1 Ileana Baciu 2010-2011 Verbal Categories in English
THE CATEGORY OF TENSE 1.Time vs. Tense
1.1. 1.1. The genera generally lly accept accepted ed definit definition ion of the catego category ry of Tense, as a category delimiting the part of speech verb, explains Tense as representing ‘the chronological order of events in time as perceived by the speaker at the moment of speaking’ . The notions to be accounted for in this definition are: chronological order , Time and moment of speaking. These notions will be clarified in what follows. 1.1.1. 1.1.1. Such notions notions as change or motion – the latter understood as change in location –, which, as we have seen, seen, are important notions in the conceptual/semantic delimitation of situation/eventuality types, are possible only through and in the representation of Time. Moreover, as already mentioned, the conceptual properties of a ‘situation’ are visible only as the situation unfolds in Time. To exemp exemplify, lify, ‘the presence presence of of a thing thing in one one place place and its nonnonpresence at the same place can be perceived perceived by a human subject if and only if these two contradictory properties are placed sequentially , one after another, that is in ‘Time’ (Stefanescu 1988:216). What this actually means is that ‘Time ‘ ( just like Space) is the form of our experience of the world. This means means that that (for (for human human beings) beings) Time is an epistemic notion not an 1 ontological notion . If Time can be viewed as being not a determination of outward phenomena, then it has to do with neither shape or form. Currently, this want is supplied by analogies and the course of of Time is represented by by a line progressing to infinity. This linear representation of Time preserves the sequential character (i.e. chronological order ) of our perception of the world. We perceive perceive Time in the same way way we perceive Space, i.e. we cannot live in two times simultaneously as we cannot, at the same time, occupy two spatial locations. It means that when Time is measured by lived-through eventualities the measurement is unidirectional, i.e. i .e. forwards. Time is a single single unbounded unbounded dimension, dimension, conceptuall conceptually y analogou analogous s to Space. Just as an orientation point is needed to locate positions in space, so an orientation point is needed to locate situations in time. As already suggested in the previous chapter, in natural languages the basic orientation point is the time of utterance (UT-T) (i.e. the moment of speaking), which is always the Present, that is to say that linguistic communication centers at the speaker . All linguistic expressions (such as: adverbs : here, there, there, tomorrow tomorrow etc.; pronouns: I, you, you, this, that) that are related to the time time of speech are known as deictic (i.e. pointing) expressions. The speaker’s centrality enables the identification of time and place. It also implies an organizing consciousness which provides a temporal standpoint ‘ from which the speaker speaker invites his audience audience to consider the event’ (Smith 1991:138). Every sentence has a temporal standpoint (identified as AS-T), in simple cases the same as the temporal location of the situation (EV-T). 1
Ontological: relating to the study of existence. Situation types are viewed as ontological categories. Epistemic: (from Greek episteme knowledge) (approx) (approx) something discovered through through sense/experience.
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Generally sentences about the Present have a present standpoint, and sentences about the Past and Future have past and future standpoints, respectively. As already mentioned, Time is conventionally represented as a straight line stretching in both directions from Utterance Time. Such a representation is given in (1) below: (1) Time line:
-------------------UT-T--------------------Past Present Future
On the Time line, times and situations are located at moments or intervals relative to the Time of utterance. The situations may occur in order (i.e. sequentially) or they may overlap, wholly or in part. All sentences sentences give us temporal information which helps us locate in Time the situation talked about. This temporal information is given by Tense morphemes and time adverbials. 1.1.2 Tense is a functional category, expressed by a set of verbal inflections or other verbal forms, that expresses ‘a temporal relation to an orientation point’( Smith, 1991). Tenses Tenses have consistent consistent relational relational values values:: anteriorit anteriority, y, posteriority posteriority or simultaneity. Tenses may have a fixed or flexible orientation. Tenses with fixed orientation are always related to UT-T. Whenever tenses, or rather, Tense systems systems are are oriented oriented to the moment moment of of speech speech (i.e. (i.e. the speak speaker) er) we we say that they are used deictically (i.e. they are interpreted as pointing pointing l ike adverbs (tomorrow, now, here, there) or pronouns expressions, just like (this, that, I, you)). The traditio traditional nal term term for for tenses tenses that that relate relate to UT-T is absolute tenses. Tenses Tenses that that relate relate to an orientat orientation ion time time other other than than UT-T are know known n as relative tenses . Not all temporal reference is made by Tense. In English, the Future is indicated by another type of morpheme, morpheme, the modal modal auxiliary shall/will. It is also common to have a combination of present present tense tense (or present tense progressive in English) and future time adverbial that indicates the future, sometimes called Futurate. Some languages have tenses that indicate Present, Past and Future. Some others have a tense distinction between past and non-past, still others have a distinction between present and non-present. Some languages (e.g. Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Classical Hebrew) do not have the functional category of Tense. For these languages temporal location is expressed directly by adverbials and indirectly by (viewpoint) aspect. There are also also languag languages es where where tenses tenses contribute contribute temporal temporal locatio location n as well as aspectual aspectual value, i.e. aspectual viewpoint may may also be conveyed by Tense. Tense. The French ‘Impairfait’ and the Romanian ‘Imperfect’, for instance, may also convey a general imperfective viewpoint. In English, as we have seen, the expression of aspectual viewpoint is independent of Tense. Tense. 1.2. Temporal Adverbials
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Alongside Tense, temporal adverbials help us locate in time the situations talked about. As we have seen in our discussion of Aspect, temporal adverbials also contribute to the aspectual interpretation of sentences. The classification we adopt has been standardly recognized since Bennett and Hall-Partee (1972,1978) and Smith (1978), and the list below has been borrowed from Crainiceanu (1997). Temporal Temporal adverbials adverbials fall into into the following following classes: classes: (a) locating adverbials (Smith 1978/)1991) or frame adverbials (Bennett &Hall Partee, 1972); (b) duration adverbials; (c) completive adverbials (Smith, 1991) or containers; (d) frequency adverbials. Our discussion of temporal adverbials will consider first those under (b) and (c) above, i.e. duration adverbials and completive adverbials, respectively, because these types of adverbials also have an aspectual value, requiring compatibility with the situation type. A. Duration adverbials include the following expressions: for three weeks/a month/a day, for a while, since the war/Christmas, at night, all the afternoon, half the afternoon, for hours, all the time, over the weekend, through August, a few days, during the war, always, permanently, all day long, throughout, from June to/till October, all day/night long, etc.
Duration adverbials have been defined as: - indicating the duration of the described event by specifying the length of time that is asserted to take (Bennett & Hall- Partee, 1978); - expressing measures of time that are not specifically confined to future or past (Quirk, 1985) - contributing to the location of a situation in time (Smith, 1991) The definit definitions ions above above suggest suggest that that duratio duration n adverbials adverbials have aspectual aspectual value: they are compatible with atelic sentences and odd with telics, that is to say that duration adverbials are sensitive to the aspectual character of the eventuality description they combine with. They are restricted to homogeneous eventualities/situations (processes and states) as the examples below indicate: (2) (2)
(i) (i) (iii)
Susa Susan n was asle asleep ep for for two two hour hours s (ate (ateli lic) c) (ii) (ii) Andr An drew ew swam swam for for thr three ee hour hours s (at (atel elic ic)) (?)John wrote a/the report for two hours (telic) (iv) (iv) *The *The tra train in arr arriv ived ed late late for for 2 hou hours rs
De Swart (1998) adopting current views (Vet, 1994, Moens,1987 and others) points out that duration adverbials bring in a notion of boundedness. According to Smith (1991) the role of a single durational with atelic situation types is to locate an eventuality eventuality within the stated interval,. The interpretation of the sentences above is that the situation denoted by the predicate (the verb phrase =VP) lasts at least as long as the denotation of the durative adverbial. Whenever the situation type features and the adverbial features are compatible, the standard interpretation of the adverbial is to locate the situation within the stated interval.
Whenever telic events occur in the context of duration adverbials there is a clash between the aspectual properties of the situation type and
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the aspectual properties of the adverbials. Such clashes are resolved by a shift in the value of the verb constellation which receive a marked interpretation. De Swart (1998) building on ideas developed by Moens (1987) assumes that the contextual reinterpretation is made possible by the process called coercion.2 Instantaneous atelic eventualities (semelfactives)3 in the scope of durative adverbials and durative telic verb constellations (accomplishments) are reinterpreted as atelic/durative in the context of durationals: (3)
(i) (ii) (iii)
I read a book for a few minutes. Jerry wrote a report for two hours. John knocked on the door for two hours.
The event event of of book book -reading -reading and and report-w report-writing riting is coerced coerced into a process process; so is the semelfactive, which gives the sentence an iterative reading (i.e. the knocking is that of a process process of the multiple- event type; actually an instantaneous atelic eventuality is interpreted as ‘durative’). The two telic events (3a,b) are not interpreted as involving natural endpoints. It is to be noticed that the direct object NPs are indefinite. In the case of accomplishments with definite NPs in object position the sentence is interpreted as a process process of the multiple-event type (i.e. an iterative reading) or as a state (i.e. iterative/habitual reading); the same interpretation is valid for achievement predicates. It is true that in the examples below the form of the adverbial crucially contributes to the habitual reading: (4)
(i) (ii) (iii)
Joh John play layed the sonata for 2 hours. For years, Mary went to school in the morning. For months, the train arrived late.
We think that a distinction should be made between the example in (4c) above and the example borrowed from Dowty (1979) and given in (4’) below. In this latter case, (as already mentioned) the entire situation is interpreted as a process (habitual of the multiple-event type) due to the uncountable NP in direct object position, i.e. the adverbial takes in its scope a process process predication not an achievement predication: (4’) All that that summer summer , John found crabgrass in his yard We have to stress the fact, acknowledged by linguists, that the felicity of an aspectual reinterpretation is strongly dependent on linguistic context and knowledge of the world as the example below indicates. In this case there is no possible shifted interpretation and the sentence is odd: 2
Coercion is viewed as an operator operator that would yield an eventuality eventuality of the appropriate appropriate type which, then, can combine with the durative adverbial to result in a bounded process. The value of the operator is dependent on linguistic context and world knowledge 3 The incompatibility of atelic instantaneous eventualities of the ‘knock’ type suggests that actually the feature that characterizes durationals durationals is as their name suggest [+durative]. One of the reasons to include such predicates within the class of achievements must have been the incompatibility of these predicates withthis class of adverbials.
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(5)
(??)Mary reach ached the top for an hour
B. Completive adverbials are also known as containers (or adverbials of the interval (Smith, 1991)) and include expressions like in 2 hours, within two months, and their role is to locate a situation/eventuality at an interval during which the event is completed/culminates. Aspectually, completive adverbials are telic. The assumption, then, is that they are compatible with telic eventualities and odd with atelics. The examples below (borrowed from Smith 1991:157) confirm this assumption: (6)
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (iv)
John drew a circle in five seconds Mary wrote a sonnet in ten minutes ?Bill sw swam laps in an hour ?Mary Mary beli believ eve ed in ghost hosts s in an hour
Since completives denote an interval within which the situation occurred/took place, the atelic situations in (6iii,iv) are difficult to interpret. If they can be understood at all, they impose an ingressive interpretation to the entire sentence, in the sense that the adverbials refer to an interval elapsed before the beginning of the situation and not not to an interval during which the situation occurs. Depending on linguistic context and knowledge of the world the sentence in (6iii) above may also be reinterpreted as telic in the context of completive adverbials, i.e. the reinterpretation may ascribe a natural endpoint to the eventuality. The possible readings for (6iii) would be as in (7i,ii) below and (7iii) for (6iv): (7)
(i) (ii) (ii) (iii) (iii)
Bill swam his planned number of laps (with)in an hour. In/A In/Aft fter er an hour hour,, Bil Billl sw swam his his laps laps.. At the the end end of/ of/aft after er an hou hourr she she beg began an to to beli believ eve e in
ghosts. As far as (6iv) is concerned, the eventuality is taken as inchoative, as the paraphrase in (7iii) shows. The inchoative is an Achievement and has the ingressive interpretation that standardly occurs for achievements (and semelfactives, for that matter) with completive adverbials as in the following examples: (8)
(i) (ii) (iii)
The They reach ached the top in ten minutes. He won the race in ten minutes. She knocked at the door in ten minutes.
Another clash is to be noticed with the imperfective viewpoint. Telic adverbials are incompatible with the progressive aspect. According to Smith (1991:159), in general, all imperfectives in combination with completive adverbials have an ingressive reading, i.e. the eventualities occurs at the end of the time interval referred to by the adverbial. The example below has such a reading: (9)
In an hour , Bill was walking to work.
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C. Frequency adverbials also give information that contributes to the
temporal location of a situation (Smith 1991). Specifically they indicate the recurrent pattern of situations within the reference interval. The adverbial expression of frequency reinforces the notion of repetition, iteration: (10) (i) (ii)
Samuel cycles to work most days, every day . We always/often went to the mountains in wintertime
As already mentioned such sentences express a series of individual events which, as a whole, make a state of the habitual type. Examples of frequency adverbials are: frequently, on Sundays, never, sometimes, often, whenever, monthly, daily, once a week, every week/month/year, week/month/year, usually, seldom, etc. D. Locating Adverbials (or Frame Adverbials). This type of adverbials contribute to the specification of Situation Time or Ass Assertio ertion n Time Time. Generally, sentences with one time adverbial specify Ass Assertio ertion n Time.
As the name ‘frame’ adverbial indicates, they refer to ‘ an interval of time within which the described action is asserted to have taken place’ (Bennett& Hall Partee, 1978). The situation talked about in the sentence fills all or part of the time specified by the adverbial (Smith, 1991). Just like Tense, Tense, frame frame adverbials adverbials require require an orientatio orientation n point, point, and just like Tense they mirror the three possible temporal relations: simultaneity, anteriority and posteriority. Frame adverbials have the role ‘to locate situations in time by relating them to other times or to other situations (Smith, 1991). According to the time of orientation they indicate we can distinguish three classes: (i)
Deictic adverbials: which are oriented to the time of utterance.
Such adverbials are represented by the following expressions: now, today, last Sunday, last week, this week/year, tomorrow, next week, the day after tomorrow, tomorrow, tonight, a week ago, etc. As can be
(ii)
noticed, all adverbials in this class refer to some specific time span which is related to some other specific time span which is UT-T, but most of them give only the ‘maximal boundaries’ of the time span(s) in question (Klein, 1992) Anaphoric Anaphoric adverbials adverbials include time expressions that ‘relate to a previously established time’ (Smith, 1978) such as : until, till, in the evening, on Sunday, at night, early, before, in three days, on Christmas, at lunchtime, two years later, in March, already, etc. In
(iii)
this case too, we have only the ‘maximal boundary’ of the time span in question. Referential adverbials which refer to a time established by clock or calendar (Smith, 1978), such as: at six , August August 19, in 1987, etc
The time time adverbi adverbials als that that are explicitly explicitly related related to to the time of utteranc utterance e are known as ‘anchored’ adverbials. Deictic adverbs are ‘anchored’ adverbials. The last two classes are known as being ‘unanchored’, i.e. they are not anchored to the utterance time, their interpretation is made possible by an orientation point other than the time of utterance.
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According to their form, frame adverbials can be (i) simple or (ii) complex. (i)Simple adverbials include expressions like lik e :now, yesterday, tomorrow (ii) Complex adverbials exhibit two types of complexity: (a) the complex adverbial consists consists of two two or several several concatenated adverbs: yesterday yesterday afternoon, afternoon, tomorrow tomorrow morning morning at 5. Complex time adverbials, in these cases, are taken as single units in temporal interpretation establishing the interval of time within which the described action is asserted to have taken place . For examples like the one below the complex adverbial, in conjunction with the tense morpheme, specifies AS-T: (11) Bill visite ited us us last Sunday afternoon. b) the complex adverbial may consist of a preposition preposition and a nominal, the entire group forming one constituent syntactically: (12) (12) Ph Phyll yllis is deco decora rate ted d the the cake cake before last night. In simple tense sentences (i.e. without morphological aspect) the relation between the EV-T and AS-T is i s taken to be simultaneous, or rather EV-T is included/within AS-T. AS-T. In such cases, we we may consider the the adverbial, in conjunction to the Tense Tense morpheme morpheme to specify EV-T. To conclude, with simple tense forms in root clauses the Event/Situation time is non-distinct from Assertion Time regarding their relative order to Utterance Time, hence we can assume that with simple tenses adverbials actually specify EV-T. 2.0. The syntax and interpretation of tenses in root sentences As we have already mentioned there are three times that are required for the the temporal-aspectual interpretation of sentences. The three times involved are Utterance Time (UT-T) , Assertion Time (AS-T) and Situation Time(Sit-T), also known in the literature as Event Time (EV-T) Adopting current approaches we define Utterance Time as the time at which the event of uttering the sentence takes place and it may function as an ‘anchoring’ event for another event or time interval defined as role: it is part of the system system of temporal temporal Assertio Ass ertion n Time Time. AS-T has a dual role: location for complex sentences, and it gives the temporal standpoint of a sentence i.e. the locus from which the situation talked about is presented. The Assert Assertion ion Time Time is explicit explicitly ly given given by the the finite component of an utterance, i.e. by the tense morpheme on the verb or auxiliary and represents the ‘anchoring’ time for the interval when the situation denoted by the predicate occurs. Locating adverbials like yesterday yesterday , on Sunday etc. generally specify Assertion Time. Event Time is the time interval at which the situation ‘occurs’ or ‘holds’. It is related to whatever is expressed by the nonfinite component of the utterance (the ‘lexical (semantic) content’ of the utterance). Tense is defined as a relation between AS-T and UT-T, while Aspect relates EV-T to AS-T. We have also mentioned the fact that in the simple
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tense forms EV-T and AS-T time are non-distinct regarding their relative order to UT-T and in such cases UT-T can be taken to be the orientation/reference point for the time of the situation/event. In the simple tenses, therefore, Tense relates the time of utterance, which functions as reference/anchoring point, and the time at which the situation denoted by the VP occurs or holds (EV-T/AS-T). AS-T, as we have seen is important for the progressive forms and, as we shall see, for the Perfect forms and the Futurate. The stand standard ard assum assumption ption is that in the the simple simple tenses tenses UT-T UT-T may may precede (BEFORE), follow (AFTER) or be included (WITHIN) in the EV-T/AS-T: • • •
UT-T BEFORE EV-T/AS-T = PAST [-ED] UT-T AFTER EV-T/AS-T = FUTURE [WILL] UT-T WITHIN WITHIN EV-T/AS-T = PRESENT [-S]
The discus discussion sion so so far has tried to to highlight highlight the the fact fact that both Tense Tense and Aspect relate two times. This parallelism can be captured syntactically (Stowell 1993, Demirdache&Uribe-Etxebarria, 2000) by proposing that Aspect (Asp) (Asp) and Tense (T) are in fact dyadic predicates predicates of spatio-temporal spatio-temporal 4 ordering that take as arguments time-denoting phrases. T takes as external argument UT-T (in root sentences) and AS-T as an internal argument ; Asp takes AS-T as external argument argument and EV-T as internal internal argument. The phrase structure structure for temporal relations relations looks like:
(13)
TP
UT-T
T’
T
AspP
AS-T
Asp’
Asp
VP EV-T
VP
T is a spatio-temporal predicate with the meaning of AFTER (past), BEFORE (future) or WITHIN (present). ASP, in its turn is also a spatio-temporal
predicate with the meaning of AFTER (perfect aspect), BEFORE (prospective aspect) or WITHIN (progressive aspect). Whenever ASP (or T) lack morphological content, the external argument and the internal i nternal argument are co-indexed; this co-indexation indicates that the two times/events i n sentences with overlap or coincide. One such particular case occurs in 4
The representation representation in (13) is the syntactic phrase structure of the linear temporal representation representation given in the chapter on Aspect.
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morphological tense but without morphological aspect – that is the simple
tenses. In such cases, as already mentioned EV-T = AS-T (i.e. EV-T is WITHIN or included in AS-T). In such cases they are considered as non-distinct regarding their their relative order order to UT-T. Whenever Asp has no morphological content the event is portrayed in its entirety –as including both its initial and its final bounds (perfective viewpoint aspect, in Smith’s (1991) classification) Time adverbs, just like tenses and aspects, are taken to be phrases headed by a two-place spatio-temporal predicate predicate representing the temporal structure in the syntax and establishing a relation of inclusion (WITHIN)), precedence (BEFORE) and subsequence (AFTER). The propo proposal sal put put forth forth by Demir Demirdache dache&Ur &Uribe-Et ibe-Etxebar xebarria, ria, (2004 (2004)) holds holds for all types of time adverbials – locational or durational adverbs expressed syntactically as bare NPs (Christmas, yesterday ) , PPs (after/at/ before last week/Christmas), temporal clauses (CPs) (while I was reading the book/when he came/since/after she left ). ). Recall that these adverbs have been taken to be able to restrict the reference of of AS-T or or that of EV-T. Here is an example example of the way time adverbs can be integrated within the model proposed by Demirdache&Uribe-Etxebarria, Demirdache&Uribe-Etxebarria, (2004): (14) (i)
Susan le left at at/after/before mi midnight.
TP
Ut-T
T’
T after
AspP
Ass-Ti
Ass-Ti
Asp’
PP
P DP at/after/before at/after/before midnight
Asp
VP
Ev-Ti
VP
The examp example le above above illustrat illustrates es the the grammar grammar of of Past Tense Tense simple. simple. Past Past Tense orders orders the UT-T after the AS-T. The AS-T is co-indexed (i.e. temporally coincides) with EV-T since Asp has no morphological content. Co-indexation entails that the event described is portrayed in its entirety – as including both its initial and final bounds. The UT-T, is thus ordered after the AST-T/ EV-T , yielding the past (and perfective) interpretation. The PP PP in (14), (14), as already already argued argued , serves serves to restrict restrict the the reference reference of of the event described by the sentence – Susan left -. Syntactically, it functions as a restrictive modifier of a time-denoting expression – the AS-T or EV-T. In our our particular case (i.e example 14) AS-T AS-T is co-temporal with with EV T, hence hence we we get a non-distin non-distinct ct interpre interpretation tation.. The tempo temporal ral represen representatio tation n above describes a past event, since the UT-T in (14b) is located after the AS-T – itself co-temporal with EV-T (perfective aspect). The preposition has as external argument the AS-T and as internal argument the adverbial NP – midnight . So, what the preposition does is to restrict the reference of the
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AS-T (past) (past) to the time designated designated by the internal time span denoted by AS-T argument of the preposition, i.e. midnight . Since the AS-T is co-temporal with EV-T the PP indirectly provide a location time for the EV-T of the situation described by (14a). Consider next the past perfect sentence illustrated in 15(a) below, which is assigned the temporal structures in (15b,c): 15)
a)
b)
Susan had left London at noon a’) At noon, Susan had left London
TP
UT-T
T’ T after
AspP AS-T
AS-T
PP
P at c)
Asp’ Asp after
VP
DP EV-T
VP
TP
UT-T
T’ T after
AspP
AS-T
Asp’ Asp after
VP
EV-T EV-T
VP PP
at
DP
The past past perfect perfect sentence sentence in (15a) (without (without the the time time adverbial) adverbial) presents Susan’s departure as having culminated before a reference ref erence time, the AS-T, which is itself ordered by Tense prior to UT-T. In this case the AS T and the EV-T EV-T are are disjoint in reference. It can be naturally predicted that the addition of a temporal adverbial will yield two interpretations for (15a) , but not for (15a’), depending on whether the adverbial modifies the Event Time or the the Assertio Assertion n Time, Time, as illustrated illustrated in (15b,c). (15b,c). In (15b) the time adverb modifies the AS-T. Susan’s departure is presented as having occurred prior to AS-T, which is set at 7 p.m. (i.e.
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Susan’s leaving occurs prior to 7 p.m.) In (15c) the time adverb is
predicated of the EV-T, the preposition AT restricting the time of the event to the interval designated by 7 p.m. (i.e. Susan’s leaving occurred at 7 p.m.) It is a well-known fact that time adverbs may occur at the end or at the beginning of the sentence. It is generally assumed that whenever the time adverb occurs in sentence initial position the time adverb is generally taken to specify AS-T. Hence such a sentence will have the temporal representation in (15b) above, where the time adverb modifies AS-T. 2.1 Indefinite Present Tense Sentences . It is generally assumed that the Simple Simple Prese Present nt Tense Tense is, par excellenc excellence, e, a deictic tense. Situations Situations repo report rted ed in the the Pres Presen entt enjo enjoy y both both psyc psycho holo logic gical al bein being g at the the pres presen entt moment (Leech, 1971) and actual being at now. The ‘interpretive’ ‘interpretive’ constraint constraint (to be accounted accounted for below) that affects present tense sentences, is that ‘present tense sentences may not include the endpoints of situations’. Sentences in the Simple Present refer to open situations except for marked uses. As a consequence, in the Present tense and the perfective viewpoint stative sentences have their normal (open) interpretation (recall that the perfective does not span the endpoints of States) while non-stative verb constellations have a derived habitual/generic interpretation. As such, from an aspectual point of view all non-stative predicates in the simple present tense recategorize as stative (Smith, 1991). This generalization accounts for two of the uses of the indefinite indefinite present present tense, tense, i.e. the the generic generic and the habitual use. Linguists and grammarians have distinguished among several uses of the indefinite/simple present tense (Leech, 1971, Binnick 1991, etc). These include: • • • • •
the generic value; the habitual value; the instantaneous/reportive value ; the past time (historical) value; the future value or futurate.
This wide distribution distribution of the Simple Simple Present Present is not to be regarded as indicative of the polysemy of this temporal form; the Simple Present has a core meaning irrespective of context , i.e. the Simple Present places the UTT within the AS-T/EV-T . The past and future values ascribed to the Simple Present should be rega regard rded ed as a comp compos osite ite of tens tense e info inform rmat atio ion, n, lexic lexical al aspe aspect ct and and the the contribution of adverbs. 2.1.1 The Simple Present Tense and Perfectivity In the previous chapter we argued that, generally, sentences in the have a closed, perfec perfective tive interpr interpreta etatio tion. n. The simple simple simple tense tense form form have present present tense, nevertheless, is an exception to this generalization, in the sense that the simple present tense is incompatible with perfective (closed)
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readings. This constraint is valid for all Germanic and Romance languages but the consequences are different. A consequence of the above-mentioned constraint for English is that the sim of durative durative events events (activities and simple ple pres presen entt tens tense e accomplishments) cannot be used to refer to one particular particular instance/ instance/ occurrence of the the situ situat atio ion n deno denote ted d by the the pred predic icat ate e and and have have the the continuous /imperfective interpretation, i.e. in English the simple present tense cannot be used to describe a non-stative, dynamic event unfolding at UT-T, T-T, unli unlike ke in othe otherr Germ German anic ic lang langua uage ges s and and Rom Romance ance lang langua uage ges. s. Compare the sentences below: (16 (16)
a) Mary ary smo smokes kes. b) Maria fumeaza./Maria raucht. c) Mary eats an apple. d) Maria mananca un mar./Maria isst ein Apfel. e) Mary loves John. f) Maria il iubeste pe Ion./Hannah liebt Johann.
Of all the examples in (16) it is only the last two (i.e. 16 e,f) where there are int interpretive ive diffe ifferrences between Englis lish and no Romanian/German. The sentences in (16 e, f) mean that a certain state holds of the subject at the Utterance Time. The examples in (16a-d) (16a-d) include include predicates predicates belonging belonging to the class of accomplishments and activities and, nd, as can can be noti notic ced, ed, the the Englis glish h sentences cannot have the imperfective /continuous reading, that is they cannot mean that ‘Mary is presently involved in an event of smoking or eating an apple’ , respectively. The Romanian/G Romanian/Germ erman an sentences sentences allow these readings, readings, i.e. they may describe one particular occurrence of an ongoing, continuous event. In order to get the ongoing reading in English, the present present progres progressive sive must be used with such predicates. The neutral interpretation interpretation one would would assign assign to the English sentences sentences 5 in (16 (16 a,c) a,c) abo above would ould be habituality . Ac Actu tuall ally, y, this this read readin ing g is also also avai availa labl ble e for for the the othe otherr Germ German anic ic and and Roma Romanc nce e lang langua uage ges. s. Habi Habitu tual al sent senten ence ces s are are defin defined ed as ‘cha ‘chara ract cter erizi izing ng’’ sent senten ence ces s that that desc describ ribe e a generalization over patterns patterns of of events. events.
Interestingly, English is not different from the other languages as far as the other possible interpretations of the sentences in (16) above are conce concerne rned. d. The senten sentences ces admit admit the so-cal so-called led reportive/instantaneouse reading, where an event is described as perfective but its time is not directly related to the utterance time. Under the instantaneous reading, the interval of time normally associated with the event is telescoped to a point . The sentences sentences are assumed assumed to have a dramatic interpretat interpretation ion having nothing to do with real time, i.e. the event is not directly anchored to the uttera utterance nce time. time. Such Such senten sentences ces are grammat grammatica icall as comment commentary ary on a picture, movie or book or when uttered by a radio commentator. Consider 5
Recall that the difference between statives and non-statives in the Present tense has been used as a test for stativity. If a constellation has only a habitual action reading with simple (i.e. perfective) aspect aspect and Present Tense, it is non-stative.
13
the follow following ing examp examples les borro borrowed wed from from Georg Georgi&P i&Pian ianesi esi (1997: (1997:153 153)) and Palmer (1978): (17) (i) In ‘Gone wit with h th the wi wind’ Sc Scarlet let wr write ites a let letter. (ii) Napier takes the ball and runs down the wing. He passes the ball to Attwater. Attwater beats two men, he shoots. It’s a goal! More will be said about the availability of this interpretation of the simple present tense in due time. As far far as pres presen entt tens tense e achievement/semelfactive predicates predicates are conc concer erne ned, d, the the cont continu inuou ous s /impe /imperfe rfect ctive ive read reading ing is unav unavail ailab able le in all Germanic and Romance languages: l anguages: (18) (i) (ii) (iii) iii)
Susan finds a book. Maria gaseste o carte. Hans fin find det ein ein Buch.
Achieveme Achievements/s nts/seme emelfactiv lfactives es have the lexical property that they are
single single stage stage situat situation ions, s, that that is they they lack lack a proces processua suall stage. stage. Theref Therefore ore,, achieveme achievements/s nts/semelf emelfactive actives s always always denote denote closed closed events. events. This property property holds cross-linguistically. In none of the languages above can the sentences be interpreted as ongoing at Utterance Time. To summarize, summarize, the problems problems related related to the present present tense sentences sentences that are to be accounted for are as follows: (a)
(b)
(c)
In English, unlike in other Germanic languages and Romance languages, present tense sentences with an accomplishment or activity pred predic icate ate can can neve neverr desc describ ribe e one one part partic icula ularr ongoing/ continuous event; The imperfectiv imperfective e reading reading with present present tense predic icat ates es is unav unavail ailab able le in all all achievement/semelfactive pred Germanic and Romance languages; The impossibility impossibility of the simple simple present present tense with the perfective interpretation as a default.
2.1.2. In the chapter on ‘Aspect’ we argued, following current research, that non-stative predicates (i.e. dynamic) in the simple/indefinite present are neutrally interpreted as habitual/generic. The assumption assumption underlying underlying the conclusion conclusion above is that a sentence sentence with ‘the perfective viewpoint’ presents a sentence with the endpoint (i.e. temporal) properties of its situation type schema’. Moreover, non-stative predicates obey the following truth-condition postulate (Taylor, 1977): (19) (19) If V is an activit activity y verb verb or an accom accomplis plishme hment/ nt/ach achieve ieveme ment nt verb, verb, then then V(x) is only true at an interval larger than one moment. Dowty (1979:167), commenting on Taylor’s (1977) postulate, observes that if the
14
Utterance Utterance Time is conceptualize conceptualized d as a moment then the postulate above predicts that it is impossible to have a deictic present tense with durative, eventive predicates. According to this analysis the impossibility of an ongoing/continuous reading of a sentence such as Susan sleeps is due due to the intrinsic temporal temporal properties of dynamic predicates and to the fact that the utterance time is a point. point.
To account account for the cross-lingu cross-linguistic istic differences differences exemplified exemplified in (16) above, (in particular the problem concerning the impossibility of English present tense non-stative predicates to have a continuous one-occurrence interpretation) we will adopt a suggestion put forth by Georgi&Pianisi (1997) already hinted at in the previous chapter. Acco ccording ing to Gior iorgi&P i&Pian ianesi (1997) the constrain aint on the simultaneous/continuous reading of non-stative verbs is aspectual in nature and can be stated in the form of what they call the ‘Punctuality Constraint’. Actually, Actually, they they offer a principled principled accoun accountt of the assump assumptions tions given above above.. The important important assumption assumptions s Giorgi Giorgi and Pianesi Pianesi make make are are : (i)
the temporal interpretatio ation n of an utterance inv involve lves the event denot denoted ed by the predic predicate ate to the Utteran Utterance ce anchoring of the event time, time, i.e. to the time of the event which consists consists of the utterance utterance itself; (ii) the speech event, as an anchoring event, is conceptualized as punctual; punctual;
(iii) (iii)
all even eventiv tive e pred predica icate tes s in Engl Englis ish h are are lexically characterized as
perfective; perfective;
In what follows we shall enlarge upon the last two assumptions put forth by Giorgi&Pianesi. (i) Georgi&Pianisi (1997) propose that, in English, all eventive (i.e. non-stative) predicates are associated with the feature (+perf). This is necessary in English , but not in other languages, due to the morphological properties properties of the English verbs.6 The [+perf] feature on the verb stems of English non-stative predicates means that such predicates always denote ‘closed situations’. As already argued, closed/perfective events have all the temporal properties of the situation type, the endpoint properties included. Additional evidence in favour of the assumption that verb stems in English always denote closed events comes from the Accusative +Infinite/Participle construction in English. Consider the following examples: (20) (i) 6
Susan saw Mary write the essay.
Giorgi & Pianesi argue that the aspectual feature [+perf] is a Lexicon feature that would ‘compensate’ ‘compensate’ for the lack of explicit inflectional verbal morphology . The argument goes that a word like eat can be categorially ambiguous: it is a ‘naked’ form and can express any of several verbal values, such as the infinitive (without to), the first and second person singular and the first, second and third person plural, as well as, an ‘object’ (N) or ‘action’ (V). Hence, Hence, the only way to discern nouns from verbs is to identify the characteristic feature that would define the lexical category. In the case of verbs this feature is aspectual. . Romance languages, languages, on the other hand, hand, need not associate the verb with an aspectual feature because of the rich verbal inflectional morphology characterizing characterizing this group of languages. The lexical entry of verbs in Romance languages will always have a much richer feature bundle that would include inflectional features such as person and number .
15 (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii)
Susan saw Mary writing the essay. Susan saw Mary run. Susan saw Mary running. Susan saw Mary leave. Susan saw Mary leaving. *Susan saw Mary know the answer. *Susan saw Mary knowing the answer.
In English, perception verbs can take two types of complements : either the Acc+‘bare/naked’ infinitive (i.e. infinitives without to) or Acc+ Present Participle constructions. In the first six sentences above, above, (where the complement complement is an accomplishment , activity and achievement predicate, respectively) the ‘bare’ infinitive form allows only a perfective/closed reading. In (20i,ii) the complement is an accomplishment predicate.(20i) entails that Susan witnessed witnessed the entire act of of writing, i.e. the sentence in (20i) means that ‘Susan saw an event e, which is an event of writing, the agent is Mary, and the theme is an essay, and e has reached the telos’. The complement event expressed as a ‘bare/naked’ infinitive is interpreted as closed/bounded/perfective. In the example in (20ii), on the other hand, the verb is in the –ing form ; it refers to a non-closed/non-bounded/imperfective event. Consequently, it is not possible to infer that the essay was eventually written. Activities and achievements may also occur in such constructions with the same interpretation, as the examples in (20iii-vi) show. State predications, on the other hand are excluded in such constructions as the examples in (20vii,viii) indicate. (ii) (ii) The The seco second nd ass assum umpt ptio ion n put put fort forth h by Gio Giorg rgi& i& Pian Pianes esii is tha thatt ‘anchoring’ events are punctual ‘punctual’. The differen difference ce betwee between n a ‘closed/perfective event’ and a ‘ punctual punctual event’ is that, while conceptually, a ‘closed event’ denotes an entity that can be decomposed decomposed into a ‘processual part’ (stages) (stages) and a ‘boundary’, ‘boundary’, i.e. ‘e’ has temporal structure, a punctual ‘punctual event’ event’ cannot be ‘decomposed’ into other elementary events, hence they are not conceptualized as having temporal structure. Punctuality amounts to neglecting temporal structure. The UT-T, as already mentioned, temporally anchors the time of the situation, hence it can be viewed as an ‘anchoring event’ and consequently as a ‘punctual event’. We give below the ‘interpretive principle’ necessary to understand the ‘Punctuality Constraint’: (21) The anchoring event (Utterance Time or or some some other other reference reference time in the matrix clause) is punctual punctual (22) (22) Pu Punc nctu tual alit ity y Cons Constr trai aint nt A closed event cannot be simultaneous with a punctual punctual event event The Interpretive Principle (21) and the Punctuality Constraint (22) very nicely accommodate the habitual/generic reading of non-stative predicates in the simple present tense.
16
The imposs impossibility ibility of of a particula particularr continuou continuous/sim s/simultane ultaneous ous readin reading g for simple present tense eventive sentences follows as a consequence of (a) the Interpretive Principle (21) which requires the speech event to always be punctual and (b) the Punctuality Constraint (22) which expresses the general impossibility of punctual events to be simultaneous with closed (+perf) events. To put it differently, like any anchoring event, UT-T is punctual; the [+perf] simple Present tense form cannot be simultaneous with UT-T, since the event denoted by the verb has internal temporal properties which are incompatible with the punctuality of the anchoring event; as a consequence the progress progressive ive form must be used whenever we want the sentence to denote a partic i.e. in Engl Englis ish, h, deictic particular ular ongoin ongoing/c g/cont ontinu inuou ous s event event , i.e present is legitimate with state predicates alone; with dynamic, nonstative eventualities the progressive form is necessary. The acceptability acceptability of habituals/ge habituals/generics nerics (generaliza (generalizations tions over events/properties) is due to the fact that, in these sentences, the conflict between the punctuality of the Utterance time (viewed as a speech event) and and the the closu closure re of the the even eventt deno denote ted d by the the pred predic icat ate e does does not not aris arise, e, habituals being understood as asserting the occurrence of a series of events of the same kind which include the Utterance Time. According to Giorgi and Pianesi a habitual sentence only requires that UT-T be a temporal part of the interval where the habit holds. As far as inherent statives are concerned they are not conceptualized as closed closed (i.e. as as processu processual al or bound bounded), ed), (recall (recall the truth-c truth-condit ondition ion and the the tem tempora porall sche schem ma asso assoc ciate iated d with ith State tates) s) henc hence e they hey can can be simultaneous with the punctual anchoring event, describing ‘one particular occurrence’ of the situation denoted by the predicate. In Romance languages, and some Germanic languages as well, the event express expressed ed by the present present is not viewed as closed/per closed/perfective fective and, and, henc hence, e, can can be simult simultane aneou ous s with with punc punctu tual al anch anchor orin ing g even events ts,, with with an imperfective reading, naturally. The tempo temporal ral aspectu aspectual al interpreta interpretation tion of of present present tense tense sentenc sentences es like, for instance, Mary smokes/ Mary is clever is provided below: (23) (i) (ii)
Mary smokes./ Mary is clever. UT-T – now AS-T –present (tense morpheme) EV-T co-temporal with AS-T UT-T within AS-T/EV-T UT-T
…[…… …[……]………]……….> …[……]………]……….> EV-T / AS-T
2.1.3.Values of the Simple Present Tense. A.The A.The generic/habitual value
Our next step is to try and give a logical account of the uses/values of the simple present tense identified by grammarians and linguists in the course of time.
17
All grammars of English acknowledge that the basic uses/values of the simple present tense are the habitual value and the generic value. The question that arises is whether we need to distinguish between the two, since in both cases the sentences in the present tense are dubbed by linguists as ‘categorical’ sentences, or ‘characterizing’ sentences, consisting in the ascription of a property to a subject . In both cases no reference is made to a particular occurrence of a situation or a unique, definite moment of time. The sentences below exemplify the two uses: (24) a)
(i) (ii) (iii) iii)
(iv) b)
(i) (ii) (iii)
c)
(25)
Cats are widespread The cat is widespread *A cat cat is wide idespread Milk is good for the bones
Tigers eat meat The tiger eats meat A tiger eats meat
(i) A lion has a bushy tail (ii) Lions have a bu bushy ta tail (iii (iii)) The The lio lion ha has a bus bushy tail tail
(i) (ii)
My brother/Michael drinks wine with his dinner The milkman calls every Monday/on Mondays
We have argued so far that non-stative predicates in the simple present tense in English will (always) result in a habitual reading of the simple present tense (cf. examples in (25). The assumption is presumptuous, presumptuous, to say the least, since the examples in (24 b i-iii) do not have a ‘habitual reading’ but rather a ‘generic’ reading, although the predicates qualify aspectually as non-stative predicates. So what is the difference, if there is any, between generic and habitual sentences? Moreover, the examples in (24a) and (24c) are basic stative predicates and they are also characterized as generic. These are the questions that we would like to answer in the next subchapter. 2.3.1. We are already familiar with the distinction between stage-level and individual-level predicates due to Carlson Carlson (1977). He shows shows that the distinction between the two types of predicates has ramifications in the grammar of English. Lately, it has been shown that this distinction appears widely in language constituting covert grammatical categories in some languages (e.g. Chinese) (Smith 1991). Individual level predicates denote relatively stable/permanent properties. Stage-level predicates speak of events and occurrences that have a distinctly temporal tenor (i.e. they describe situations that are restricted in time and space). In general, verbs that may take the progressive form refer to stage-level interpretations of their subject transitory/non-permanent nent properties or situations. nominals, describing transitory/non-perma
18
The predica predicates tes so so differentia differentiated ted are are selective selective as far as the the type type of referents to which they apply is concerned. Individual-level predicates select object-level and kind-level individuals (i.e. individuals). Stage level predicates apply to stages of individuals. From an aspectual point of view, as we can see, generic sentences (see 24a-c) are based based on either basic eventive verbs or basic lexical states desc descri ribi bing ng relat relative ively ly stab stable le prop proper ertie ties s of their their subj subjec ectt nomi nomina nals ls ; the the mostly based on on eventive predicates. predicates. They are habitual sentences (25) are mostly described as ‘characterizing’ sentences. Nevertheless, a few more subtle distinctions are to be taken into consideration. Generally speaking, habitual sentences , also known as derived statives, are based on predicates that are basically characterized as stagelevel predicates, in particular eventive eventive predicates, ; they express dispositions, indicating a potential potential for an individual (object-level) to have stage properties, since they denote generalizations over events of the same type over a period of time. In most sentences there is a frequency adverb (e.g. every day, sometimes, usually, never, on Mondays, etc) that would support the habitual reading, or, sometimes, frequency f requency may be expressed by a plural plural or mass noun in object position, as in (25) or (26) below: (26)
(i) The milkman calls every Monday/on Mondays (ii) I buy my dresses at Harrods (iii) We eat very little bread. (iv)My wife always comes to watch me when I play for England. (v)My sister smokes.
As Dowty (1979) observes: ‘ Even when we predicate them of an individual at a particular time, it is really not a property that individual’s current stage has at that moment that makes them true, but our ‘total experience’ with previous stages of that individual. We can truthfully assert that John is in the habit of smoking if we have identified a “suitable number” of past occasions on which John’s stage-smoking was true. Such a broad and pragmatically vague interval presumably also includes a number of future instances of John’s stage property of smoking’ (Dowty 1979:279). Habitual sentences are semantically stative, they apply to an object level individual, who participates in the pattern pattern of events events. The predicates underlying habitual sentences are dynamic predicates at the basic level of classification but their temporal schemata are stative: they consist of an undifferentiated period rather than successive stages. On the other hand, as Smith (1991:42) remarks, habitual sentences do not have all the syntactic characteristics of basic-level states. Thus, habitual sentences are good with agent -oriented adverbials, embedding under verbs like persuade persuade, appearance in pseudo-cleft do sentences and imperatives. The examples illustrate some of these features: (27)
(i) What Mary does is play tennis every Friday. (ii) I persuaded Mary to play tennis every Friday.
19
Generic sentences are commonly viewed as analytical sentences, i.e.
sentences that are true by virtue of the meaning of the terms. That means (roughly) that generic sentences state that a particular property property or relation expressed by the predicate holds true of the entity denoted by the subject noun phrase. The subject noun phrase denotes kind-level (24a) or objectlevel individuals (24b) It is alread already y a well-kn well-know own n fact fact that that traditi tradition onal al gramm grammars ars labeled labeled ‘unive vers rsal al/e /ete tern rnal al trut truths hs’, ’, ‘time ‘timele less ss trut truths hs’’ or generi generic c senten sentences ces as ‘uni ‘omnipresent’ sentences. What is actually meant by these ‘labels’ is the fact that that they they are are ‘a-temporal’, i.e i.e. fro from the poin pointt of view iew of their heir tim time specification they do not specify a particular moment or interval of time. For a long time, an important aspect of generic sentences has been relate related d to the use of the the generic present . The contribution of the Simple Pres Presen entt in gene generic ric senten sentence ces s amou amount nts s to spec specify ifying ing that the stat state e is valid/holds ‘now’, which means that the UT-T is placed within the AS-T/EV T. In certain contexts (see examples in 24a), there seems to be a very strong interrelation between the generic interpretation of the noun phra noun phrases ses and and the the generic the verb generic reading reading of the verb phrase phrase (ultim (ultimate ately ly the clause clause/th /the e interr rrel elat atio ion n that that will will be appa appare rent nt in the the pres presen enta tati tion on that that sentence), inte follows. Linguists (e.g. Krifka, et al. 1995:2) claim that generic sentences are ‘true of some particular entities’ , namely kinds. Hence, genericity can be identified with ‘reference to kind’ and the NPs used are kind-referring NPs or someti sometime mes s called called gene The sente entenc nces es in (23a) 23a) abo above are are generi ric c NPs NPs7. The instances of this type type of of genericity. NPs are are NPs that that may co-occ -occur ur with ith kind-level Kind Kind referr referring ing NPs predicates predicates such as: die out , be widespread, be extinct, be in short supply , be common, be indigenous to/in short supply/everywhere, come in all sizes, etc. etc. These These NPs refer rigidly to a kind-level kind-level individual individual and the predicate attributes a property property to it that cannot be distributed to the members of the kind, i.e. they make singular statements about a particular kind.8 Such statements have been called particular/proper kind predic kind predication ations s (PKP) (Ter Meulen, 1995: 345, Link, 1995:358)) or definite (or specific) generics (Dgene generic rics) s) (Kri (Krifka fka 1987 1987). ). They They are are char charac acte teriz rized ed as bein being g ‘descriptive’
gene genera raliz lizat atio ions ns.. One One impo import rtan antt char charac acte teris risti tic c of this this type type of gene generic ric statements is that the predicate (VP) may be progressiv progressive e, attributing a gradual change in a property to a kind (e.g. Elephants are dying out (Ter Meulen 1995:346)). 7
We are already familiar with the distinction made by Carlson (1977) between individuals (that may be objects or kinds or kinds)) and stages and stages of individuals (spatio-temporal slices of individuals). K ind-level ind-level individuals have certain peculiarities as compared to more normal individuals, i.e. kinds can be here and there ( they are continuous in space, according to Zemach (1975), they are nonnon- sortals), sortals), whereas normal individuals (object-level individuals) individuals) are generally confined to one location at a given time ( they are bound in space, according to Zemach (1975), they are sortals. sortals. For a complete characterization see also Ileana Baciu, Functional Categories in English, 2004. 8
In the sentences in (23a) we have the intuition that the truth or falsity of the statements has nothing whatsoever to do with predicating widespread or everywhere, for instance, to any particular cats at all. That is Puffy is widesp widesprea read d, Duffy is widespread, widespread, to say, say, intuit intuitive ively, ly, we could paraphras rase e (23a (23a (i)) (i)) as ‘ Puffy could not paraph …….therefor …….therefore e cats are widespread’ widespread’ . With the examples in (23 b,c), on the other hand, where the predicate ‘have a bushy tail/eat meat’ occurs, we have the intuition that the truth or falsity of the statement somehow involves the predication of having a bushy tail/eating meat to particular lions. Again, in intuitive terms we might think that: ‘ Puffy has a bushy tail/eats meat,, Duffy has a bushy tail/eats meat , etc………therefore lions have a bushy tail/eat meat.
20
Kind referring expressions are bare plurals, definite singular NPs and mass nouns, but as the example in (24a iii) above indicates, not indefinite NPs, i.e. indefinite NPs are not considered kind-referring expressions (i.e. they cannot function as names for kinds). Nevertheless, all traditional grammars mention indefinite NPs as one of the expressions expressions that may may occur in ‘generic ‘generic sentences’ sentences’ as the examples examples in (24b,c), repeated under (28) for convenience, show: (28)
(i) (ii) (iii) iii)
(iv) (v) (vi)
Lion ions h ha ave a bushy tta ail The lion ha has a bushy ta tail A li lion has a bushy ta tail Tigers eat meat The tiger eats meat A tiger eats meat
It is not difficult to notice that the predicates qualify as basic stage level predicates re-categorized as individual individual level predicates. In point of eventuality type, the predicates in the examples in (28i-iii) are basic state predicates, while those in (28iv-vi) are dynamic predicates, basically. The examples examples in (28) report a kind of general property of individuals that that cons consti titu tute te membe embers rs (object-level object-level individuals individuals) of the kind, and represents the second type of genericity, namely characterizing sentences or simp simply ly generi generic c senten sentences ces, as they express generalizations. Such stat statem emen ents ts are are know known n in the the lite litera ratu ture re as the the charac character terist istic ic kind kind of (CKP)) (Ter (Ter Meul Meulen en 1995 1995)) or i-generics (i.e. indefinite/no indefinite/nonn predication predication (CKP specific) (Krifka 1987). Othe Otherr comm common on term terms s for for characterizing sent senten ence ces s are are ‘gnomic’, ‘dispositional’ ‘general’ or ‘habitual’. Kind-denoting (generic) NPs may also occur in characterizing sentences (see 28) and the sentences describe a general/essential or default property which holds for the specimens (i.e. object level individuals) of the kind. Often this is expressed explicitly by an adverbial such as: usually , always, generally , etc. An important property of characterizing sentences is that they may be true even when there are members of the kind which fail to have the property expressed by the predicate. Characterizing generic sentences are stative sentences (they may be related to inherently stative predicates or derived stative predicates (i.e. inherently dynamic/stage level predicates coerce coerced d into into statives) statives).. Habitu Habitual al sentence sentences s will will be taken taken to be included included within the class of characterizing generic sentences. Both ‘habitual/generic sentences’, (see examples in (29)) which are related to dynamic verbal predicates (drink , smoke, read, laugh, etc) etc) and the the so-c so-cal alle led d ‘lexical ’ characterizing sent senten ence ces s which hich are are rela relate ted d to inherently state predicates (have a bushy tail, know, cost, weigh, love, fear, possess possess,, have, own, own, etc) generalize generalize over over patterns patterns of events events/prop /propertie erties s ; the diffe differe renc nce e betw betwee een n the the two two is that that wh while ile the the form former er have have an episo episodi dic c coun counte terp rpar art, t, the the latte latterr lack lack an episo episodic dic read readin ing g and and wh while ile the the form former er generalize over events, the latter generalize over properties. Characterizing sentences were assumed not to express accidental properties (e.g.Dahl 1975 among others); they state properties that are essential, necessary , inherent or analytic (Nunberg and Pan 1975). On the
21
other hand, hand, unlike d-generics, they are not not ‘descriptive’ generalizations but ‘normative‘ ones. (Dahl 1975). Characterizing sentences sentences put no limitation on what types of NPs may may occur in them. We can find proper proper names names, definite definite NPs, indefinite indefinite NPs, quantified NPs, bare plural NPs. Given the variety of NPs in characterizing sentences, the suggestion is that this type of genericity should be analyzed as a sui generis type of sentence. (Krifka, (Krifka, Pelletier, Carlso Carlson, n, Link, Chierchia Chierchia 1995:6) (29)
(i) My brother/Michael drinks wine with his dinner (ii) Italians drink wine with their dinner (iii) Every Italian drinks wine with his dinner (iv) An Italian Italian drinks drinks wine with his his dinner dinner
As already mentioned, there are certain elements that may enforce a characterizing, generic generic reading reading such such as adverb adverbs s like ‘generally ’, ’, ‘usually ’, ’, ’typically ’, ’, ‘often’, sometimes’ that lead to law-like characterizing sentences. The above discussion discussion has attempted attempted to stress stress the fact that the locus of genericity of genericity can be found both at the level of the NP and at the level of the clause. With bare plural NPs and definite NPs related to kind-level predicates, the locus of genericity genericity is at the level of the respective NPs, since they are kind-referring expressions, as well as, in the predicate, as the examples in (23 a) show; kind-referring expressions refer to a specific type of individual, namely kinds, hence, generic bare plural NPs and definite NPs will be interprepreted as having a specific reading. With indefinite the locu locus s of indefinite NPs, NPs, proper proper names, names, quantif quantified ied NPs the genericity is not in the NP but rather in the sentence itself , i.e. these these NPs cannot be considered ‘kind-referring’ or ‘generic’ in and of themselves. They get get a ‘gen ‘gener eric ic’’ inte interp rpre reta tati tion on only only when hen occu occurr rrin ing g in characterizing (gener (generic/h ic/habi abitua tual) l) senten sentences ces.. This This type type of gener genericit icity y is indepe independe ndent nt of verbal predicates, i.e. the predicates may be both states and non-states and the contribution of the Simple Present is essential. The term ‘generic’ ‘generic’ sentence sentence will be taken taken to refer to both types of gene generic ric phen phenom omen ena, a, altho althoug ugh h as we have have seen seen ther there e are are diffe differe renc nces es between the two types.. The contexts contexts that favor a character are as characterizing izing generic generic reading reading are follows: definitions, proverbs proverbs, geogra geographi phical cal statem statement ents s, law-like, prescriptiv prescriptive e statements , habituals: (30)
(i) (ii) (ii) (iii (iii)) (iv) (iv) (v) (v) (vi) (vii) (vii) (viii) (viii) (ix) (ix)
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. He who laug laughs hs las last, laug laughs hs best best.. A ne new bro broo om sw sweep eeps cle clea an. Smo Smooth wate aters run run dee deep. Hydr Hydro ogen gen is is the the lig lighte htest elem lement ent Oil flo floa ats on water. Wate Waterr boils boils at 100 100 deg degre rees es Cel Celsiu sius s In ches chess, s, bish bishops ops move move diago diagonal nally. ly. Lond London on stan stands ds on the the Tham Thames es..
22
(x) (x) (xi) (xi) (xii) (xii) (xiii (xiii)) (xiv) (xiv)
The The Sev Seve ern flo flows int into o the the Atlan tlanti tic c. A sym symph phon ony y has has four four move moveme ment nts s An Itali Italian an love loves s oper opera a mus music. ic. My dog dog chas chases es cars cars.. Mist Mist and cloud cloud usually usually rende renderr it impossi impossible ble to see the the sun rise from the sea.
anotherr B.The B.The Instan Instantan taneou eous/R s/Repo eporti rtive ve Simple Simple Presen Presentt Tense Tense,, is anothe value/use of the Simple Present Tense. The general assumption is that this value is a marked use of the perfective viewpoint in Present sentences (Smith 1991:241). This use of the Simple Present Present Tense Tense contrast contrasts s with the habitual/generic use in that it describes a particular particular occurren occurrence ce of an event . Under the instantaneous reading there is a telescoping of the interval of time time norm normal ally ly asso associa ciate ted d with with the the even eventt to a poi point; wh what at this this actual actually ly
amounts to is that the situation denoted by the predicate is interpreted as simultaneo simultaneous us with UT-T. UT-T. Such sentences sentences include perception perception and mental mental and, acco accord rdin ing g to som some gram gramma mari rian ans, s, Achieveme Achievements nts, performa performatives tives,, and, reportives of the dramatic, sportscaster’s type (Smith 1991). The instant instantaneo aneous us present present is found found in asseverations that use what are known as performat performative ive verbs, namely verbs that themselves form part of the the act activit ivity y they hey repo eport, rt, i.e i.e. the eve event anno annou unce nced and and the the act act of announcement are one. It would be more correct to speak of performative sent senten ence ces, s, sinc since e thes these e verb verbs s beha behave ve perfo perform rmat ative ively ly only only unde underr some some restrictive conditions that will be apparent in the sentences below: (31)
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (iv) (v) (v) (vi) (vii (vii))
I hereby christen this ship ‘Queen Mary’. I promise to help you I resign. I pro prono noun unce ce you you man and and wife. ife. I decl declar are e the the meet meetin ing g open open/a /adj djou ourn rned ed/c /clo lose sed d We ac accept yo your of offer fer. I de deny the the charg harge e.
To utter these sentences sentences is to perform perform the acts reported reported by the predicate. Syntactically, it is characteristic of performative statements to occur in the first person singular/plural and to permit the insertion of hereby in front of the verb. The temporal characteristic of performative sentences is straightforward: the utterance time and the event time are simultaneous, this being part of the conditions on the use of such statements. Another condition for the felicitous use of these sentences is that ‘the particular persons and circumstances in a given case must be appropriate for the invocation of the particular procedure involved’ (Austin 1961:34). Sentences including perception perception predica predicates tes are also used in the Simple Presen Present. t. In such such cases cases these these predic predicate ates s are interp interpret reted, ed, aspect aspectual ually, ly, as achievements. Such sentences constitute reports of instantaneous events, refl reflec ecti ting ng the the spec specia iall imme immedi diac acy y of perc percep epti tion on.. Repo Report rts s of mental Achieveme Achievements nts are also of the same type. Consider the examples below, borrowed from C. Smith (1991:153):
23
(32)
(i) (ii) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)
I see the moon. I feel feel the the curre urrent nt of the rive iver Oh, I see! I understand. Yes, no now I remember!
Running commentaries and demonstrations, such as the eyewitness broadcasts of sportscasters, radio commentators, or reports reports of conjurors conjurors and demonstrators , informal commenta commentaries ries with preposed preposed locatives locatives are other instances of the instantaneous use of the Simple Present: (33) (i)
Napier ier ta takes the the ba ball an and ru runs dow down the the wi wing. He pa passes th the ball to Attwater. Attwater beats two men, he shoots. It’s a goal! (ii) …he gets it in to Hewlett and he’s fouled immediately by Malnati and… the rebound goes to Joe May. (iii) Look, I take this card from the pack and place it under the handkerchief – so. (iv) I place a bell jar over the candle, and after a few moments the water gradually rises. (v) There goes the bus/ Up she goes/Down she falls.
In these cases, the co-extensiveness between the time of utterance and the time of the situation is subjective rather than objective: the events are presen presented ted as simult simultane aneous ous with with the uttera utterance nce time time even even if strict strictly ly speaking they are not. The commentaries are restricted to a limited range of cont conte exts xts where the spe speaker aker is spec specif ific ical ally ly ass assigne igned d the the role role of commentator. The dramatic use of Simple Present sentences (also labelled as the ‘timeless’ use or ‘imaginary’ ‘imaginary’ use; grammarians often include this use under the past time value of the Simple Present) refers to specific completed or term termin inat ate ed event vents. s. Such Such sent senten enc ces are are also also gram rammatic atical al with ith an Accomplishment or Activity predicate and have a dramatic flavor. These dram dramat atic, ic, repo report rtive ive sent senten ence ces s teles telesco cope pe time. time. We unde unders rsta tand nd them them punctually, as though the events take only an instant, regardless of their norm normal al dura durati tion on.. The The even eventt deno denote ted d by the the pred predica icate te is desc describ ribed ed as 9 perfective, but its time is not (directly) related to the speech event. This atemporal status status of such sentences require the dramatic interpretation. interpretation. Smit Smith h (197 (1976: 6:57 573) 3))) argu argues es that that ‘…th ‘…the e reas reason on that that a dram dramat atic ic interp interpret retatio ation n is plausi plausible ble is that that drama dramatic tic readin readings, gs, by definit definition ion,, have have nothing to do with real time. The dramatic framework gives one license to telescope duration so that completion can take place in a single point in time’. As Smith Smith (199 (1991) 1) and and Hudd Huddles lesto ton n & Pu Pullu llum m (200 (2002) 2) rema remark rk,, such such statements are found found in certain definable definable contexts contexts such as a commentary sentences ces (syn (synop opse ses) s) on a pict pictur ure, e, book book,, movie movie,T ,TV V prog progra ramm mmes es (in senten introduced by ‘in DP’ where DP refers to a book, a movie), as well as in the 9
In the previous subchapters we have have extensively argued that the perfective interpretation is excluded for present tense sentences sentences
24
stage directions of play scripts, focus on present existence of works created in the past, captions in newspapers and to illustrations in books, chronicles of history, recipes.
Below are some examples (borrowed from different sources: Smith 1991:154, Stefanescu 1988:253, Giorgi and Pianesi, 1998:153, Huddleston & Pullum 2002: 130) that instantiate the contexts of use just mentioned: (34) (i) Seth and Minnie come forward as far as the lilac clump…She nudg nudges es Minn Minnie ie with with his his elbow elbow.. .. (Eug (Eugen ene e O’Ne O’Neill ill,, Mourning Becomes Electra) (ii)In ‘Gone with the wind’ Scarlet writes a letter. (iii) In the Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky draws his characters from the sources deep in the Russian soil. (iv) Like Rubens, Watteau is able to convey an impression of warm, living flesh by the merest whiff of colour. (v) (v) Ab Abor orig igina inall prot protes este ters rs occu occupy py part part of the the old old Parl Parliam iamen entt House in Camberra yesterday .(photographic . (photographic caption) (vi) Roman soldiers nail Jesus onto the Cross (description of a painting) (vi) 1434 1434 Cosim Cosimo o de Medic Medicii begins begins his family’ family’s s contro controll of of Florence 1435 Congress Arras: Burgundians withdraw support from England, in favour of France. When discussing an artist and his surviving work, we can talk about it from the perspective of their present and potentially permanent existence rather than that that of their past creation. creation. By contrast, when when we are concerned concerned with the act of creation itself, then the past tense is required. Likewise, photographs, newspaper newspaper captions, drawings can give a permanence to what would otherwise be a transient historical occurrence. A very very impo import rtan antt rema remark rk is in orde orderr here here.. As many many lingu linguis ists ts and and grammarians have noticed before, sentences without a frequency adverb may receive a specific/existential or generic interpretation depending on context and world knowledge. There are some some elements elements of the linguistic linguistic context context that may help us distin distingui guish sh between between the two reading readings: s: habitu habitualit ality/g y/gene eneric ricity ity may be indicated by a bare plural plural object/sub object/subject ject , while an instantaneous reading can be rendered by means of an indefinite or definite object/subject or by an instantaneous perception verb like ‘Look ’. ’. Compare the sentences below: (35)
a) Swallows fly higher than doves (generic) a) Look, Look, the swallow swallows s fly higher higher than than the doves. doves. a) Carter’s dog chases chases cars. (habitual) b) There’s There’s a red car whizzin whizzing g down the road road and Carter’s Carter’s dog dog chases it. a) He scores goals. b) He scores a goal. goal.
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C. Simple Present referring to Past (Historical present)
The Present Present Tense can also be used in reference reference to the past. past. What is past is the time of the described situation; the Simple Present performs its usua usuall func functio tion, n, name namely ly it plac places es the UT-T UT-T with within in the AS AS-T -T,, wh while ile EV-T EV-T precedes AS-T/UT-T. According to a wide number of grammarians (Huddleston and Pullum, 2002, Leech, 1976, Jespersen, 1933 etc), the ‘historical present’ is best treated as a story-teller’s licence, whereby past happenings are portraye portrayed d or imagined as if they were going on at the present time. The Present Tense is used for past time situations in informal conversational narration or in fiction.
Very ery ofte ften the the pre present sent tens tense e is acco accom mpani panied ed,, with ith appa appare rent nt incongruity, by an adverbial indicating past time or it may alternate with a Past Tense form. Consider the examples below, borrowed from Leech (1976) and Huddleston & Pullum, (2002): (36) (i) At that that mome moment nt in comes a messenger from the Head Office, telling me the boss wants to see me in an hurry. (ii) There was I playing so well even I couldn’t believe it and along comes this kid and keeps me off the table for three frames. This use use of the simple simple present present tense tense can be viewed viewed as a metaphorical use, a device conventionally used (in a wide number of languages, actually) to make the narrative appear more vivid by assimilating it to the here and now of the speech event. It is customary for novelists and story-writers to use the Past Tense to describe imaginary/fictional events. events. Some Some writers writers10 deviate deviate from from norma normall practice and use the Present in imitation of the popular historical present of spoken narrative. In such cases, transposition into the fictional present is a device of dramatic heightening; it puts the reader in the place of someone actually witnessing the events as they are described. Consider the following excerpt from Bleak House by Dickens: (37)
Mr Tulkinghorn glances over his spectacles and begins again lower down. My Lady carelessly and scornfully abstracts her attention. Sir Leicester in a great chair looks at the fire and appears to have a stately liking for the legal repetitions and prolixities as ranging among national bulwarks. It happens that the fire is hot where my Lady sits and that the handscreen is more beautiful than useful, being priceless but small.
There are cases when when the use of the present present tense alternates alternates with the simple past tense. Poutsma (1926) remarks that shifting from the past to present is often practiced in picturing a series of incidents and circumstances which is to
10
Examples of writers employing employing the present tense in fiction writing would be Camus, Dickens, Thackerey , George Elliot, Joyce Cary, Thomas Mann, to mention just a few.
26
serve as a background for the representation of subsequent events. An example would be the following f ollowing excerpt from Thackeray’s The Virginians: (38) (38) His His lord lordsh ship ip had had no no soo soone nerr disappeared behind the trees of the forest, but Lady Randolph begins to her confidante the circumstances of her early arly life life.. The The firs firstt was she had had made made a priv privat ate e marriage….. Declerck (1991:69) notes that, in narratives, the shift of temporal perspective may not only be from the past to the present but also from the post-present (i.e. future) to the present, as in the example below: (39) (39)
I can can well well imag imagin ine e what hat will happen. I can see it happen before me: John sets out his plans, Mary disagrees, they start shouting at each other and in no time there is a terrible row. I’ve seen it happen often enough to know that it is going to end like this.
Some Some gramm grammari arians ans (e.g. (e.g. Huddl Huddlest eston on&P &Pullu ullum m 2002:1 2002:131) 31) include include here here another context in which the present tense extends into past time territory, namely ‘news headlines’ headlines’ , spoken or written, as in the examples in (37) below. The texts beneath the headlines use past tenses tenses but in headlines the Simple Present is shorter and more vivid. It is considered that this might also be regarded as a metaphorical extension of the reportive use of the present tense: (40)
(i) UN aid reaches reaches the stricken stricken Bosnian Bosnian town town of Srebrenica Srebrenica (ii) Trade Unions seek assurances
A different kind of historical present is found with ‘verb verbs s of communication’ as in the examples below (borrowed from Leech, 1976:7, and Huddleston &Pullum, 2002:131): (41)
(i)The ten o’clock news says that it’s going to be cold. (ii)I hear we are getting some new neighbours. (iii)Your correspondent A.D. writes in the issue of February 1 st
that…. (iv)I gather from Angela that you’re short of money again. According to Huddleston & Pullum (2002) the use of the Present Tense to report report past past time time occur occurren rences ces serves serves to background the communicat communication ion occurrences themselves and to foreground their content, expressed in the subordinate clause. The main clause is assumed to provide the evidence for believing or entertaining this content. The primary purpose is therefore to impart this content or to seek confirmation of it. The verbs most commonly used are: say, tell, inform, hear, gather, understand i.e. verbs referring to the productive or receptive end of the process of communication Given that the main clause is backgrounded, it does not contain adjuncts or temporal specification.
27
D.Present D.Present Tense with Future value ( the ( the Futurate ) . The Simple Present may be used to describe future situations . The fact that the Simple Present
still means ‘present’ is rendered clear by the possibility of having different time time specifi specificat cation ions s within within he same same clause clause,, as the examp examples les below below (42) (42) indicate (H&P 2002:133): (42) letter.
The match now starts next Monday , not Tuesday, as I said in my
The two adjuncts adjuncts specify specify different different time intervals: intervals: now specifies UT T/AS-T T/AS-T while next Monday specifies the time of the future situation, i.e. EV T. The presence presence of the present present tense tense morpheme morpheme has immediate immediate consequen consequences ces on the interpret interpretation ation of the future future situation situation assigning assigning it a high degree of certainty certainty , i.e. it attributes to the future the same degree of certainty that we normally accord to present or past events (Leech 1971: 60). This entails that the futurate construction is subject subject to severe severe constra constraints ints among which we mention the following: (i) (i)
(ii) (iii)
the the pre prese sen nce of fu future time ime ad adverbia rbialls, the the aspec aspectu tual al type type of the situa situatio tion n (state (state predic predicate atess are exclu exclude ded d in such such sentences ) and, last but not least the future situation is determinable from the state of the world now, now, that is to say that the clause must involve something that can be assumed to be known already in the present.
In the example above the present the present tense morpheme morpheme and the adverb now give the time of the arrange arrangemen mentt or schedule schedule.. It is gener generall ally y assum assumed ed that that with with the the Simp Simple le Presen Presentt the the arrangement arrangement is felt to be an impersonal impersonal or or collective collective one, made, for example, by a committee, committee, a court of law or some un-named authority. authority . The most widely used predicates belong to the class of non-durative event verbs in particular particular verbs of of directed directed motion motion such as go, as go, leave, leave, come, come, meet , aspectual verbs such as begin, start, end end , etc.
According to grammarians, the most common uses involve : (i) (ii) (iii)
statements about the calendar or cyclic events, scheduled events (regarded as unalterable) and subo su bord rdin inat ate e claus clauses es intro introdu duce ced d by cond conditi ition onal al and and adve adverb rbia iall conjunctions.
Consider the examples below borrowed from different sources (Leech 1971, Huddlestone and Pullum, 2002): (43) (i) Tom Tomorrow is Sunday./Next Christmas falls on a Thursday/The next high tide is around 4 this afternoon/When afternoon/When is the next full moon? (ii) ii) The The next Kevin Costner film ilm opens at the Eldorado on Saturday./When do the lectures lectures end this year?/She is president until next next May/He May/Herr case case comes befor before e the magist magistrat rate e next next week./T week./The he
28
Chancellor makes his budget speech tomorrow afternoon/We start for Istanbul tonight. (iii) When the spring comes , the swallo swallows ws will will return return./J ./Jeev eeves es will announce the guests as they arrive./If you don’t do better next time you are fired/Either he plays according to the rules or he doesn’t play at all/I’ll tell you if it hurts. The set of examples in (43i) reflect the use of the Simple Present Present for recurrent events whose time of occurrence can be scientifically calculated, hence it can be included under what is currently known. By contrast, the simple present is not used for future weather since such events are not conceived of as being within the domain of what is known (Huddlestone and Pullum, 2002:132). Weather forecasts are rendered by means of ‘going to’ or ‘shall/will’ In (43ii) we have examples that describe situations that have already been arranged, scheduled. The element of current schedule or arrangement is seen in the contrast in (44) below (Huddlestone and Pullum, 2002:132): (44) (i) (ii)
Australia meets Sweden in the Davis Cup final in December ???Australia beats Sweden in the Davis Cup final in December
The sentence sentence in (44i) is quite natural natural in a context context where where Australia Australia and Sweden have already qualified for the final. The use of the Present in (44ii) is unnatural, since the sentence conveys that the result itself has already been arranged. It is to be noted that subjective certainty is not enough; knowing the skill, experience and past performances of the team, one might feel certain about the result of the match but this does not sanction the Simple Present. The use use of the the Simple Simple Present Present in (43iii) is not just just a requir requiremen ementt of the synt syntac acti tic c patt patter ern, n, but but has has its its base base in a cont contra rast st of meani eaning ng.. In the the dependent clauses mentioned, the happening referred to is not a prediction, but but a fact fact that that is give given. n. A cond condit itio iona nall sent senten ence ce,, for for inst instan ance ce,, has has the the structure ‘If X is a fact, then then I predict Y’. (Leech 1971:60). He Hence, nce, the use of the Simple Present with Future value is appropriate to indicate that the cons conseq eque uenc nce e of the the cond conditi ition on being being fulfi fulfille lled d it is inev inevit itab able le or alrea already dy decided, as in (43iii). To sum up, the key to the Simple Simple Present Present with Future Future value is that it represents FUTURE AS FACT, FACT, that it i t attributes to the future the same degree of certai certainty nty that that we norma normally lly accord accord to prese present nt or past past events events.( .( Leech Leech 1971:60). 2.2. Simple Past Tense Sentences
The Simple Simple Past Tense Tense (or Preter Preterite, ite, as it is sometim sometimes es called), called), formally represented by the morpheme –ed , is primarily used used to express that a situation is located at a past interval of time, i.e. a time which precedes the Time of Utterance (i.e. UT-T UT-T AFTER AS-T/EV-T). AS-T/EV-T). Aspectually, the simple past tense sentence is interpreted as perfective perfective (i.e. AS-T=EV-T) Dynamic events in the simple past are not as severely constrained as events in the Simple Present. In the Simple Past the situations described may refer to one particular particular occurrence occurrence of that situation – an existential
29
reading, or to a series of events of the same type – a habitual reading . Compare the examples below ( Huddlestone and Pullum, 2002) : (45) (i) I do ‘The Times” crossword. (ii) I did ‘The Times’ crossword. reading
Present: habitual reading Past: existential or habitual
The interpretat interpretation ion in (45i) as a dynamic/exis dynamic/existenti tential al situation situation is ruled out, but such an interpretation is natural for (45ii) which can refer to a doing of the crossword as readily as to habitual doing of the crossword. With the the Past Past Tens Tense, e, ther theref efor ore, e, grea greate terr impo import rtan ance ce atta attach ches es to adjuncts and context in selecting between the two readings. The addition of a locating/deictic adverb adverb like yesterday induces s a dynamic/existential yesterday induce interpretation, while the addition of a frequency adverbial like regularly or whenever I have the time yields a habitual interpretation. Senten Sentences ces includ including ing a state predic predicatio ation n in the Simple Simple Past Past Tense Tense (per (perfec fectiv tive e aspe aspect ctua ually lly)) are are flexi flexible ble in inte interp rpre retat tatio ion n (dep (depen endi ding ng on context): such sentences may convey an open interpretation or a closed interpretation. What this means is that the time of the event/situation need not wholly wholly coincide with AS-T. Consider the example below: below: (46) 46) I liv lived ed in Lon London. don. If we add an expression like ‘in those days’ the interpretation would be that I no longer live in London, but if we expand it to ‘ I already lived here in London at that time’ we get an interpretation where I still live in London. This also confirms confirms the importanc importance e of adverbs and context in selecting the intended reading. Traditional Traditional grammars grammars have identified identified different different values values or uses of the Simple Past tense, which are given below. A. The The Deictic/e Deictic/existe xistential ntial value
As already mentioned, the Simple Past Tense , is primarily used to express that a situation, viewed as closed, is located at a past interval of time, i.e. a time which precedes the Time of Utterance. The temporal/aspectual representation is UT-T after AS-T/EV-T. More often than not this past time interval is explicitly stated by locating or frame time adverbials (deictic, referential and anaphoric) like: yesterday yesterday,, last week, week, two minutes/days minutes/days/mo /months nths ago, at 5 o’clock, o’clock, at noon, noon, once, when, , which are deictically interpreted. (i.e. relative to the moment of utterance now). Hence, at the time of utterance, the content of the event or state located on the past time axis is recollected. Together with the tense
of the predication, these adverbs contribute to the specification of the AS T/EV-T. T/EV-T. In this case the Past Tense is used as an absolute tense, and the value or use is known as the deictic/existential value/use. From an aspectual point of view, the events are viewed as perfective (i.e. with the endpoint prop proper erti ties es of the the situa situati tion on type types) s).. In thes these e cont contex exts ts the the Past Past Tens Tense e is interpreted as a specific tense with existential value. Curme rme (19 (1931:3 31:357 57)) rem remarke arked d that that “……i “……iff this this [te [tense form form]] is employed, the time of the act must be stated accurately or indicated clearly
30
by the context, so that the idea of indefiniteness or generality is entirely excluded’. Leech Leech (1976:9) (1976:9) remarks remarks that ‘There ‘There are two elements elements of meaning meaning involved in the commonest use of the Past Tense. One basic element of meaning is: ‘the happening takes place before the present moment. This means that the present moment is excluded.[……….]. Another element of meaning is:’ the speaker has a definite time in mind. This specific time in the the past ast is charac aracte teri rist stic ical ally ly nam named by an adve adverb rbia iall expre xpress ssio ion n accompanying the Past Tense verb.’ As already mentioned time adverbs, locating or otherwise, come in diffe differe rent nt form forms: s: PP (at five, five, in Sept Septem embe ber/ r/19 1986 86,, on Easte Easterr Mond Monday ay,, after/before breakfast), NP/DP ( once, this Monday/week/month, tomorrow, yesterday, last week), CP (after/before John arrived, when she left). Consider the examples below: (47)
(i) (ii) (iii)
Haydn was born in 1732. I thought once he would marry. I misplaced my glasses a moment ago and can’t find
(iv)
The glacier moved only about 50 meters during the last
them. century The aspectualaspectual-temp temporal oral representa representation tion of deictic Past Past Tens Tense e sentences is given in (48) below. The representation shows that the past tens tense e morp morphe heme me orde orders rs the the UT-. UT-.T T after AS-T. S-T. Sinc Since e Aspe spect has no morphological content, EV-T temporally coincides with AS-T (i.e. EV-T=AS-T) which means that the entire situation is viewed in its entirety from its initial to its final final boun bounda dary ry;; as a cons conseq eque uenc nce, e, the the ET-T ET-T precedes UT-T. The precedes UT-T. adverbial restricts the reference of the past time event, in our particular case AS-T/EV-T AS-T/EV-T since AS-T and EV-T are co-temporal: (48)
(a) Haydn was born in 1732 (i)
EV-T/AS-T
UT-T UT-T after after AS AS-T -T
UT-T
(ii)
AST = EV-T [……]…› UT-T after AS-T/EV-T
…[…………… [……………]……]… in 1732
(b) I met Susan yesterday/ yesterday/ before before Christmas Christmas
EV-T/AS-T
(iii) AS-T = EV-T [……]……..> (iv) UT-T after AS-T/EV-T (v)
TP`
UT-T
…..[……[…………]……]…… yesterday
AS-T=EV-T BEFORE CHRISTMAS
31
UT-T
AS-T/EV-T
T’
UT-T
…[.………]…[…………]……[……]…..> T after
AspP
AS-Ti AS-Ti
PP
CHRISTMAS
Asp’ Asp
P DP in 1732 1732 EVEV-T Ti before X-mas Ø yesterday
VP
VP
The syntactic syntactic temporal-a temporal-aspec spectul tul representa representation tion of the sentences sentences shows that the situation occurred within an interval located in the past, sinc since e the the UT-T UT-T is orde ordere red d afte afterr the the AS AS-T-T- itse itself lf co-te co-temp mpor oral al with with EV-T EV-T (expressed by co-indexation). The PP further further restricts the reference reference of the AS-T (=EV-T) (=EV-T) by locating locating the time span within the time designated by the expression 1732/beforeChristmas/yesterday. The role of the preposition is to order the the two two time time deno denotin ting g argu argume ment nts, s, i.e AS AS-T -T/E /EVV-T T and and the the time time adve adverb rb (Christmas, 1932, yesterday). In the case of the preposition IN (or at , on) the ordering relation is one of central coincidence. The event designate designated d by the VP occurred within the time span indicated by the time adverb . Prepositions like BEFORE/AFTER also restrict the reference of AS-T. In this case the relation established between AS-T and the time designated by the time adverb is a relation of non-central coincidence as illustrated above. Notice that bare NP adverbs like yesterday yesterday,, June 10, last week, week, this Monday/year/week, are loc locating ing adverbs as well, ll, but they are not introduced by an overt preposition. They are integrated in the model by assuming that they are concealed PPs headed by a silent preposition (Ø) expressing central coincidence, i.e. the event described is contained within the time designated by the time adverb . In sum, the PP ultimately serves to provide the location time for the event described by Haydn be born/ I meet Susan. Notice that this analysis explains why in a Simple Past Tense sentence, the event is portrayed in its entirety – as including its initial and final bounds (perfective aspect). The described event is viewed in its entirety, because the AS-T coincides with the EV-T, from its initial to its final boundary. Simp Simple le Past Past Tens Tense e pred predic icat atio ion n type types s also also occur ccur with with duration adverbials, such as: for two for two weeks, for a moment, in two hours, from two to adverbs do not as such locate four, six weeks, until 2001, from 1924.. These adverbs the the situ situati ation on but but rath rather er spec specify ify the the dura durati tion on/t /the he temp tempor oral al size size or the the bound boundarie aries s of the AS-T/E AS-T/EV-T V-T.. In (49) (49) below below the adverb adverb in three three weeks weeks specifies the duration of the event described by the VP Howard read the book . The preposition IN specifies the duration of the event described by
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the the VP
establ blis ishi hing ng a relat relatio ion n of central Howa Howard rd read read the the book book by esta coincidence between the AS-T/EV-T and the time span denoted by three weeks. The UT-T is ordered by the Past Tense morpheme after AS-T/EV-T: (49) (i)
Howard read the book in three weeks EV-T/AS-T
(ii)
UT-T
…[…………………]…[……]…..> 3 weeks
Time adverb adverbial ial specification specification may may be missing in a Past Tense sentence in thos those e case cases s in wh whic ich h the the adve adverb rbial ial can can be infe inferr rred ed from from the the larg larger er linguistic context : (50) Susan: This time time last year I was was in London. Howard: How curious! I was there too. Howard’s’s answer is correct without a Past Tense adverbial because the the miss missin ing g adve adverb rb can can be equa equate ted d with with the the adve adverb rb ment mentio ione ned d in the the preceding sentence (i.e., this time last year ). ). Anot An othe herr case case in wh whic ich h a Simple Simple Past Past Tens Tense e sent senten ence ce can can occu occurr without a temporal adverb includes sentences like the following: by
(51) Joan has received a proposal of marriage. It took us completely surprise. I have seen him already. He came to borrow a hammer. I’ve seen him today. I met him in the park. I have tasted lobster once, but I didn’t like it. I have been making inquiries. It was not difficult. The whole community is in an uproar.
In such contexts, the Present Perfect is used to introduce an event that took place sometime before the moment of speech; once an anterior frame of reference is established it is natural to resume reference to the already introduced event by the Simple Past Tense, which is thus uniquely identified. (Leech 1971, Stefanescu 1988, etc) The examples examples above above are similar similar to the ones ones below in the sense sense that that it is context again - extra-linguistic this time - that allows for the use of the Past Tense. Questions about particulars of a situation e.g. when, where how, why it occurred or who was involved in the situation, or sentences that provide further details concerning a previously mentioned situation require the use of the Past Tense. Fenn (1987: 168) calls this ‘occurrence focus’. (52) (52) I can can’t ’t rem remembe emberr whe where re I bought that vase. Just tell tell me how you did it. He’s not with us any more. – You mean he resigned? – No, he was thrown down an elevator shaft in Goodge Street. (Fenn 1987:175) How did you break your arm? When did your father leave for England?
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In some cases the situation described by the sentence is uniquely identifiable for the simple reason that it is unique. For a full interpretation of such sentences the hearer is supposed to be familiar with the referents of the relevant NPs: (53) (i) (ii) (iii)
Byron died in Greece. Christopher Co Columbus discovered the New World. Hindenburg directed German strategy during World War I.
Final inally ly,, the the Simpl imple e Past ast Tens Tense e can can be use used with ithout a defi defini nite te spec specifi ifica cati tion on wh when en a comp compar ariso ison n is draw drawn n betw betwee een n pres presen entt and and past past conditions (paraphrasable by ‘used to’ ): ): (54)
(i) (ii) ii) (iii (iii)) (iv) (iv)
England is not what it was (what it used to be) Even do dogs ar are no not wh what th they were (what they used to be) Life ife is is no not so so ple pleas asa ant as it was (as it used to be) He is not not so activ active e as as he he was. (used to be)
In all these these contexts the Past Tense is characterized as being indefinite or rather non-specific and its value is existential. B. Narrative value. value. Beside its deictic/existential usage, the Simple Past Tense is used non-deictically and without a temporal adverb in the narrative mode. The
situ situat atio ions ns narr narrat ated ed happ happen ened ed befo before re the the mome moment nt of spee speech ch but but this this moment is not given and has to be identified as part of the information associated with the way narratives function. Here are three examples of which the first constitute the opening paragraphs of J. Joyce’s “Eveline” and W. Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”: (55) She sat at the window watching the the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaning against the window curtains, and in her nostrils was the color of dusty cretonne. She was tired. (56) The boy boy with fair hair lowered himself himself down down the last few feet of the rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. (57) (57) One One morni orning ng the the thre three e sist sister ers s were were toge togeth ther er in the the draw drawin ing g room. Mary was sewing, Lucy was playing on the piano and Jane was doing nothing; nothing; then suddenly suddenly the door door opened opened and John burst burst into the room, room, exclaiming…. (Jespersen 1969:264) Noti Notice ce the the way the the prog progre ress ssiv ive e is used used in thes these e exam exampl ples es:: the the progressive forms of the predicate form a ‘temporal frame’ around an action denoted by the non-progressive form. In a connected narrative, therefore, the progressive often occurs in a description of the general situation, which serves as setting or background to what is expressed by means of the simple tenses.
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Lingui Linguists sts and gramm grammari arians ans have have also identified identified other other uses uses of the simple past tense: the habitual use; the past perfect use; the present time use also known as attitudinal past (i.e. past reference in combination with politeness/diffidence) • • •
C. Habitual Past
Whenever Whene ver Past Past Tense Tense comb combines ines with with frequency frequency adverbials adverbials, the readin reading g of that that senten sentence ce is habitual. The examp examples les below below illustr illustrate ate full habitual sentences of several basic-level situation types (Smith 1991:87): (58) (i) (ii) (ii) (iii (iii)) (iv) (iv) (v) (v)
Sam rode his bicycle on Fridays. Will ill wro wrote te a rep repo ort eve every week. eek. Jim Jim was was often ften unem unemp ploye loyed. d. He alw always arr arrive ived on on tim time e. He neve neverr knoc nocked ked on the door.
However the habitual interpretation often arises without a frequency adverbial, especially if context and world knowledge makes it reasonable (Smith 1991:87). Consider the examples below: (59) (i) (ii) ii) (iii) iii)
Susan rode a bi bicycle la last summer. Marcia fe fed th the cat cat that year. ar. Lynn mo moved la last ye year. ar.
None of the situations described above would generally take an entire year, yet the sentences would probably receive different interpretations. While riding a bicycle and feeding the cat are ordinary and likely to be taken as habitual, moving is the sort of event that doesn’t take place often and cannot be thought of as taking up one year. Hence the sentence in (59iii) would receive a specific/deictic interpretation. In a habitual sentence such as the one in (60) the adverb at noon is part of the frequency adverbial phrase at noon every day (which specifies the repeated EV-T of the predication) while the adverbial during his childhood specifies the past interval during which the recurring event took place (and indicates, in conjunction with the Past Tense, the AS-T/EV-T of the predication): (60) John got got up at noon noon every day day during his childhood childhood As is the case with the the present tense habituals, habituals, the determiner of the frequency adverbial in the past tense habituals must be indefinite: (61) (61) (i) (i) (ii)
They They went went to the the movie ovies s thre three e time times s a week week *They went to the movies three times the week
The habitu habitual al reading reading of of a sentenc sentence e may also be be conveye conveyed d by the the plural form of of the direct object, as indicated in (62):
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(62) 62) (i) (i) (ii) (ii) reading)
Fido Fido chas chase ed cars ars (hab habitu itual rea reading ding)) Fido Fido chas chased ed a car car / Fido Fido chas chased ed the the car car (non (non-ha -habit bitua uall
The progre progressive ssive form may also occur occur in sentences sentences interprete interpreted d as habitual / iterative due to the presence of a frequency adverb. Consider the following examples borrowed from Jespersen (1969:265): (63) 63) (i) (i) Ever very mornin rning g, when hen he was havi having ng his brea reakfa kfast his wife asked him for money. (ii) (ii) Ever Every y morn morning ing,, wh when en he was was havi having ng his his brea breakfa kfast st his his dog was staring at him. (iii) He looked looked at her her repea repeated tedly ly when when she was not not looki looking. ng. (iv) (iv) Whene heneve verr I look looked ed up up he he was was loo looki king ng.. In all these cases the progressive serves as background/time frame for the situation denoted by the simple tense form. D) The Simple Past Tense with Past Perfect Value
Consider the sentences below (Stefanescu, 1988) (64) (64)
(i) (ii) (iii)
He enjoye enjoyed d and admire admired d the sonnet sonnets s of Shakes Shakespea peare re He knocked and entered / He shaved and listened to the radio
In (64i (64i)) we have a description of two state situations; states are characterized as being unbounded and durative, hence the sentence is understood to describe two simultaneous states. On the other hand, the sentence in (64ii) describes two eventualities (a semelfactive and an achievement – both characterized as non-durative) that can be performed only sequentially (as a rule, one first knocks and then enters). Now, in this case, the eventuality that is interpreted as taking place before another eventuality in the past has a past perfect value – we have to do with a shifted reading of the Simple Past Tense in the case of events. events. The example in (64iii) is ambiguous between a sequential reading and a simultaneous reading. This is due to the Aktionsart type of the predicates: activities. The two readings can be identified by means of inserting disambiguating elements such as an adverbial or a conjunction: (65) 65) (i) (i) (ii) (ii)
He shav shaved ed while hile he list listen ene ed/w d/was lis listtenin ening g to to the the radi radio o. (simultaneous reading) He shav shaved ed and and then then he liste listene ned d to to the the radio radio.. (seq (seque uent ntial ial
reading) Temporal Temporal relations relations between between two conse consecutive cutive events events can be explicitly explicitly marked either by: (i) an adverbial or conjunction or by (ii) the anteriority indicating auxiliary have or (iii) both. Consider the following examples:
36
(66) (66) (i) Home Home Secret Secretary ary J.R. J.R. Clynes Clynes,, a Scot, Scot, greeted the little princess BEFORE Nurse Beevans took her back to her mother’s bedside. (ii) It occurred to me AFTER I ground the coffee that what I really wanted was ice tea. (iii) He dropped the letter BEFORE he went away. (iv) I tucked the newspapers under my arm. THEN I fished my keys out of the recesses of my pocket and leaned forward. (v) John had left when I arrived. (vi) The police arrived after the bomb had exploded. In the sentences sentences in (66) above the temporal temporal adjunct clauses modify the AST-T of the main clause. That is, the spatiotemporal predicates BEFORE/AFTER BEFORE/AFTER establish an ordering relation between the AST-T (itself cotemporal with the EV-T) of the main clause and the AST-T (itself co-temporal with EV-T) of of the adjunct clause. The schema schema below illustrates the the ordering relation between between the two events events in example (66iii) above relative to each other and relative to the UT-T: AS-T1/
(67)
EV-T1
AS-T2 / EV-T 2
UT-T
…[……………]…[…………]…………[……]…….>
The schem schema a indicates indicates that that the the past past event event described described by the the matrix matrix (his dropping the letter ) is ordered before the past event described by the subordinate clause (his going away ). ). The Assertion Times of the two events are each co-indexed with the respective Event Times, the events described being viewed in their entirety as including both the initial and final boundary (perfective ). Generally, after - and before-clauses semantically require closed main clauses. Relative to UT-T, the matrix event is past, given the tense marker –ed which orders orders the UT-T AFTER AFTER AS-T1. AS-T1 of the matrix clause is also assumed to be the external argument of the spatiotemporal predicate BEFORE, ordering it before AS-T2 of the adjunct clause. The syntactic representation below illustrates the temporal schema: (68)
TP UT-T
T’ T after
AspP
AS-Ti AS-Ti
PP
Asp’ Asp
VP
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P BEFORE
ZeitP EV-Ti VP drop the letter
The above above represent representation ation confirms confirms the the observa observations tions of a large large number number of of 11 grammarians and linguists according to whom all temporal conjunctions (after, before, until, since) can be paraphrased by means of a prepositional phrase with the word ‘time (at which)’ . Roughly the paraphrase for the adjunct clause in (66iii) is ‘before the time at which he went away’. The appro approach ach put put forth forth by Demirdac Demirdache&U he&Uribe-E ribe-Etxeb txebarria arria (2004) (2004) adopts adopts this this point of view, incorporating temporal adjunct clauses within their model assuming that they are PPs. The head of the PP (a spatiotemporal predicate) takes as internal argument a temporal DP/Zeit Phrase, modified by a restrictive relative clause – roughly [PP before/after [ZeitP the time [CP Øi [CP he went away ti]]]]. The CP acts as a relative clause restricting the reference of the time span. (expressed as the implicit ZeitP) A notable exception to the above observation is ‘when-clauses’. In old English, when was used as a question word or indefinite adverb and only later developed its use as a conjunction (Mitchell 1987:402). What is meant is that when, unlike after or before do not have the overt syntax of PP. (Compare: Sue left before/when Howard arrived vs Sue left before noon/ *when noon). It is to be noted, nevertheless that when clauses, as well, express a temporal temporal relation in the domain domain established by the matrix clause. Consider the examples below (Declerck 1991:99): (69)
(i)
It happened when the police were there
In the example above, when is equivalent to ‘at a time when’, so that (69’) is a good good paraphrase of (69) (Declerck 1991:99):: (69’) (i) there
It happened [PPat [ZeitPthe time [CPwheni [ TPthe police were ti]]]]
This paraphrase paraphrases s makes makes clear clear that that the when clause locates the situation it describes at the implicit time, that is simultaneous with the situation described by the matrix clause. Demirdache&Uribe-Etxebarria Demirdache&Uribe-Etxebarria (2004) integrate when-clauses into the model by assuming that these time adjuncts are concealed PPs – that is phrases that are headed by a silent (Ø) preposition indicating central coincidence (within relation). It has long been argued that the interpretation of when-clauses depends on viewpoint , situation type and pragmat pragmatic ic factors factors (cf. Dowty 1979, Smith, 1984,1991, to mention just a few). What we mean is that whenclauses are flexible, allowing several interpretations. When seems not to impose any particular relation on situations. (unlike after which always 11
These observations are supported by diachronic evidence. In old English, after, before were not used as conjunctions. Instead a prepositional phrase of the form ‘after then that’ was used. (see Visser 1970:868)Apart 1970:868)Apart from the diachronic evidence, the prepositional origin of temporal conjunctions appears from the fact that, like very nervous nervous during the days days before prepositional phrases, phrases, temporal clauses can be postmodifiers: postmodifiers: e.g. (i) He felt very the examination ; (ii) He felt very very nervous nervous during the days days before the the examination examination took took place .
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requires that the main clause have a closed interpretation). The situations presented may be taken as simultaneous, overlapping or successive, depending on viewpoint and situation types. Consider the examples below: (60)
(i) (ii) (iii) (iii) (iv) (iv) (v) (v) (vi) (vi)
When the bell rang Mary was swimming. When the bell rang Mary swam. When Wh en he was was a stu stude dent nt he wrot wrote e poe poetr try y. When hen he he go got the the lett letter er he burn burned ed it. it. *Whe *When n he he rea read d the the lett letter er he burn burned ed it. it. When Wh en he had had rea read d the the lett letter er he burn burned ed it. it.
(60i) has the reading that Mary’s swimming was already in progress at the time of the event of bell ringing, and does not have another interpretation. The two two situatio situations ns are taken as overlap overlapping ping for for a short short interv interval. al. In contrast, contrast, (60ii) has the reading that the swimming began at the time of the other event; the situations presented are taken taken as (somewhat) (somewhat) successive (actually this is known as sloppy simultaneity ), ), since the perfective clause is taken as inceptive: given our world knowledge, the durative activity of than the event event of bell ringing. swimming is conceptualized as lasting longer than (60iii) allows for a simultaneous interpretation since both situations qualify as (homogeneous) (homogeneous) states. As far as (60 iv) is concerned the reading we obtain is that the two situations follow one another, the situation described in the when-clause precedes the situation described by the main clause. This interpretat interpretation ion is valid valid since since getting a letter is viewed as falling under the ontological type achievement. The example in (60v) does not allow for the same kind of interpretation, though, given world knowledge this is the interpretation we favour. This is due again, to the type of situation in the ). To when-clause: reading a letter is a durative event (accomplishment ). render the sentence semantically clear we would have to use a marker of anteriority, in this particular case the auxiliary ‘have’ (60vi). E. The Simple Past Tense Referring to Present Time (Attitudinal Past)
The Past tense with no adverbial specification may be used in preference to the Present in everyday conversation, being considered somewhat more polite. The politeness politeness/diffide /diffidence nce feature is also found with the past progressive. All the examples below are interpretable as a more polite, more diffident version of the present tense versions of the sentences: (61) (i)
A: Did you want to see me? B: Yes, I hoped you would give me a hand with the
painting. (ii) ii) (iii) (iii)
I wa wanted to to as ask yo your ad advice ice. I won wonde dere red d whe wheth ther er you you cou could ld help help me out. out. (iv) (iv) I thou though ghtt I migh mightt com come e and and see see you you late laterr thi this s
(v) (v)
My daug daught hter er was was hop hopin ing g to to spe speak ak to the the Man Manag ager er..
evening. Leech (1971:11) makes makes the following comments comments on the exchange in (61i): “The subject of this exchange would probably be the present wishes of
39
speaker B, despite the use of the past tense. The Present and the Past are, in fact, broadly interchangeable in this context; but there is quite an important difference in tone. The effect of the past tense is to make the request indirect , and therefore more polite….The present tense (I hope…) in this situation would seem rather brusque and demanding – it would make the request difficult to refuse without impoliteness. The past tense, on the other hand, avoids the confrontation of wills. Politeness also extends to the original question Did you want to see me? The logically expected tense (Do you want me?) might have peremptory overtones, and would seem to say ‘Oh, it’s you, is it? You always want something!’. Along the same lines, Huddlestone & Pullum (2002) state that: ‘ The added politeness associated with the preterite comes from avoiding explicit reference to the immediate present: I distance myself slightly and thus avoid the risk of appearing too direct, possibly brusque.” According to Huddlestone & Pullum (2002:38) ‘this conventional use of the preterite is quite consistent with its basic past time meaning’. In the absence of any contextual indication that reference is made to some definite time in the non-immediate past, the time referred to will be interpreted, in such sentences, as immediate past. As can be noticed, all the situations described in the sentences are state situations, not eventive/dynamic situations and the use of the past tense does not entail that the state no longer holds. Since there is nothing to suggest that the state has ended, the interpretation will be that that the state also obtains at utterance time, so that all the sentences convey the present tense versions of the sentences. The proto prototypical typical case (for either either aspec aspect) t) is a declarative declarative with first first rd person subject, but 3 person subjects can be used when speaking on behalf of somebody somebody else, as in (60v) above. The same usage carries carries over nd into interrogatives, with a switch to 2 person subject, as in (60i). 3. The Perfect in English
3.0. 3.0. The aim aim of this this subch subchapt apter er is to intro introduc duce e and discu discuss ss import important ant matters concerning the characteristics of perfect sentences in English. Perfect constructions have a characteristic set of temporal location and aspectual values, and appear in many languages. Traditionally, the term referred to a tense of ancient Greek12. Nowadays it is used for constructions that have a certain temporal and aspectual meaning, whether or not they involve tense. (Smith 1991:146). In point of terminology there is a clear difference between the ‘perfect’ and ‘perfective’. The former former refers refers to a constructio construction n with particular particular temporal temporal and and aspectual aspectual characteristics characteristics,, while the latter refers to a closed grammatical viewpoint. Both come from the Latin word ‘perfectus’ the past participle of ‘perficere’ (to carry, end, finish, accomplish). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term ‘perfect’ was first applied to the Latin tense which denoted a completed action or event viewed in relation to the present and then with qualifications to any tense expressing completed action; the first such use cited in OED is 1530. (Smith 1991:164). 1991:164). In English the aspectual relations identified as PERFECTIVE and PERFECT are encoded as follows: PERFECTIVE is encoded by the simple form,and form,and the event is portrayed in its entirety, as including its endpoints, while the perfect encodes the PERFECT which describes an event as completed prior to a reference time. 12
40
Comrie (1981a apud R.Declerck 1991:319) discards the present perfect from his treatment of the tenses because, in his opinion , the present perfect does not differ from the past tense in terms of time location; both tenses locate a situation as prior to he time of utterance. The difference is claimed to be one of aspect only.: the present perfect implies current relevance’, the past tense does not. This position is roughly the same as that defended by tradititional traditi tional grammarians like Jespersen (1924:269) and Poutsma (1926:209) or, in recent times, ti mes, McCoard (1978:19). In English the perfect is signalled by the auxiliary have, which obligatorily selects the past participle form of the main verb. Perfect sentences appear with Present, Past and Future reference time and with both a perfective and progressive viewpoints. viewpoints. One of the roles of have is to carry the the tense morpheme (present, past). The examples examples below below illustrate Present, Past and Future Perfects: (62)
(i) (ii) (ii) (iii) (iii)
Now John has arrived. Last Last Satu Saturd rday ay John John had had (al (alre read ady) y) arri arrive ved. d. Next Next Sat Satur urda day y John John will will hav have e alre alread ady y arriv arrived ed..
In all these cases the adverbials in conjunction with the tense morphemes morphemes (Present, Past, Future) specify AS-T and the sentences describe a situation, namely [John arrive] as occurring at a time before the specified Reference time (i.e. AS-T) This is the second role of the aspectual auxiliary HAVE. So, one of the hallmarks of the Perfect is that it presents the prior situation as as related to a reference time time. In (62i) the adverb in combination with the present tense morpheme -s specify the AS-T : AS-T overlaps the time of utterance (i.e. UT-T WITHIN AS-T ) and the event as such such is located within the interval prior prior to AS-T (i.e AS-T AFTER EV-T), yet also part of a general period of the present which extends backward, not being limited to UT-T; hence the situation is viewed as completed and within an interval i nterval that extends back from the moment of speech –the ‘extended now’ interval i nterval (McCoard 1984). The refere reference nce times times of the the next two examp examples les (62ii, (62ii, iii) are similarly similarly extended in some way to include the time of John’s arrival. Both sentences have unspecified Past and Future reference times (i.e. UT-T precedes or follows AS-T); they also convey that the event precedes the reference time ( i.e. AS-T AFTER EV-T ). To conclude conclude,, the situat situation ion describe described d in a perfect perfect sentence sentence is viewed viewed as completed in relation to a reference time ( our AS-T) which itself can be located in the present, past or future. As already mentioned, the contribution of the perfect to the meaning of the sentence is that it makes available an AS-T distinct from the EV-T. The situation described by the VP occurs prior to AS-T (due to the auxiliary have) while the tense morpheme , shows that AS-T is concomitant/before /after the time of Utterance i.e.UT within/after/before AS-T , AS-T AFTER EV-T. In this case the time sphere is present/past/future; in all the cases the claim is made about a time span that does not include the event at stake i.e the aspect component says that AS-T is in the posttime of EV-T (i.e. AS-T AFTER EV-T) .
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Since the perfect perfect encodes the temporal temporal relations between AS-T and EV-T placing the former after the latter, we assume with Demirdache & Uribe-Etxebarria (2004) (2004) that the perfect can can be analyzed as a marker of aspect represented as the spatio-temporal predicate AFTER. The aspectual meaning of the perfect perfect is thus closely related to its temporal temporal meaning. This interpretation perfectly accomodates the presence of perfect constructions in contexts where the inflectional past tense cannot occur: (63) (63)
(i) (ii)
Shei Sheila la may may have have left left last last week week Susan’s having left early surprised everyone
Perfect sentences have a stative value They present a state of affairs (a situation) that results from and is due to the prior situation, as illustrated by the previous examples and the present perfect examples below. It is assumed (Giorgi &Pianesi 1998:97) that this is the contribution of the perfect morphology. (64)
(i) (ii) (ii) (iii (iii)) (iv) (iv) (v)
Anabelle has gone to Paris. They They have have buil builtt a cabi cabin n in in the the mount ountai ains ns.. Hele Helen n has has danc danced ed with ith Tom Tom (twi (twice ce). ). The The bal balll has has roll rolled ed down down the the hil hill. l. Susan has been sick.
In all these sentences the focus is on the (consequent ) state that obtains in the present, present, a state which is due to the occurrence of the situation described by the VP. To accommo accommodate date this state state of fact Demirdach Demirdache e and Uribe-Etxe Uribe-Etxebarri barria a (2002) decompose/split the VP, taking advantage of the fact that VPs can be recursive, as in (65): (65)
VP1 Ev-T1
VP1 0
V
Ev-T2
Process VP2 VP2 Resultant State
Each VP in (65) stands for a phase in the internal temporal temporal structure of the event described by the VP. VP 1 represents the processual subpart of the event while VP2 stands for the resultant state (or consequent state) after the culmination/termination of the process. The third third charac characterist teristic ic of Presen Presentt Perfect Perfect sentenc sentences es in English English is that that they ascribe to their subjects a property that results from their participation in the situation (Smith 1991:148). Let’s consider the examples in 64(i,iii) above. The sentences assert that their subjects have participated in the events described. We understand not only that an event of going to Paris has taken place or that an event of dancing has occurred, the sentences attribute to their respective subjects the property (experience) of having gone to London and the property (experience) of having danced, that is to say in order for the subjects to receive the participant participant property property , to experience the events described described they must must be sentient beings (roughly, they must be alive at reference time). It is assumed that this pragmatic
42
felicity requirement on the use of the perfect accounts for the oddity of a sentence like the following: (66)
Einstein has lived in Princeton
The sente sentence nce is grammatic grammatical al but pragmatic pragmatically ally infelicito infelicitous us when when uttered after the death of Einstein (Jespersen 1931:60). This failure is accounted for in terms of the participant participant property. The felicity requirement is that the person referred to by the subject NP must be able to bear the property ascribed to them by a perfect sentence. The notion of Current Relevance is sometimes invoked to explain the infelicity of such sentences (Jespersen 1931, McCoard 1978). According to Giorgi and Pianesi (1998:95): ‘only perfect perfect tenses, which which separate the reference time from the event time, permit assertions about the involvement of the subject to be separated from those of the event itself….. With the simple tenses tenses R (i.e AS-T) coincides coincides with (or contains ) the time of the event, so that the participation of the subject in the event is viewed together with the event itself’. To conclude conclude this short short intro introductio duction, n, we will assume assume with C. C. Smith Smith (1991:146) that Perfect constructions generally convey the following related meanings: (a) the situation described precedes Reference time (i.e. As-T after EV-T) (i.e. perfect tenses make available a reference time distinct from the event time) ; (b) the construction has a resultant stative value; in Giorgi and Pianesi’s (1998) terms, ‘the perfect tenses provide individual level predicates’. (c) a special property is ascribed to the subject, which holds at a given reference time by virtue of the participation in the situation. There are some some differen differences ces across across languages languages (e.g. French, French, Romania Romanian, n, German vs English) but these are the primary identifying characteristics. 3.1.Present Perfect sentences
3.1.1. This 3.1.1. This subchapter subchapter looks into the the main main problems problems identified identified with with respec respectt to the Present Perfect, such as: (i) (ii)
(iii) (iii) (iv) (iv)
the difference between the present perfect and the past tense. the various readings of the Present Perfect; the amb ambigu iguity ity phen phenom omena ena arising arising with with pres presen entt perfec perfectt sente sentence nces. s. the relati relations onship hip of of the presen presentt perfe perfect ct with with time time adverb adverbs s and and the the Present Perfect Puzzle
3.1.2 A commonplace commonplace manner manner of analysing the present perfect perfect has been to place it in opposition to the Simple Past tense. The three main points around which the distinction between the 2 tenses revolves are the following: (i) (i) they they both both exp expre ress ss temp tempor oral al ant anter erio iorit rity y but but in diff differ eren entt way ways: s: Past Tense expresses temporal precedence between UT-T and AS-T while the Perfect expresses temporal precedence between EV-T and AS-T
43
(ii) compatibility with adverbial phrases.;the present perfect is incompatible with specific past time adverbs (dubbed as ‘the present perfect puzzle’) (ii) (ii) Perf Perfec ectt sente sentenc nces es are are stat stative ive (ir (irre resp spec ectiv tive e of the the unde underly rlying ing eventuality type) while Past tense sentences inherit the aspectual properties of the underlying eventuality The main main charact characteristic eristic shared shared with with the Past Tense is that that they they both both express a relation of anteriority of an eventuality to a reference time (i.e. in terms of the theory put forth by Demirdache & Uribe-Etxebarria (2004) (2004) the perfect (have) just like the past tense (ed) are temporal predicates with the meaning AFTER ). The question that grammarians had to solve was whether the type of anteriority induced by the Past tense tense is indeed different from that expressed by the Present Perfect . Consider the examples below: (67)
(i) (ii)
Miriam ate an apple. Miri iriam has eate aten an app apple .
Both sentences describe a situation located in the Past and are true true under the same circumstances. The essential insight about a bout these constructions is due to Reichenbach 1947, as a s already mentioned. Of the three temporal entities we have employed in our analysis of the tenses, namely UT-T, AS-T, EV-T, the relevant one in the understanding of the differences between the two tenses under consideration is AS-T. Following current research, we have argued that AS-T acts as a perspectiv perspective e time, that is, it acts as a time from which the event is considered, or in Klein’s (1992) terms, a time about which a particular (66) above is a claim is made. The difference between the sentences in (66) matter of temporal point of of view or perspectiv perspective. e. As we have seen in our discussion of the Present Tense and Past Tense, Tense, Tense relates UT-T and AS-T, while Aspect relates AS-T and EV-T. With simple tense forms AS-T coincides with (or contains) contains) EV-T, since Aspect has no morphological content. With the Past tense the EV-T and AS-T are co-temporal, which means that the event occurs at/within the stated AS-T; the relation of anteriority (expressed by the past tense morpheme –ed ) exists therefore between Assertion time/Event Time and Utterance time: i.e. UT-T after AS-T/EV-T since AS-T= EV-T. The time-sphere is Past: the claim is made about a past time span that includes the entire entire event. The contrib contribution ution of the the perfect to the meaning of the sentence is
that it makes available an AS-T distinct from the EV-T. In the case of the Present Perfect the situation described by the VP occurs prior to AS-T (due to the auxiliary have) while the present tense morpheme –s, shows that AS-T is concomitant concomitant with the time of Utterance, Utterance, i.e. UT-T within AS-T AS-T , AS-T after EV-T. In this case the time sphere is present.; the claim is made about a present time span that does not include the event at stake .
Here are the two representations: PAST TENSE AS-T/EV-T
UT-T
44
(a)
TP`
UT-T
(b)
-----[----------]-----------[------]----
T’ T AFTER
AspP
AS-Ti
Asp’ Asp
VP
EV-Ti
VP
PRESENT PERFECT EV-T
(a)
TP`
UT-T
(b) ---[----------------]----[-------]-------AS-T
UT-T
T’ T WITHIN AS-T
AspP Asp’ Asp AFTER EV-T
VP
VP
In the case of the the Past Tense the the AS-T is past and the event occurs occurs at AS-T which is prior to the time of Utterance. So, in Past sentences the point of view is squarely in the past. In Georgi &Pianesi’s account, when AS-T and EV-T (R and E in their system) coincide, the participation of the subject in the event is viewed together with the event as such, since they suggest that (at least part of) the claim made about about AS-T refers to assertions assertions about 13 the subject at AS-T . What this means is that the assertion about the event as such necessarily includes assertions about the involvement of the subject.
13
Actually they say that : ‘….the claim made about R is that the relevant θ-relation holds (or is said to hold) of the subject at R.
45
In contrast, the Perfect auxiliary have locates the situation as a whole (EV-T) at a time prior to AS-T, which, in its turn, is viewed as including the utterance time (due to the present tense morpheme.). The (Present) Perfect makes available a tense component and an aspect component, component, i.e it separates the AS-T AS-T from the EV-T. EV-T. The tense component says that AS-T includes UT-T while the aspect component says that AS-T is in the post-time of EV-T (i.e. AS-T after EV-T) . Hence, the analysis nicely accounts for the strong feeling connected with the present perfect: it makes a claim about a time span (AS-T) that includes UT-T and it relates this time span explicitly to some event in the past.14 . According to this view, the meaning of (67i) is that there is a past event of eating an apple and as far as the event is concerned its agent is Miriam. On the other hand (67ii) means that there is a past event of eating an apple and as far as the present situation is concerned its agent is Miriam. Since Since all accou accounts nts of the present present perfec perfectt stress stress the present present time relevance of the present perfect, or the stative nature of the predication as well as the participant that it assig assigns ns to the the subje subject ct,, we will will participant prope property rty that assume, assume, as already already stated, stated, that that present present perfec perfectt predica predicates tes (VPs) (VPs) have a structure that resembles that of transitive accomplishment verbs (e, e’) ,i.e. e (event 1) stands for the process, while e’ (event 2) stands for the result of that event (Hale and Keyser, 1993). (68)
VP1 Ev-T1
VP1 0
V
Process VP2 Ev-T2 VP2
Resultant State
Each VP in (68) stands for a phase in the internal temporal temporal structure of the event described by the VP. VP 1 represents the processual subpart of the event while VP2 stands for the resultant state (or consequent state) after the culmination/termination of the process. Each of the sub-events in (68) has an external temporal argument: the external argument of VP1, Ev-T1, denotes the period of time during which the process process unfolds in time, from its beginning up to its culmination/termination. The external argument of VP2, Ev-T2, designates the resultant state after the culmination/termination of the process. This (VP decom decompositio position) n) analysis analysis of the present present perfect perfect propo proposed sed by by Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria (2002) will nicely account for the values attached to the present perfect. 3.2 Values of the the Present Present Perfect Perfect
3.2 3.2.1A .1Aspe spect does does not not say say how how LON LONG AS-T is afte afterr EV-T; -T; EV-T may immediately precede AS-T, but it may also be in the distant past. Nor does the perfect say anything anything about the FREQUENCY FREQUENCY of the situation described . The perfect perfect doesn’t doesn’t set any boundary boundary on the DURATIO DURATION N of EV-T, EV-T, either; either; Klein (1992:539) argues that the duration of EV-T is ignored due to the fact that the perfect is not b-definite (i.e. boundary definite) with respect to EV T. For For a present present perfect perfect sentenc sentence e to be true, all that that is required required is that SOME This applies applies analogo analogously usly to to the future perfect perfect and past past perfect, perfect, except except that that the relevance relevance is not current or present; but it is ongoing. (Klein 1992:53)
14
46
time span, one at which the situation was true, precedes the time when the utterance is made. The fact fact that that distance distance and and frequency frequency of EV-T EV-T are left open open gives gives rise rise to the different readings of the perfect (existential, resultative , continuative, etc). These readings are not due to an inherent ambiguity of the perfect, but stem from contextual information and the particular type of situation. Consider the following examples: (69) (69) (i) Tabith Tabitha a has lived lived in Hambur Hamburg g ever ever since since she marrie married. d. (ii) Tabitha has lived in Hamburg . (iii) (iii) Jane Jane has has bro broke ken n her her leg /The /They y hav have e gon gone e awa away. y. (iv) She has recent recently/ ly/jus justt been been to Paris/ Paris/ Malco Malcolm lm Jon Jones es has just been been assassinat assassinated! ed! In both( both(69 69i) i) and and (69ii (69ii)) , in point point of situ situat atio ion n type type,, the the pred predic icate ate [Tabitha live in Hamburg] qualifies as state. For (69i) the natural natural reading reading is an open, continuative reading, the situation continues from the time specified (ever since she married) into the tim time of utte uttera ranc nce e (and and in the abse absenc nce e of contra ntrary ry ind indicat icatio ions ns will ill presumably continue into the future). This value of the present perfect is known as the continuative or inclusive value. In (69ii) the absence of the duration adjunct forces the closed, noncontinuative reading, Tabitha’s living in Hamburg is said to have taken place at some indefinite time in the past. This value of the perfect is known as the experiential valu value. e. The The focu focus s is not not on the the occu occurr rren ence ce at some some particular time in the past, but on the relevance of the situation within the time-span up to now . The connection with NOW is the subject which must have have the the participant presen entt attr attrib ibut ute. e. The The sent senten ence ce participant property property as a pres implicates that the subject is alive and can be interpreted as the carrier of the enduring property (experience) of having participated in the event. The sentences sentences in (69iii) are the clearest clearest cases of the resultative perfect, where the situation inherently involves a specific change of state (the predicates are telic): the occurrence of these situations result in a state that still obtains at now. The example example in (69iv) is assumed assumed to be a case of the Perfec Perfectt of Recent Past, or with other grammarians, the Hot News News Presen Presentt Perfec Perfect, t, (McCawley 1976), the Indefinite Past (Leech 1971 ). Accord According ing to, among among other others, s, An Anagn agnost ostopo opoulo ulou, u, Iatrid Iatridou ou &Izvo &Izvorsk rskii (1998:17) the Experiential Perfect and the Perfect of Recent Past may be considered to fall under the cover term ‘Existential’ Perfect, or it can be included included in the domain of Resultative Resultative perfect. perfect. These These identified major major uses can be thought of as different ways in which a past situation may have ‘current relevance’. As already mentioned the different uses of the Present Perfect depend on the situation types denoted by the VP as well as context. 3.2.2.We turn now to the description of the various meanings of the present perfect: (i) the Experiential Present Perfect ((first identified by Zandvoort, 1965),
renamed in current studies as the Existential Value;
47 (ii) the
Perfec Perfectt of Recent Recent Past Past (also known known as the ‘Hot News News Present Present Perfect’); (iii ) the Continuative Continuative Present Present Perfect; Perfect; (iv) the Resultative Present Perfect; A. Experiential Perfect (Existential Value)
As already mentioned several times so far, the values or meanings of the pres presen entt perfec perfectt cruc crucia ially lly depe depend nd on the aspect aspectual ual proper propertie ties s of the (cf. Comri Comrie, e, 1976, 1976, Smith, Smith, 1991, 1991, underlying underlying eventuality eventuality and the context (cf. Kamp Kamp and Reyle Reyle,, 1993, 1993, Julien, Julien, 2001, 2001, Demir Demirdac dache he and UribeUribe-Etx Etxeba ebarri rria, a, 2002, 2004 among many others). The Perfect ‘expresses what has happened happened once or Perfect of experience experience ‘expresses more than once within the speaker’s or writer’s experience’ (Zandvoort, 1967). 1967). This This meaning meaning is often often reinforc reinforced ed adverbi adverbially ally by ever, ever, never, never, or before (now) (Leech 1971:32); the number of events can also be mentioned adverbially: “I’ve been to America three times’. As can be noticed, state predicates are recategorized as events in the context of frequency adverbs (e.g. I have hated liars three times in my life) The Experie Experiential ntial value value of of the Perfec Perfectt may occur occur with any Aktions Aktionsart: art: (70) (i) Sam has broken my computer (twice) (Accomplishment) (ii) (ii) All All my fam family ily have have had had measl easle es/Ha s/Have ve you you been been to America? (State) (iii) (iii) She She has has danc danced ed wit with h John John five five times times (Ac (Activ tivit ity) y) (iv) (iv) I’ve discove discovered red how how to to mend mend the fuse. fuse. (Achi (Achieve eveme ment) nt) (v) (v) Have Have you you vis visit ited ed the the Gau Gauga gain in exhi exhibi biti tion on? ? (vi) (vi) I have have sat sat for for hour hours s on the the riv river er ban bank k on a fin fine e summ summer er’s ’s day day,, waiting for a fish to bite. (Zaandvoort (Zaandvoort 1967:62) (vii) (vii) Men’s Men’s hair hairs s have have grown grown grey grey in a single single night. night. (viii) (viii) Mr Philips Philips has sung sung in this this choir choir.. Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, (ix) but not for love”. (Stefanescu, 1988) (x) (x) It’s It’s the the first first/t /thi hird rd tim time e you’ you’ve ve aske asked d me this this que quest stio ion n toda today. y. As can be easily noticed, in the present perfect sentences in (70) the eventualities are presented as ‘bounded’, since some some of them can be repeated, repeated, i.e they show the existence of one or several eventualities (states, processes or events) that are presented as completed prior to the moment of speech (Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria, 2002). The focus, however, is not on their occurrence at some particular time in the past but on the existence of the situation within the time span. This is the reason why this value is also knwn as the Indefinite Past value of the Present Perfect (Leech 1971). The conn connec ectio tion n with with now now is the the pote potent ntial ial occu occurre rrenc nce e or recu recurr rren ence ce of the the situation at any time within the time span up to now and this potentiality is made possible by the status of the subject (the participation property). What hat is inte intere rest stin ing g abo about the the expe experi rien enti tial al perf perfec ectt is that that,, unde underr restrictive
48
conditions, it allows for the presence of a past time adjunct adjunct (Comrie 1985; Georgi&Pianesi 1998; Klein 1992; Huddlestone and Pullum 2002:144): (71) (i) yesterday. (ii) o’clock.
We’ve already discussed it yesterday. vs We discussed it He has often got up at five o’clock. vs He got up at five
Notice that the presence of the adverbs ‘already ’ and ‘often’ cancel the effect of the past time adverbs, i.e. there is no reference to any specific occasion, as there is in the simple preterite. B.
The Perfect Perfect of Recent Recent Past
Most grammarians agree that the Perfect of Recent Past is used to report an eventuality that just happened. According to Leech (1971) this use of the Present Perfect is a subcategory of the Present Perfect of Experience, which he calls ‘Indefinite Past.’ Som Some other ther lin linguis guistt and and gram rammaria arians ns cons consid ide er this this valu value e as a subcatego subcategory ry of the Resultative Resultative Perfect but for the componen componentt of recency. recency. (Fenn 1987). Huddlestone &Pullum 2002:145) suggest that ‘it is arguable that the existential and resultative categories are broad enough to cover all non-continu non-continuative ative uses.. uses....’. ..’. We go along with the the suggestion suggestion that this this use can be included in the Present Perfect of Experience group. In this this read readin ing g of the the Perf Perfec ectt just just like like in the the Pres Presen entt Perf Perfec ectt of Experience category category the underlying underlying eventuality can be of any Aktionsart. The most widely used adverbs adverbs with this value of the perfect perfect are recently and just , used deictically, as well as already and yet . These adverbs adverbs do not refer to definite times in the past but indicate indicate an indefinite time within a short interval stretching back from UT-T. This use of the present perfect is quite frequent with news announcements announcements as in the radio bulletin examples in (72ii,iii) (wherefrom the name ‘Hot News Present Perfect’ McCawley (1971)) (72) (i) She has recently/ ly/jus just been to Paris/ is/It has has jus just struck twelve. (ii) (ii) Malco Malcolm lm Jon Jones es has has just just bee been n assa assass ssina inate ted! d! (Le (Leec ech h 1971 1971)) (iii (iii)) It has has been been a bad bad star startt to the the year year,, with with two two fatal fatal road road accidents overnight (H&P 2002:145) (iv) Has the dustman called yet? (v) He has just graduated from college. An interesting fact about this use of the present perfect is the one menti mentione oned d by Leech Leech (1971: (1971:46, 46, as well well as Mittw Mittwoch och 1988) 1988) accord according ing to whom, under certain circumstances, the perfect progressive may describe ‘recen ‘recently tly finishe finished’ d’ eventu eventualit alities ies ‘the ‘the effects effects of wh which ich are still still appare apparent’ nt’.. Consider the examples below: (73) (73) (i) (i)
Why are are you you cryi crying ng? ? I’ve I’ve been been chop choppi ping ng onio onion. n. (ii) (ii) You’ve u’ve bee been n fight fightin ing g agai again n (‘I (‘I can can tell tell fro from your your
black eye) (iii) (iii)
I’ve I’ve just just bee been n liste listeni ning ng to to a prog progra ram m on on Viet Vietna nam. m.
49
(iv) (iv) (v) (v)
I’ve I’ve just just bee been cooking king.. He has has bee been n eat eatin ing g your your por porrid ridge ge;; it’s it’s all all gon gone. e. (Mi (Mitt ttwo woch ch
(vi) (vi)
I have have been been writi writing ng a diffi difficu cult lt lett letter er;; thank thank good goodne ness ss it’s it’s (Mittwoch 1988)
1988) finished.
C. Resultative Perfect
The Present Present Perfect Perfect can also be used with reference reference to a past event the result of which is still valid at the present time (at now). The Perfect of result is possible only with telic predicates since they denote a transition from one state to another and only for as long as the effect /result of the underlying eventuality holds. The connection with the present is that the resultant stat state e stil stilll hold holds s ‘at ‘at now’ now’.. The The resu result ltan antt stat state e begi begins ns at the the tim time of occurrence of the underlying eventuality and continues through into the presen present. t. Huddle Huddlesto stone ne and Pullum Pullum (200 (2002) 2) call call this use the the Perf Perfec ectt of Continuing Result . Consider the following examples: (74) (i) (ii) (iii (iii)) (iv) iv) (v) (v) (vi) (vi) (vii (vii)) (viii (viii)) (ix) 1967:62) (x) (x) 1969:266)
The taxi has arrived. I ha have lost my glasses. He has has be been give iven a camer amera a. The They’ve gone away. Oh! Oh! My My God God!! Sam Sam has has bro broke ken n my my com compu pute ter. r. I’ve I’ve reco recove vere red d fro from m my illn illnes ess. s. He has has gon gone e to to Amer Americ ica. a. I’ve I’ve bou bough ghtt a new new car car.. Twenty Twenty years years have have pass passed ed sinc since e we we first first met. met. (Zand (Zandvoo voort rt He has has col collec lecte ted d muc much h evid eviden ence ce aga again inst st her. her. (Je (Jesp sper erse sen n
It is generally assumed that the resultative reading does not need any support from adverbials. Sometimes it is indistinguishable (or at least difficult to distinguish) from the Perfect of Recent Past. D. Continuative or Inclusive Perfect
The Continu Continuative ative Perfec Perfectt conveys conveys the the meanin meaning g that the situatio situation n described holds throughout some interval stretching from a certain point in the past up to the present moment (Zanvoort (Zanvoort 1967,Leech 1971,McCoard 1978, Dowty !979, ,etc). Jespersen (1931) calls this use of the Present Perfect the ‘inclusive present perfect’ which speaks of a state that is continued from the past into the present time. It is currently assumed that the Continuative Perfect is not one of the core meanings of the Perfect since many languages do not have it. (Jespersen 1933, Comrie 1976). Diffe iffere rent nt ling lingui uist sts s and and gram gramm maria arians ns have have iden identi tifi fied ed diff differ eren entt constraints that are operative on this use of the perfect. It is generally assumed that the Continuative reading of the Perfect can be formed from stative predicates, that is the underlying eventuality
50
must be stative. The continuative reading is manifest with atelic situation types (or rather unbounded), i.e. homogeneous eventualities. A second condition for the instantiation of this use has been assumed to be the presence of certain adverbials. Consider the following examples borrowed from different sources (Zandvoort1967, Jespersen 1933, Leech1971, Huddlestone & Pullum 2002, Stefanescu 1988, a.o.): (75) 75) (i) (i) (ii) (ii) (iii) (iv) (iv) (Leech,1971:31) (v) (v)
He hath hath bee beene dead dead four foure e day days. s. (Je (Jespe sperse rsen 19 1969:2 69:241 41)) We’ve e’ve kno known eac each h oth other er for for ye years. ars. How long long has has he been been unco unconsc nsciou ious? s? (Zand (Zandvoo voort, rt,,19 ,1967: 67:59) 59) We’ve We’ve lived lived her here e all all our our lives lives.. vs We’ve We’ve lived lived her here e Have Have you you kno known wn the the Fau Faulk lkne ners rs for for lon long? g?
Leech (1971:32) mentions that the adverbial need not be required in the following exchange: (76) (76) A: Why Why have haven’t n’t you been been writi writing ng to me? me? B: I’ve been too angry/I’ve been ill. Huddlestone and Pullum (2002) state that the continuative perfect in the non- progressiv progressive e form only allows atelic situations, i.e. ones without a terminal point. What this actually amounts to is to say that basically it is only states that may occur with this value in the simple tense forms. All the other situation types require the use of the progressive.
This suggestio suggestion n is suppor supported ted by Anagnost Anagnostopou opoulou, lou, Iatrido Iatridou&Izv u&Izvorsk orskii (1998;22), who assume that actually what counts for a proper use of the Continuative Perfect is unboundedness, (open reading)15 i.e. the Continuative Perfect will not be possible with the Perfect of telics and activities alike, unless they are used in the progressiv progressive e or they have an iterated (generic/habitual, hence stative) interpretation. Compare: (77) 77) (i) (i) he came (ii) (ii) (iii) (iii) (iv) (iv) (v) (v) (vi) (vi) (vii (vii)) (viii) going out (ix) I can (x) (x) 15
*He *He has has writt ritten en ano anothe ther po poem/f em/fo ound und his his keys eys eve everr sin sinc ce home. *He *He has has danc danced ed ever ever sinc since e thi this s mor morni ning ng.. He’s He’s bee been n writi writing ng this this poem poem eve everr sinc since e he cam came e home home He’s He’s been been danc dancin ing g eve everr sin since ce this this morn mornin ing g He has has wri writt tten en abou aboutt rel relig igio ion n all all his his lif life e Mr Phi Philli llips ps has has sun sung g in thi this s choi choirr for for fifty fifty yea years rs.. I’ve I’ve alwa always ys wal walke ked d to work work.. I’ve enjoye enjoyed d my meals all the the better better since you starte started d The news news has has been been broadc broadcast ast at ten ten o’clo o’clock ck for for as long long as remember. He has has wo worked rked here here ever ver sin since ce he was a chi child ld..
Huddlestone and Pullum (2002:142) consider the continuative reading of the Perfect to be imperfective aspectually
51
(xi) (xi) (xii) (xii)
She’ She’s s bee been n rehe rehear arsin sing g for for five five hou hours rs now. now. She has been been wor workin king g here here longer longer than than the the others others..
The assum assumptio ption n is not not unreaso unreasonable, nable, since we argued argued that all all situation types with the exception of states are interpreted in the perfective viewpoint as containing boundedness (i.e. endpoints). States are ambiguous between an open (unbounded) and a closed (bounded) reading. This ambiguity ambiguity of of the states is visible with the Present Perfect as well. Compare the following sentences: (78) (i) (ii) (ii)
We have lived in London. We have have lived lived in Lond London on ever ever sinc since e 1997 1997/a /all ll our our lives lives
The first first examp example le without without the the adverb adverbial ial does does not favour favour the continuative reading but rather a closed, bounded reading, namely the Perfect of experience (Leech, 1971, Fenn 1987, Huddlestone Huddlestone and Pullum 2002, etc). The presence of the adverbial in the second sentence makes possible the Continuative reading of the Perfect. Actually, the same ambiguity may arise with activity predicates. Consider the following examples: (79) (i)
(ii) (ii)
Mary has rehearsed since noon (a) Now she is resting (b) She is is st still re rehearsing Mary Mary has has been been rehe rehear arsi sing ng sinc since e noon noon
The secon second d sentence sentence is is not ambiguous ambiguous at all: the only only available available readin reading g of the sentence is the Continuative reading. To sum sum up, up, the most most import important ant charact characteristic eristics s of the the Continua Continuative tive Perfect outlined in the literature are the following: the Continuative Perfect presents a state as holding from a moment in the past up to and including the moment of speech. the Continuative Perfect requires unbounded ( homogeneous) eventualities; the Continuative reading of the Perfect necessarily requires adverbial modification •
•
•
The role of adverbial modification
Accord According ing to An Anagn agnost ostopo opoulo ulou, u, Iatrid Iatridou ou and Izvor Izvorsky sky (1998) (1998) the the Conti Continua nuativ tive e readin reading g of the Presen Presentt Perfec Perfectt assert asserts s that that the underl underlyin ying g eventuality holds throughout the interval specified by the adverb and at its endpoints. This means that the UT-T is included by assertion. According to them, them, this use use of the perfect perfect is possible possible only when the perfect is modified by adverbs that denote time spans .
52
The adverbials assumed assumed to trigger trigger the Continuative Continuative reading reading fall into two groups, namely, some with which the Continuative reading is possible and some with which the Continuative reading is obligatory: (80) 80) (i) (i) so far, up (ii) since, for five
Contin ntinu uativ ative e read readin ing g poss possib ible le:: sinc since e, for for five five day days, to now Continuative reading obligatory: at least since, ever days now
It has long been acknowledged (Dowty 1979, Vlach 1993) that there are at least two levels of adverbials, namely, perfect perfect level level and eventuality whether an adverb adverb is perfect level is level adverbials. One diagnostic for whether whether perfect morphology is obligatory; since is a case in point: (81) (i) (ii) (ii)
I have been away since yesterday *I am/ am/ was was away away sinc since e ye yeste sterday rday
-adverbials,on the other hand, seem to be be optional with with perfect For -adverbials,on morphology; actually such adverbials are ambiguous between a perfect perfectlevel and eventuality level reading. The adver adverbs bs mentio mentioned ned above above relate relate to intervals intervals;; in this this capacity capacity they can be interpreted as ‘durative’ or ‘inclusive’ (Dowty 1979; Mittwoch 1988). If a Perfect-level adverb is durative the situation denoted by the predicate must hold of every subinterval of the time span, i.e. the time span must be ‘filled up’ with a homogeneous predicate. In such cases we obtain a Continuative reading of the perfect. If the perfect level adverbial is inclusive the perfect sentence asserts that a particular eventuality/situation eventuality/situation is properly properly included in the perfect time span. The eventuality is interpreted as closed , i.e. the situation is located at some time within the time span indicated, and the Perfect of Experience is obtained. Huddlestone &Pullum (2002: 709) define this use of the adjunct as ‘temporal location’. Since-adverbials Since-adverbials are largely restricted to the perfect in BrE being used to mark the starting point (the left boundary (LB) of the perfect time span denoted by the perfect.16 These adverbials are ambiguous between the inclusive and durative reading as the examples below (borrowed from H&P 2002:709) indicate: (82) 82) (i) (i) Experience (ii) (ii) Continuative (iii (iii)) (iv) (v) (v)
16
I’ve I’ve moved ved house sinc ince you you left left (inc (inclu lus sive ive readi eading ng))I’ve I’ve been been here here sinc since e four four o’clo o’clock ck (dur (durat ative ive read readin ing) g)-I’ve I’ve bee been ill ill agai again n since ince then then .(am .(amb biguo iguou us) Sam has been been in Bosto Boston n sinc since e Tues Tuesday day.. (amb (ambigu iguou ous) s) Sinc Since e Tue Tuesd sday ay,, Sam Sam has has bee been n in in Bo Boston ston
Since can, however, occur with other tenses : (i) This is the first cup since Tuesday; (ii) Bill Clinton will be the youngest president since Kennedy. AmE allows preterits more widely: Since you went home we redecorated our bedroom (H&P:697) (H&P:697)
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The ambig ambiguity uity of of the last last two two sentence sentence can be resolved resolved if the the adverbial adverbial is preposed as in (82v) above. It is to be noticed that telic predicates (accomplishments and achievements) in the context of ‘since’ only allow the inclusive reading of this adverbial, hence what is known as the experience reading of the perfect. Durational reading ‘since’ allows ‘ever’ which forces the Continuative reading (e.g. I’ve been lonely ever since you left ) and it provides answers to how long questions (e.g. A: How long have you been here? B: Since four o’clock) (H&P 2002:709). The adver adverbial bial at least also forces the Continuative reading . As already mentioned, the Continuative reading obeys two constraints: (i) the presence of durative adverbs and (ii) the existence of homogeneous homogeneous predicates: i.e. basic states, generics and dynamic predicates in the progressive aspect. Compare: (83) 83) (i) (i)
Pegg Peggy y has has bee been in in As Asia eve ever sin sinc ce Jan Janua uary ry.. (C (Contin tinuati uative ve,,
state) (ii) (ii)
???P ???Peg eggy gy has has reh rehea ears rsed ed ever ever sinc since e noo noon. n. (pr (proc oces ess s
predicate) (iii) (iii) Pegg Peggy y has has been been rehe rehear arsi sing ng ever ever sinc since e noo noon. n. (Continuative) (iv) (iv) I have have wor worke ked d her here e eve everr sinc since e 1998 1998.. (hab (habitu itual, al, continuative) (v) (v) ???I ???I have have read read this this boo book eve everr sin since ce 1998 1998.. (vi) (vi) I’ve I’ve bee been n rea readi ding ng this this book book ever ever since since 1998 1998.. Whenever since-adverbs occur with events (accomplishments and achievements), the stress lies on the result ensuing from the termination of the event: (84) (i) (ii) (ii)
He has written two books since 1992 He has has reac reache hed d the the top top sinc since e 6 o’cl o’cloc ock k
For -adverbials -adverbials have been characterized as being both perfect level and eventuality level adverbials ; for -phrases -phrases do not obligatorily require the
perfect. As a perfect –level adverbial the for-phrase indicates the length of the reference interval. As an eventuality–level adverbial, the for-phrase indicates the length of the situation. Consider the examples below, where in (82i) the for -adverbial -adverbial indicates the length of the situation, we have an eventuality –level reading; in the second example the sentence is ambiguous between an eventualitylevel and a perfect –level reading, which is suspended once the adverb is in sentence –initial position (we only have the perfect-level reading, i.e. the adverb indicates the length of the reference interval): (85) (i)
I was a teacher for 20 years.
54
(ii) (ii) I’ve I’ve bee been n been been a teac teache herr for for thir thirty ty yea years rs.. / For For 20ye 20year ars, s, I have been a teacher (iii) *Mary *Mary wrote wrote the letters letters for half an hour. hour. vs. She wrot wrote e letters for half an hour (iv) *He spotted a hawk for half an hour. vs. I spotted a hawk every week for a month. For-adverbials are durational which means that the predicate they modify must be homogeneous/have homogeneous/have the subinterval property (Dowty 1979). Hence telic predicates and punctual punctual verbs verbs are excluded. The examples in 82(iii, iv) are valid since the bare plural ‘letters’ and the frequency adverb ‘every week’ turn the predicates into a process of of the multiple event type. Given that for -adverbials -adverbials can be eventuality-level and perfect –level adverbials, the perfect sentences sentences may be ambiguous ambiguous between two readings, the perfect of experience and the continuative perfect, whenever we deal with sentence- final for - adverbials. Whenever the for -adverbial -adverbial is in sentence -initial position the only available reading is the continuative perfect. In such cases the for -adverb -adverb is interpreted as a perfect- level adverb. Compare the following: (86) 86) (i) (i) reading)
I ha have live lived d in in Th Thessa essalo lon niki iki fo for te ten ye years ars (E (E-re -readin ading/ g/C C-
(a)E- reading: since I was born till now there was a time span of ten years that I lived in T. (b) C-reading : Within the time span of 10 years I lived in T. (ii) (ii)
For For ten ten year years, s, I hav have e live lived d in The Thess ssalo aloni niki ki.. (onl (only y C-re C-read adin ing g
) For -adverbs -adverbs may occur in perfect sentences in the context of a perfect-level adverbial like since-adverbs. In such cases the for -adverbs -adverbs is interpreted as
eventuality level: (87) (i)
Since 1970, I have been sick ick for for fiv five days.
Process predicates in the perfect in the context of for-adverbs also exhibit an ambiguity between E-reading and C-reading . The ambiguity disappears once we use the progressive form of the perfect: (88) 88) (i) (i) reading) (ii) (ii)
Tom Tom has has push pushed ed the cart art fo for tw two ho hours urs .( .(E-re -readin ading/ g/C CTom Tom has has been been push pushin ing g the the cart cart fo for two two hou hours rs..
The perfec perfectt level /event /eventuality uality level ambiguit ambiguity y of for-phr for-phrases ases is is suspended once the adverb now is added, irrespective of the final position of the for-phrase: (89) (i)
Mary has been sick for two weeks now.
55
Always. Always is interpreted as being either perfect-level or eventualitylevel. Individual-level predicates can combine with always only in the
perfect: (90) (i) (ii) (ii)
Emma has always been tall. I ha have alw always ays kno know wn he he was was a ras rasc cal. al.
In such contexts the adverb is characterized as perfect-level and cannot co-occur with other perfect-level adverbs: (91) (91) (i) * Since Since 1990 1990,, Emma Emma has has alwa always ys been been tall. tall. Whenever always co-occurs with stage-level states or dynamic predicates it may occur in non-perfect sentences or in perfect sentences with perfect adverbials in which case it has an eventuality level reading: (92) 92) (i) (i) money. (ii) (ii) (iii)
I alw alway ays s give give/g /gav ave e him a dim dime e whe when n he ask asks/a s/aske sked for for He has has alw alway ays s smo smoke ked d in the the mor mornin ning g as as far far as I kno know. w. Since 1990, she has always been sick when I visited her.
4. The syntax of Perfect sentences (93) (i)) (ii) (ii) (iii (iii)) (iv) (iv)
He has visited the museum twice Mary Mary has has liv lived ed in Cair Cairo o fo for thr three ee year years s (no (now) w) Oh! Oh! Sam Sam has has bro broke ken n my my com compu pute terr Malco Malcolm lm Jon Jones es has has jus justt bee been n ass assas assin sinat ated ed!!
The sente sentences nces above are examples of the four identified values of the present perfect: (i) the perfect of experience (93i) also known in the literature as the existential value shows the existence of one or several eventualities (states, processes or events) that are presented as completed prior to the moment of speech (Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria, 2002). (ii) the continuative perfect (93ii); the present perfect in (93ii) indicates that Mary still lives in Cairo at the moment of speech. The adverb of duration shows that the state in question began three years before the moment of speech and this state still continues at the moment of utterance. (iii) the perfect of result (93iii) ; the resultative reading obtains with a VP that describes describes an accomplishment accomplishment or an achievement ; the result state which derives from the event described by the sentence (Sam break my computer ) is presented as persisten persistent t at the moment of utterance. (iv) the perfect of recent past (or hot news present perfect ) in (93iv) will, in our opinion opinion be identified identified with with the the existential value of the present perfect; the reasons are twofold: (i) this value accepts all Aktionarts; (ii) there are some differences between BrE and AmE with respect to the choice between the Present Perfect and the Past Tense Simple – cases where AmE may prefer a Simple preterite and BrE prefers or requires a Present Perfect. The cases concern situations in the recent past; AmE would prefer : I just saw
56
wher erea eas s BrE BrE pref prefer ers s : I’ve them /He alread already y left yester yesterday day , wh I’ve just just seen seen them/He’s already left. Following current suggestions (Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria ,2002) we collap collapse se the continuat continuative ive present present perfect perfect , and the resultative resultative present present perfect perfect but collapse the present present perfect perfect of recent recent result result into the experiential value of the present perfect, as their semantics is very similar (see below). In what hat foll follo ows, we prese resent nt the the syn syntax tax and and sem semanti antic cs of the the existe existenti ntial al and result resultativ ative e / continu continuati ative ve values values of the presen presentt perfec perfectt following the analysis proposed by Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria (2002, 2004). The two readings of the perfect will be uniformly derived from the proposal that the perfect is a spatio-temporal predicate with the meaning AFTER/BEFORE. Since Since all accou accounts nts of the present present perfec perfectt stress stress the present present time relevance of the present perfect, or the stative nature of the predication as well as the participant participant prope property rty that that it assig assigns ns to the the subje subject ct,, we will will assume, assume, as already already stated, stated, that that present present perfec perfectt predica predicates tes (VPs) (VPs) have a structure that resembles that of transitive accomplishment verbs (e, e’) ,i.e. e (event 1) stands for the process, while e’ (event 2) stands for the result of that event (Hale and Keyser, 1993).
(94)
VP1 Ev-T1
VP1 V0
Process VP2
Ev-T2
VP2
Resultant State
Each VP in (94) stands for a phase in the internal temporal temporal structure of the event described by the VP. VP 1 represents the processual subpart of the event while VP2 stands for the resultant state (or consequent state) after the culmination/termination of the process. Each of the sub-events in (94) has an external temporal argument: the external argument of VP1, Ev-T1, denotes the period of time during which hich the the process process unfolds in time, from its beginning up to its culmination/termination. The external argument of VP2, Ev-T2, designates the resultant state after the culmination/termination of the process. Existential Value
Consider now the grammar of the existential present perfect as illustrated in sentence(93i): UT-T
(95)
…[…………]..[…………]………[…… …]…….> …[…………]..[…………]………[………]…….> EV-T1
EV-T2
AS-T
The English present present perfect (have V-en) is a predicate with the meaning AFTER. Under this analysis the Perfect ASPECT acts like a Past TENSE: both are are pred predica icate tes s with with the the mean meanin ing g AFTE AFTER. R. In the the existential readin reading g the situation is viewed as closed, perfective perfective, bounded. The relevance at the present time is given by the subject property which is based on participation
57
in the prior situation. The existential value of the present perfect is induced by the fact that that AS-T just design designates ates a time interv interval al after after Ev-T1 but this this interval does not coincide with the interval that characterizes the resultant state of the process. Thus, the eventuality is presented as completed with respect to the interval designated by As-T, which is concomitant with Ut-T. The resultative / continuative value of the present perfect
We follow Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria (2002) and hypothesize that the pres presen entt perfe perfect ct induc induces es a resu resulta ltati tive ve or cont contin inua uati tive ve read reading ing wh when en it focuses on the result state of a process: process: UT-T/AS-T
(96)
…[………][………]……..> EV-T1
EV-T2
In this case the perfect focuses one of the internal phases of the temporal structure of the situation denoted by the VP ; it orders As-T after Ev-T1. Ev-T1. In this this way, way, the perfect perfect focuse focuses s Ev-T2 Ev-T2,, that that is, the interv interval al that that design designate ates s the result resultant ant state of the event after after the culminat culmination ion of its processua processuall subpart, subpart, as shown shown in (90). In its turn, the present present orders Ut-T Ut-T WITHIN As-T; in this way, As-T makes visible the resultant state of the process, as illustrated in the schema in (96). It follows that the result state is presented as still persisting at UT-T, as continuing from a past interval up to the moment of speech. The derivation derivation of the continuativ continuative e reading reading of the present perfect, illustrated in (93ii) (Mary has lived in Cairo for three years (now)), is very sim similar ilar to the the one one prov provid ided ed for for the the resu result ltat ativ ive e read readin ing, g, with with a smal smalll diffe differe renc nce e thou though gh.. The The VP in (93i (93ii) i) will will also also be deco decomp mpos osed ed into into two two subintervals of time VP1 and VP2, as shown in (94). Following Kamp and Reyle (1993) we hypothesize that in the case of a state eventuality such as ‘live in Cairo’ the resultant state begins just after the onset/the starting point of the process itself (and not after its culmination, as there is none); the presence of the duration adverb for three years is obligatory and it measures the whole reference interval. In sum, sum, the the Engl Englis ish h pre present sent perf perfec ectt has has two two prop proper erti ties es:: its its VP structure can be complex and it orders its external argument As-T after its internal argument Ev-T1. The peculiarity of the present perfect is that its As T can pick up any time interval interval after Ev-T1 as already shown and repeated below for convenience: Existential Value UT-T
(97) …[…………]..[…………]………[……]……….> …[…………]..[…………]………[…… ]……….> EV-T1
EV-T2
Resultative/Continuative Resultative/Continua tive Value
AS-T
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UT-T
(98) …[…………][…………]………….> …[…………][…………]………….> EV-T1
AS-T EV-T2
In (97), the present perfect just designates a time interval after Ev-T1 but this interval interval does with the interv interval al that that chara characte cterize rizes s the does not coinci coincide de with resultant state of the process: in this case the present perfect acquires an Thus, the eventu eventualit ality y is presen presented ted as comple completed ted with with existential existential value. Thus, respect to the interval designated by As-T, which is concomitant with Ut-T. In contrast, in (98) the present perfect focuses an internal phase of the VP complex structure: it picks up an interval after Ev-T1, which designates the resultant resultant state state of the the proc proces ess s (Ev(Ev-T T2). The The read readin ing g induc induced ed by the the present perfect is resultative/continuative because the moment of utterance is concomitant with the focalized state. The (VP decompo decomposition) sition) analysis analysis of the present present perfect perfect proposed proposed by Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria (2002) also accounts for the semantics of the English present present perfect perfect progress progressive ive in a neat way. A sentence such as Mary has been opening the door means that Mary was in the process of opening the door – it does not mean that Mary was in the resultant state after the culmination of the process. This means that the progress progressive ive orders its external argument (As-T1) within within its intern internal al argum argument ent (Ev-T (Ev-T1); in this way, the progressive focuses a subinterval that designates the processual component of the VP, i.e., Ev-T1, and not the subinterval that defines the resu resulta ltant nt stat state e of the the proc proces ess s (Ev-T (Ev-T2). AS AS-T -T2 expres expressed sed by the perfec perfectt coincides coincides with the UT-T either within within the interval interval characterizing characterizing the event event (99) or after the endpoint of the situation (100). In the first case we may say that we have the continuative reading of dynamic predicates while in the second we may identify the recent result reading of the progressive. AS-T1 (-ing) AS-T2 (have) (99) (99) …[…… …[……[… [……… ………… ……]… ]……… ……[… […/… /……] …]…… ……]… ]….. .. EV-T1 EV-T2 UT-T AS-T1 AS-T2 (100) (100) …[………(………)… …[………(………)……]……… …]………(………) (………)…….. …….. EV_T UT-T Other Temporal Uses of the Present Perfect (i) In adverbial clauses of time the present perfect is used with a future value to express the idea of completion. Consider the sentence
below: (63) You can go when you have finished your your work The conjunctio conjunctions ns commonly commonly used to introduce introduce the adverbial adverbial clauses of time are: when, as soon as, before, after, until, once, by the time (that), the moment (that).
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In some contexts, the use of the present perfect is in free variation with the present tense. This variation depends on the situation type : (95) I shall leave as soon as the meeting meeting ends / has ended ended In other contexts, the choice between the two tenses is not free: (a) when the events in the main ain clau lause and the subordinate clause temporally coincide, the use of the present tense in the subordinate clause is favored, as in (96a) below; when the event in the subordinate clause occurs before the one in the main clause, the use of the present perfect in the subordinate clause gives well formed sentences, as in (96b) below: (96) a) Come over and see us when our guests guests leave. leave. b) Come Come over and and see us when when our our guests guests have left. left. (b) when a causal relation between the event in the main clause and that of the subordinate clause is established, the use of the present perfect is favored in the subordinate adverbial clause of time. In the second sentence it is the the situ situat atio ion n type type that that requ require ires s the the use use of the the perf perfec ectt (dur (durat ativ ive e accomplishment). (97) You’ll feel a lot better after/when you have taken this medicine. We can go out as soon as we have had dinner / *We can go out as soon as we have dinner. (ii) Like the Simple Present the Present Perfect can be used with a narrative ‘fictional’ value (Leech 1971:38).Consider the example below borrowed from Leech (1971:38): (98) (98) John John and Joy Jenni Jenning ngs, s, who have have bee been figh fighti ting ng a gang gang led by Red Red Reagan, have followed the sinister goatherd Khari to a mountain hide-out, where they stumble upon a coded message from Red’s lieutenant Hercule Judd..... Judd..... The example example above is a case of serial story instalment, instalment, on the radio, TV, or popular magazine. It is used to give a retrospective account of previous episodes which are ‘in the past’ from the point of view of the stage of the story now reached. C. Temporal Adverbs with the Present Perfect and the Past Tense – The Present Perfect Puzzle
In the literature on the perfect forms of predicates (cf. (cf. among others others Leech (1971), Comrie (1985), McCoard (1978) Klein (1992), H&P (2002), etc) it is sho shown wn tha thatt loca locatin ting, g, pun punct ctua uall adve adverb rbial ials s such such as as on Thursday, considered d ungramma ungrammatical tical yesterday yesterday,, in 1976, before before the wedding wedding, are considere when occurring with the present perfect in all analyses and by all speakers. This phenomeno phenomenon n is known known as the the Present Perfect Puzzle (Klein 1992).
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Adverbs like recently, just or today are considered to be compatible with the present perfect, while deictic adverbs like today , this morning, this March, this year have an intermediate status. It is important to notice that the phenomenon under consideration is not found with other perfect forms (Giorgi& Pianesi (1998: 85): (98)
past perfect: Sam had fini inished his paper yesterday (Heny:1982) modals: Bill may have been in Berlin before the war (Comrie
1976) infinit infinitive ives: s: The security security office officerr believ believes es Bill to have have been been in Berlin before the war (Comrie 1976) gerunds: Having been in Berlin before the war, Bill is surprised at the many changes (Comrie 1976) A majo majorr cont contrib ribut utio ion n of Mc McCo Coar ard’s d’s stud study y (197 (1978) 8) is the the deta detaile iled d analysis of the way in which temporal adverbs relate to the present perfect and/or past tense. Adverbs bring in their temporal meaning and they bear on tense tense select selection ion and even even on tense tense interp interpret retatio ation. n. McCoar McCoard d identif identifies ies three classes of adverbs: those that occur with the simple past tense but not with the perfect, those that occur with either the simple past or with the perfect and those that occur with the perfect but not with the simple past. Occur Occur with the simple past perfect but not not with perfect past long ago present five years ago once (= formerly) the other day those days these five years last night in 1900 at 3:00 war after/before the war now no longer
Occur with either simple past or with perfect long since in the past once (= one time) today in my life for three years recently just now often
yet always ever never already before this morning
Occur Occur with with simple at up till now so far as yet during herewith lately since the before
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The adver adverbs bs in the first first column column refer refer to points points or or stretche stretches s of time time that precede the moment of speech, either by their semantics or by context (e.g., at 3:00). The adver adverbs bs in the third third column column coincid coincide e with or are are oriented oriented to the moment of speech. In context, these adverbs can be thought of as beginning before the moment of speech and extending beyond it. They only occur with the present perfect and exclude the past tense. For the adverbs in column two, it is the context and in particular the tense used, which decide which time-sphere (past or present) is actually being referred to. They are known as ‘neutral’ time-span adverbs (Fenn, 1987). As far as the adverbs in column two are concerned, the following comments are in order. The comments here leave out for -phrases, -phrases, sincephrases and always which we have already discussed. Ever and never are used when the life experience of the subject is predica predicated ted about. about. Both Both sugges suggestt the meani meaning ng ‘with within in a perio period d of time time’ ’ . When they occur with the present perfect it is the present perfect that relates their time-span to the moment of speech (e.g., A saner saner and more practical practical man I’ve never never met ). The period is viewed as open including the time of utterance. On the other hand, their ‘ within a period of time’ meaning also makes them compatible with the past tense (e.g., I never saw the St. Patrick’s Day Parade while I was in New York ). ). The period is viewed as closed excluding the time of utterance. Adver Ad verbs bs such such as often, often, sometim sometimes es, wh which ich refer refer to freq freque uenc ncy y can, can, depending on the context, occur with either the present perfect or with the past tense (e.g., I have always suspected your honesty / He always made a lot of fuss about nothing when they were married). Lately and recently are commonly regarded as synonyms but they show different compatibility as to their occurrence with the past tense and the present perfect. Lately is a perfect level adverbial, i.e. it accepts accepts only the present perfect (e.g., I have spent/*I spent a great deal of money lately ) while recently goes with both the past tense and the present perfect (e.g., I have been ill recently / I was ill recently ). ). Adverbs such as today, this week, this year can occur with both the present perfect and the past tense (e.g., I have seen John this morning / I saw John this morning). Both sentences convey the meaning that “the act occurred within the time span this morning. The difference lies in whether the the even eventt is viewe viewed d simpl simply y as a fact factor or of expe experie rienc nce e obta obtain inin ing g at the the moment of speech [with the present perfect] (i.e., the morning time-span is not over) or whether it is viewed within the context of the time at which it occurred [with the past tense] (i.e., the morning time-span is over)“ (Fenn, 1987). The difference in uses between adverbs such as just and just now is the following. Just can take either the present perfect or the past tense (e.g., I have just seen your sister / I just saw your sister ) while just now, which is interpreted as a moment/second/minute ago, can only occur with the past tense (e.g., I saw your sister just now). Fina Finally lly,, ther there e are are adve adverb rbs s that that comb combine ine with with eithe eitherr the the pres presen entt perfect or the past tense but with a clear difference in meaning. Now is mainly mainly assoc associat iated ed with with presen presentt tenses tenses:: Now Now my ambit ambitio ion n is/h is/has as been been
62
fulfilled. With past tense, it is a narrative substitute for then (= ‘at this point in the story’): Now my ambition was fulfilled. Once, with the meaning ‘on a
cert certai ain n occa occasi sion on,, at one one time’ time’ occu occurs rs with with the the past past tens tense, e, desp despite ite its indefinite meaning: He was once an honest man. With the present perfect, it is a numerical adverb contrasting with twice, three times, etc: I have visited the Highlands only once (Leech, 1971). Already, Already, still, yet and before occur with the present perfect in the sense ‘as early as now’, ‘as late as now’: I have seen him already / I (still) haven’t seen him (yet). With the past tense they must have a meaning involving a past point of orientation: I was already (= ‘as early as then) very hungry (Leech, 1971). We now turn to the phenomenon known as the present present perfect perfect puzzle puzzle. Why is it that in English (unlike other languages, Germanic or Romance) punctual adverbs cannot co-occur with the present perfect.? An interesting fact about the English present perfect is that this ban against punctual adverbs is not absolute. In fact, as has often been noted noted in the literature (Comrie 1985), Heny (1982), Lewis 1975, Klein (1992)) the ban disappears if the temporal adverbs adverbs occur in the context of a frequency adve adverb rb such such as ofte Consid ider er the the exam exampl ples es belo below w often, n, neve never, r, alwa always ys. Cons borrowed from Giorgi and Pianesi (1998:111): (99)
(i) John has never/ always/ often left at four vs. (ii) *John has left at four
Consider also the example below (Klein 1992): (100) Why is Chris Chris in jail? He has worked worked on Sunday Sunday and working working on Sunday is strictly forbidden in this country. The sentence sentence He has worked on Sunday is fine because the expression on Sunday does not relate to a specific time in the past ( as the context makes clear). It seems, therefore, that in English there is a ban against specific temporal adverbs, as Giorgi and Pianesi (1998) suggest On the basis of such evidence, Klein (1992) suggests that the facts relating to the present perfect puzzle can be explained by a pragmatic principle called the P-Definiteness Constraint . Klein’s system is similar to the one we have adopted, being based on three temporal entities. (101) P-Definiteness Constraint :: :: In an utterance the expression of AS-T and the expression of EV-T cannot both be independently P-definite. According to Klein (1992) temporal expressions can refer either to precise/specific temporal positions on the time axis or not. The first kind of expression expressions s are called P(osition)-definite and the second kind P(osition)-indefinite. According to him, the English present present tense tense is P-definite in that it const constrai rains ns every every tempo temporal ral entity entity to include include the the time time of utteran utterance. ce. The The
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simple past tense, on the other hand, is non p-definite, since it only requires
that the time of the event should precede the utterance time. The difference difference between between the Present Present Tense and the Simple Simple Past in English is analogous to that of the deictic adverbs here and there: “ if we ignore ignore boundarie boundaries s , there there is only one ‘here’ in a given utterance situation but there can be many ‘theres’ Here is thus p-definite and there is not. ….… The same is true of the tense forms forms is and was: if we ignore duration there are many ‘wases’ but only one ‘is’ ” (Klein 1992:537). A similar distinction holds with respect to the boundaries of temporal entities. Some expressions do not specify the boundaries of the entities they denote. He calls these B(oundary)-indefinite expressions. Other expressions fix such such bounda boundarie ries s , and are thus thus called called B(ound B(oundary ary)-d )-defin efinite ite.. Both Both the Present tense and the Past tense are characterized as being B-indefinite. According to Klein, the P-definiteness constraint rules out (70ii). As-T is P-definite because of the present tense morpheme on the auxiliary and so is the the EV-T EV-T of the the even eventu tual alit ity y > beca becaus use e of the the adverbial . The adverbial can only fix the EV-T because in a present perfect sentence the AS-T includes UT-T. The same same pragmatic pragmatic principle principle accounts accounts for the well-formed well-formedness ness of (100), Klein assuming that adverbs like at Christmas, in spring, on Sunday and even at ten, do not necessarily relate to or fix a specific time span. In other words, such expressions need not be p-definite and under the non- pdefinite definite reading reading (usually (usually made clear clear in the context) context) they they are compatible compatible with the present perfect. To summa summarize, rize, the the P-definiten P-definiteness ess Const Constraint raint allows allows either either As-T As-T or EV-T EV-T to be expressed by a p-definite expression, but not both. A very important comment is in order here. We have argued that adverbial phrases may specify either AS-T or EV-T. Let’s have a look at cases cases where no time-interva time-intervall is lexically lexically specified. specified. Consider Consider the examples examples below (borrowed from Klein 1992:546) : (102) (i) (ii) ii) (iii) iii)
Chris has been in Pontefra fract. Chris was in Pontefra fract. Chri Chris s wil willl be be in in Po Ponte ntefrac fract. t.
In (102i) the expres expression sion of AS-T on the the auxiliary (i.e. (i.e. present) present) is p-definite p-definite whereas the expression of EV-T is not; the event (Chris be in Pontefract) occurred before AS-T, given the perfect auxiliary, hence in the past. (i.e. in ‘the indefinite past’ according to Mc-Coard 1978, Leech 1971). In the simple past variant in (102ii), neither the As-T nor the EV-T is specifically given i.e. neither is p-definite. Therefore such an utterance is felt like ‘hanging in the air’ unless we get the information from context, or some explicit adverbial. The same is true for (102iii); again, either context or some definite adverbial must provide the necessary specification. Past Perfect Sentences (de completat)
The Past Past Perfec Perfectt parallels parallels the the function functions s of the the Present Present Perfect Perfect as the following examples borrowed from Leech (1976:42) show:
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(i) (i) (ii) (ii) (iii) (iii) (iv) (iv)
The The hous house e had had been been empt empty y for for ages ages (Con (Conti tinu nuat ativ ivee- stat state e predicate) Had Had they they been been to Amer Americ ica a befo before re? ? (Exp (Exper erie ienc nce) e) Mr Phi Phipp pps s had had prea preach ched ed in in that that chu churc rch h for for 50 yea years rs (Continuative-habitual) The goalkee goalkeeper per had injured injured his leg, leg, and and couldn couldn’t ’t play play (resultative)
Consider the following sentence in the past perfect where the event of Mary’s leaving the school is viewed as completed before a past reference time, expressed by the adverbial clause: (103 (103)) (i)
When Wh en I arri arrive ved d ther there, e, Mary Mary had had left left scho school ol
As was the case with the present perfect, the past perfect is analyzed as a spatio-tem spatio-temporal poral predicate predicate with the meaning meaning AFTER. AFTER. (104) (104) illustrates illustrates the phrase structure of the past perfect sentence in (103) (Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria, 2002, 2004): (104)
TP Ut-T
T’ 0
T after
AspP As-T
Asp’ 0
Asp after
VP Ev-T
VP
Proceeding from bottom to top, the perfect aspect orders the As-T after the Ev-T. It thus picks out a time after the interval defined by the Ev-T. The past tense on the auxiliary is also a spatio-temporal spatio-temporal predicate with the meaning of AFTER. It orders the Ut-T after the As-T. The overall overall temporal temporal / aspectual aspectual rep represe resent ntat atio ion n of the pas past perfec rfectt is illu illust stra rate ted d belo below w and and in the the accompanying schema: EV-T
(i) As-T after Ev-T (ii) Ut-T after As-T
AS-T
UT-T
…[……… ]…[……….]…[………]…..>
Since the Ut-T follows the As-T, which itself follows the Ev-T, the event of Mary’s leaving the school is viewed as completed before a past reference time (As-T). Notice that since As-T and Ev-T denote two disjoint intervals, if we add a temporal adverb such as at 5 to the sentence in (103), as in (105), the sentence will have two distinct readings depending on whether the time adverb modifies the Ev-T or the As-T:
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(105) Mary had left school at 5 First, the time adverb at 5 in (105) can modify the Ev-T: we understand that Mary’s leaving the school occurred at 5 o’clock. This reading of the sentence is illustrated by the schema below and it yields the so called event time reading of the sentence: EV-T
AS-T
UT-T
…[……… ]…[……….]…[………]…..> 5 PM
Second, the time adverb in (105) can modify the As-T: in this case we understand that Mary’s leaving the school occurred prior to the As-T, which itself coincides with the time denoted by 5 p.m. This reading of the sentence is illustrated by the schema below and it yields the so called reference time reading of the sentence: EV-T
AS-T
UT-T
…[……… ]…[……….]…[………]…..> 5 PM
In complex sentences, the matrix sentence establishes the past As-T of the subordinate past perfect clause, as in the example below: (106) a) They told us yesterday yesterday that Tom had had arrived 3 days earlier. b) *Tom had arrived arrived 3 days days earlier earlier Notic Notice e first first that that senten sentence ce (106b) (106b) is ungram ungramma matica ticall as an indepe independe ndent nt sentence because it contains an adverbial and a tense marker that together canno cannott establ establish ish the As-T. As-T. Senten Sentence ce (106a) (106a) is well well forme formed d becaus because e the the adverb yesterday the main ain clau clause se also also estab stabli lish shes es the the As-T s-T of the the yesterday in the embedded clause: we understand that Tom’s arrival occurred 3 days prior to yesterday. The adverb in the embedded clause specifies a time other than As-T, namely Ev-T2. Thus, while the adverb in the main clause specifies As-T for both clauses, the adverb in the embedded clause specifies only its Ev-T (and its As-T is shared with that of the matrix clause). The past past perfect perfect can be used in main main clauses clauses (as in 105) 105) and in subordinat subordinate e clauses. As we have seen, it may may occur in complement complement clauses to describe an event that occurred previous to a past reference time as well as in subordin subordinate ate adverb adverbial ial clauses clauses introd introduce uced d by the conjunctions: when, after, before, till, as soon as. Consider some examples: I realised that we had met before./ I thought I had sent the cheque a week before/I wondered w who ho had left the door open.
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(107) He would would not allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk drunk himself asleep / As two and a half years had elapsed since he had made any money, Spencer returned to London / When his mind had been weaker his his hear heartt led him to spea speak k out out / With Within in the the minu minute tes s after after he had had rece receiv ived ed the the assu assura ranc nce e that that the the thin thing g was was impo imposs ssib ible le,, he was conducted into the outer office. / He went out before As state stated d by diffe differe rent nt lingu linguis ists ts and and gram gramma mari rian ans, s, unde underr cert certai ain n conditions the perfect may be omitted with little or no effect on the temporal interpretation In subordinate adverbial clauses of time introduced by an explicit conjunction, such as as soon as, before and after the perfect may be omitted with little or no effect; the past past perfect can be substituted substituted by the simple past tense, if the predicate denotes a non-durative eventuality : (72) After/When he came back from India, he was made a member of Parliament / As soon as he discovered them, he ran away / I ate my lunch after my wife came back. She left after/as soon as/before he spoke to her. After he finished his exams he went to Paris for a month./As soon as I put the phone down it rang again./She left the country as soon as she completed her thesis. However, there are cases when the past perfect is not substitutable by the past tense, as a marker of anteriority of the event in the subordinate clause is necessary for the correct interpretation of the whole sentence. It is the durative feature of the situation type that requires the use of the perfect (durative accomplishment/activity): (73) When he had had read the letter, he burned it / * When he read the letter, he burned it / After he had listened to the radio, he turned it off / * After he listened to the radio, he turned it off. /She left the country as soon as she had written her thesis. The durative durative feature feature of the situation situation is indeed relevant relevant in using the past perfect in subordinate clauses of time. Compare the following sentences: (i) (i) her thesis. (ii) ii) thesis. (iii) (iii) (iv) (iv)
She She left left the the cou count ntry ry as as soo soon as she she had had com compl plet eted ed/c /com ompl plet eted ed She She left left the the countr untry y as soo soon as she she had wri writt tten en/* /*w wrot rote her She left the count country ry before before she had writte written n her her thesis thesis She She left left the the cou count ntry ry bef befor ore e she she wrot wrote e her her thes thesis is
There is a distinct distinct difference difference in interpreta interpretation tion between between (iii) and (iv): (iii) suggests that she had started started writing when she left while (iv) indicates that the leaving preceded the whole of the thesis writing. (H&P 2002:147) As already already mentioned mentioned,, when-clause -clauses s are flexible flexible,, allowin allowing g severa severall interpretations. When seem seems s not not to impo impose se any any part partic icul ular ar rela relatio tion n on situations (unlike after which always requires that the main clause have a
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inte interp rpre reta tattion) ion).. The The situa ituattion ions pre presen sented ted may be take taken n as simult simultane aneous ous,, overlap overlappin ping g or succes successiv sive, e, depend depending ing on viewpoint and situation types. Given these characteristics of when, the contrast between perfect and non-perfect takes on more significance. si gnificance. Compare the following: closed
(i) (i) (ii) (ii) (iii (iii))
When hen I had had writt ritten en the the lett letter ers s I did did some some gard garde ening ning.. When hen I wrot wrote e to to her her she she came came at once once.. When hen I had ope opene ned d the the wind window ows s I sat dow down n and and had had a cup of of
(iv) (iv)
When Wh en I open opened ed the the wind window ow the the cat cat jump jumped ed out out..
tea. As we can notice, following Swan (1995:421), the past perfect in (i,iii) marks the first action as separate, independent of the second, completed before the second started. In contrast the simple past (ii, iv) can suggest that the first event ‘leads’ into the other, or that there is a cause-effect link between them. Means of expressing Future Time
It is a well-acknowledged fact that one cannot be as certain of future situations as one is of events past and present, and for this reason (Leech 1971) there are a number of ways of expressing future time in English, the most important of which are: • • • • •
Simple Present : The parcel arrives tomorrow Present progressive: The parcel is arriving tomorrow Be going to + Infinitive: The parcel is going to arrive tomorrow Will/shall + Infinitive: The parcel will arrive tomorrow Will/shall + Progressive Infinitive: The parcel will be arriving tomorrow
All these linguistic means that express future time belong to either the the modal dal syste ystem m (wil (will, l, shal shall) l) or to the the aspe aspect ctu ual parad aradig igm m (the (the prog progre ress ssiv ive) e).. As know known, n, moda modall verb verbs s such such as will and shall express predictions predictions about what might happen in the future. All epistemic senses of modal verbs (i.e., possibility/probability) involve future time: they represent predictions of present present attitudes attitudes with respect to a future time sphere (e.g., it may/shall/will take place tomorrow). In wh what at follow follows s we describ describe e the aboveabove-me mentio ntioned ned five means of expressing futurity in English for us to be able to grasp some differences and nuances of usage that distinguish among a mong them. 2.4.1.
Present Tense with Future value ( the Futurate) . The Simple
Present may be used to describe future situations . The fact that the Simple Present still means ‘present’ is rendered clear by the possibility of having different time specifications within he same clause, as the examples below (39) indicate: (39) letter
The match now starts next Monday , not Tuesday, as I said in my
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(Huddlestone&Pullum:133) The two adjuncts specify different different time intervals: intervals: now (as well as the present tense morpheme) specifies UT-T/AS-T while next Monday specifies the time of the future situation, i.e. EV-T. (UT-T/AS-T BEFORE EV-T) The presence presence of the present present tense tense morpheme morpheme has immediate immediate consequen consequences ces on the interpret interpretation ation of the future future situation situation assigning assigning it a high degree of certainty certainty , i.e. it attributes to the future the same degree of certainty that we normally accord to present or past events (Leech: 60). This entails entails that the futurate futurate construc construction tion is subject subject to severe severe constrain constraints ts among which is: the presence of future time adverbials, the the aspe aspect ctua uall type type of the the situ situat atio ion n (sta (state te pred predic icat ates es are are excluded in such sentences ) and, last but not least the future situation is determinable from the state of the world now, that is to say that the clause must involve something that can be assumed to be known already in the present present . In the example above the present present tense tense morphem morpheme e and the adverb now give the time of the arrangement or schedule. It is generally assumed that with the Simple Present the arrangement is felt to be an impersonal or collective one, made, for example, by a committee, a court of law or some un-named authority. The most widely widely used predicates predicates belong belong to the class of non-durat non-durative ive event verbs in particular verbs of directed motion such as go, leave, come, meet , aspectual verbs such as begin, start, end, etc. According to grammarians, the most common uses involve: (i)statements about the calendar or cyclic events, (ii) scheduled events (regarded as unalterable) and (iii) su subo bord rdin inat ate e clau clause ses s intr introd oduc uced ed by cond condit itio iona nall and and adve adverb rbia iall conjunctions. Consider the examples below borrowed from different sources (Leech 1971, Huddlestone and Pullum, 2002): • •
•
(i) Tomorrow is Sunday./Next Christmas falls on a Thursday/The next high tide is around 4 this afternoon/When afternoon/When is the next full moon? (ii) The next next Kevin Costner Costner film opens at the Eldorado on Saturday./When do the lectures end this year?/She is president until next May./Her case comes before before the magist magistrat rate e next next week./T week./The he Chanc Chancello ellorr afternoon/We start for Istanbul makes his budget speech tomorrow afternoon/We tonight. (iii) When the the spr spring comes , the swallo swallows ws will will return return./Je ./Jeeve eves s will will announce the guests as they arrive./If you don’t do better next time you are fired/Either he plays according to the rules or he doesn’t play at all/I’ll tell you if it hurts. The set of examples in (43i) reflect the use of the Simple Present Present for recurrent events whose time of occurrence can be scientifically calculated, hence it can be included under what is currently known. By contrast, the
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simple present is not used for future weather since such events are not conceived of as being within the domain of what is known (Huddlestone and Pullum, 2002:132). Weather forecasts are rendered by means of ‘going to’ or ‘shall/will’ In (43ii) we have examples that describe situations that have already been arranged, scheduled.The element of current schedule or arrangement is seen in the contrast in (44) below (Huddlestone and Pullum, 2002:132):
(ii)
(41) (i) Australia meets Sw Swed eden en in the the Davi Davis s Cup final in December ???Australia beats Sweden in the Davis Cup final in December
The sentence sentence in (44i) is quite natural natural in a context context where where Australia Australia and Sweden have already qualified for the final. The use of the Present in (44ii) is unnatural, since the sentence conveys that the result itself has already been arranged. It is to be noted that subjective certainty is not enough; knowing the skill, experience and past performances of the team, one might feel certain about the result of the match but this does not sanction the Simple Present. The use use of the the Simple Simple Present Present in (43iii) is not just just a requir requiremen ementt of the synt syntac acti tic c patt patter ern, n, but but has has its its base base in a cont contra rast st of meani eaning ng.. In the the dependent clauses mentioned, the happening referred to is not a prediction, but but a fact fact that that is give given. n. A cond condit itio iona nall sent senten ence ce,, for for inst instan ance ce,, has has the the structure ‘If X is a fact, then then I predict Y’. (Leech 1971:60). He Hence, nce, the use of the Simple Present with Future value is appropriate to indicate that the cons conseq eque uenc nce e of the the cond conditi ition on being being fulfi fulfille lled d it is inev inevit itab able le or alrea already dy decided, as in (43iii). To sum up, the key to the Simple Simple Present Present with Future Future value is that it represents FUTURE AS FACT, FACT, that it i t attributes to the future the same degree of certai certainty nty that that we norma normally lly accord accord to prese present nt or past past events events.( .( Leech Leech 1971:60). 2.4.2. The Present Progressive Progressive (Progressive Futurate) Consider the following examples borrowed from Leech: (45) I’m starting starting work tomorr tomorrow/ ow/ She’s getting getting married married this spring/N spring/Next ext they are playing the Schubert Octet / In each of the sentences there is the implication of an arrangement already made. Important to mention is the fact that the progressive viewpoint of the predicate does not have its usual value (Smith 1991:247), in the sense that the sentences above do not present an open situation. As in the case of the Simple Present, the Present Progressive with future time value is used to pred predict ict a futu future re situ situat atio ion n by virtu virtue e of a pres presen entt plan, plan, prog progra ramm mme e or arrangement . According to Smith, the plan, arrangement are to be taken as preliminary preliminary stages stages of the future event (just like in the case of the Simple Present);hence the reference time (i.e. As-T) of the Progressive Futurate is the present present and the future time adverbial specifies the EV-T of the sentence. The general general assumptio assumption n is that the factor factor of plan plan or arrangement restricts
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the Progre Progressi ssive ve Futurat Futurate e to dynamic dynamic ‘doing’ ‘doing’ verbs verbs cases cases wh where ere human agency is involved, hence the anomaly of examples like (46 b,c) below: (46) a) John is rising at 5 tomorrow b) *The sun is rising rising at 5 tomorrow/*It tomorrow/*It is raining tomorrow tomorrow c) *Who is being captain of the team next Saturday? In (46c) the progressive occurs with an individual level state of being and having (be, contain, consist, cost, have etc) that generally do not occur in the progressive. Present progressive sentences with future time adverbs tend to be used for the relatively near future rather than distant future whereas there is no such difference in the case of the Simple Futurate. The Progressive Futurate may also convey a sense of imminence that is absent from the use of the simple present tense with future time adverbs: (47) The Smiths Smiths are leaving leaving tomorro tomorrow w / My aunt is coming coming to stay with us this Christmas. Huddlestone and Pullum (2002) contrast the use of the simple present tense form with the present progressive form with future time adverbs along similar terms. Consider first the sentences (21 in H&P): (48) (a) I phone her tonight (b) I’m phoning her tonight (c) She has her operation tomorrow d) She’s having her operation tomorrow (e) It expires tomorrow/in five years (f) It’s expiring tomorrow/?in five years ‘The difference between progressive and non-progressive is fairly clear in pairs like (48a,b). The non-progressive (48a) suggests a schedule or plan: perhaps I regularly call her on Sunday or perhaps the call is part of a larger plan plan or arrang arrangem ement ent-- it’s hardly hardly possib possible le if I’d simply simply said said casual casually, ly, I’ll phone phone you tonight tonight . The progressive could be used in these schedule/plan scenarios, but it is not limited to them: it could be that I have formed the inten intentio tion n to call call her her (wit (witho hout ut cons consul ultin ting g her her or anyo anyone ne else else abou aboutt the the matter) and am waiting till I think she’ll be in. In (c ) and (d) there is little differe difference nce betwe between en the two two forms forms;; opera operatio tions ns norma normally lly involv involve e forma formall scheduling, the only possible difference is that the progressive tends to be used for the relatively near future
2.4.3. 2.4.3. Be Going Going To Consider the following example: (49)
(i) I’m going to call him (ii) It’s going to rain.
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Be going to is a frozen form that cannot be analyzed into two separate
verb forms: it is listed as such in the lexicon. Jespersen (1931) remarks that the structure be going to derives from the progressive form of the verb to go: “going loses its meaning as a verb of movement and becomes an empty grammatical word”. The same process occurred in French with the form je vais faire. In contemporary English, be going to is mainly used in colloquial speech. The basic meaning meaning of be going to is that of “future fulfillment of the (Leech ch,, 1971 1971). ). Leec Leech h (197 (1971) 1) ident identifi ifies es two two exte extens nsio ions ns of this this present present ” (Lee general meaning of to be going to: the first one is “the future future fulfillment fulfillment of of present present intentio intention n” that is chiefly found with human subjects who consciously exercise their will and with doing or agentive verbs. Thus a sentence like *I wonder whether she is going to know you is odd because one cannot will oneself into knowing somebody. •
(50) What are you going to do today? today? I am going to to stay at home home and write letters They’re They’re going going to get married married in a registry registry office/ office/ On this reading a sentence such as ‘I am going to punish you’ is felt as stronger than ‘I intend to punish you’; it implies the speaker’s confidence in his power to put the threat into effect. The intention intention communic communicated ated by to be going to is usually ascribable to the subject of the sentence. In passive sentences, to be going to refers to the intention of the implied agent: This wall is going to be painted green (i.e. ‘we or somebody else intend to paint the wall green’) (Leech 1976:55) the second extension of the general sense of be going to can be stated as “future fulfillment of present cause” (Leech, 1971). This sense is common with both animate and inanimate subjects and agentive and nonagentive verbs, covering thus a wider range of contexts than the intentional meaning of to be going to (Leech 1976): •
(51) She is going to have have another another baby (i.e., she is already already pregnant) pregnant) / I think I’m going to faint (i.e., I already feel ill) / There’s going to be a storm in a minute (i.e., I can see the black clouds gathering)/Watch out! The pile pile of boxes boxes is going going to fall fall In all the sentences above the feeling is that the events/causes leading to the future event are under way. Notice that be going to can also be used when speaking about periods remote from UT-T, that is to say in neither of the two uses is imminence a necessary semantic accompaniment of be going to:
(52) (i) I’m going to be a policeman when I grow up (present intention) (ii) If Winterbottom’s Winterbottom’s calculations are correct, correct, this planet is going to burn burn itself out 200,000,000 years from f rom now (present cause)
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Generally, Be going to is inappropriate in main clauses of IF- subclauses Compare: (53) (53) If you you accep acceptt that that job, job, you’l you’lll never never reg regret ret it it vs. vs. *If you accept that job, you are never going to regret it The difference difference is account accounted ed for by the fact fact that ‘be going’ focuses on the pres presen entt circ circum umst stan ance ces s (AS-T (AS-T =pre =prese sent nt), ), wh while ile in the the case case of will it focuses on future rather than present contingencies (AS-T =future). If the circums circumstan tances ces are present rather than than future future be goin present rather going g to is suitable in the main clause of if-clauses (see ex.52ii and 54i,ii). On the other hand, many corpus studies mention that, unlike shall/will, be going to is well-represented in if-clauses: (54) If we carry on like like this this we are going to find find ourselv ourselves es in difficulty. difficulty. If you’re going to lose your temper, I am not going to/ won’t play. And if he’s going to walk to Tenby they could be starting when he is in Tenby. Tenby. If we are going to get there on time we must leave immediately (H&P: 201) 2.4.4. 2.4.4. Will and and Shall Shall Most traditional grammars have interpreted the modal auxiliaries will and shall as means of expressing future time. In fact, the contribution of these modal verbs in sentences such as (55) below is modal: the examples in (55i) (55i) the inter interpre pretat tation ion is that that of making making predictions i.e. someth something ing predictions, i.e. involving the speaker’s judgement, while those in (55ii) express volitional futurity: (55) (i) Allan will be in Bucharest now / Mary will be in Sibiu tomorrow / Tomorro Tomorrow’s w’s weather will be cold and cloudy / You will feel better after you take this medicine (ii) If he should should decide decide to instruct instruct us further further in the the matter, matter, we’ll let you know. The only relative I know of, Doctor, is a daughter in America. I’ll cable her, naturally. The mixture mixture of (modal (modal and temporal) temporal) values values of these modal modal verbs is due to the diachronic development of English: at the beginning will/shall had only modal values and in time they also developed a future reading when they occur with future time adverbs. Leech Leech (1971) (1971) makes makes the follow following ing comme comments nts with with respec respectt to their their usage: usage: “frequ “frequent ently ly a sente sentence nce with with will/shall is incom incomple plete te with withou outt an adverb adverbial ial of definit definite e time: time: *It will will rain / *The *The room room will will be cleane cleaned. d. These These sentences are relatively unacceptable on their own, presumably because of their factual emptiness: we all feel certain that ‘it will rain’ at some time in the future, so there is no point in saying ‘it will rain’ unless an actual time can be forecast”.
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Although the will/shall construction is generally assumed to provide English with the nearest approximation to a ‘colourless’, ‘neutral future’, one should not describe it as a ‘future tense’ on a par with the Present and Past Past Tens Tenses es.. Ac Acco cord rdin ing g to Leec Leech, h, ‘we ‘we cann cannot ot be as cert certai ain n of futu future re happenings as we are of events past and present, and for this reason, even the the most ost conf confid iden entt prog progno nost stic icat atio ion n must ust indi indica cate te some someth thin ing g of the the speaker’s attitude and so be tinged with modality. Will and shall are no exceptions’ (Leech 1976:52). Several contemporary large-size grammars, such as ‘The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language’ (2002),assume that ‘while there are numerous ways of indicating future time, there is no grammatical category that can properly be analysed as a future tense (H&P:209) The will/shall future is favoured in contexts in which it is appropriate to make predictions: (i) forecast (weather, harvest, etc): Tomorrow’s Tomorrow’s weather will be cold and cloudy. Next year we shall have a good harvest. It’ll be winter soon. You’ll come of age next year. The next budget will be a severe one. (ii) cause-effect relationship: You will feel better after medicine/Perhaps I’ll change my mind after I’ve spoken to my wife/
this
(iii)prophetic statements: In twenty years’ time the average employee will work a twenty-five hour week. (iv) main clause of conditional sentences: (i) If you pull the lever,the roof will slide back. If you work hard, you will succeed. (v)Instantaneous intention: The kettle is boiling. I’ll make some tea./ The only relative I know of, Doctor, is a daughter in America. I’ll cable her, naturally./‘The telephone is ringing’.’All right, I’ll answer it’. Differences between shall/will future and going to future A very interesting and intuitively clear suggestion, put forth by R.A Close (1970:230), is that the major difference between shall/will and be marker ers s of futu futurit rity y lies lies in the the dist distin inct ctio ion n betw betwee een n ‘futu ‘future re-goin going g to as mark oriented’ and ‘present-oriented’ expressions of futurity. f uturity. According to Close, ‘expressions that ‘predict’ an event or state are ‘future-oriented’, whereas ‘present oriented’ expressions are those that may contain present indications of what the future may bring’ (Close 1970:230). Accordingly, be going to is described described as ‘present-or ‘present-oriented iented’’ since the essential point of this construction is a focus on some present factor (e.g. intention, preparation, obvious signs) which is felt to be leading to a future event. Will/shall are described as ‘future-oriented’, since they are preferred when wh en empha emphasis sis on presen presentt signs, signs, intentio intention, n, etc. etc. is absent absent or irrelev irrelevant ant.. Leech (1971:54) considers the meaning meaning of of the going to construction to be ‘future fulfillment of the present’. Hudlestone and Pullum (2002:211) also lay emphasis on the fact that ‘be going to has greater focus on the matrix time which depends on the matrix tense: present with is going to and past with was going to’ . The AS-T of ‘be going to’ is ,hence, Present , the adverb,
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if any, specifying EV-T. In the case of ‘shall/will’ AS-T is Future and EV-T is co-temporal with it. The above above-state -stated d difference difference accounts accounts for for the following: following: the inappropr inappropriatene iateness ss of goin future condit condition ional al senten sentences ces (i) going g to in future except when the condition is a present one rather than a future one (Leech 1971) (see examples above) (ii) imminence is not a necessary semantic accompaniment of going to constructions (see examples above) expres essi sion ons s in the the past past do not not enta entail il that that the the situ situat atio ion n (iii) going going to expr described by the verb was actualised, while the would version (restricted to narrative past) entails actualization: (56) (i) He was going to marry his tutor at the end of the year (ii) He would marry his tutor at the end of the year (iii) He was going to/*would challenge me to a duel but on mature consideration he changed his mind (iv) (iv) I was was going going to/* to/*wo would uld fail fail the the exam, exam, but the examin examiner er turn turned ed out out to be short-sighted. The was goin versio ion n in (56i (56i)) impl implica icate tes s nonnon-ac actu tuali alisa satio tion n of the the going g to vers situation, which is accounted for by the current focus mentioned above: was going to focuses on the intention/arrangement obtaining in the past rather than on the future event as such. Would, on the other hand, is semantically strong and the would version entails actualisation of the event of marrying. In case case the the sent senten ence ce has has a past time sphere all the the futu future re time time sphere, all expressions are modified to indicate a future + past situation (future in the ): past ): (58) He was leaving leaving town town the day after we we arrived / He was was going to be a policeman later in his life. Palmer (1979:130) remarks that “for future in the past, be going to is regularly used”, while in literary style would is likely to occur (Leech, 1971): (59) I was going going to say that it looked looked a bit like a pheasant pheasant in flight flight / …and the North just wasn’t going to have it at any price / Twenty years later, Dick Whittington would be the richest ri chest man in London
2.4.5. Will/Shall + Progressive Infinitive Traditional Traditional grammars grammars list the structure structure will/shall be V-ing among the mean eans of expre xpres ssing sing futu future re time ime event vents s. Huddl uddle esto stone and and Pu Pull llum um (2002:171) take the same point of view as far as the will+progressive is concerned. As in the case of the Futurate, the progressive form of the verb is not interpreted in terms of ‘imperfective’ aspectuality but rather in terms of future time time reference. Consider the examples below: below: Consider the following examples:
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(60) (i) This time next week I shall be sailing across the Atlantic (aspectual meaning) (ii) Don’t call me at 9 – I’ll be eating my supper. (aspectual meaning) (iii)When we get there, they’ll probably still be having lunch (aspectual meaning) (iv) Will you be going to the shops this afternoon? (future time reading) (v) Will you go to the shops? (request) (vi) (vi) When hen the the meet meetin ing g end ends s we’ we’ll ll be be fly flyin ing g to to Bon Bonn n (am (ambigu biguou ous) s) In the sentences in (60i,ii,iii) the verb is in the progressive form and the modal shall cont contrib ribut utes es its its (mod (modal) al) pred predict ictive ive sens sense. e. Ther Theref efor ore, e, the the sentence predicts that this time next week/9 o’clock/when we get here the activity denoted by the predicate is in progress. In all these sentences we can iden identi tify fy the the aspe aspec ctual tual meanin aning g of the the pro progress ressiv ive e. In (iv) iv) the the interpretation of the sentence is different. The difference in interpretation can can best best be seen seen by comp compar arin ing g (60iv (60iv)) to (60v (60v)) – the the nonnon-pr prog ogre ress ssive ive counterpart of (60iv). According to grammarians, the salient interpretation of the non-progressive (60v) is as a request to the subject of the sentence to go to the shops. The role of the progressive in (60iv) is to avoid such an interpretation; the progressive indicates that the matter has already been settled rather than being subject to decision now (H&P 2002:172). The difference difference between between the two meanings meanings of the progressi progressive ve – progressive aspectuality and future time reference- is conspicuous in the ambiguity of (60vi). On the progressive aspectuality (imperfective) reading we will already be flying to Bonn when the meeting ends i.e. AS-T within EV T; UT-T before before AS-T; on the ‘already ‘already decided decided future’ future’ interpretatio interpretation n the when adjunct says when we will leave: UT-T before AS-T/EV-T,just as in the nonprogressive we’ll fly , which, however, suggests, more or less, instantaneous decision. In what follows we quote Leech’s (1971:68) comments on the different usag usages es of will/ will/sh shal alll vs will/ will/sh shall all and and the the prog progre ress ssive ive,, comm commen ents ts wh whic ich h confirm the statements above. With human subjects and activity verbs the modals will/shall+ short infinitive frequently combine prediction prediction with overtones of volition. Consider first the following set of sentences: (57) a) I’ll drive into London next week week (‘I’ve made my mind’) mind’) b) I’ll be driving into Lo London ndon next week week (‘as a matter of fact’) c) Will you put on another play soon (‘Please!’) d) Will you be putting on on another play soon? soon? (‘Is this going to happen?’) “In principle, it is possible to use (57a) in the neutral predictive sense of ‘I shall die one day’, but in practice, it is difficult to avoid suggesting at the same time that one wants and intends to drive to London. The possibility of volitional coloring is avoided in sentence (57b), which is understood simply as a statement that ‘such and such is going to happen’. Sentence (57b) could easily precede the offer ‘Can I give you a lift’?, for it would forestall any any awkw awkwar ard d feel feelin ing g of inde indebt bted edne ness ss on the the liste listene ner’ r’s s part part:: ‘I shal shalll be
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making the journey anyway, so don’t feel you would be causing me any trouble. The same thing applies to the second pair. As a question, sentence (57c) implicates the intentions of the listener, and therefore comes to sound almost like a cajoling imperative; but sentence (57d) simply asks whether a future production will come to pass”. Along with Leech (1971) we will call this form of future as ‘future as a matter of course’ In case the sentence has a past time sphere sphere, all the future time expressions are modified to indicate a future + past situation (future in the ): past ): (58) He was leaving leaving town town the day after we we arrived / He was was going to be a policeman later in his life To the above-ment above-mentioned ioned expressions expressions of futurity futurity in English English we can also add add the the foll follo owing wing:: to be abo about to (use (used d to expr expres ess s immi immine nent nt futu future re situations; it is less colloquial than to be going to), to be ready to, to be near to, to be on the point of/on the verge of/on the brink of: (90) He was about to retrace retrace his steps when when he was suddenly suddenly transfixed to the spot by a sudden appearance / His finger was upon the trigger and he was on the point of fire / He has been on the brink of marrying her / He was just on the point of proposing to her / The miserable foreigner looked ready to drop with fatigue / I was very nearly offering a large reward
