... Cappelle.
p. cm. − (The grammar of the English verb phrase ; v. 1)
(Topics in English linguistics ; 60 .1)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN -13 : 978-3 -11 - 018 589-8 (hardcover : ... paper)
ISBN -10 : 3 -11 - 018 589-X (hardcover : acid-free paper)
1. English language − Tense. 2. English language − Grammar.
I. Reed, Susan, 19 59− II. Cappelle, Be...
... verb forms 22
A. Tense 22
1.14 Introduction 22
1.15 The formation of the present tense 23
1.16 The formation of the past tense 23
1.17 The formation of the other tenses 24
1.18 The meanings of ... 25
1.19 Special uses of tenses 27
B. Aspect 28
1 .20 Introduction 28
1 .21 Perfective aspect 30
1 .22 Imperfective aspect 31
1 .23 Habitual aspect 33
1...
... speak of a
noun phrase (NP) (e. g.
all those beautiful houses built in the sixties). If the head is a verb, the phrase
is a verb phrase (VP). In the following sentence the VP is in italics and the
verb ... with the past tense and the present perfect. Chapters 13 and 14
look at the semantics of the temporal adverbs when, before and after and the
consequenc...
... having eaten). The point is that the time of orientation
to which they relate the time of their situation does not have to be the temporal
zero-point. It is criterial of tensed forms that they encode ... consisting of the initial
letters of the terms negation, inversion, code and emphasis. The reference is to
the four cases in which the English VP requires an aux...
... form of will.)
1. 15 The formation of the present tense
The forms of the present tense of all verbs except be and have are homopho-
nous with the
stem of the verb (e. g. underline), except in the ... underlines). (The stem is that part of the verb that remains con-
stant in the different forms of the verb, e. g. unravel in unravels, unravelled,
unrav...
... past domain. The semantics of the absolute past tense is: The situation
time is located in the past time-sphere (defined relative to t
0
)’; the semantics of
160 2. Towards a theory of tense and ... it relates
the situation time of the bike having loads of gears to the situation time of Meg’s
buying a bike. Specifically, it locates the having simultaneous to the...
... time of
the predicated situation, the time of the full situ-
ation and the time of the pre-present time zone.
In section 5.6 we then provide an interim sum-
mary of the core meaning of the present ... it.
212 5. The absolute use of the present perfect
I. The semantics of the present perfect
The present perfect locates the situation time in the pre-pre...
... of
a period requires considering it from beginning to end. The situation of a
286 5. The absolute use of the present perfect
As noted in 5.21.3, the temporal interpretation of the clause in the ... illustrate the following:
(a) In spite of the fact that there is a situation of watching in process at t
0
,
the present tense cannot be used in Standard English (wh...
... seen that if the speaker of a when-
question is asking about the time of actualization of a bygone situation, the
fact of actualization of the situation is taken for granted, and it is the past
tense ... when-questions in the present perfect can be used to challenge an explicit
or implicit assumption on the part of the addressee or someone else (including
the s...
... In English, future tense forms are
not built by means of a special suffix but by means of the present tense of one
of the auxiliaries will or shall (the latter in the first person only) or of the ... are other expres-
sions referring to the possible actualization of a situation in the post-present.
However, they differ from the future tense in that, even in the a...
... agentive verb phrases, be going to can be used to express the
idea that the agent has the present intention of doing something in the post-
present. The agent is as a rule the referent of the subject ... emphasis
on the present (see 7.3.2). This concern with the present may be of various
kinds, but all of them can be subsumed under the heading of ‘concern with...
... subordination in the various time-zones
However, this does not mean that the simultaneity relation which we under-
stand there to be between the situation of the subclause and the situation time
of the head ... that the situation time of is lying
is represented as coinciding with t
0
. The fact that in the latter case the situation
time of believe also coincides wi...
... back,
the situation time of the subclause must not be related to t
0
(by the use of will
be as an Absolute Future System form), nor to the situation time of the head
clause (by the use of will ... relation between the situa-
tion time of the subclause and the situation time of the head clause is expressed
only by the conjunction, not by the tense forms (bot...
... Adverbial
before
-clauses 709
that’). In the second example, the Pseudo-t
0
-System form moves clearly relates
the situation time of the that-clause to the time, not to the situation time of
the ... clause. The fact that before-clauses use exactly the same verb form
therefore confirms our hypothesis that the same temporal relation is expressed.
14.6.5 One of the...
... the context, the before-clause can use either the past tense
or the past perfect. If the counterfactual reading is not imposed by the
pragmatics of the context, only the use of the conditional ... read from the current speaker’s
point of view. On the other hand, if the context shows that the before-clause
is part of Fred’s thinking at the time that he lef...