III. The role of temporal adverbials 133 John was in London yesterday. (durative Adv-time containing the durative situation time in terms of inclusion Ϫ John was in London at or for some time yesterday Ϫ or coincidence Ϫ John was in London all day yesterday) 2.22.2 Pure duration adverbials do not identify an Adv-time but only specify duration, more specifically the duration of the full situation. John was here for a couple of hours. (pure duration adverbial: it specifies the dura- tion of John’s visit but offers no clue as to when it took place) As will be noted in 2.31.1, a pure duration adverbial specifies the duration of the full situation and not of the situation time (except indirectly, when the two happen to coincide Ϫ see 2.31.2.) Thus in, Today John is in London for most of the day, the situation time is punctual (because it coincides with t 0 Ϫ see 2.21.2) and for most of the day indicates the (pre-determined) duration of the full situation of John being in London. Needless to say, it is important to distinguish carefully between pure dura- tion adverbials and durative time-specifying adverbials. Durative time-specify- ing adverbials indicate the Adv-time containing the situation time but do not necessarily specify the duration of the situation time (as in John had a walk yesterday), whereas pure duration adverbials specify the duration of the full situation but do not specify its time, i. e. the precise temporal location of the situation time in the absolute zone in which the tense places it (e. g. John walked for three hours). 2.22.3 Bifunctional temporal adverbials have a double function: they function as time-specifying adverbial and duration adverbial at the same time. For example: [“What were you doing from Monday to Thursday?”] Ϫ “I was abroad from Mon- day to Thursday.” (The adverbial specifies the time as well as the duration of the predicated situation. The latter may happen to coincide with the full situation but is more likely to be a portion of it.) [“When were you abroad?”] Ϫ “I was abroad from Monday to Thursday.” (The adverbial specifies the time as well as the duration of the predicated situation. Be- cause the adverbial gives the information that is asked for, the Gricean Maxim of Quantity stipulates that the duration indicated must be the duration of the full situa- tion. In other words, in this W-bounded reading, the situation time coincides with the time of the full situation.) They were together the whole morning. It rained heavily all afternoon. I’ve been waiting for her for two hours now. (For two hours now indicates the duration of the predicated situation, which is also the ‘factual full situation’, i. e. the full situation as it has actualized up to now Ϫ see 2.31.2. Because the situation time fills the entire period leading up to now, the adverbial also specifies the relevant pre- 134 2. Towards a theory of tense and time present period. In doing so it functions as a time-specifying adverbial: the Adv-time is the period up to now, which contains the situation time, in this case in terms of coincidence.) As is clear from the last example, duration adverbials are always bifunctional if they are ‘anchored’ to t 0 by now. 2.23 The function of a time-specifying adverbial As we have seen, a time indicated by a time-specifying adverbial (an Adv-time) contains the situation time (or other orientation time) whose temporal location it specifies. The situation time may be shorter than the Adv-time (i. e. it is included in it) or it may be exactly the same length (i. e. it coincides with it). In either case we can speak of ‘Adv- time-simultaneity’. When the Adv-time is punctual, the situation time is necessarily included in a punctual time and must therefore itself be punctual. A durative situation can be represented as simultaneous with a punctual Adv-time provided that the situa- tion is homogeneous (nonbounded). (The situation time is then the time of a punctual portion of the situation which is representative of the whole situation.) The fact that a progressive clause can combine with an adverbial specifying a punctual Adv-time means that a progressive clause represents the predicated situation as a punctual situation which is representative of the longer full situation. 2.23.1 As we have seen, tenses only express (one or more) T-relations between orientation times. (One of these orientation times is necessarily a situation time, viz. the time of the situation referred to by the tensed clause.) This means that tenses do not express a T-relation between a situation time and the time specified by an adverbial. However, as noted in section 2.16.1, there is an ‘Adv- time-relation’ between an adverbially specified time interval (henceforth: Adv- time ) and an orientation time. This relation is a relation of ‘containment’. Containment covers two possibilities: (a) inclusion: the included orientation time is shorter than the Adv-time; it may coincide with the beginning or end of the Adv-time or with some middle part of the Adv-time. (b) coincidence: the contained orientation time coincides with the Adv-time. In other words, the boundaries of the Adv-time coincide with the bound- aries of the contained orientation time. In both cases the contained orientation time is simultaneous with the Adv-time in a well-defined sense. In 2.29 we will call this relation ‘ Adv-time-simultane- III. The role of temporal adverbials 135 ity’, which is to be distinguished from T-simultaneity (expressed by certain tenses) and W-simultaneity (which is a question of interpretation in context). 2.23.2 The following sentences illustrate the two kinds of Adv-time-simulta- neity, viz. inclusion and coincidence. John left yesterday. (The past tense form left locates its situation time in the past time-sphere. Its exact location there is specified by yesterday, which specifies a dura- tive Adv-time which includes the situation time of John leaving.) John had already left yesterday. (Let us consider the reading ‘John left before yester- day’. The past perfect form had left then represents its situation time as T-anterior to a past orientation time. This past orientation time is an unspecified orientation time Ϫ see 2.14. However, the precise location of the unspecified orientation time in the past time-sphere is indicated by yesterday, which refers to a durative Adv- time containing the unspecified orientation time prior to which John left.) John left at four o’clock. (At four o’clock indicates a punctual Adv-time which coincides with the situation time of John leaving.) [“Where was John during the lecture?”] Ϫ “John was in the library during the lecture.” (During the lecture denotes an Adv-time which coincides with the situation time of John being in the library: the interpretation is that John was in the library throughout the lecture. In other words, the time of the predicated situation is exactly as long as the time interval indicated by during the lecture. Obviously the time of the full situation of John being in the library may be considerably longer than this.) [It can’t have been John you saw yesterday.] He was in India yesterday. (Yesterday denotes an Adv-time which either includes the situation time of John being in India (in which case the interpretation is that John was in India for some time yesterday, but not all day) or coincides with the situation time (in which case the interpretation is that John was in India all day yesterday). In the latter interpretation, the time of the full situation of John being in India may extend beyond the boundaries of the Adv-time: the sentence is true, e. g. if John has been in India for the past week.) By four o’clock John will have left. (The Adv-time denoted by four o’clock contains (in the sense of: coincides with) the unspecified orientation time to which the situa- tion time is T-anterior and which is itself T-posterior to t 0 .) 2.23.3 The following sentence is similar to John left at four o’clock above: John was reading at four o’clock. (At four o’clock indicates a punctual Adv-time which coincides with the situation time of John reading.) Examples like this naturally raise the question of whether this analysis entails that the situation referred to by a clause with a progressive verb phrase and a punctual time-specifying adverbial is represented as punctual. The answer is that it does. The situation represented by the progressive tense form is the situation time. This situation time is punctual because it is contained in (in the sense of: coincides with) the punctual Adv-time. This analysis accords with the fact that John was reading at four o’clock is not a suitable answer to When 136 2. Towards a theory of tense and time was John reading?, unless there was only one moment that John was reading and that moment coincided with four o’clock. That is, if John’s reading took up a certain time, the reply John was reading at four o’clock is not false, but it is pragmatically unacceptable because it is insufficiently informative. The Gricean Maxim of Quantity sees to it that (except in special contexts) the question When was John reading? is interpreted as asking information about the length of the full situation. An answer like John was reading from 2 p.m. to 4 is a suitable reply to this, because it specifies an Adv-time that is long enough to be able to contain (coincide with) a situation time that is the time of the full durative situation. An answer like John was reading at four o’clock is not normally a suitable reply to When was John reading? because it is not sufficiently informative: it specifies an Adv-time that is punctual and therefore cannot contain (coincide with) a situation time that is the time of the full situation, except in the very unlikely case that John’s reading took up just one moment. In other words, When was John reading? asks for a specification of the complete period when John was reading, while John was reading at four o’clock normally only specifies a point in the course of that period. Of course, the fact that such a clause with a progressive verb phrase and a punctual time-specifying adverbial represents its situation time as punctual does not prevent such a clause from being pragmatically interpreted as referring to a durative situation. This is because the progressive form implies that the situation time is only a portion of a longer, homogeneous situation. Our knowl- edge of the world too tells us that reading is not normally a punctual situation. As explained in 2.21.2, the full temporal interpretation of a clause is not deter- mined by the choice of tense and Adv-time only: the interpretation is based on pragmatics as well as semantics. 2.24 Situation-time adverbial In a given context, a temporal adverbial may contain (i. e. by inclusion or coincidence) a situation time, an orientation time other than a situation time, or several orientation times (usually situation times). We refer, respectively, to ‘situation-time adverbials’, ‘orientation-time’ adverbials’ and ‘multiple-orientation-time adverbials’. A time-specifying adverbial denoting an Adv-time which contains the situation time (in either of the senses described in 2.16.2, viz. inclusion or coincidence) will be called a situation-time adverbial. I left there yesterday. (Yesterday is a situation-time adverbial because the Adv-time that it denotes includes the situation time, i. e. the time of my leaving.) III. The role of temporal adverbials 137 2.25 Orientation-time adverbial An orientation-time adverbial is a time-specifying adverbial denoting an Adv-time which contains (in either of the two senses) an orientation time other than a situation time. At five o’clock John had already left. (At five o’clock specifies an Adv-time which contains the unspecified orientation time to which John’s leaving is represented as T-anterior.) [I don’t know how people will react to the next news bulletins, but] right now only two of the guests are going to interrupt their holiday tomorrow because of the approaching tornado. (Now is an orientation-time adverbial, tomorrow is a situa- tion-time adverbial. The orientation time contained in (ϭ coinciding with) ‘now’ is t 0 .) She intends to come at six, when most people will have left. (The when-clause is used here as a relative clause in which when has an adverbial function: when means ‘at which time’ and functions as orientation-time adverbial in the relative clause. That is, when does not specify (contain) the situation time (i. e. the time of the people leaving) but the implicit orientation time to which the situation time is T-anterior.) 2.26 Multiple-orientation-time-adverbial A multiple-orientation-time adverbial denotes an Adv-time which con- tains more than one orientation time. (The orientation times in question are usually situation times.) Yesterday John left before Bill arrived. (Before Bill arrived, which means ‘at a time before Bill arrived’, is a situation-time adverbial in the head clause: it denotes an Adv-time which includes the situation time of John’s leaving. Yesterday, which indi- cates an interval including both the situation time of John’s leaving and the situation time of Bill’s arrival, is a multiple-orientation-time adverbial.) 2.27 The relation between one Adv-time and another When there is more than one time-specifying adverbial, the various adverbially specified time intervals are normally related to each other in terms of contain- ment (i. e. inclusion or coincidence). The situation time is contained in the shortest of these intervals. (Remember that an Adv-time interval may be dura- tive or punctual.) I left at 5 a.m. in the morning on Tuesday last week. (The situation time is contained in the Adv-time specified by at 5 a.m., which is included in the Adv-time specified 138 2. Towards a theory of tense and time by in the morning, which is itself included in the Adv-time specified by on Tuesday, which in its turn is included in the Adv-time specified by last week.) Exceptionally, we can find a combination of a time-specifying adverbial speci- fying (ϭ containing) a situation time and an adverb referring to t 0 as a ‘time of evaluation’: Now there will be no water left for the rest of the day. (This is interpreted something like ‘Now that X has actualized, there will be no water left for the rest of the day’.) At present we have answered two-thirds of these letters. 2.28 Durative time-specifying adverbials referring to the present Adverbials like today, at present, these days, etc. denote a durative Adv-time which includes t 0 . The temporal zero-point resembles a punctual Adv-time in that it contains (in the sense of ‘coincides with’) the situation time of the clause. This means that a predicated situation that is located at t 0 must be punctual, hence that the full situation has to be either punctual or homogeneous. This is illustrated by the grammaticality of At this very moment I’m writing a letter versus the ungram- maticality of *At this very moment I write a letter: the situation time can only be located at (i. e. represented as coinciding with) t 0 if it is punctual, and in the case of writing a letter this condition is only satisfied if the durative situation is repre- sented as homogeneous by the use of the progressive form. This is also true when there is a durative adverbial like today, these days, etc. The situation time again coincides with t 0 , which is a point of time that is included in the Adv-time denoted by the durative adverbial. For example: [As you can see,] we’re eating on the verandah today. The temporal interpretation of this sentence is determined by the following factors: (a) The progressive form represents the (full) situation as homogen- eous; (b) The present tense represents the situation time as T-simultaneous with t 0 ; (c) Because t 0 is punctual, the situation time must be punctual too: this follows from the definition of T-simultaneity as being a relation of strict coinci- dence (see 2.17); (d) Because today indicates a longer period including t 0 , and because the situation time is understood as forming part of a longer homogen- eous full situation, the time of the full situation will be interpreted as coinciding with a durative subinterval of the Adv-time indicated by today (or even with the Adv-time as a whole, but this is pragmatically unlikely). If, in the same sentence, the Adv-time is indicated by these days, the factors determining the full temporal interpretation of the sentence (We’re eating on the verandah these days) are the following: (a) The full situation is homogene- III. The role of temporal adverbials 139 ous because it is a temporary habit: as noted in 1.23.3, a habit is a state and, unless it involves a ‘bounding adverbial’ (see 1.48.2) like from 3 to 5, the representation of a state is by definition homogeneous; (b) The present tense represents the situation time as T-simultaneous with t 0 ; (c) Because t 0 is punc- tual, the situation time must be punctual too (cf. the definition of T-simultane- ity): the time of the predicated situation (ϭ situation time) is therefore a ‘mo- ment-of-a-habit’; (d) Because these days indicates a longer period including t 0 , and because the situation time is pragmatically understood as forming part of a longer homogeneous full situation (of which it may be any moment, including the initial and terminal points), the time of the full situation is interpreted as coinciding with the Adv-time indicated by these days. 2.29 Adv-time-simultaneity Adv-time simultaneity is unlike W-simultaneity in that it is linguistically expressed and it is unlike T-simultaneity in that it is not expressed by a tense and it allows for a relation of proper inclusion as well as one of strict coincidence, though it does not allow for mere overlap. When there is more than one Adv-time in a clause, the relation between the Adv- times is also one of Adv-time simultaneity Ϫ i. e. proper inclusion or coincidence. In the previous sections we have seen that an Adv-time can contain a situation time, or t 0 , or another orientation time. This containment relation, which may be either inclusion (provided the Adv-time is durative) or coincidence, is a kind of simultaneity relation. However, it is not T-simultaneity, since the containment relation does not form part of the semantics of any tense, and it is not W-simulta- neity, since it is not a question of pragmatic interpretation. Like T-simultaneity, it is a linguistic relation: it is inherent in the English language system that the temporal information provided by an adverbial specifying an Adv-time is always interpreted in terms of simultaneity (containment). In section 2.16 we have there- fore distinguished between three kinds of simultaneity: T-simultaneity (expressed by some tense forms), W-simultaneity (which is a question of interpretation-in- context) and Adv-time-simultaneity. The last is the relation of containment be- tween an Adv-time and a situation time, t 0 or another orientation time. 15 15. Because an Adv-time by definition contains a situation time, Adv-time-simultaneity is the only possible temporal relation between the contained orientation time and the con- taining Adv-time. There is no such a thing as ‘Adv-time-anteriority’ or ‘Adv-time-posteri- ority’. That is, the relation between the contained orientation time and the containing Adv-time cannot be such that the orientation time precedes or follows the Adv-time. When we speak of anteriority or posteriority, what we have in mind can only be a T- relation or a W-relation. . some middle part of the Adv-time. (b) coincidence: the contained orientation time coincides with the Adv-time. In other words, the boundaries of the Adv-time coincide with the bound- aries of the contained. Thursday.” (The adverbial specifies the time as well as the duration of the predicated situation. Be- cause the adverbial gives the information that is asked for, the Gricean Maxim of Quantity. stipulates that the duration indicated must be the duration of the full situa- tion. In other words, in this W-bounded reading, the situation time coincides with the time of the full situation.) They were