Tense

The temporal interpreta/on of

sentences

 Reichenbach 1947
Speech Time / U;erance Time
Reference Time / Asser/on Time
Event Time / Situa/on Time

a. Henry was born in 1980.
b. Henry will be 30 next January.
c. Henrys son will already have been born next
January.

Comrie 1985

Tense relates ST & RT The Reference Component

Aspect relates RT & ET The Rela1on Component

Existen1al status of a sentence: the rela/on
between the reference component and the rela/on
component

a. At ve I was polishing the silver.

b. I have polished the silver.
c. He had polished the silver at ve oclock.

Temporal adverbials:
anchored, deic/c, ST-oriented: now,
yesterday, the day before yesterday, next
year, last year
unanchored: in June, in a week

Temporal adverbials
dura/onal: for an hour
frequency: every hour
comple/ve: in an hour

Present Simple
1. Present:
generic, habitual
instantaneous
atemporal
2. Past
3. Future

Generic/habitual value
characterizing sentences
what is the dierence?

John drinks wine.
Milk is good for the bones.
Cats drink milk.
A cat drinks milk.
Cats are widespread.

 non-sta/ve predicates in the simple present

tense in English have default habitual reading

John drinks wine.

Habitual predicates
stage-level
disposi/ons, poten/al for individuals (object-
level)
generaliza/ons over /me, pa;erns of events
usu. with frequency Av, bare plurals, mass nouns

a. John drinks a glass of wine every evening.
b. John drinks wine. c. John eats sandwiches.

Habitual sentences
true if there are enough events to warrant a
generaliza/on also presuppose future
occurrences
pragma/c factors:
Mary murders children.
Mary reads the Times.

Mary drinks beer.

contexts:
1. What should I serve Mary?
2. I only have beer.
3. Is Mary a teetotaler?

*Mary drinks a glass of wine.

vs.
Mary drinks a glass of wine when shes upset.
-> overtly quan/ed environment

The new guy is a pig. He always eats every
donut.
*He eats every donut.

Generic sentences
analy/cal
kind-level or object-level subject
atemporal

 predicates that only occur with kind-level

subjects: die out, be widespread, be in short
supply, be common, be indigenous to, come in
all sizes
kind-referring expressions: bare plurals,
denite singular NPs, mass nouns
Dinosaurs are ex/nct.
The dinosaur is ex/nct.
*A dinosaur is ex/nct.

A dinosaur is a nice toy to give to a child.

A symphony has four movements.
basic stage level predicates recategorized as
individual level predicates
generaliza/ons, characterizing sentences, i-
generics
describe property which holds for most
members: excep/ons!
generalize over proper/es, not pa;erns of
events (habituals)

Instantaneous Simple Present

umarked use of the perfec/ve viewpoint
performa/ve verbs:
I agree. I hereby declare
percep/on predicates:
I see the moon.
running commentaries and demonstra/ons
I add two cups of our and fold in gently
Here comes the bus.

 atemporal use (commentaries, synopses, TV programmes, stage

direc/ons, cap/ons, illustra/ons, recipes, history books)

A snowy owl sits on the awning of an oce building in downtown

Washington

Past value
informal
It wasnt more than about half a minute when one
of these palookas suddenly pulls out a young
carving knife and s/cks me in the wish-bone with it.
Good and hard it s/cks me, and it got me plenty
sore. And I says to myself, what the hell?
narra/ve (novels)
His lordship had no sooner disappeared behind the
trees of the forest, but Lady Randolph begins to her
condante the circumstances of her early life.

 with verbs of communica/on

I hear you're in London.
I have just seen Angela, and she tells me she is
engaged to this Bo;le.
Le;ers were wri;en, he tells me, which had to
be seen to be believed.

Future value
obligatory /me Av
high degree of certainty: calendar, cyclic
events, scheduled events
This year Easter falls on April 12th.
School begins September 15th.

 subordinate clauses: /me and condi/onal

I will bring it to you when I have it.
If I nd it, you will be the rst to know.

a. The Red Sox play the Yankees tomorrow.

b. *The Red Sox defeat the Yankees tomorrow.
c. The Red Sox will defeat the Yankees
tomorrow.

The Past Simple

deic/c/existen/al value
non-deic/c: narra/ve
narra/ve /me advances with perfect event
sentences
bounded events occur in sequence
states are simultaneous with the /me of the
preceding event

a. He liped the lid from a huge pot and took a sni;

then he rushed over and dipped a nger into a
barrel of s/cky yellow stu and had a taste; then he
ran over to another machine, a small shiny aair
that kept going phut-phut-phut-phut-phut.
b. In the caravanserai all was bustle and hum.
Animals were cared for, horses, camels, bullocks,
asses, goats, while other, untameable animals ran
wild: screechy monkeys, dogs that were no mans
pets. Turbaned coolies in red shirts and dho/s ran
ceaselessly hither and yon with bundles of
improbable size and weight upon their heads.

a. Then he ran over to another machine, a small

shiny aair that kept going phut-phut-phut-
phut-phut, and every /me it went phut, a large
green marble dropped out of it into a basket on
the oor.
b. In the caravanserai all was bustle and hum.
Animals were cared for, horses, camels,
bullocks, asses, goats, while other, untameable
animals ran wild: screechy monkeys, dogs that
were no mans pets. Shrieking parrots exploded
like green reworks in the sky.

 past progressive: temporal frame:

Mrs Gedge was in the oce of her lawyer in
London. His opera/ons on her behalf in the
ma;er of evasion of English Income Tax had
dissa/sed her, and she was talking pre;y
straight to him. Lady Beatrice Bracken was in the
garden of her fathers seat in Dorsetshire. She
was reading for the third /me Packys le;er
announcing his departure for St Roque. Senator
Opal was taking a brisk walk in the grounds.

Biatul se urni de lng poart i intr n /nd. Alturi de

vatr, prins ntre dou crmizi, clocotea o oal cu ceva
verde nuntru. Civa miei sriser pe prisp i lingeau
sare. Una dintre ele, care sttea alturi de biat, frec
pmntul cu copita ei mic i se culc ncet, suspinnd.
Era o oaie btrn i blnd, care mergea totdeauna n
urma crdului.
Dimineaa ne vestea o arztoare zi de iulie. Cu ct
naintam, cu att mai grele ni se preau boccelele
noastre. Mergeam alene i tcui. Poteca, pe unde
mergeam, se deschidea la vale lung i dreapt. Tot pe
aceeai potec mergea ca la o zvrlitur de b naintea
noastr un bietan, care inea pe cap o pu/n, era nalt i
zdravn, pu/na de pe cap l mai lungea nc.

 report: deic/c (reporter)

Britain's Royal Mint unveiled a new coinage
portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.
Produc/on of the new coins began Monday, and
they will appear in circula/on later this year,
the Royal Mint said.

A week that began in violence ended violently
here

 habitual
Susan rode a bicycle last summer.
Susan moved last year. <- pragma/c knowledge
progressive:
Every morning, when he was having his
breakfast, his dog was staring at him.
He looked at her repeatedly when she was not
looking.
Whenever I looked up he was looking.

 past perfect value

a. Aper she listened to the explana/ons, she
said
b. The night before he returned she slept
poorly.
c. He shaved and listened to the radio.
d. He knocked and entered.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

When Harry woke up Mary was sleeping.

When Harry woke up Mary slept.
When he was a student he slept poorly.
When he got the le;er he burned it.
*When he read the le;er he burned it.
When he had read the le;er he had burned
it.

 modal remoteness
present reference:
I wish they were alive.
If they were alive they would be horried.
past reference:
I wish he had lep.
If they had lep they would not have told her.
backship
She said she had too many commitments.

Last week top White House ocials warned the

way it's been handled has damaged /es
between the two na/ons. Netanyahu
acknowledged during his Monday address that
disagreements between the U.S. and Israel are
"only natural from /me to /me," because there
are "important dierences" between the two
na/ons. He said that Israel exists in a far more
dangerous region of the world.

 a{tudinal past
I wanted to ask you something.
I want to ask you something.

The Perfect
marker of ASPECT: represented as the spa/o-
temporal predicate AFTER
(Demirdache&Uribe-Extebarria)
She may have lep last week.
Her having lep early surprised everyone.

Present Perfect
par/cipant property (Smith 1991) - current
relevance
*Einstein has lived in Princeton.
Princeton has been visited by Einstein.
dierences in situa/on type + context =>
dierent values of the perfect (resulta/ve,
con/nua/ve) -> no dierences in interpreta/ons
of the perfect itself
Reference Time: PRESENT, interval including
PRESENT
She has lived in London (since she married).
She has broken her leg.

con/nua/ve RT = interval including ST

open, in the absence of contextual indica/ons ->
future
They have always been friends.
experien/al : He has wri;en many books.
resulta/ve : I have repaired the car.
RT = ST, ET before RT
focus on present relevance
par/cipant property
resul/ng state: valid at present moment
recent past: indenite past
Malcolm Jones has just been assassinated!

 present perfect progressive: recently nished

ac/vi/es the eect of which is s/ll apparent
a. Ive been chopping onions.
b. Youve been gh/ng again.
c. He has not been coughing since noon.

Weve already discussed this yesterday.

He has got up at ve oclock (before).
John has open lep at four.

-> resulta/ve

 states: experien/al/con/nua/ve: ambiguity

We have lived in London.
ac/vi/es: resulta/ve/con/nua/ve
Mary has rehearsed since noon.
cf. Mary has been rehearsing since noon.

 ambiguous adverbs:
Peggy has been in Asia (ever) since January.
Ive been a teacher for 30 years.
For 30 years, Ive been a teacher.
-> sentence ini/al posi/on: ambiguity resolved

Present perfect in /me clauses

varia/on with simple present
situa/on type: dura/ve/non-dura/ve
Come over and see us when our guests leave/
have lep.
We can go out as soon as we have had /*have
dinner.

 narra/ve c/onal value + present simple

When he learns that his long-/me barber has
passed away, Sheldon decides to embrace his
inner hippie in an a;empt to match his new
shaggy hairstyle.

 present perfect vs. past tense

RT = ST RT before ST
+ space-/me coordinates
+ circumstances

What about a teaspoon?
Ive s/rred it, Grandma. I s/rred it well.

Where/How/Why/When did you get/*have you got it?

ADVERBS THAT OCCUR WITH:

Simple Past
not Present Perfect

both Simple Past and

Present Perfect

Present Perfect
not Simple Past

ago
once (=formerly)
the other day
those days
last
in 1930
at 3 p.m.
aper/before the war
no longer

long since in the past

once (1x) today
in my life for
recently just now
open yet
always ever
never already
before this morning

at present
up /ll now
so far
as yet
during
herewith
lately
since
before now

before ST

context dependent

ST oriented

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

*I was ill lately.-> ST oriented

I have been / was ill recently.
Now my ambi/on has been fullled.
Now my ambi/on was fullled.
He was once an honest man.
I have visited the Highlands once.

The Present Perfect Puzzle (Giorgi&Pianesi 1998)

ban on specic temporal adverbs with present
perfect
P(osi/on)-Deniteness Constraint (Klein 1992)
RT and ET cannot both be independently P-denite
present tense: P-denite: linked to NOW
-> clash with specic past Av
past tense: non-P-denite: unspecied past
-> any past Av
there are many wases but only one is

Means of expressing future /me

o present simple
o present progressive
o going to
o will
o be to, be about to, etc.

modalized future





no future tense

Present Simple: FUTURE AS FACT

present tense: high degree of certainty
obligatory /me Av
future situa/on <= the state of the world now
the clause must involve smth. that can be
assumed to be known
Its Christmas tomorrow.
*It snows tomorrow.

Present Progressive
personal plans: arrangement already made
human agency
Im spending Christmas with my sister.
*The sun is rising at 5 tomorrow.
*It is raining tomorrow.

 imminence
a. She has her opera/on tomorrow.
b. Shes having her opera/on tomorrow.
c. ?Shes having her opera/on in three months
/me.

d. It expires tomorrow/in ve years.
e. Its expiring tomorrow /?in ve years.

 imminence:
a. Im phoning her tonight.
= shes expec/ng my call
b. I phone her tonight.
= I phone her every Monday (today is Monday)
= I phone her tonight and then tomorrow we
go and talk to the witnesses and then we have
three weeks to prepare our defence because we go
to court on the 30th.
c. Im going to phone her tonight.
= inten/on: she does not know about it

BE GOING TO
qfuture fulllment of present inten/on
Im going to call her tonight.

qfuture fulllment of present cause -> predic/on
Look out, the boxes are going to fall down!
Its going to rain.
If Winterbo;oms calcula/ons are correct, this planet is going
to burn itself out 200,000,000 years from now. -> remote
events

*I wonder whether shes going to know you.
*If you accept this job you are never going to regret it. (future
cause)

WILL
predic/on
What will follow? Hearing him a;acked, my Cousin
Angela's womanly heart will be as sick as mud. The
maternal /gress in her will awake.
voli/on
I will marry you. I will do my best to make you a
good wife.
If you will throw your mind back to the evening of
our arrival.
Ill make some tea.

WILL + PROGRESSIVE
aspectual meaning:
This /me next week I will be sailing across the
Atlan/c. RT aper ST, ET includes RT

 future meaning: future as a ma>er of course

voli/on
a. Ill drive into London next week. (voli/on)
b. Ill be driving into London next week.
c. Will you put on another play soon (voli/on)
d. Will you be pu{ng on another play soon?
e. ??The United States will be declaring war on
Iraq.

 modalized future; no neutral way of expressing

future: no future tense
a. He visits the cathedral tomorrow. -> ocial
schedule, future as fact
b. He is visi/ng the cathedral tomorrow. ->
personal plan
c. He is going to visit the cathedral tomorrow. ->
inten/on
d. He is going to be disappointed.->predic/on
e. He will/wont visit the cathedral tomorrow. ->
voli/onal colouring
f. He will be visi/ng the cathedral tomorrow. ->
future as a ma;er of course

Future in the past

would -> actualized
going to (non)-actualized

a. One day, a hundred years from now his descendants
would see the tent pulled down and all his glory
vanish.
b. He pinched him just in /me, hard enough to make
him forget what he was going to /*would say.
c. I suddenly remembered the recent misunderstanding,
and with a ash of clear vision saw that this was
where it was going to come in handy.

a. A birthday present for Lucille! He groaned in

bi;erness of spirit. She would be coming back to-
night, dear girl, all smiles and happiness, wondering
what he was going to give her tomorrow. And when
to-morrow dawned, all he would be able to give her
would be a kind smile.
b. If Squiy was going to stop drinking because he
thought he had seen an imaginary snake, be;er not
to let him know that the snake was a real one.
c. I suggested that, as I was dining out, why didn't he
take the evening o and go to some improving
picture or something.
d. And he was a;ending that fancy-dress ball, mark
you--not, like every other well-bred Englishman, as a
Pierrot, but as Mephistopheles.