A Constraint-based Semantics for Tenses and Temporal Auxiliaries

Linguistics, 2003

This review is devoted to the bulk of Giorgi and Pianesi's (1997) proposal for the (morpho-)syntax and semantics of tense and aspect, presented in chapters 1-4 of their book. The authors investigate the cross-linguistic variation in the semantics of various tense forms (Present, Imperfect, Present Perfect) and claim that it can be directly linked to their morphosyntactic properties, expressed in terms of an explicit theory of functional features and projections. In our critical discussion we contend that (a) the treatment of aspect is deficient (in particular, we criticize the unified analysis of the different usages of the Italian Present Perfect); (b) the treatment of actionalitythat is, Aktionsart-phenomena is occasionally misconceived; (c) the syntactic treatment of the ''P-definiteness constraint'' (Klein 1992) presents some technical problems. On these grounds, we put forward two more general remarks. The first one concerns the assumption that there is a strict correspondence between the morphological exponence of specific inflectional features and tenseaspect semantics. We believe instead that the three levels of semantics, syntax, and morphology must be assumed to be partially independent, although related in a nonarbitrary way. Second, we suggest that G&P have failed to take into account the discourse function of tenses. Although a formal syntactic analysis of tense and aspect is obviously relevant, tense and aspect are intrinsically ''interface phenomena,'' where the syntactic configurations yielded by the computational system crucially interact with the independent constraints of other external systems.

2000

We look at a contrasting picture where some piece of functional/semantic information, namely tense, may be de ned morphologically by tense in ection, or else compositionally in syntax (in conjunction with in ection on syntactic items). The question that is at issue is how to represent analytic tense formation to obtain a uniform functional structure for analytic and synthetic tense formation.

Working Papers in Linguistics, 1984

1974

How do we say WHEN it happens: Contributions to the …, 1998

An important tenet of LFG is the lexical integrity principle which says that the leaves of c{ structure trees are complete surface words. Given this principle, the morphological component is seen as distinct from the syntax. It can be modelled by sublexical rules as we will illustrate below but the principles that apply to these rules are di erent from those applying in the syntax (see for discussion). The way LFG is set up allows single words and phrases to contribute the same or similar information to an f{structure. For example a form like parla, pass e simple of parler, contributes information similar to that contributed by a parl e, the pass e compos e of the same verb. The framework allows a similar treatment for the two forms as well as the maintenance of lexical integrity and makes it possible to avoid word formation rules in the syntax without losing paradigmatic transparency (see for discussion). These possibilities, however, are not always exploited as well as they could be, and using them transparently is made less easy than it could be by another architectural feature of LFG. The distinction that the architecture of LFG makes between c{structure and f{structure was meant to embody the insight that word order and other constituent structure di erences are not necessarily indicative of profound syntactic di erences among languages. LFG follows here the distinction made e.g. in between coding properties and genuine syntactic characteristics. The f{structure allows us to abstract away from super cial word order di erences to bring out the more fundamental syntactic similarities (or di erences) among languages. This abstracting away from certain di erences is theoretically important but also practically, e.g. in the context of translation. It makes the f{structure into a structure that comes close to the underspeci ed representation used in the Core Language Engine (see , ), which can be argued to be, from a practical point of view, a good candidate for input and output of transfer rules (see ). But the traditional architecture gets us only half way: while it abstracts away from c{structure phenomena, it encodes all the morphological information in the f{structure. This information, however, is to a large extent as much encoding information as word order is. We would like to thank the following people for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article: John Maxwell, who proposed a similar architecture in conversations with the second author, Ron Kaplan, Miriam Butt, Fr ed erique Segond and Veronika Kn uppel. In particular we thank Joan Bresnan for extensive comments and suggestions. The issues she raised could not be discussed in su cient detail in this short contribution. Needless to say that the commentators do not necessarily share the perspective we are taking here. Special thanks go also to Marc Dymetman for judgements on French data. We alone are responsible for remaining errors.

2010

ii Acknowledgements iii List of Abbreviations iv Section 1: Introduction 1 Section 2: The Spanish Present Subjunctive 3 2.1. Concordantia Temporum 3 2.2. The Present Subjunctive in Argentinean Spanish 5 2.3. Previous Accounts of Violations of Concordantia Temporum 7 Section 3: Time and Language 14 3.1. Tensed and Tenseless Languages 14 3.2. Reichenbach‟s Theory of Tense 18 3.3. Hornstein‟s Neo-Reichenbachian Theory of Tense 22 3.4. Sequence of Tense (SOT) 25 Section 4: The Syntactic Realization of Tense 30 4.1. The Internal Structure of TP and AspP 30 4.2. The Tense Structure of Infinitival Clauses 35 4.3. The Syntactic Structure of Infinitival Clauses 37 Section 5: A Tenseless Subjunctive in Argentinean Spanish 45 5.1. The Analysis 45 5.2. Temporal Adjunct Clauses 55 Section 6: Finiteness 58 6.1. Non-Finite forms cross-linguistically 58 6.2. Finiteness and Binding 64 Section 7: Theory Extension 66 7.1. Language Change driven by Economy Conditions 66 7.2. Language Change and the Con...

Lingua, 2007

In this article I defend the view that many central aspects of the semantics of tense are determined by independently-motivated principles of syntactic theory. I begin by decomposing tenses syntactically into a temporal ordering predicate (the true tense, on this approach) and two time-denoting arguments corresponding to covert a reference time (RT) argument and an eventuality time (ET) argument containing the verb phrase. Control theory accounts for the denotation of the RT argument, deriving the distinction between main clause and subordinate clause tenses. The theory of covert movement is used to account for the independent/indexical interpretation of relative clause tenses, and for the correlation between independent tense interpretation and a de re construal of the relative clause. A theory of "past polarity", based on traditional negative polarity theory, accounts both for the simultaneous "sequence of tense" construal of past tenses in subordinate clauses embedded within past tense contexts, and for the obligatory indexical/independent interpretation of present tense in a relative clause embedded within a past tense context. Combined with the copy theory of movement, the polarity theory also provides an account of the semantics of double access sentences, treating them as involving a special kind of reconstruction effect.

Language Sciences, 1992

In this paper, I will discuss the semantics of French tense from a contextual view point and present a number of situation-specific semantic tense systems. Such a polysystemic approach to the semantics of French tense serves to bridge the gap between the monosystemic tense grammar which realises the temporal meaning of tense and different contexts of use. A context-based polysystemic semantics of French tense reflects the diversification of context and highlights variability both in the uses and semantic "valeurs" of a tense. Thus, viewed from context, the semantics of a tense is interpreted in terms of the different uses that it may have in different contexts. This approach reveals particular "valeurs" for each tense in specific contexts of use.

The Syntax of Time, 2004

To appear in The Syntax of Time [Jacqueline Guéron and Jacqueline Lecarme (eds.), MIT Press].

Linguistics, 2003

This review is devoted to the bulk of Giorgi and Pianesi's (1997) proposal for the (morpho-)syntax and semantics of tense and aspect, presented in chapters 1-4 of their book. The authors investigate the cross-linguistic variation in the semantics of various tense forms (Present, Imperfect, Present Perfect) and claim that it can be directly linked to their morphosyntactic properties, expressed in terms of an explicit theory of functional features and projections.

2014

The central goal of this article is to argue that functional categories are universally associated with a core function but that their substantive content is subject to variation. We review evidence from Ritter and Wiltschko (2009) based on language variation: INFL may be associated with temporal, spatial, or participant marking. This paper explores the properties of the universal category INFL in clauses where it remains without substantive content. We show that languages pattern in similar ways in these contexts. That is, in the absence of variable substantive content, the universal formal properties of INFL emerge.

The Sign of the V: Papers in Honour of Sten Vikner, 2019

In this paper it is shown that Danish syntactic constructions, such as accusative + infi nitive, e.g. Hun så ham komme (She saw him come), accusative + to-infi nitive, that-clauses and preposition + that-clauses, have their own type of meaning potential, exactly like lexical items, such as perception predicates: see, hear, control predicates: permit, offer, and mental NEG-raising predicates: think, hope. The types of meaning that syntactic constructions can have as predications are: state of affairs, proposition, illocution and fact. Both lexical items and syntactic constructions are polysemous and disambiguate each other when combined in a clause according to a general rule that may be stated similarly to the way that the rule for a lexical entry may. Some examples such as Hun bad ham komme (She asked him to come) and Hun lod ham begrave (She let him be buried) are identifi ed and given an explanation.