which invites either yes or no as an answer (e. g. Did you tell him about me?). That such questions have wide scope is illustrated by the fact that they allow a paraphrase like Is it true that …? or Is it the case that …? W-interpretation: (a) in general: temporal reading which is not exclusively based on the semantics of the chosen tense but also takes into account such elements as temporal adverbials, context, situation of speaking, knowledge of the (actual or nonfactual) world referred to and pragmatic principles such as the Gricean Maxims of conversation; (b) in connection with the present perfect: one of three possible readings related to the full situation: the ‘indefinite read- ing’ (i. e. the full situation comes to an end before the temporal zero-point), the ‘continuative reading’ (i. e. the time of the full situation includes t 0 ) and the ‘up-to-now reading’ (i. e. the terminal point of the full situation preceding t 0 is adjacent to t 0 ). W-nonbounded: said of (the time of actualization of) a full situation which is not interpreted as bounded, even though its situation time may be represented as bounded. For example, in From 9 to 12 Tom was not in his office, the situation time is bounded by virtue of being contained by (in this case: coincid- ing with) the Adv-time specified by the heterogeneous time adverbial from 9 to 12. However, unless from 9 to 12 is taken to represent important new infor- mation, the time of (actualization of) the full situation is not interpreted as bounded: Tom may also have been absent from his office before nine and/or after 12. In fact, it is theoretically possible that he has never been in his office. In that case the (time of actualization of) the full situation of his not being in his office is clearly W-nonbounded, i. e. not interpreted as bounded. Similarly, sentences like John was reading the letter or John drank whisky do not involve reference to a terminal point, so that the actualizations referred to are not represented as bounded (ϭ reaching a terminal point). However, it is possible that for pragmatic reasons (e. g. present knowledge of the actual world) the Glossary 829 actualization is interpreted as being over (and hence as bounded). If that is the case, the (actualization of) the situation is L-nonbounded but W-bounded. World relation: see W-relation. W-posterior: time A is W-posterior to time B if it is posterior to B without necessarily being represented as T-posterior to B by a tense form. W-posteriority: posteriority that exists in the actual world (or in whatever non- factual world is being referred to) but which is not necessarily expressed by the tense used. For example, in I left before John arrived, John’s arrival is W- posterior to my leaving but is not represented as T-posterior to it by the tense form left. (T-posteriority would be expressed by had left.) W-relation: temporal relation that exists between two times but is not necessar- ily a T-relation (i. e. a relation expressed by a tense form). The unmarked interpretation of the term ‘W-relation’ is: temporal relation not expressed by a tense form. In that case, the nature of the temporal relation can only be iden- tified from pragmatic knowledge or inference. A W-relation is either W-anteri- ority, W-posteriority or W-simultaneity. W-simultaneity: simultaneity that exists in the actual world (or in whatever nonfactual world is being referred to) but which is not necessarily expressed by the tense used. For example, in There had been no one in the house when he had first visited it, the two situations are (and are interpreted as being) W- simultaneous with each other, but the past perfect tense forms represent both as T-anterior to the same (unspecified) past orientation time. Unlike T-simulta- neity, W-simultaneity need not be a relation of strict coincidence: it is sufficient that the two times in question have a point in common. For example, in I live in London, the (durative) full situation includes the (punctual) temporal zero- point. The containment relation between a situation time and the time (of actualization) of the corresponding full situation is also an instance of W-simul- taneity. W-simultaneous: time A is W-simultaneous with time B if it is simultaneous with B but not necessarily represented as T-simultaneous with B by a tense form. Two times are W-simultaneous with each other if they have at least one point in common. See also W-simultaneity and W-simultaneous domains. W-simultaneous domains: separate temporal domains which are interpreted as W-simultaneous. For example, in He looked at the figure in the distance but didn’t recognize it, both preterite forms establish a domain of their own, but these are interpreted as W-simultaneous with each other. Yes/no -question (or polar question or wide scope question): interrogative sentence or subclause expressing a question to which the expected reply is yes 830 Glossary or no. The clause does not contain a question word, and the question has scope over the entire proposition. For example: Is the house humid? (ϭ ‘Is it the case that the house is humid?’) Zero-conjunction: This term is used in cases of syntactic subordination, when the subclause is not connected to the head clause by a subordinating conjunc- tion. Thus, in I said you could trust me, the nominal clause (object clause) is not introduced by the conjunction that. Zero-point: see temporal zero-point (t 0 ). Zero-time: see temporal zero-point (t 0 ). Zone (or time-zone): cover term for any of the four portions of time that together make up the two time-spheres: the three parts of the present time- sphere, namely the pre-present zone, the present zone and the post-present zone, plus the past zone (which coincides with the past time-sphere). Since these four zones (pre-present, present, post-present and past) are defined in direct relation to the temporal zero-point, they constitute the set of absolute zones (or absolute time-zones). Zone-independent adverbial: see zone-independent time-specifying adverbial. Zone-independent time-specifying adverbial (or zone-independent adverbial): time-specifying adverbial which specifies a time which is not linked up with one particular time-zone, e. g. at five o’clock. Such an adverbial is compatible with more than one absolute tense: He left at five o’clock; He will leave at five o’clock. References Brinton, Laurel 2000 The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Bussmann, Hadumod 1996 Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. London / New York: Routledge. Comrie, Bernard 1985 Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1986 Tense in indirect speech. Folia Linguistica 20: 265–296. Cygan, Jan 1972 Tense and aspect in English and Slavic. Anglica Wratislaviensia 2: 5–12. Declerck, Renaat 1991 Tense in English: Its Structure and Use in Discourse. London / New York: Routledge. 1997 When-clauses and Temporal Structure. London / New York: Routledge. Declerck, Renaat and Susan Reed 2001 Conditionals: A Comprehensive Empirical Analysis. Berlin / New York: Mou- ton De Gruyter. Donnellan, Keith S. 1966 Reference and definite descriptions. The Philosophical Review 75: 281–304. Fleischman, Suzanne 1982 The future in Thought and Language: Diachronic Evidence from Romance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haegeman, Liliane 1989 Be going to and will: a pragmatic account. Journal of Linguistics 25: 291–317. Huddleston, Rodney 1976 Some theoretical issues in the description of the English verb. Review article on Palmer (1974). Lingua 40: 331–383. Grice, H. Paul 1975 Logic and conversation. In: Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan (eds), 41–58, Syntax and Semantics. Volume 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press. Jespersen, Otto 1932 A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part 4: Syntax (3rd vol- ume). London: Allen and Unwin; Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard. Klein, Wolfgang 1992 The present perfect puzzle. Language 68: 525–553. 1994 Time in Language. London / New York: Routledge. Lakoff, George 1970 A note on ambiguity and vagueness. Linguistic Inquiry 1: 357Ϫ359 Lakoff, Robin 1970 Tense and its relation to participants. Language 46: 838–849. 832 References Leech, Geoffrey 1971 Meaning and the English verb. London: Longman. Levinson, Stephen S. 2000 Presumptive Meanings: The Theory of Generalized Conversational Principles. Cambridge, MAS: MIT Press. Lyons, John 1977 Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Matthiessen, Christian. 1983 Choosing primary tense in English. Studies in Language 7: 369–429. Palmer, Frank R. 1974 The English Verb. London: Longman. 1988 The English Verb. Second edition. London: Longman. Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik 1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. Vendler, Zeno 1967 Verbs and times. In: Zeno Vendler, 97–121, Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. . the optional adverbials, if any.) A verb phrase minimally consists of a verb form. It also includes the verb complement(s) and/or the necessary adverbial(s), if any. Verb stem: that part of the. left the house last night, the verb phrase is left the house last night. In this case the Glossary 827 verb phrase constitutes the entire predicate constituent. (The latter comprises the verb phrase. working, the verb form consists of the participle form of the main verb (working) preceded by three auxiliary verbs; in John will leave now, the form consists of one auxiliary followed by the present