The Past Simple

• deictic/existential value
• non-deictic: narrative
Ønarrative time advances with perfect event sentences
Øbounded events occur in sequence
Østates are simultaneous with the time of the preceding event
a. The car swung sideways, seemed to pause, surprised and airborne,
before it tilted, dropped and sploshed into the canal.
b. Mr Wonka led the party over to a gigantic machine that stood in the
very centre of the Inventing Room. It was a mountain of gleaming metal
that towered high above the children. Out of the very top of it there
sprouted hundreds and hundreds of thin glass tubes, and the glass tubes
all curled downwards and came together in a bunch and hung suspended
over an enourmous round tub as big as a bath.
c. Then he ran over to another machine, a small shiny affair that kept
going phut-phut-phut-phut-phut, and every time it went phut, a large
green marble dropped out of it into a basket on the floor.
• past progressive: temporal frame: ET included in RT
A steamy mist was rising up now from the great warm chocolate river, and
out of the mist there appeared suddenly a most fantastic pink boat.
The river of chocolate was flowing very fast inside the pipe, and the
Oompa-Loompas were all rowing like mad, and the boat was rocketing
along at a furious pace.
• Băiatul învârtea la forjă, potrivea cărbunii, aducea apă de băut,
îndeplinea tot felul de porunci, iar dacă meșterul său punea pe
nicovală fierul înroșit, se repezea la baros și-l mânuia cu atâta
putere, încât răspândea în jur mii de scântei.
• Gemea marea, amestecându-și apele cenușii cu apele vinete ale
cerului. O arătare ciudată stătea țeapănă lângă porumbarul
acela de piatră, încă mai ciudat decât ea, și se uita la plutaș cu
un ochi mort, cu altul rotund și ascuțit, de croncan.
• Seara se priponea la mal și făcea popas. Apele clipoceau, țiuia
stuful verde, stuful uscat croncănea, fremăta ramura sălciei, pe
țărmuri se vedeau focuri de pescari - și Cristea se gândea la fata
care….
• habitual
Susan rode a bicycle last summer.
Susan moved last year. <- pragmatic knowledge
üprogressive:
Whenever I looked up he was looking.
• past perfect value
a. After she listened to the explanations, she said…
b. The night before he returned she slept poorly.
Compare:

a. He shaved and listened to the radio.

b. He read the letter and burned it.
a. When Harry woke up Emmie read the letter.
b. When Harry woke up Emmie had read the letter.
c. When Harry woke up Emmie was reading the letter.
d. When Harry woke up Emmie was angry.
a. When Harry woke up Emmie was asleep.
b. When Harry woke up Emmie fell asleep.
c. When the bomb went off Emmie was dead.
d. When the bomb went off Emmie died.
a. When Harry woke up Emmie was angry.
b. When Harry didn’t wake up Emmie was angry.
a. ??When he read the letter he burned it.
b. When he had read the letter he burned it.
c. When he read the letter his voice shook.
• modal remoteness
Ø present reference:
I wish they were alive.
If they were alive they would be horrified.
Øpast reference:
I wish he had left.
If they had left they would not have told her.
• backshift
She said she had too many commitments.
• attitudinal past
I wanted to ask you something.
I want to ask you something.
The Perfect

• marker of ASPECT: represented as the spatio-temporal predicate

AFTER (Demirdache&Uribe-Extebarria)

She may have left last week.

Her having left early surprised everyone.
The Present Perfect

• current relevance

I have lost my phone. -> the phone is lost.

I lost my phone. -> no similar implication

• Reference Time = present

Øexperiential :
a. He has written many books.
Øresultative :
b. The projector has broken down.
• focus on present relevance
• participant property
• resulting state: valid at present moment
Ørecent past: indefinite past
Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s greatest scientists, has died (The
Economist/posts, March 14, 2018).
• ‘participant property’ (Smith 1991) - current relevance
*Einstein has lived in Princeton.
Princeton has been visited by Einstein.
• differences in situation type + context => different values of the perfect
(resultative, continuative) -> no differences in interpretations of the
perfect itself
• relevance:
a. I have washed the dishes. (= I have carried out the assigned
household task)
b. The dishes have been washed. (= they are ready to be put away)
• continuative: open, in the absence of contextual indications -> future
• +states:
a. They have always been friends.
• states are ambiguous between resultative/continuative
interpretation
a. We have lived in London.
• non-statives + progressive = continuative reading
b. Mary has rehearsed since noon.
c. Mary has been rehearsing since noon.
a. Peggy has been in Asia (ever) since January.
b. I’ve been a teacher for 30 years.
c. For 30 years, I’ve been a teacher.
-> sentence initial position: ambiguity resolved
• progressive with resultative reading: recently finished activities the
effect of which is still apparent

a. I’ve been chopping onions.

b. You’ve been fighting again.

c. He has not been coughing since noon.

• present perfect vs. past tense

RT = ST RT before ST
+ space-time coordinates
+ circumstances

‘What about a teaspoon?’

‘I’ve stirred it, Grandma. I stirred it well.’

When/Where/How did you get/*have you got it?

ADVERBS THAT OCCUR WITH:

Simple Past both Simple Past and Present Perfect

not Present Perfect Present Perfect not Simple Past

…ago long since in the past at present

once (=formerly) once (1x) today up till now
the other day in my life for… so far
those days recently just now as yet
last … often yet during …
in 1930 always ever herewith
at 3 p.m. never already lately
after/before the war before this morning since…
no longer before now

before ST context dependent ST oriented

a. *I was ill lately.-> ST oriented
b. I have been / was ill recently.
c. Now my ambition has been fulfilled.
d. Now my ambition was fulfilled.
e. He was once an honest man.
f. I have visited the Highlands once.
The Present Perfect Puzzle (Giorgi&Pianesi 1998)
Øban on specific temporal adverbs with present perfect
ØP(osition)-Definiteness Constraint (Klein 1992)
RT and ET cannot both be independently P-definite
present tense: P-definite: linked to NOW
-> clash with specific past Av
past tense: non-P-definite: unspecified past
-> any past Av
‘there are many wases but only one is’
He has got up at five o’clock (before).
John has often left at four.

-> resultative
a. Many ships have been swallowed up and lost for ever on this part of
the coast.
b. He has been fast asleep for twenty years.
c. Ever since we met, you've been pestering me to get a job.
d. You’ve been fighting again!
Present perfect in time clauses

• variation with simple present

Øsituation type: durative/non-durative
a. Come over and see us when our guests leave/have left.
b. We can go out as soon as we have had /*have dinner.
Means of expressing future time

opresent simple Ømodalized future

opresent progressive
ogoing to
owill
obe to, be about to, etc.
• no future tense
Present Simple: FUTURE AS FACT

• present tense: high degree of certainty

• obligatory time Av
• future situation <= the state of the world now
• the clause must involve smth. that can be assumed to be known
It’s Christmas tomorrow.
*It snows tomorrow.
Present Progressive

• personal plans: arrangement already made

• human agency

I’m spending Christmas with my sister.

*The sun is rising at 5 tomorrow.
*It is raining tomorrow.
• imminence
a. She has her operation tomorrow.
b. She’s having her operation tomorrow.
c. ?She’s having her operation in three months’ time.

a. It expires tomorrow/in five years.

b. It’s expiring tomorrow /?in five years.
• imminence:
a. I’m phoning her tonight.
= she’s expecting my call
b. I phone her tonight.
= I phone her every Monday (today is Monday)
= I phone her tonight and then tomorrow we go and talk to the
witnesses and then we have three weeks to prepare our defense because
we go to court on the 30th.
c. I’m going to phone her tonight.
= intention: she does not know about it
BE GOING TO
qfuture fulfillment of present intention
I’m going to call her tonight.

qfuture fulfillment of present cause -> prediction

Look out, the boxes are going to fall down!
It’s going to rain.
If Winterbottom’s calculations are correct, this planet is going to burn
itself out 200,000,000 years from now. -> remote events
*I wonder whether she’s going to know you.
*If you accept this job you are never going to regret it. (future cause)
WILL
• prediction
I guess somoeone will find it eventually. Maybe a hundred years
from now.
• volition
I won't do it. That's final. I simply will not do it.
If you will conduct yourself with discretion I might then assist
with your arrangements.
I’ll make some tea.
WILL + PROGRESSIVE

• aspectual meaning:
This time next week I will be sailing across the Atlantic. RT after ST, ET
includes RT
• future meaning: future as a matter of course
• ≠ volition

a. I’ll drive into London next week. (volition)

b. I’ll be driving into London next week.

c. Will you put on another play soon (volition)

d. Will you be putting on another play soon?

e. ??The United States will be declaring war on Iraq this year.

Future in the past

• would -> actualized

• going to – (non)-actualized

a. One day, a hundred years from now his descendants would see
the tent pulled down and all his glory vanish.
b. He pinched him just in time, hard enough to make him forget
what he was going to /*would say.
c. He could not shrug off the feeling that something was going to go
wrong.
Sequence of Tenses

He had a sore throat. - deictic

He said he had a sore throat. -> non-deictic (RT = ETsaid)

1. the tense of the MCl is past

2. the time of the MCl is past:
I remember telling her he had a sore throat.
Sequence of Tenses

He broke his leg. - deictic

He said he had broken his leg. -> non-deictic (RT = ETsaid)

1. the tense of the MCl is past

2. the time of the MCl is past
• not confined to indirect reported speech
That he had a sore throat was unfortunate.
• free indirect speech
George was paranoid. Was the computer actually listening to their
conversation? Was it safe to talk in front of him?
If this was his time to show courage, he figured, then that was what he
would do. He would stand there until they arrived and then he would
take them on in boy-to-robot combat.
Who’d let her in on this, what gave, and why hadn’t someone warned
him? Had something new cropped up? At a guess he’d guess the
Oracle must’ve cooked this up with Fraud. Fair enough, but why?
• optional backhshift: utterance is applicable and relevant
• speaker believes/endorses utterance

a. He said he has a sore throat, so he can’t sing in the concert.

b. He said he had a sore throat, but he sounds fine to me.
a. She said they were coming on Sunday (which Sunday?).
b. She said they are coming on Sunday (next Sunday: deictic – more
informative).
c. I thought she was/*is singing in the concert. (but I don’t think so
anymore)
• simplification
a. She asked when I was born. -> unambiguous
= had been, ?She asked ‘When are you born?’
b. She said she wrote it herself.
c. She said she (had) liked sports when she was a girl. ?She said ‘I like
poetry when I am a girl’
d. She said she believed him She said she had believed him.
a. He said she was the daughter of the Prince.
b. The monarch remembered his prophecy with amazement. But he
said he didn’t recall doing it, so the emperor was left to question his
memory.
c. He said his name was Rumpelstiltskin.