The grammar of the english verb phrase part 119 pdf

Glossary 819
within a temporal domain. For example, in Meg had seen Jill, the situation
time of had seen is ‘(temporally) bound by’ (or ‘temporally subordinated to’)
an orientation time which is not explicitly referred to but forms part of a past
temporal domain. Strictly speaking, it is only situation times that can be bound,
but by extension we can also apply the label to the situation itself. In this way
we can say that in Sue knew that Meg had seen Jill the situation of knowing
is the ‘binding situation’, while the situation of Meg seeing Jill is the ‘bound sit-
uation’.
Temporal clause: see time clause.
Temporal domain: set of orientation times which are temporally related to each
other by means of tenses. At least one of these orientation times is a situation
time (since any tense form locates an actualization of a situation in time). A
domain is normally established by an absolute tense form and expanded by
one or more relative tense forms. The latter establish temporal subdomains.
Thus, in John said he had prayed, the absolute past tense form said establishes
a past domain and had prayed creates a subdomain within that domain.
Temporal focus: the phenomenon that the speaker’s tense choice is determined
by his wish to focus on the time of actualization of a situation or on a particu-
lar nonpresent portion of the time of a full situation which also includes t
0
.
The former possibility is illustrated by the difference between He must have
been the culprit (ϭ present conclusion about an anterior situation) and He had
to be the culprit (ϭ past conclusion about a situation which was then actualiz-
ing). The latter possibility is exemplified by [I spoke to the foreigner in French
because] he didn’t understand English. (The foreigner presumably still does not
understand English at the temporal zero-point, so the speaker could have used
doesn’t understand. Using the past tense, however, he focuses on the time when
he spoke to the foreigner rather than on the present.)
Temporal subdomain: temporal domain inside another temporal domain.

Whenever a situation time is incorporated into an already existing temporal
domain, it creates a subdomain. This newly introduced situation time automat-
ically functions as the central orientation time of the subdomain in question.
For example, in John said that he had warned the others that he felt sick, the
tense form said establishes a past domain, and had warned establishes a subdo-
main within it. Felt [sick] expresses a T-relation (viz. simultaneity) in the subdo-
main established by had warned and in doing so creates another subdomain,
which is not further expanded.
Temporal subordination: the use of a relative tense. See temporal binding.
Temporal W-interpretation: interpretation of temporal relations as they exist
in the actual world (or any other possible world referred to) regardless of
820 Glossary
whether they are expressed by tense forms or not. For example, in When they
had first seen it, the house had made an overwhelming impression on them,
the (actualizations of the) two situations are interpreted as W-simultaneous
with each other, but neither of the past perfect tense forms expresses T-simulta-
neity.
Temporal zero-point (or zero-time or t
0
): the time which is the ultimate ‘origin’
of all the temporal relations expressed by the temporal structure of a tense,
i. e. the only time in a tense structure that is not itself represented as dependent
on another (more basic) time. It is the only time that is given (‘assumed
known’) whenever a sentence is uttered. In English, the temporal zero-point is
nearly always the encoding time, i. e. the time of uttering or writing the mes-
sage. Occasionally, the zero-point is the decoding time, i. e. the time when the
addressee is expected to hear or read the message, as is the case when a note
stuck to someone’s door reads I am in room 21. (As always, the present tense
locates the situation time at t
0

, but t
0
is the time of reading the message rather
than the time of writing it.)
Temporally bound (or temporally subordinated): said of a situation time that
is related by a tense form to an orientation time functioning as central orienta-
tion time of a temporal domain – see temporal binding.
Temporally subordinated: see temporally bound.
Temporary habit: habit that is represented as being restricted in time. If the
verb is dynamic, a temporary habit is expressed by the use of the progressive
form. For example: She’s (currently) working 60 hours a week.
Tense: (a) the phenomenon that a language has a special system of verb forms
to locate (the actualizations of) situations in time; (b) the correlation of a
particular grammatical form with a particular tense meaning (e. g. the ‘past
tense’). In more detail: tense is a linguistic concept (as opposed to time) denot-
ing the form taken by the verb to locate (the actualization of) the situation
referred to in time, i. e. to express the temporal relation between the time of
the situation in question and an orientation time which may be either the
temporal zero-point or another orientation time that is temporally related (di-
rectly or indirectly) to the temporal zero-point. English has several tenses, such
as the present tense, the past tense, etc., to which correspond different verb
forms, which are called the tense forms of the verb.
Tense auxiliary: cover term for the perfect tense auxiliary have and the future
tense auxiliary will (or shall).
Tense form: a concrete verb form expressing a particular tense, in other words,
a particular form taken by the verb to express a particular temporal meaning.
A tense form can be a simple verb form (e. g. ‘verb stem ϩ past tense mor-
Glossary 821
pheme’) or a complex one (e. g. ‘[verb stem of future tense auxiliary ϩ past
tense morpheme] ϩ perfect infinitive’, i. e. the conditional perfect tense form).

That is, it may either consist of one constituent (the main verb) only or be a
phrase involving one or more auxiliaries next to the main verb.
Tensed clause: clause involving a tensed verb form, i. e. finite clause.
Tensed proposition: see proposition.
Tensed verb form: see tense form.
Tenseless (or nontensed or untensed) verb form: verb form which is not marked
for tense, i. e. which does not encode information about how a situation time
is related (directly or indirectly) to the temporal zero-point. Nonfinite verb
forms and subjunctive verb forms are tenseless in this sense.
Tense relation (or T-relation): temporal relation expressed by a tense form. For
example, the future perfect, which is an absolute-relative tense, expresses two
T-relations: ‘The time of the situation is anterior to an implicit time of orienta-
tion’ and ‘the implicit time of orientation is posterior to the temporal zero-
point’ (e. g. He will have left).
Tense structure: particular temporal meaning expressed by a tense. This is the
temporal structure (minimally involving a situation time, an orientation time
and a temporal relation between them) which represents a specific way of
locating the actualization of a situation in time. For example, the tense struc-
ture of the future tense consists of the temporal relation ‘The situation time is
T-posterior to the temporal zero-point’.
Tentative world: (a) possible world which is nonfactual and which is assumed
by the speaker to be unlikely ever to become the actual world (e. g. the hypo-
thetical future world in You would be punished if you did that); (b) Nonfactual
world which is represented as tentative for reasons of tact, politeness, etc. (e. g.
Would you please help me?).
Terminative aspect: see egressive aspect.
Time: extralinguistic category (as opposed to tense), relating to our experience
of the way that (the actualizations of) different situations are arranged with
respect to one another along a nonspatial continuum (ϭ the time line), from
the past through the present to the future.

Time adverbial (or temporal adverbial): cover term for three kinds of adverbi-
als giving temporal information: time-specifying adverbials (e. g. at six o’clock),
pure duration adverbials (e. g. for two hours) and bifunctional adverbials (spec-
ifying both time and duration, e. g. from six to eight).
Time clause: subclause indicating time. The unmarked interpretation is that of
‘adverbial time clause’, i. e. subclause specifying an Adv-time. In He left when
822 Glossary
I left, the when-clause specifies an Adv-time which contains (in terms of coinci-
dence) the situation time of the head clause. There are various other types of
time clauses, e. g. relative clauses depending on an antecedent referring to time
(e. g. [I’ll always remember the day] when she died), time clauses with a nomi-
nal function (e. g. [I don’t know] when he did it), narrative time clauses (e. g.
[We were having tea] when suddenly the window burst), etc.
Time line: the conceptualization of the way time ‘flows’ by users of English.
The time line is conceptualized as consisting of two different time-spheres, viz.
the past time-sphere and the present time-sphere, between which there is felt
to be a break.
Time of orientation: see orientation time.
Time of the full situation: time which is taken up by the full situation and
which may be longer than the time of the predicated situation (ϭ the situation
time) if the (actualization of the) situation is homogeneous (ϭ nonbounded).
For example, in Two minutes ago John was in the library, the situation time is
that portion of the full situation (of John being in the library) that coincides
with the Adv-time specified by two minutes ago. The time of the full situation
may be much longer and may include the temporal zero-point.
Time of the predicated situation: time taken up by the predicated situation.
Synonym of situation time.
Time of the situation: see situation time.
Time-specifying adverbial: temporal adverbial like at 5 p.m., yesterday, etc.
whose function is to locate a situation time or other orientation time in time

by indicating a specific Adv-time (‘adverbially indicated time’). This Adv-time
‘contains’ the orientation time in question in terms of inclusion or coincidence.
Time-sphere: one of the two main divisions of time reflected in English tense
morphology, namely ‘past’ and ‘nonpast’. Hence, we speak of the past time-
sphere and the present time-sphere (or nonpast time sphere). In more detail:
the use of a tense form in English implies that the speaker views the time of
the predicated situation referred to (ϭ the situation time) as either past or
nonpast with respect to the time functioning as temporal zero-point (which is
usually the moment of speech). This means that any tense form locates a situa-
tion time either in the past time-sphere or in the present time-sphere. These
time-spheres are not objective physical entities but represent the ways in which
an English-langua ge us er conc eptualizes time. The past time-sphere is conceived
of as a time span of indefinite length which lies wholly before (and hence does
not include) the temporal zero-point. To locate a situation time in this time-
sphere the speaker uses the preterite (past tense). The present time-sphere is
Glossary 823
conceived of as a time span of indefinite length which includes the zero-point
and is divided by it into three zones: the portion of the present time-sphere
that starts before the zero-point and leads up to it is the pre-present (zone);
the portion that coincides with the zero-point is the present (zone); and the
portion that follows the zero-point is the post-present (zone).
Time-zone (or zone): cover term for any of the four portions of time that
together make up the two time-spheres: the three parts of the present time-
sphere, namely the pre-present zone, the present zone and the post-present
zone, plus the past zone (which coincides with the past time-sphere). Since
these four zones (pre-present, present, post-present and past) are defined in
direct relation to the temporal zero-point, they constitute the set of absolute
zones (or absolute time-zones).
T-interpretation: (a) in general: temporal reading which is based on the seman-
tics (ϭ tense structure) of the chosen tense only; (b) in connection with the

present perfect: one of two possible readings that are compatible with the se-
mantics of this tense, namely a ‘before now’ interpretation (as in I have done
it) and a ‘co-extensive’ interpretation (as in Where have you been? or I’ve been
living here for years).
T-posterior: showing the relation of T-posteriority. A given time A is T-poste-
rior to another time B if the speaker uses a tense form (such as the conditional
tense) to represents A as following B, i. e. as predicted or predictable (but not
yet a fact) at time B.
T-posteriority: posteriority (futurity) expressed by a tense. For example, in Jim
said he would do it, the conditional tense form (would do) expresses T-posteri-
ority: it represents the situation time of Tim’s doing it as following the situation
time of his speaking.
Transition: punctual change of one state into another.
Transition reading: punctual interpretation of a clause involving the use of a
transitional situation verb, as in He died (as opposed to He was dying).
Transitional: ontological feature of a situation-template which consists in a
single transition, conceived of as punctual, from one state into another.
Transitional situation: situation represented as involving, or consisting of, a
single, punctual change of one state into another (e. g. a death).
Transitional situation verb: verb like die, kill, etc., which refers to a punctual
transition or, when the progressive form is used or a nonpunctual duration
adverbial is added, to the durative preparatory phase leading up to the transi-
tion in question.
824 Glossary
Transitive verb: (a) verb that is accompanied by a direct object as complement;
(b) verb like eat that can in principle take a direct object, even if it does not
do so in certain sentences (where it is used intransitively, i. e. without a comple-
ment, e. g. John is eating).
Transparent interpretation: interpretation in terms of the speaker’s actual
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 transparent one.
T-relate: express a T-relation.
T-relation (or tense relation): temporal relation expressed by a tense form. For
example, the future perfect, which is an absolute-relative tense, expresses two
T-relations: ‘The time of the situation is anterior to an implicit time of orienta-
tion’ and ‘the implicit time of orientation is posterior to the temporal zero-
point’ (e. g. He will have left).
T-simultaneity: kind of T-relation: the situation time is linguistically repre-
sented as simultaneous with an orientation time. T-simultaneity is by definition
a relation of strict coincidence. Thus, in Meg said that she was feeling ill, the
situation time of Meg’s feeling ill is represented by the tense form as strictly
coinciding with the situation time of Meg’s speaking, even though the W-rela-
tion between the (actualizations of) the two situations is assumed to be one of
W-simultaneity, i. e. overlap or inclusion.
T-simultaneous: showing T-simultaneity. A given orientation time A is T-simul-
taneous with an orientation time B if the speaker uses a tense form representing
A as coinciding with B.
Type of situation: see situation type.
Unanchored time-specifying adverbial (or nondeictic time-specifying adverbial):
time-specifying adverbial which does not relate the Adv-time which it indicates
to a temporal anchor. For example: in I’ve heard that name at some time or
other, the Adv-time specified by at some time or other is anchored neither to
the temporal zero-point nor to a contextually given time.
Unbounding constituent: clause constituent which removes the idea of a tempo-
ral right boundary, thus rendering the clause L-nonbounded, e. g. the constitu-
ent to party activists in Bill handed out the Labour Party badge to party activ-
ists or the temporal adverbial in I will run the marathon for many more years.
Unembedded clause: syntactically independent clause. See also matrix.

Unexpanded domain: temporal domain which consists of just one situation
time: the set of orientation times forming the domain is a singleton. For exam-
Glossary 825
ple, in He left at five and I will leave at eight, both tense forms establish a past
domain of their own which is not further expanded.
Universal (or gnomic) sentence: sentence referring to a habit or other state
which holds at all times or at every time in the existence of the referent of the
subject (e. g. Two and two is four; The sun rises in the east).
Unmarked interpretation: the interpretation which (failing any indication to
the contrary) the addressee or hearer will naturally assume to be the reading
that is intended by the speaker.
Unmarked up-to-now reading (or unmarked up-to-now interpretation): up-to-
now reading (of a clause in the present perfect) which is not a constitution
reading, because it is not specificational. For example: You’ve been thinking of
something else all the time I’ve been talking.
Unspecified orientation time: orientation time which has to be recovered from
the linguistic context. For example, in the case of the sentence Bill had left the
room, the orientation time to which Bill’s leaving is related as T-anterior may
be the time of a predicated situation referred to in a previous sentence (as in
[When Megan woke up, it was no longer dark.] Bill had left the room), or it
may be an otherwise unspecified time contained in an Adv-time (e. g. Yesterday
Bill had left the hotel). Only in the former case do we speak of an ‘unspecified
orientation time’.
Untensed (or nontensed or tenseless) verb form: verb form which is not marked
for tense, i. e. which does not encode information about how a situation time
is related (directly or indirectly) to the temporal zero-point. Nonfinite verb
forms and subjunctive verb forms are tenseless in this sense.
Up-to-now perfect: shorthand for ‘present perfect used in a clause receiving an
up-to-now reading’.
Up-to-now reading (or up-to-now interpretation): one of three possible W-

interpretations of a clause in the present perfect, namely that in which the full
situation fills the entire period leading up to the temporal zero-point (t
0
) but
does not include t
0
, thus coinciding with the situation time (which itself coin-
cides with the pre-present zone). Such a reading is assigned, for example, to
Where have you been?, when said to someone who has just come in.
Utterance: a structured set of words which a speaker or writer produces in the
form of speech sounds or letters. A meaningful utterance is the physical form
of a sentence.
Utterance-explaining
because
-clause: clause which is introduced by the subordi-
nating conjunction because and which explains why the speaker makes the