The grammar of the english verb phrase part 114 ppt

784 Glossary
typical of implicatures that they can be blocked or cancelled by the context –
see implicate for examples.
Implicature of discontinuation: implicature attached to the use of the absolute
past tense when the full situation is homogeneous and there is no linguistic or
contextual indication that the situation time (ϭ time of the predicated situa-
tion) is included in (and hence shorter than) the time of the full situation. The
implicature says that under these conditions the situation time can be assumed
to coincide with the time of the full situation and hence to be over at the zero-
time. For example, Meg swore a lot when she was younger implicates that this
is no longer the case. This implicature would be cancelled by the contextual
addition of and she still does.
Implicit condition: condition that is not overtly expressed but is implicit in one
of the constituents of the sentence, for example in a pro-form (e. g. [I think we
should go home now.] Otherwise it will be dark before we get home. (‘other-
wise’ ϭ ‘if we don’t go’)), or in a nominal (e. g.
That
would be quite interest-
ing.(‘that’ ϭ ‘if that happened’, etc.)).
Implicit orientation time: orientation time which is implicit in the semantics of
a temporal conjunction. For example, in By the time Bill had left the room it
was too late to act, the verb form had left represents the leaving as anterior to
the implicit orientation time referred to by the time in the phrasal conjunction
by the time (that). Similarly, in I wanted to be in the pub before Ted arrived,
the conjunction before means ‘before the time at which’ and arrived is a relative
past tense form representing Ted’s arrival as T-simultaneous with the implicit
orientation time (lexicalized by the time in the paraphrase ‘before the time
at which’).
Implicit pre-present: said of the length of the pre-present zone in the absence
of a time-specifying adverbial or another contextual indication specifying this
length. If it remains implicit, the pre-present zone is taken to be the shortest

period that makes sense in the given context. Thus, in Have you had breakfast
yet? the time span leading up to now will be interpreted as something like
‘since you got up’, not as, say, ‘in the last few weeks’.
Inceptive aspect: see ingressive aspect.
Inchoative aspect: see ingressive aspect. See also partly inchoative interpreta-
tion.
Inclusion: ‘Time A includes time B’ means that B is shorter than A and falls
within the boundaries of A. For example, in I am his daughter, the time of the
full situation includes the temporal zero-point (time of speech). Inclusion is
one form of the containment relation that exists not only between the time of
Glossary 785
the full situation and the situation time but also between an Adv-time (ϭ an
adverbially specified time interval) and a situation time (or another orientation
time). For example, in Jim had already left before breakfast the Adv-time indi-
cated by before breakfast includes the (unspecified) orientation time to which
the situation time (ϭ the time of Jim’s leaving) is represented as T-anterior.
(Apart from inclusion, containment can in principle also mean coincidence.
Thus, in I left at five the Adv-time contains the situation time in terms of
coincidence: the time indicated by at five coincides with the time of my leav-
ing.) What we call inclusion is often referred to as ‘proper inclusion’.
Inclusive adverbial: see inclusive duration adverbial
Inclusive duration adverbial: adverbial measuring the duration of (the actual-
ization of) a situation by answering the question Within what time?,e.g.[He
finished the work] in an hour,[Everything will be arranged] within the next
five minutes. Such an adverbial can be added to bounded clauses only, e. g. I
ran the marathon in less than two hours; Within the next five minutes I had
served six clients. (The same adverbials are not inclusive adverbials in clauses
that receive an inchoative interpretation, as in He was here in an hour, which
means ‘It was an hour before he was here’.)
Inclusive reference: reference to a set which implies or implicates reference to

all the members of the set. For example, in I cleared away the glasses after the
party, the reference to the set of glasses is (by implicature) interpreted as refer-
ence to all the glasses of the relevant set.
Inclusiveness implicature: implicature that definite noun phrases should be in-
terpreted as having inclusive reference, i. e. as referring to all the members of
the set denoted by the definite noun phrase. Thus, I’ve drunk the bottles of
beer implicates that I have drunk all the bottles of beer in question.
Incurable habit: typical behaviour that is (a) unpredictable in that it actualizes
from time to time but not at set times, (b) unintentional (hence not controlled
by an agent) and (c) usually interpreted by the speaker as annoying or disturb-
ing. An incurable habit is typically expressed in a clause which combines a
progressive verb form with an adverbial like always, forever, perpetually, con-
stantly, etc. For example, the sentence She’s always imagining everybody is
looking at her refers to a habit which consists of a repetition of a kind of
situation that is interpreted as lying beyond the control of the subject referent,
in the sense that she cannot help thinking that everybody is looking at her
(because it forms part of her nature to entertain such imaginary ideas).
Indefinite interpretation (or indefinite reading): one of three possible W-inter-
pretations of a clause in the present perfect. On an indefinite interpretation,
the situation time is located in the pre-present zone, and the time of the full
786 Glossary
situation is taken to precede the temporal zero-point and to be non-adjacent to
it. This reading is called ‘indefinite’ because it implies that the precise temporal
location of the situation time remains indefinite: all that we know is that the
situation time lies somewhere in the pre-present. For example: Have you ever
been to Togo?;[Nobody can enter the house, because] I have locked the door
and hidden the key.
Indefinite perfect: present perfect tense form used in a clause receiving an indef-
inite interpretation.
Indefinite reading: see indefinite interpretation.

Independent clause: clause that is used as a sentence or which is one of the
coordinate clauses of a compound sentence or which functions as a head clause
in a complex sentence (see also matrix). ‘Independent clause’ thus means ‘syn-
tactically independent clause’, i. e. clause which is not a subclause.
Indirect binding: a special form of T-binding: the situation time of a subclause
is T-bound by the situation time of a clause which is not the head clause on
which the subclause in question syntactically depends but a clause higher up
the syntactic tree. The situation of the subclause in question is then interpreted
as W-simultaneous with the situation of its head clause, but the tense form of
the subclause does not express T-simultaneity. For example: [I remembered
that] when I had first met him he had been wearing blue jeans. Here, the
situation times of had met and of had been wearing are interpreted as W-
simultaneous with each other, but neither tense form expresses this relation:
both situation times are represented as T-anterior to the situation time of re-
membered. Compare: direct binding.
Indirect reported speech: type of represented speech in which the reported ut-
terance or thought is not quoted as an independent sentence (as in He said: “I
am ill.”, which is an instance of direct reported speech) but is reported in the
form of a subclause (e. g. He said that he was ill).
Indirect result: resultant state which is not a direct result (i. e. a resultant state
that inevitably comes about when a situation is completed) but whose existence
is implicated by a perfect tense form used in a particular kind of context.
Consider, for example, the following piece of discourse: [I’ve taken a lot of
responsibility in my first job already.] I’ve taken the savings to the bank, I’ve
dealt with difficult customers and I’ve locked up the shop. Here, the present
perfect tense forms implicate that I am considered a responsible employee, or
that I have shown that I am a very capable employee, or something similar.
These implicated present results are indirect results.
Indirect speech: see indirect reported speech, free indirect speech.
Glossary 787

Infinitival clause (or infinitive clause): nonfinite clause whose verb form is an
infinitive, e. g. for you to come earlier in I was hoping for you to come earlier.
Infinitive: see present infinitive and perfect infinitive. When we simply speak
of ‘infinitive’, we normally have the present infinitive (i. e. the unmarked op-
tion) in mind.
Infinitive clause: see infinitival clause.
Ingressive aspect (or inchoative aspect or inceptive aspect): kind of grammatical
aspect. Ingressive aspect means that the speaker uses a special verb form to
represent the actualization of a situation as just beginning. This aspect is not
grammaticalized in English: English does not have a special grammatical form
to express ingressive meaning. It uses an aspectualizer like begin or start (in-
serted before the verb) instead.
Intensional domain: a nonfactual possible world established, for example, by
a future tense form or by an intensional verb like imagine, say, think, want,
etc. An intensional domain is a domain of interpretation which has its own
presuppositions and truth conditions, in terms of which propositions can be
evaluated and interpreted. An intensional domain always functions as a tempo-
ral domain. After a weak intensional verb (like say), the complement clause
can optionally shift the domain (e. g. He said that John and Shirley {were /
are} not married). This is not normally possible after a strong intensional verb
(such as imagine, fancy, dream, wonder, etc.): [Is that her?] I thought she {was /
*is} taller.
Intensional interpretation (or opaque interpretation): interpretation in terms of
an intensional world. For example, in John believes that Paris is the capital of
Italy, the that-clause is true in the intensional world of John’s belief, but not
in (what the speaker knows to be) the actual world. That is, Paris is the capital
of Italy is true on an intensional (opaque) interpretation, but not on a transpar-
ent one.
Intensional verb: verb (like claim, believe, imagine, etc.) creating an intensional
domain. See also strong intensional verb and weak intensional verb.

Intensional world: possible world which is not the actual world (e. g. the world
created by an if-clause). See also intensional domain.
Intentionality: the idea that an action is performed intentionally (consciously,
deliberately). This feature is often included in the definition of agentivity, but
not so in this book. (A sleep-walker opening a door is an agent, and so is
someone opening a door under the influence of hypnosis, but in neither case is
the agent in question acting intentionally.)
Intransitive verb: (a) Strictly speaking: a verb that can only take a subject
argument, i. e. a verb which cannot be followed by a complement (e. g. sit);
788 Glossary
(b) Informally, a verb that could take a complement but is used intransitively
(i. e. without a complement), e. g. eat in John was still eating when I left.
Inversion: the phenomenon that the syntactic subject does not precede the verb
form but follows the operator (i. e. the auxiliary or first of the auxiliaries). For
example, there is as a rule inversion in independent interrogative clauses that
are not wh-questions. Compare Has John left? (with inversion) with John has
left and Who has left? (without inversion). Inversion also occurs with be and have.
Inverted pseudo-cleft: pseudo-cleft in which the value constituent is processed
as syntactic subject and the variable constituent as subject complement (e. g. A
book was what he gave me). See also specificational sentence.
Irrealis: referring to a counterfactual world.
Irregular verb (or strong verb): verb that does not form its past tense and / or
past participle by the mere addition of a dental suffix (written as -ed or -d)to
the stem of the verb (e. g. blow – blew – blown; bring – brought – brought;
creep – crept – crept; go – went – gone).
It
-cleft: cleft introduced by it. For example: It was The Bard who wrote: “Let’s
kill all the lawyers”; It is with a profound sense of regret that I announce my
resignation.
Iterative aspect: see repetitive aspect.

Iterative verb: verb which represents a kind of situation as consisting of a rapid
repetition of subsituations of the same kind, such as hammer, twinkle, stutter,
rattle, stammer, etc. In other words: verb which has [ϩ iterative] as one of its
ontological aspect features.
L-bounded: said of a bounded situation whose boundedness is a matter of
linguistic representation (rather than of interpretation based on pragmatic in-
ference). Also said of a clause or sentence representing a situation as bounded
(i. e. as ending). For example: Jim was in the library from two to four. One
case of L-boundedness is when a bounded meaning is produced by the combi-
nation of a telic verb phrase and a nonprogressive verb form, as in I will write
three letters (in the next half-hour): such a sentence is L-bounded.
Lexical aspect (or ontological aspect or Aktionsart): linguistic category pertain-
ing to the way in which the lexical material in the verb phrase determines one
or more inherent characteristics of a kind of situation (or, more correctly, a
type of situation-template), for example, whether it is (conceived of and repre-
sented as) durative or punctual (compare, for example, run with arrive), telic
or atelic, dynamic or static, etc.
Lexical meaning: semantic meaning of a word which has to do with the typical
characteristics of the referents of the word in the actual world (or in whichever
Glossary 789
possible world is being talked about). For example, the lexical verb kill has a
lexical meaning because it refers to a specific type of situation which exists in
the world as we know it. The auxiliary have in They have left does not have
a lexical meaning but has a grammatical function: it is used to build a perfect
tense form.
Lexical verb (or full verb): verb which differs from an auxiliary in that (a) it
is not a defective verb, (b) it has a full lexical meaning and (c) with the excep-
tion of be, it requires do-support (i. e. the addition of do) in some types of
questions, negative clauses, etc. (see NICE-properties). For example: explode,
play, melt, resemble, etc.

Linking verb: see copula.
L-nonbounded: said of a nonbounded situation whose nonboundedness is a
matter of linguistic representation (rather than of pragmatic inference). Also
said of a clause or sentence failing to represent a situation as L-bounded.
Main clause: term sometimes used as an alternative to ‘head clause’ (ϭ any
clause on which another clause is syntactically dependent) and sometimes as
an alternative to ‘matrix’ (ϭ highest clause in the syntactic tree structure of a
complex sentence). Because it is potentially ambiguous between these two
meanings, the term ‘main clause’ is not used in this work. We use the unequivo-
cal terms ‘head clause’ and ‘matrix’ instead.
Main verb: form of a lexical verb which is used in a verb form that also
involves one or more auxiliaries (e. g. walked in should have walked,orwork-
ing in may have been working).
Matrix: head clause which forms part of a complex sentence and is not a
subclause of another head clause, e. g. the clause John said in John said that
he was thirsty because he had worked hard and that he badly needed a drink.
In other words, the matrix is the highest clause in the inverted tree structure
representing the syntactic structure of a complex sentence.
Matrix clause: see matrix.
Maxim of Quantity: one of the Gricean Maxims. The most important claim of
this Maxim is that a cooperative speaker should give the addressee all the
information that is needed for a good understanding of the sentence(s) uttered.
Because of this Maxim, a sentence like Kill the hostages! implicates (and will
be understood as meaning) that all the hostages should be killed (otherwise the
speaker should add an expression restricting the reference to the set of hos-
tages, as in Kill the oldest six of the hostages!) – see inclusiveness implicature.
Maxim of Relation (or Maxim of Relevance): one of the Gricean Maxims. The
most important claim of this Maxim is that a cooperative speaker should only
790 Glossary
say things that are relevant to the current discourse. This is why in [“I don’t

think John has a girl-friend.” Ϫ “Well,] he took Sybil out three times last week,
the reply suggests (ϭ implicates) that John does have a girl-friend, namely
Sybil.
Maxim of Relevance: see Maxim of Relation.
Measure phrase: phrase ‘measuring’ a time interval, i. e. indicating the duration
of the interval or making clear where its right boundary lies. The interval in
question may be the time span taken up by the actualization of a situation. In
the following examples, the measure phrases are underlined: John walked three
miles / Simon slept for four hours / Soames repaired all these cars this morning.
Metalinguistic negation: wide scope negation used to reject the truth of the
sentence as a whole, i. e. to contradict a statement or implicature to the con-
trary. For example: [“The party was boring.”] Ϫ “The party was
not
boring.
[On the contrary, it was quite lively.”].
Modal backshifting: the substitution of the past perfect for the past tense in a
before-clause in order to trigger a not-yet-factual meaning. For example,
whereas I saw him before he saw me is roughly equivalent to ‘He saw me after
I saw him’, I saw him before he had seen me is interpreted as ‘He had not seen
me yet when I saw him’.
Modality: semantic category comprising two types of meaning: (a) the repre-
sentation of the speaker’s assessment of the likelihood that a proposition is
true (or that the situation referred to by a proposition actualizes), and (b) the
representation of one of the factors affecting the (non)actualization of the situa-
tion referred to, such as (un)willingness, (im)possibility, (in)ability, obligation,
necessity, advisability, permission, prohibition, volition, etc. Modality which
has to do with the truth of the utterance is called epistemic modality. The other
type is referred to as nonepistemic (or root) modality.
Momentary: (synonym of punctual): lasting for a very short moment only,
having no observable duration.

Mood: grammatical (formal) category referring to the systematic use of lexical
verb forms not preceded by a modal auxiliary to express particular kinds of
modal meaning. English is generally considered to have three moods, viz. the
indicative, the imperative and the subjunctive.
Multiple-orientation-time adverbial: time-specifying adverbial denoting an
Adv-time which contains two or more orientation times (which are usually
situation times). For example, in Yesterday Sue left before Beth arrived, the
times of the two situations referred to are included in the Adv-time specified
by yesterday, which is therefore a multiple-orientation-time adverbial.