... Introduction
pairing of a meaning and a particular form of the verb. In English the second
of these two elements is lacking when ingressive meaning is expressed.
1.22.3 The same is true where the expression of egressive’ ... describe the situation as characteristic of the referent of the
subject NP over a certain period of time. English has a special form to ex...
... of situation that is characteristic of the referent of the subject
NP over an extended period of time Ϫ see 1.23). This static interpretation is
due to the use of the nonprogressive form of the ... example, the features [( dynamic] and [( agentive] help to deter-
mine the possibility of using the verb phrase in the progressive form. The
distinction [( tel...
... linguistically
represents the time of the ‘working hard’ situation as anterior to the time of
the saying situation and which is therefore a relative tense.
Finally, part VI provides a summary of the chapter.
2.1 ... the temporal relation between the
time of actualization of a situation and some other time, which may be the
temporal zero-point (which is normally th...
... is not the time of the full situa-
tion: it is the time of the predicated situation, i. e. that part of the time of the
full situation that coincides with the situation time of said.
The claim ... So, even if the time of the full situation of Bill brooding
does not completely coincide with the time of the full situation of John believ-
ing, and the...
... just met John in the street.
I have this minute heard that the deal is off.
This kind of present perfect sentence is rather special because of the nature of
the adverbial. Adverbs like just refer ... section.
V. More on the up-to-now reading of the perfect 251
V. More on the up-to-now reading of the perfect
In this section we go into a number of characteristics of...
... is conceived of as the time of the trip, the speaker can be said to be concerned
with the situational constitution of the pre-present zone.)
In each of these three cases (a)Ϫ(c), the speaker ‘looks ... ‘measuring’
256 5. The absolute use of the present perfect
separating two times. (In this case the times in question are the time of the
accident, which is als...
... at the
end of the pre-present may include t
0
is not expressed by the perfect, which
only expresses that the situation time of the hypersituation is contained in
270 5. The absolute use of the ... ‘situationwise’. The speaker thus focuses on the situational con-
stitution of the pre-present zone and not only on the temporal location of a
situation on the time...
... not part of the topic of
the clause, in the sense that it is not ‘what the speaker is talking about’ but
forms part of what the speaker is saying about the topic, then for some speak-
ers the ... the constitution of the pre-present, we speak of the unmarked
314 5. The absolute use of the present perfect
5.38.17 The semantics of the present perfect...
... concerned with NOW or THEN can be
clear from the way the sentence is used in context or from particular constitu-
ents of the sentence. The impact of particular types of temporal adverbials was
referred ... selec-
tion of the one or the other of the two tenses,
see chapter 12.
In the present chapter, we first have a look at
the central notion of ‘actualization fo...
... look back over the pre-present Ϫ usually
the question is in the second person and the pre-present is the period of the
6.4 The present perfect vs the preterite in wh-questions 325
all the examples ... presupposes the truth of ‘You sold x
cars’, which implies actualization focus on the time of the selling.
6.4 The present perfect vs the preterite in wh-questio...
... the existence of this type
of shift of temporal perspective will be adduced in 9.9Ϫ12.)
8.26 Argument 4: the incompatibility of a
punctual adverbial with a relative preterite
The claim that there ... shorter than the time of the situation
which is located at it. Our analysis therefore predicts the unacceptability
of He said he wrote a long letter on the simultaneity...
... unanchored
punctual time-specifying adverbials that are added to the description of a dura-
17. The only exception is when the adverbial in the subclause is a pro-form for the adverbial
in the head clause, as ... establishing a domain of its own. (The different
adverbials make it clear that the central orientation time of the domain in
question is interpreted as W-anter...
... clause of the until-clause: the situation time of the arrival cannot
be represented as T-posterior to the situation time of decided. The only pos-
sibility is for the situation time of the until-clause ... is that the situa-
tion time of an until-clause cannot be bound indirectly (by means of the use of
the conditional tense) by the situation time which als...
... whether the
binding orientation time is the central orientation time of the domain or an-
other orientation time in the past domain (i. e. the central orientation time of
a subdomain inside the ... use the relative past tense (preterite), irrespective
of whether the binding orientation time is the central orientation time or an-
other orientation time in the domain....
... continue
the active life, which was the only kind she knew. [The stairs of the old house
defeated her.] (www)
[The only problem was that they didn’t have the lightbulbs, the truck to take them
there ... to the use of the present tense of be to for official arrangements
regarding the future (see 7.15), the past tense of be to can be used to refer to a
past official...