Abstract
Temporal information in a sentence locates in time the situation talked about. For instance, 1 informs us that the atelic durative event [Algernon ran in the park] occurred at a time one day prior to the moment of speech, for the interval of an hour.
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Temporal location is discussed in traditional grammars, focussing on such notions as deixis, sequence relations between events, grammatical categories (Benveniste 1956, 1966; Bull 1971; Lyons 1977; introductory summary in Comrie 1985). More formally-oriented work that has had an important influence on the development of the field include Reichenbach 1947, Prior 1967, Bennett & Partee 1972. In this Chapter I shall give a brief overview of a complex field, with the emphasis on the ideas needed to understand and analyze the relation between the domains of temporal location and aspect.
Both Dahl and Comrie argue for an approach in which ‘having morphological expression’ is one of several features that characterize the category of tense. Comrie proposes two parameters, obligatory expression and morphological boundedness, to account for the main variants of tense, which are auxiliaries and periphrastic forms (1985:9). Dahl suggests a prototype organization for grammatical categories such as tense: “(they have).. a core and a periphery, in the same way that an individual category does. In addition to morphological expression, features that plausibly characterize..might include obligatory or systematic use and lack of alternative ways of expression… (this) would distinguish the English Progressive, which is obligatory in its typical uses, from e.g. the synonymous but optional and non-unique constructions in Swedish, even if both the English and the Swedish constructions are periphrastic” (Dahl 1985:23).
There are consistent temporal location interpretations of the viewpoints. The perfective viewpoint is taken to indicate the Past, and the imperfective to indicate the Present, in the absence of adverbials or other information to the contrary. See the discussion of conventions of use for Chinese and Navajo, neither of which has a tense distinction between the present and the past. Navajo has a future and non-future tense. The imperfective viewpoint is used neutrally to talk about the present, while the perfective viewpoint is used neutrally to talk about the past. Temporal adverbials may override these conventions of neutral understanding.
Kamp & Rohrer develop a detailed account of temporal reference and temporal location in the framework of Discourse Representation Theory, focussing on French. In their terminology, SP refers to Speech Time; Temporal Perspective (TP) corresponds to Reference Time; Temporal Location (TL) corresponds to Situation Time. The additional time needed for successive situations is called Reference Point (RP) in their system. I have chosen to stay closer to the Reichenbach terms.
Tenses that relate to an orientation time other than Speech Time are known as relative tenses, whereas deictic tenses are absolute. Tense systems may also distinguish between near and remote past and present; for discussions of tense see Lyons 1955, 15. 4, 17. 2; Comrie 1985, Dahl 1985.
The source of both terms is the Latin perfectus,the past participle of perficere (to carry, end, finish, accomplish). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term `perfect’ was first applied to the Latin tense which denoted a completed action or event viewed in relation to the present and then with qualifications to any tense expressing completed action; the first such use cited in the OED is 1530. In Slavonic studies the term ‘perfective’ referred to verb forms expressing completion with inflectional changes, in opposition to imperfective forms; the OED cites an 1844 address by R. Garnett to the Philological Society. Eventually this term was used to refer generally to verb forms expressing termination or completion.
There is a copious traditional literature on the perfect, ably summarized in McCoard 1978, with an emphasis on the English perfect. McCoard notes that some scholars have claimed that the perfect is aspectual. However the perfect is always considered aspectual in a special sense, e.g. as Kuryowicz calls it a “relative aspect” (1964:90 ff). Among traditional theories of the perfect are those of White 1761, Pickbourn 1789; work in this century includes that of Jespersen 1931, Zandvoort 1932, Sorenson 1964, Bauer 1970.
According to Iljic, what is essential for the guo construction is that the events in question have taken place and that they are presented as entering the category of past events (cf p 96 et seq). To show that dates can be specified, Iljic presents examples which give by date the occurrence of the event in question:
Yijiusisi nian si yue wu ri, zheng shi Qingming jie de shihou, Yan’an Jiefang ribao dengzai-guo yi pian wenzhang, timu shi “Muqin de huiyi.”
On April 14 1955, just at time of the festival of Qingming, an article entitled “Memories of my mother” appeared in the journal the Quotidian of the Liberation of Yan’an.
The shifted interpretation occurs in certain syntactic contexts. When shifted, auxiliary have functions in lieu of the Past tense, which is syntactically impossible in just these contexts. For instance, auxiliary have but not the past tense appears obligatorily to convey pastness after modals and in infinitives, as in Susan has been fired, Mary seems to have told Fred the news. Cf Baker 1989: 456.
Locating adverbials specify Situation Time just in case Reference Time is already specified. There are several cases. The situation occurs in embedded sentences when the main sentence specifies Reference Time. Thus in John said yesterday that Mary arrived 3 days ago, the second adverbial specifies a Situation Time which is different from Reference Time, yesterday. A sentence that is semantically dependent on another for Reference Time may have an adverbial specifying Situation Time, e.g. John had arrived on Thursday.
There are adjectival phrases that temporally characterize situations in nominals, e.g. Mary took a three hour walk. In this construction the adjective seems to be of the internal type, indicating the planned or intended length of the event.
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Smith, C.S. (1991). Temporal Location. In: The Parameter of Aspect. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol 43. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7911-7_5
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