the syntax of temporal relations

7/25/2019 The syntax of temporal relations

1/8

The Syntax

Temporal Relations: A

EV-T

TP

d

UT-T

T

VP

after

EV-T VP

c.

UT-T

[ } I

EV-T


4/8

150/ HAMIDA DEMIRDACHE MYRIAM URlBE-ETXEBARRIA

Re ca l l t hat the role of

A SP ec t i s t o f oc us a t im e i nt er va l

in

t he t emporal

contour of

the event described by a sentence. Th e time focussed by Aspect is

t h e As se r ti o n

t im e, f oll owi ng Klei n 1995).

How

does

As pe c t p i ck

up

fo cu s) a n i nt er va l i n

the time of the

event denoted by the VP? By

establishing a relation between the

AS T

-T a nd t he E V -T . T hi s r el at io n c an

b e a n

ordering r el at ion e.g. t he AST-Tis ordered after

or

before t he EV

T ) o r

a t opol ogical r el at ion e.g. t he AST-T i s or dered

within

t he EV-T).

Tense

t hen orders t he t im e i nt er val f ocus sed by Aspect t hat i s, t he AST-T)

with

respect to the Utterance time.

7 The Phrase Structure

Tense and

spect

T P

UT-T

T

TO A S P - P

AST-T A S P

ASpo VP

EV-T

VP

If

t he s tr ict parall el t hat

we

establish between the syntax

of Tense

a nd t he

syntax

of

Aspect

i s cor rect, t hen t em poral

and

aspecnlal relations

can be

reduced

to a

simple

s chem at a: a prepositional-type

head

establishes a

spatiotemporal relation between i ts t wo arguments . We believe that

the

t heory pr oposed here opens t he way t o a s im pl e account of the temporal and

aspecrual systems instantiated

in

natural languages.

I n t he

next sections, we illustrate

our

proposal with an analysis of two

aspects: the progressive and the perfect. Tins analysis is summarized

in

8).

8)

a

Both TO and

ASPO

are

spatiotemporal

ordering predicates.

b. The

head

o f T P

is a temporal ordering predicate with themeaning

of after for

Past

or

with in f or Present, as

in

Stowell 1993).

c.

Th e

head of AS P is a spatiotemporal ordering predicate with_the

meaning of

after for Perfect Aspect

or

with in

for

Progressive

Aspect.

We

will argue

t ha t t he p ro po sa l

in

9) h as

t wo c o rr e la t ed c o nc e pt u al

advantages over alternative analyses

of

the Progressive and the Perfect. First,

it

derives the compositional interaction betweenTense

and

Aspect

without

THE

SYNTAX OF TEMPORAL RELATIONS / 5

resorting to ad-hoc diacritics

or

fearures e.g. +/-

completed,

+/- perfective).

In

particular, within a Reichenbachian system

of

tenses, diacritics

m us t b e

introduced

in order

to

distinguish

between

th e simple past a nd t he p as t

progressive for instance), as illustrated in 9).

The

arrow

over

E in 9b)

indicates that thedesignatedevent is

not

punctual

but

spreads over time.

9) a ast E, _S Rosa slept

->

b. Past progressive: E,

_S

Rosa was sleeping

Any

model based

on

Reichenbach s three times canintegrate thePerfect

into

a

system

of

Tense

representation.

Th e

Perfect acts

li ke a past

tense : it

l ocates t heevent t im e E)

in

the

past

with respect to theReferencetime

R).

Th e proposal

in 7c )

that Past Tense

and

P er fe ct A s pe c t are both

spatiotemporal predicates with the meaning

of after

also captures this idea.

T il e t ri ck y q ue st io n i s h ow

to

integrate the Progressive

into

a

system of

Tense representation.

Th e

thesis w e d ef en d in section 5 is

that th e

Pr ogr es si ve act s l i ke a present t ense :

both

Present

Tense

an d

Progressive

Aspect are spatiotemporal predicates with the meaning of

within. The

theory

we propose will, thus, unifonnly derive theinterpretation of the Progressive

a nd t he

P er fe ct f ro m t he s am e s et

of

syntactic

and

semantic

primitives:

spatiotemporal predicates ordering two times.

A further advantage

of

ou r analysis is that

it

derives - without additional

stipulations - the syntax

and

semantics of recursive aspects e.g. the Perfect

of

a P ro gr es si ve ), as w el l as c on st ra in ts

on

r ecur si ve aspects e.g.

*the

Progressive of a Perfect) - see Demirdache

Uribe- Etxebarria 1996).

S.

T he P hr as e S tr uc tu re o f t h e P r og r es si v e Aspect

Consider the example

in

10) , a past progress ive s entence. 10) des cr ibes a

proces s: Henr y was in the process of buil ding a house.

We

propose that

10) has thephrase-structure in 11).

10) Henry was b uilding a house.

In 11) , t he

EV-T

is a bounded interval [tI, t2] wh ere t2 is the tim e that

d ef in es t he

final e n d p oin t o f t he e ve nt .

T he p ro gr es si ve a sp ec t i s

a

spatiotemporal predicate with the meaning of with)in: it order s t he AST

T

within

t he E V -

T

It thus picks ou t a t im e c on ta in ed w it ln n t he

interval

defined by [t t2]. Past tense is a spatiotemporal predicate with themeaning

of

after. It

orders the

UT-T

after theAST-T. 11) thus focuses a subinterval

within

t he i nt erval defi ned

by

t he event of building. TIlis subinterval

is

itself

located

in

t he p as t, s in ce t he UT-T i s o rd er ed b y T en se ) a ft er tIlis

subinterval i.e. after the AST-T).

V


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T

fter

T

within

152/ HAMIDA DEMIRDACHE MYRIAM URIBE-ETXEBARRIA

11 The P hr as e Str ucture of the Past Progressive

Uf-T

T

ASPP

AST-T ASP

ASpo

VP

withilJ,

EV-T VP

(13)

THE SYNTAX OF TEMPORAL RELATIONS /153

The P resent P rogr es sive

Uf-T T

ASPP

AST-T ASP

ASpo VP

within

EV-T VP

Following Smith (1991), we assume that only the time interval witllln the

time of the event denoted by tlle VP fo ussed by aspect is visible to the

semantic interpretation (see section 2). The time focussed by ASPect in (11)

- wll lch we have called the AST-T, fol lowing Klein

(1995) -

must be a

subinterval

of

tlle event time; that is, it must be properly contained within

the EV-T.4 Since the AST-T does no include the endpoints of the event,no

assertion is made about whether the event

of

building culminated - although

the sentence is in the past. (10) CaII, thus, be followed by b ut h e ne ver

finished itl ... and he is still building itl ... and

he

finished it this summer.

The present progressive sentence in (12) has the sanle phrase structure

as the progressive sentence in

(10),

as i llus trated in (13). The s ingle

difference between (10) aIld (12) is tlle tense of the sentence (past vs.

present). Whereas in (11), tllehead of TP is a spatiotemporal predicate with

the meaning of after, in (13), the head of TP is a spatiotemporal predicate

witll the meaIung of within.

(12) Henry is building a house.

The

Progressive Aspect is a spatiotemporal predicate with the meaning of

with)in:

it orders tlle AST-T within tlle EV-T.

It

thus picks out a t ime

contained wit1un the time of the event denoted by the VP. Present Tense is

also a spatiotemporal predicate with the meaIllng

of

(with)in. It orders the

Uf-T witilln the AST-T. (13), thus, focuses a subinterval of the time that

defines the event of building. TIllS subinterval is located in the present since

it includes the

Uf-T.

4 This raises the question of how we define the EV

-T

w hen th e event never

culminates e.g. Max was

crossing

the street w he n h e

was

struck dead). This issue

- and more generally,

the

imperfective paradox -

is

discussed in detail

in

Demirdache

Uribe-Etxebarria

1996).

5.1.

The Temporal Frame Reading

of

the

Progressive

This analysis

of

the Progressive as the spatiotemporal predicate

with)in .

explains why the progressive entails the existence

of

an event of greater

duration than (what Jesperson called) the framed time (see Kearns 1991).

In particular, Jesperson states that in the progressive sentence He is hunting,

The hunting

is

felt to be a kind of frame

around

something else; it is

represented

as lasting s om e t im e before a nd possibly or probably) also

some time after something else,

which

mayor

may

not

be

expressly

indicated, but

which is always in

the

mind of

the

speaker...

Jesperson (1932)

Jesperson sframed time is our Assertion Time. TheAST-T is ordered by the

Progressive Aspect within the event time. The event time, thus, contains

frames - the Assertion Time. The EV-T will be larger then tlus framed time.

5.2.

C ro ss l in gu is ti c Evi de nc e f or our Analysis of th e

Progressive

We

now provide c ross li ngui st ic support f or the p roposal that t he

Progressive is a spatiotemporal predicate with themeaIung

of with)in.

5.2.1. French

In

French, tlle Progressive is fonned by combilung all infinit ive with a

complex aspectual expression contailung a locative preposition wluch is

traIlslatable as ngaged in

aIld

could be decomposed

as

in

+

along.

(14)

a.

[BE + en train de+ INFINITIVE]

b. Zazie est en train

ce

miauler

Zazie IS in along of miaowing

Zazie is engaged innuaowing I Zazie is miaowing


6/8

54 HAMIDA DEMIRDACHE

MYRIAM URIBE-ETXEBARRIA

THE SYNTAX OF TEMPORAL RELATIONS / ISS

5. 2. 2. B as qu e

Setting

aside

the

reduced group of verbs that fonn the progressive

by

making use

of

a synthetic fonn, the progressive is fonned by combining

the nominalized form of the verb suf fi xed wit h t he inesive (locative)

postposition -n in/on/at and the verb ari

engage .

Progressive sentences

are always intransitive.

(15) a. [V + tze + LOC (IN) + ARI (engage) + AUX BE)]

b. Amaia leihoa apur-tze-n aIi

c

Amaia AB s window AB s break NoM LOC (i n) engage Aux(is)

Li t Amaiais engaged in breaking the window

Amaia is breaking thewindow

5.2.3. St at imcets L il lo oe t S al is h)

In

St at imcets, progressive sentences make use of the auxiliary wa7, which

van Eijk (1985) defines as in (16).

16) wa :

t o

be (busy with, involved in)

The (auxiliary) use of wa7 corresponds to theEnglish progressive.

Davis (1996) argues that main verb

wa7

only takes locative complements

and

establishes the following correlation between the auxiliary use of

wa

in progressive sentences aIld the locative use of main verb wa7.

.. The primary function of the main verb

wa

is locative. Main verb wa

unlike English be is compatible only with locative complements.. . Main

verb wa7 appears to mean not just be but be somewhere; in other words, just

as auxiliary wa 7 supplies temporal coordinates, main verb wa 7 supplies

spatial coordinates which may be fixed by locative deictics or prepositional

phrases .....

Our analysis of the Progressive as a spa tiotempora l predica te with the

meaIung of with)in provides a principled eXplaIlation for tIus correlation

between the locative use aIld tile progressive use

of wa7

in St


7/8

156 / HAMIDA DEMIRDACHE MYRIAM URIBE-ETXEBARRIA

21) a.

He

is on hunting b.

He

was a-coming home

According to Vlach, this locative preposition has the meaning

of

engaged)

i n ; 2 1a ), c an t hu s b e p ar ap hr as ed as H e i s i n t he p ro ce ss

of

running.

5.4. Conclusion

Our

model of temporal relations is based

on

three times BV-T, AST-T, UT

T). However, it cannot be reduced to the classical Reichenbachian system

i .e . E V- T, R EF -T , U T- T) . W it hi n a R ei ch en ba ch ia n s ys te m, a REF-T

cannot

b e o rd er ed wi t hi n a no th er t im e - t ha t i s, a R EF -T c an no t r ef er to a

subpart of the

EV

- T. R ei ch en ba ch i s, t hu s, f or ce d t o r es or t

to an

ad-hoc

system of diacritics to derive the interpretation of t he p ro gr es si ve - a s w a s

illustrated in 9 ) a bo ve , w he re a n a rr ow o ve r E was u se d t o i nd ic at e t ha t t he

E vent time) is not punctual but spreads over time.

We

h a ve i nt eg r at ed t he p ro gr es si ve a sp ec t into a s ys te m of Tense

representation - and uniformly derived the compositional interaction of

Tense

and

A sp ec t - w it ho ut r es or ti ng t o e it he r f ea tur es s uc h as [+ /

completed, +/- progressive, +/-perfective] or ad-hoc diacritics. Our analysis

rests

on

two assumptions: i) ASP is a d ya di c p re di ca te t ak in g t wo

time-

denoting phrases

as arguments; ii) the Progressive Aspect is a

spatiotemporal p r ed i ca te w it h m ea ni ng of with)in. In a p r og re s si v e

s en te nc e, t he e ve nt d en ot ed b y t he V P i s p re se nt ed w it ho ut I ni ti al o r F in al

end-points because ASP establishes a topological relation between the time

to which the assertion of the sentence is confined and the event time of the

VP: it o rd er s t he A ST -T w it hi n t he EV -T .

The

AST-T in 11) or 13),

t hu s, r ef er s t o a s ub pa rt of the EV-T which includes neither the Initial nor

Final endpoint of the event.

Under

t ll is a na ly si s, t he P ro gr es si ve a ct s l ik e a p re se nt t en se :

both

Present

Tense a nd P ro gr es si ve A sp ec t a re a na ly se d as

spatiotemporal

predicates with the meatling of within.

6. The

Present

Perfeet

6.1.The Syntax of the English Pel feet

We

now integrate theEnglish Perfect Have Ved) into

our

system

of

Tense

representation by atlalysing the Perfect

as

a spatiotemporal predicate with

the meatling of after. Under this atlalysis, the Perfect is like a past tense :

both Past Tense and Perfect Aspect are spatiotemporal predicates with the

meatling of

after.

We illustrate this proposal in 22 ). 2 2b ) i s t he p hr as e

structure proposed for thepast progressive sentencein 22a).

22)

a.

Laura had built a house.

THE SYNTAX OF TEMPORAL RELATIONS /

157

b. The Phrase Structure of the Pas t Perf ec t

TP

UT-T T

ASP.P

fter

AST-T ASP

ASpo

VP

fter

EV-T VP

In 2 2b ), the EV -T is a b ou nd ed i nt er va l

[11

t2] where t2 is t he final

endpoint of the event. The p er fe ct i s a s pa ti ot em po ra l p re di ca te w i th t he

meatling of

after.

o rd er s t he A S T-T a ft er t he E V-

T: it

thus picks out a

time after the interval defined by

[11

t2]. Laura

PERF BUILD

a house , thus,

describes an event

of

building, completed prior to some reference time the

AST-T).

Past

T en se i s a s pa ti ot em po ra l p re di ca te w it h t he m ea ni ng

of

after.

orders the UT-T after the AST-T. Laura had built a house thus,

asserts that an event of building was completed prior to some past reference

t im e e .g . p ri or to 1 98 6) .

T hi s a na ly si s, t hu s, c ap tu re s t he i de a t ha t t he P er fe ct a ct s l ik es a past

tense: it locates the EV-T

in

t he p as t w it h r es pe ct t o a r ef er en ce t im e the

AST-T) by ordering the AST-T after the EV-T.

The P re se nt p er fe ct s en te nc e i n 23 a) h as t he s at ne p hr as e s tr u ct u re

e xc ep t t ha t T en se is a s pa ti ot em po ra l p re di ca te w it h t he

meaning of

within.

It

orders the UT-T within the AST Laura has built a house, thus,

asserts that an event of building was completed prior to a present reference

time i.e. prior to UT-T).

For

an

analysis that derives the existential, resultative and continuative

readings

of

the English Present Perfect uniformly from the proposal that the

perfect

i s a s pa ti ot em po ra l p re di ca te w it h t he me at li ng of

fter

see

Denlirdache

Uribe- Etxebarria 1996).

23) a. Laura is building a house.


8/8

158/

HAMIDA DEMIRDACHE MYRIAM URIBE-ETXEBARRIA

b The Phrase Structure of the Present Per fect

TP

UT-T T

TO ASP-P

within

AST-T ASP

ASpo VP

after

EV-T

VP

We have derived

the perfective viewpoint

of

the

perfect (i.e. t he event i s

presented as

completed)

without resorting to ad-hoc features

such

as, +/

completed,

+/ -

perfective,

+/- terminated.

The

event

is

presented as

completed because the

perfect ordersa reference time (theASS-

T) after

the

EV -T and,

hence, after

the time that defines the

culmination

of the event.

6.2.

Cross-l inguist ic

Evidence

fo r our

Analysis

of

th e

Perfec t

Cross-linguistics

evidence for our analysis of the perfect as a spatiotemporal

predicate

with the

meaning

of after is provided by Bull

(1960),

who argues

that,

In Hebrew, the difference between is singing , shar, and has sung , kvar

shar,

is

indicated by kvar, which also means already . Likewise, in Hebrew

a translation of he had already sung is literally: he was already after his

singing

bar

shar ~ ~ s h i r a t o This is paralleled in Gaelic by he was

after his singing (rabh se ndiaidh seinnm).

these languages demonstrate that both the concept of aspect and the

concept of order produce identical results. Bull (1960)

7. Conclusion

The uniform structural representation for

Tense and

Aspect

proposed here

is

based on a

simple schemata:

spatiotemporal predicates relating

times.

Present is analysed

as UT-T

witlz ill AST-T, Past

as

UT-T afterAST-T,

Progressive as AST-T

witlz ill

EV-T and

Perfect

as AST-T

afterEV T

We

believe

that our proposal can be extended to

other

aspects,

once

we

assume that Aspects

are

spatiotemporal predicates a nd c an exp la in why

predicates of +/- central coincidence (e.g. allative to/towards, locative

in/on/at

playa

pervasive

role in

temporal

and aspectual

systems

cross

linguistically

(cf.

Hale 1984,

Fong

1996).

THE SYNTAX OF TEMPORAL RELATIONS

/159

Selected References

Bull, William. 1960.

Time, Tense and the verb.

University of California Press.

Brugger, Gerhard.1996. The Temporal Representation of Present Perfect Types,

ms

UCLA.

ByBee, John

Revere Perkins

William Pagliuca. 1994.

The Evolution

of

the

Grammar.

The University

of

Chicago Press.

Dav is , Henry. 1995. Auxi liary and Main Verb Wa 7 in St at imcets. Paper

presented at the

Fourth Annual Salish Morphosyntax Workshop,

UVic.

Demirdache, Hamida

Myriam Uribe- Etxebarria. 1996. The Primitives

of

Temporal Relations, ms UBC

UCr

En

the syntax of temporal relations

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