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JOURNAL OF SEMANTICS Volume
12
Number 3
CONTENTS ALMERINDO E. OJEDA The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
213
MICHEL AuaNAGUE
Orientation in French Spatial Expressions: Formal Representations and Inferences RENAAT DECLERCK AND ILSE DEPRAETERE
The Double System ofTense Forms Referring to Future Time
239
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The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural ALMERINDO E. OJEDA University ofCalifornia at Davis
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to endow the Italian double plural with a precise interpretation. Our main point will be that collective and distributive plurals denote algebras of the same type
semantically, a
homomorphic image
of its distributive counterpart.
If correct, these
interpretations will support the claim that nouns denote with a certain indeterminacy of indi
viduation (c£ Ojeda 1993a). They will also provide new evidence for the claim that the plural is semantically unmarked with respect to the singular (c£ McCawley 1968).
1 I NTRODUCT I O N Some masculine nouns ofltalian are said to have two plural forms. One of these forms is masculine and ends in i. The other is feminine and ends in -a. Semantically, many of the plurals in -a are said to have 'collective' force, while plurals in -i are instead said to be 'distributive' (Meyer-Liibke 1 905: §98), or 'singulative' (Regula &Jernej 1965: 87). Bur whar, exactly, do these terms mean? · Italian grammarians are seldom clear in this regard. 2 They simply tend to provide the reader with examples, glosses, or paraphrases of the plurals in question, perhaps adding that the plurals in -a have the collective value of the Latin neuters from which they ultimately derive (c£ Lausberg 1 962: §6o6; Rohlfs 1¢8: §368; Santangelo 198 1 ; 1 52). But no number of paraphrased examples can amount to a definition, and explanations in terms of the Latin collective would be satisfying only if we had a clear notion of the latter. Double plurals can be found in Italian which do not participate in an opposition of collectivity. We will discuss these plurals after interpreting the ones which do. We will then suggest how the meaning of each paired plural arises from the meanings of its morphological components. The claim will be that the difference between the two plurals is already present in their respective sterns. Hence the plural morphemes, which will be regarded as functors that are sensitive to the difference between algebras and subalgebras, will be able to combine with different kinds of sterns. Essentially, -i will combine with sterns which denote algebras while -a will combine with sterns which denote -
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and that, in certain cases, the algebra denoted by a collective plural is a subalgebra of the one
denoted by its distributive counterpart.• In such cases, the collective plural will be,
214
The Semantics of che Italian Double Plural
2
THE COLLECTIVE/DISTRIBUTIVE DISTINCTION
Let us begin with the case of ginocchio 'knee'. Ginocchio is a masculine noun which is said to have both a masculine plural ginocchi and a feminine plural ginocchia . Although many grammarians assert that there is little or no semantic difference between these plurals (c£ Battaglia & Pernicone 1978: 85; Fogarasi 1983: I96; Dardano & Trifone 1985: I I 8), not all specialists agree.To establish a semantic difference between the plurals in question, Rocchetti (I968: 357£) studied their use in I Racconti ofltalo Calvina (I958). He found that whenever knees were 'taken together' or 'used simultaneously for a same function', the form of choice was ginocchia ; when the knees were on the other hand 'dissociated' from each other, then ginocchi was used instead. Consider for example the cases in (I), which make reference to actions which involve knees jointly.3
( 1 ) a. Giovannino e Serenella ...si tenevano sull'orlo delle sedie, muovendo le ginocchia [37] 'Giovannino and Serenella were sitting at the edge of the chairs moving their knees' b. Si sedette tra noi sui divano ..., ci harte una mano sulle ginocchia [3 I 5) 'She sat between us on the sofa, patted us on our knees' c. il fatto d'aver [lei] alzato le ginocchia e accavallato le gambe [363] 'the fact of having raised her knees and crossed her legs'
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subalgebras.It will be seen that the semantic analysis we propose will allow us to eliminate the anomaly created, in Italian, by singulars having more than one plural. It should be noted that the contrast between plurals in -i and plurals in -a is not a productive one in Italian.Born of Latin neuter plurals by regularization and reanalysis, the contrast between plurals in -i and plurals in -a extended analogically to a number of nouns without neuter etyma (c£ Meyer-Liibke 1890: §§341 £).Yet, it did not extend to all Italian nouns.In fact, the contrast can be found only in a relatively small group of nouns. Furthermore, since the assignment of nouns to the neuter gender was to a large degree arbitrary in Latin, and since the domain of analogy is not predictable, the class of nouns for which the contrast holds does not form a natural class from a semantic point of view.In fact, there are many nouns in Italian referring to objects which tend to come collected in pairs or in groups (c£genitore 'parent', coniuge 'spouse', gemello 'twin', socio 'member/associate', etc.) but which do not avail themselves of the collective/distributive distinction. Given the history of this contrast, such gaps should not be surprising.
Almerindo E. Ojeda
21 s
d. [Ampelio] teneva soltanto i gomiti e le ginocchia sollevati in modo che i pugni di Quinto ... cadevano solo sulle braccia e sulle gambe [509] 'Ampelio only raised his elbows and knees so that the fists of Quinto fell only on his arms and legs' e. [egli] scendeva ... piegando le ginocchia e tenendo avanti le braccia [512] 'he was coming down bending his knees and extending his arms forward' In all these cases, ginocchia is used.There is also a case in whichginocchia is used when a group of knees is used to determine a unique height:
But ginocchia is mostly found in I Racconti when a pair of knees is used as a single resting point-in other words, when a pair of knees is used as a lap .4 (3) a. Era un grasso uomo . .. che .. . muoveva le mani su una carta topografica aperta sulle ginocchia [49] 'He was a fat man moving his hands on a map opened on his knees.' b. Io tenevo lo schioppo puntato appoggiato alle ginocchia [234] 'I had the pointed rifle resting on my knees' c. lei teneva Ia giacchetta sulle ginocchia [326] 'she had the jacket on her knees' d. ...stando seduto e continuando a leggere il libro che teneva sulle ginoc chia [370] 'sitting and continuing to read the book that he held on his knees' e. ... c'era anche un bambino sulle ginocchia d'una donna grassa (392] 'there was also a child on the knees of a fat woman' In fact, the only problematic use of ginocchia in I Racconti is (4), where there seems to be no reason for the two knees in question to constitute a unit. (4) Ia signora aveva ginocchia forti e grasse [322] 'the lady had strong and plump knees' The uses of ginocchi are straightforward.Consider the examples in (s), where the knees of a pair act independently of each ocher. (s) a. Erano accoccolati tutt'e due dietro le dalie, e i ginocchi rosa di Maria nunziata sfi.oravano quelli marrone tutti sbucciature di Libereso [2o] 'They were both squatting among the dahlias, and the pink knees of
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(2) E tutti costoro ...osservavano Federico steso li sotto all'altezza delle loro ginocchia [392] 'And all of them were watching Federico stretched out there at the height of their knees'
216
The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
Maria-nunziata were barely touching the brown bruised ones of Libereso' b. . . . e il bassitalia li scavalco coi ginocchi per tornare al suo posto [1 1 1] 'and the Southerner pushed himself over them with his knees to return to his place' Or consider the examples in which each knee of a pair determines a distinct location, be it along a vertical dimension {6) or on a horizontal axis (7).5
But one of the most revealing uses ofginocchi arises when it occurs as the object of the preposition tra 'between'. For things can only lie between two points. To lie between two knees, the knees in question must therefore count as 'two' rather than 'one'. Since ginocchia views knees 'collectively', that is as 'one', only ginocchi is possible in this context: (8) a. Maria-nunziata . . . si stringeva Ia sottana era i ginocchi [24) 'Maria-nunziata was pressing her skirt between her knees' b. . . . il soldato . . . rannicchiato con Ia testa tra i ginocchi [6 3 ]. 'the soldier crouching with his head between his knees' c. Anche lei, a collo inclinato, con le mani tra iginocchi (262) 'Even her, with her neck bent, with her hands between her knees' As Rocchetti
(1968: 70) pointed out in relation to {8a), these sentences would simply make no sense with ginocchia . But I Racconti even provides us with minimal contrasts between ginocchia and ginocchi. They arise in situations in which hands are placed on knees. If the hands are placed one per knee (usually with the knees set apart) we have ginocchi:
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{6) a. [lei aveva) le calze di lana aiginocchi [236) 'she had wool socks to her knees' b. Sui tavoli c'erano donne che facevano danza . . . pure ognuno che allungasse una mano incontrava una natica o una mammella o una coscia che sembravano smarrite e non si vedeva di chi fossero: natiche a mezz'aria e mammelle all'altezza dei ginocchi [ 1 3 7] 'Women were dancing on the tables, and just anyone extending a hand would encounter a buttock, a breast, or a seemingly lost thigh, and one could not see whose it was: buttocks at midair and breasts at the height of the knees' (7) Ogni volta che si chinava Ia sottana le saliva piu su, scoprendo Ia pelle bianca dietro i ginocchi [24 7) 'Every time she stooped, her skirt would rise, exposing the white skin behind her knees'
Almerindo E. Ojeda 21 7
If, however, the hands are placed on the general knee region (usually with the knees next to each other), then ginocchia is preferred:
(10) a. Ora egli se ne restava con le mani sulle proprie ginocchia [327] 'Now he was with his hands on his own knees' b. Federico stette un po' li con le mani sulle ginocchia [393] 'Federico stayed there for a while with his hands on his knees'
3 A F ORMAL A C C O U NT O F T HE D I S T I N C T I O N To provide a precise account o f the semantics of the Italian double plural we will assume that an interpretation is always relative to a universe of discourse, and that a universe of discourse is a set on which a binary relation can be defined in a way which satisfies the following conditions of transitivity and completeness.
(I 1 )
TRANSITIVITY: If the binary relation holds between elements x and y of the universe of discourse, and between elements y and z of the universe of discourse, then the said relation also holds between elements x and z of the universe of discourse. (12) COMPLETENESS: Every nonempty subset of rhe universe of discourse constitutes one and only one element of rhe universe of discourse. 6
Intuitively, our assumption is rhat an interpretation always proceeds relative to a set whose elements are related as parts are related to wholes. We may therefore say x is part cify any rime we wish to convey rhe fact rhat the binary relation holds between some elements x and y of rhe universe of discourse. Furthermore, we may say that any element which is constituted by a subset of
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(9) a. . . . seduto su quegli sgabelletti da bottega, le lunghe mani Iisee da ladro sui ginocchi [ I 4 I ] 'sitting on those small shop stools, his long smooth hands of a thief on his knees' b. I1 posrino sogghignava, le mani sui ginocchi [ I so] 'The postman sneered, his hands on his knees' c. 11 pastore se ne stava guardando l'apparecchio con le mani aperte sui ginocchi [261] 'The shepherd was watching the machine with his hands opened on his knees' d. I due sedevano a poppa con le mani suiginocchi e sorridevano [338] 'The two men were sitting astern with their hands on their knees and smiling'
218 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
the universe of discourse is a group which has the elements of that subset as
members . It should be borne in mind, however, that nothing should be read into these uses of 'part', 'group', or 'member' chat does not follow from the mereological postulates of transitivity and completeness. Prima-facie evidence chat the relations between groups and their members
are indeed governed by the postulates in ( I I ) and ( I 2) is not difficult to produce.
ifthese things contain those, and ifthose things contain the things over there, then these things contain the things over there. The
Consider for example a sentence like
necessary truth of sentences like this one supports the claim chat the relation of inclusiveness between groups is transitive. Or consider the fact chat any group of things, be it finite or infn i ite, may be referred to-say by phrases like
those
or simply the things.This fact argues for the claim that the universe of discourse is closed with respect to the operation of group formation underlying the notion of constiruency, and therefore satisfies completeness in the sense of(12)J Having availed ourselves of the foregoing assumptions and definitions, we may now claim that ginocchi denotes the set of arbitrary groups of knees of the universe of discourse while ginocchia denotes the set of natural groups of knees of the universe of discourse-the set of pairs of knees of each individual and the group formed by these pairs. To illustrate, let us say that the universe of discourse contains only four knees a , b , c, d.This means that the universe of discourse will contain fifteen groups of knees (one per nonempty set of knees).These groups are listed in ( I 3), where a and
a + b is the group having a and b as members, a + c is the group having c as members-and so on.
a , b, c, d , a + b , a + c, a + d, b + c, b + d, c+ d, a + b + c, a + b + d, a+ c + d, b + c+ d, a+ b + c + d
( 13)
a , b, c, d as groups of knees.This is forced on us by (12) and the fact that {aj, (bJ, {cj, {dj are all nonempty subsets of Notice that we regard the individual knees
the universe of discourse. But the groups in( I 3) are related as parts are related to wholes, with a +
b+
c + d being the single most inclusive group, and a , b, c, d the four least inclusive groups.These relations impose a partial order on the elements of ( I 3).
The Hasse diagram of this order is given in ( I 4). This diagram contains an upward path from a group xto a groupy if and only if xis part ofy (andy is not part of x).
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things, these things ,
Almerindo E. Ojeda 2 1 9
B+b+C+d
�
a+b+c a+b+d
b
b+C+d
c
d
We may now diagram the denotations ofginocchi and ginocchia in this universe of discourse. Let us suppose that our universe of discourse contains two people, and that a and b are the knees of one of them while c and d are the knees of the other. The masculine ginocchi will then denote the entire set of groups of knees of (r3):
=
[ginocchi ]
The feminine ginocchia, on the other hand, will only denote the set of groups of pairs ofknees in the universe of discourse, as indicated in (16). 8
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a
B+C+d
220 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
(r6)
S+b+C+d
=
a
b
c
[ ginocchia]
d
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Incidentally, notice that ginocchia can be used to refer either to the pair of knees of a single individual or to the pairs of knees of several individuals. The first use can be found in ( rc-e), in (3), and in (4); the second in (r a-b) and (2). This means that [ginocchia] should contain both individuals (- individual pairs of knees) and groups (- groups of pairs of knees). The use of ginocchia thus provides further evidence for the claim that plurals are semantically unmarked with respect to number. 9 Plurals denote without prejudice against singularity; they are neutral with respect to the difference between the one and the many. We have argued that ginocchi denotes the set of groups of knees of a universe of discourse while ginocchia denotes the set of natural groups of knees of a universe of discourse. [ginocchia ] is thus contained as a subset in [ginocchi ]. In fact, [ginocchia ] is moreover embedded as a subalgebra in [ginocchi ], as we shall now see. Take any set of groups of knees contained in [ginocchi]. By ( r 2) this set will itselfconstitute a group ofknees. But this group must again be contained in [ginocchi ], since this is the set of all the groups of knees in the universe of discourse. The set denoted by ginocchi is therefore closed under mereological group formation.10 Now, let k be the group constituted by all the knees in the universe of discourse. Take any group of knees other than k. Call this group g. Find all the groups of knees which do not share any knee with g . There will be exactly one of these groups which will constitute k with g. This group is the mereological complement ofg with respect to k .11 But this complement is itself a group of knees. It will therefore be contained in [gino cchi] since, again, this is the set of all the groups of knees in the universe of discourse. The set denoted by ginocchi is therefore closed under mereological complement formation. 12 The set denoted by ginocchi is therefore closed under mereological group formation as well as under mereological complement formation (with respect to the group of knees of the universe of discourse). Since it lacks a null element, it is thus a mereology in its own right.13 Let us now turn to ginocchia . We have argued that it denotes the set of groups of pairs of knees of a universe of
Almerindo E. Ojeda 221
4 THE C O LLE C T IVE/D I S T RI BU T IVE D I ST I N C T I O N : M O RE I N STA N C E S Similar interpretations are available for other nouns referring to objects which come naturally in pairs. On the feminine plurals of these nouns, 'a dual meaning is imposed, more or less by force, by the physical structure of the things they refer to' (c£ Hall I9 s 6: I40). Some ofthese nouns refer to body parts. Consider, for example, the case of sopracciglio 'eyebrow'. Its feminine plural sopracciglia is used when the two eyebrows count as one-as in (I7a), where the two eyebrows describe a single line. The masculine sopraccigli, however, is used when the two eyebrows count as two-as in (I7b), where two eyebrows approach each other (c£ Rocchetti I968: 70; Brunet I985: 73). (17) a. [Cassola] Aveva la faccia larga, con gli zigomi appiattiti, e la linea delle sopracciglia un po' obliqua '( S]he had a long face, with cheek-bones leveled and a somewhat oblique eyebrow line' b. [Manzoni] e allora due sopraccigli neri si ravvicinavano, con un rapido movimento 'and then two black eyebrows approached each other with a fast movement'
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discourse. Take now any set ofgroups of pairs ofknees contained in [ginocchia]. By (I2) this set will itself constitute a group of kneepairs. But this group must again be contained in [ginocchia] since this is, we have claimed, the set of all the groups ofkneepairs in the universe of discourse. The set denoted by ginocchia is therefore closed under mereological group formation. Now let p be the group constituted by all the kneepairs in the universe of discourse. Take any group ofkneepairs other than p. Call this group q. Find all the groups of kneepairs which do not share any knee with q. There will be exactly one of these groups which will constitute p with q. This group is the mereological complement of q with respect top. But this complement is itself a group of kneepairs-at least if all the knees in the universe of discourse are paired. It will therefore be contained in [ginocchia] since this is the set of all the groups ofkneepairs in the universe of discourse. The set denoted by ginocchia is therefore closed under mereological complement formation with respect to p. We have shown that the set denoted by ginocchia is closed under both group and complement formation. [ginocchia] is, therefore, a mereology in its own right. In fact, it can be shown that [ginocchia] is a subset of[ginocchi] which is closed under group and complement formation as taken in [ginocchi]. This means that [ginocchia] is a submereology of[ginocchi].14 Ginocchia thus denotes, as claimed above, a subalgebra embedded in the algebra denoted by ginocchi.
2.2.2.
The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
Also claimed to belong in this class is calcagno 'heel'. Its masculine plural is calcagni, and is said to refer to 'heels in general', while its feminine plural calcagna is supposed to refer to 'the two heels [of each individual]' (Jordan & Manoliu 1974: 280).51 But not all plurals in -a need involve paired body parts. Corna 'horns' may refer to the horns of the moon, the horns of an anvil, or the branches of a river forking in two-at least when regarded collectively; when regarded singularly, then the masculine corni would be used instead {c£ Goidanich I967: I42).16 Similarly, the noun lenzuolo 'bed sheet' has a masculine plural lenzuoli and a feminine plurall en zuo la . The masculine lenzuoli is used when a 'multitude' of sheets is taken 'one by one', as in
The feminine lenzuola is used when sheets are taken by pairs corresponding to beds-i.e. the top and the bottom sheet of a bed (c£ Battaglia I98I: I Io; Dardano & Trifone 1985: I IS; Brunet I98s).This may happen either with a single pair of sheets (I9a), or with a set of pairs of sheets (I9b): {I9) a. [Pasolini] Piano piano, come guidato da quella musichetta lontana, esce dalle lenzuola, si cala dal lettino . . . 'Little by little, as i f guided by that distant music, [s]he leaves the sheets, climbs down from the couch .. .' b. Voglio due paia de lenzuola 'I want two pairs of sheets' interesting use of lenzuoli is given in (2o). Although this sentence involves reference to the two sheets of a bed, the adjective doppia 'double' and the preposition tra 'between' require us to regard these sheets as two rather than as one. The form lenzuoli is thus the appropriate one in chis context.17
An
(2o) [Moravia] Tarcisio la vide ... mettere un ginocchio sul letto e ingolfarsi, bruna, tra la doppia bianchezza dei lenzuoli 'Tarcisio saw her put a knee on the bed and plunge, tan, between the double whiteness of the sheets' Similarly, one says lenzuolifunebri 'burial sheets' or avvisi come lenzuoli 'signs [big] as sheets' because the sheets in question 'are not considered paired' (Goidanich I967: I4J). For all these double plurals, if all the individual knees, eyebrows, heels, horns, and sheers are paired, then each feminine form will denote a submereol ogy of the mereology denoted by its masculine counterpart. So suppose chat we could map each group in the denotation of a masculine plural into a unique
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{18) [Salvalaggio] Mafalda stendeva i lenzuoli sul terrazino 'Mafalda was hanging the sheets on the balcony'
Almerindo E. Ojeda 223
Le braccia
son membri del corpo 'The arms are limbs of the body' (22) [Pavese] A vedergli le membra muscolose poco piu che ventenni, Stefano pensava con invidia al nero sangue che doveva nutrirle ... 'Seeing his musculous limbs little more than twenty years old, Stefano thought with envy of the black blood which must have nourished them'
(21)
What is more, according to some grammarians, the collective/distributive opposition between membra and membri holds even when these plurals are used figuratively to refer to the metaphorical limbs of a metaphorical body. Thus, countering the claims of other grammarians, Goidanich (1967: 140, 143) has documented a number of figurative uses of membra (c£ when Gioberti conceives of the Christian peoples as le membra della Chiesa 'the limbs of the Church'; when Dante speaks of the particular sciences as le membradellafilosofia 'the branches (lit. limbs) ofPhilosophy'), and alleged that there is a collective/ distributive contrast between them and their masculine counterparts. Along the same lines, Devoto and Oli (1971) have mentioned the figurative use of membra in raccogliere le sparse membra di un popolo 'collect the scattered membership (lit. limbs) of a population'. Here they find a plural 'from the elements of which a human community or aggregate results' (c£ Brunet 1985: 64)· There are other examples of plurals in -a which do not involve pairs. Consider the noun osso 'bone'. The plural ossa refers collectively to bones-be they the bones of a single skeleton (23a), the bones of many skeletons (23b) or, as
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group of pairs which contains it minimally.This mapping would be a homo morphism from the denotation of the masculine plural onto that of the feminine.18 Intuitively, this homomorphism compresses the denotation of a masculine plural into that of its feminine counterpart; the denotations of masculine and the feminine plurals are 'telescoped' versions of each other. But plurals in -a need not even involve pairs. Suppose there were a human who developed three legs (and hence three knees). As one of the anonymous reviewers for this article pointed out, we can still describe his anatomy by reference to le tre ginocchia 'the three knees'. Fortunately, our proposals are compatible with this fact, as all we require is that the denotation ofginocchia be based on groups of individual knees; we do not require it to be based on actual pairs of individual knees. Consider also the singular noun membro 'limb' has a masculine plural mem bri and a feminine plural membra. The masculine membri is reserved for limbs referred to 'singularly', as in (21), where two of the four limbs of the human body are referred to. The feminine membra is preferred for limbs referred to 'collectively', as in (22), where all the limbs of a body are described as a whole (c£ Devoto & Oli 1971).
224 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
Brunet (1985: 71) pointed out, the bones of particular bone structures like that of the foot (23c), the face (23d), or the chest (23e).
The plural ossi, on the other hand, refers distributively to bones 'considered separately', to bones 'separated from each other, without regard to their totality' (c£ D'Ovidio & Meyer-Liibke 1906: 161; Rohlfs 1968: 36; Battaglia 1981: I 11; Fogarasi 1983: 195; Brunet 1985 : 70): (24) a. gli ossi del lesso, d'una bistecca; gli ossi sparsi per la via 'the bones of the boiled meat, of a steak'; 'the bones strewn on the street' b. (Silane) Le bandiere . . . erano nere . . . e avevano nel centro l'immagine d'un teschio tra quattro ossi 'The flags were black, and had in the middle an effigy of a skull among four bones' c. [Pratolini) gli ossi gli bucavano la carniciola . . . 'the bones perforating his vest . . .' Similar distinctions have been claimed for the plurals of muro 'wall' and dito 'finger/toe'. Mura 'walls' refers to walls of enclosure (2sa}-(25b), walls that define a perimeter (25c), and hence an interior (2sd}-(25e), and an exterior (2sf). (25) a. (Cassola] . . . avanzo della medioevale cinta di mura 'ruins of the medieval town walls'
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(23) a. (Cassola] Aveva donnito pochissimo, e si sentiva la testa pesante e le ossa rotte '[S]he had slept very little, and felt his/her head was heavy and his/her bones were broken' b. [Levi] 11 paese e fatto delle ossa dei morti 'The country is made of the bones of the dead' c. [Palumbi] in virru di questa tipica disposizione ad arco delle sue ossa, il piede puo agevolemente sostenere tutto il peso del corpo 'By virtue of this typically arched disposition of its bones, the foot can easily support all the weight of the body' d. [Carriere della Sera] L'allineamento dei denti e lo sviluppo delle ossa della faccia dei bambini non preoccupava . . . 'The alignment of the teeth and the development of the bones of the face of the children did not trouble . . .' e. [Carnacina-Veronelli) Con un colpo deciso della mana sui coltello spezzare le ossa del petto e ritirarle 'With a firm blow ofthe hand on the knife, break the bones of the chest and take them out'
Almerindo E. Ojeda 225
The masculine muri, on the other hand, may refer to arbitrary collections of walls-say the walls that were damaged in some incident (26a), the walls on which signs are posted (26b), the walls which divide a space (26c), or the pairs of walls enclosing a street (26d), or, figuratively, a period of time (26e). See Goidanich (I967: I44), Santangelo (I98I: I I 7), and Brunet (I98 s: 66 f£). (26) a. Sono lesionati due muri 'Two walls were damaged' b. attaccare avvisi ai muri 'to post signs on the walls' c. muri divisori 'dividing walls' d. [Papini] Di sopra ai muri in cui Ia strada era incassata si spenzolavano i rami convulsionari de' bigi ulivi 'Over the top of the walls in which the street was encased hung the convulsed branches of the grey olive trees' e. [Ottieri] ...Ia domenica fra due muri, che sono Ia settimana a riddosso e quella futura ... '...Sunday between two walls, which are the week gone by and the one to come . . .' Similarly, the singular noun dito 'finger/toe' also has a masculine plural diti and a feminine plural dita. The masculine diti refers to fingers or toes taken 'one by one' (c£ Fogarasi I983: I9)), 'considered distinctively one from the other' (Dardano & Trifone I985: 1 18).The feminine dita, on the other hand, denotes
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b. [Moravia] c'e un cimitero di campagna, piccolo, con quattro mura chiuse intorno un mazzo di cipressi 'it is a country cemetery-small, with four walls closed around a bunch of cypresses' c. [Bassani] via Salinguerra sia compressa ... dentro il perimetro delle mura cittadine 'Salinguerra street is contained ... within the perimeter of the city walls' d. [Essere donne in Sicilia] il potere femminile e stato sempre esercitato dentro le mura domestiche 'Feminine power has always been exercised within the domestic walls' e. [Moravia] Tra queste quattro mura Maria Teresa andava e veniva 'Within these four walls, Maria Teresa went to and fro'19 £ [Moravia] erano andati a stare in una casa nuova, situata fuori delle mura della citra 'They had gone to stay in a new house situated outside the walls of the city'
226 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
-
s
OTHER DISTINCTIONS EXPRESSE D BY THE DOUBLE PLURAL
But it should be acknowledged that not all the double plurals ofltalian exhibit a collective/distributive contrasr, some exhibit a count/mass contrast instead.22 Perhaps the clearest instance of such a contrast can be found in connection with the plurals of cervello 'brain'. Its masculine plural cervelli 'brains' is a count noun (c£ due cervelli d'agnello 'two lamb brains', i cervelli piufini della nazione 'the finest brains in the nation') while its feminine plural cervella 'brain mass' is a mass noun (c£ cervellaJritte 'fried brains , fars i saltare le cervella 'to blow one's brains out'). To be more precise we will propose that cervelli denotes an atomistic mereology (the set of groups which are constiruted by one or more of the '
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the fingers or toes 'considered as a whole' (Dardano & Trifone 1985: r r8; Fochi 1971: 147).Thus we have questi due diti mifanno male 'these two fingers hurt me' but le dita della mano 'the fingers of the hand' (Battaglia & Pernicone 1978: 84).20 And again, if all the individual limbs, bones, walls, and fingers/toes are suitably grouped in a universe of discourse, then the feminine plurals membra, ossa, mura, and dita will denote submereologies of the mereologies denoted by their masculine counterparts. We conclude, then, that the collective/ distributive distinction exhibited by the Italian double plural is one of submereological inclusion-at least in those universes of discourse in which all the relevant individuals are appropriately grouped. 21 At this point we should mention the interesting fact that paio 'pair' does not have the plural in -i generally available to masculine nouns.Rather, it has only a plural in -a. It should be clear that this fact is consistent with the analysis of the double plural presented in this paper.For suppose that the singular paio denotes not a set of individuals, but only a set of pairs of individuals (of the universe of discourse). It can hardly be surprising, in light of the above, that this noun would then allow only a plural in -a and not a plural in -i. Of course, since the present proposals do not ensure that a plural in a will be available for any particular noun (and since, as we shall see, -i does not moreover select for improper submereologies), the foregoing analysis does not properly predict this gap in the paradigm of paio. Still, it can describe it. We close this section by pointing out that (17a), (19a), (22), (23 a, c, e), and (25) are plurals which make reference to an individual pair of eyebrows, an individual pair of sheets, an individual group of limbs, several individual bone groups, and a number of individual wall enclosures.All these plurals thus refer without prejudice against individuality-as one would expect if the plural is indeed the semantically unmarked member of the opposition of number.
Almerindo E. Ojeda 227
(27) (Palumbi] II carpo (della mano] consta di 8 ossa brevi disposte in duplice fila 'The carpus of the hand is composed of eight short bones arranged in double file' Furthermore, plurals in -a, unlike mass nouns, may denote clearly shaped entities-recall/a linea delle sopracciglia in ( I 7a) and il perimetro delle mura cittadine in (2sc). Yet there does seem to be something to the claim that plurals in -a tend not to be enumerated. After all, the plurals in -i have been characterized as 'numerical' in opposition to the collective plurals in -a (cf Goidanich 1¢7: 14o ff). As we see it, the collectives' intolerance of enumeration should be accounted for in terms of a conflict between collective and enumeration: collectivity is the view of many as one; enumeration is the recognition of one as
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individual brains of the universe of discourse) while cervella denotes an atomless mereology instead (the set of portions of the infinitely divisible brain mass in the universe of discourse).23 Note that this means that the plurality of the mass noun cervella can only pertain to form, not to meaning (plural nouns refer to groups of indivisibles, of which a mass noun has none).The plurality on cervella is thus as devoid of meaning as the pluralities on the English mass nouns oats and news. To find more examples of double plurals which participate in a count/mass opposition we must leave contemporary Italian. For indeed, although grammarians are far from agreed on this subject, it would seem thatjrutto 'fruit' and legno 'log' used to have two plurals each.One was a count noun ending in -i; the other a mass noun ending in -a .24 Now this situation has all but disappeared. Today the plural instances of Jrutta and legna have become rare and restricted in their use (Brunet 1985: 87, 90)-if not relegated only to prescriptive grammars (Rocchetti 1968: 87). Furthermore, the mass nouns in -a have been reanalyzed as singulars (Fochi 1971: 148 £; Sensini 1988: r66) without any discernible change in their meaning (Rocchetti 1968: 67). The latter, of course, should not be surprising. As we have seen above, the plurality on these mass nouns was semantically vacuous in the first place. The role of the count/mass opposition has been overplayed in the context of the Italian double plural.It has been argued, for example, that the plurals in -a are all mass nouns since they may not combine with numerals (cf Renzi 1988: 326). The claim, however, is questionable, not only because of the way these plurals have been paraphrased in the literature but, more importantly, because the grounds for the claim are simply not there. Plurals in -a may indeed combine with numerals.Examples of this have been given above in due paia di lenzuola (r9b), con quattro mura chiuse (25b), and tra queste quattro mura (25e). Another counterexample can be found in (27), cited in Brunet (1985: 70).
228
The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
(28) a. (Buzzatti) Gia carnminavo de mezz'ora per quei budelli ... 'I had walked for half an hour through those streets .. .' b. Da questa piazzetta a quella s'arriva per un groviglio di budelli scuri e sudici 'One gets from this small square to that one through a tangle of dark and dirty streets' Similarly, of the two plurals of fondamento 'foundation', the feminine Jondamenta refers to the foundations of a house or edifice ({ondamenta di un edificio ), while the masculine Jondamenti refers to the foundations of a science (fondamenti di una scienza) or a state (fondamenti di uno stato) . Analogous distinctions can perhaps be drawn for the plurals of labbro 'lip', ciglio 'eyelash', andfi lo 'thread' (c£ Goidanich I967: I4I f£; Battaglia & Pernicone I978: 84; Fogarasi I983: I95). Needless to say, the algebraic account proposed in the preceding section will not apply in these cases.Yet it would be interesting to determine whether that account obtained at earlier stages of the language. One should note in this regard that Santangelo (I98I: 105 £) finds two nonfigurative uses of bracci in her survey of Old Italian texts. One of these is l'un de' bracci 'one of [her] arms' (Decameron VII.2.J2), where a distributive plural is used, as one would expect, in a partitive construction (to refer to one of her arms, the arms in question must count as a 'many' rather than as a 'one').Similarly, Santangelo (I98I: II4) finds a clear collective/distributive contrast in giungi i labri a le Iabra join the lips to the lips' Uerusalem Liberated r 8.J2). Nonfigurative uses of bracci seem to have survived also in the Tuscan vernacular (c£ Goidanich I967: I4I), the dialect which in general seems to preserve best the plural endings in -a (c£ Fochi I97I: 146). Grammarians have also claimed that some double plurals participate in a container/content opposition.The plurals of carro 'can' are thus said to be carri 'carts' and carra 'carts with their contents' (c£ Rohlfs I<)68: 36; Banaglia &
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many.The infrequency of numerals and collective plurals may thus be taken to result from this clash of perspective. Many of the double plurals of Italian also exhibit a figurative/nonfigurative contrast. The plurals of braccio 'arm' are a case in point. While the feminine braccia refers to a plurality of human arms, the masculine bracci refers to pluralities constituted by the armlike parts of crosses (bracci di croci), rivers (bracci difiumi), chandeliers (bracci di lampadari), scales (bracci di bilance ), and just about any other entities with armlike appendages. Another example can be found in the plurals of budello 'intestine'. While the feminine budella is used for intestines proper, the masculine budelli refers to streets, alleys, tubes, mines, and other 'long or narrow things' (Banaglia I98I: uo) which 'remind us of intestines' (Goidanich I967: I4I: Fochi I97I: I47).
Almerindo E. Ojeda 229
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Pemicone I978: 84; Santangelo I98 I: I07; Fogarasi I983: I95 £), and similar points have been made about sacco 'sack'.Along the same lines, staio 'bushel' is said to have a plural stai which refers to the containers and a plural staia which alludes to the units of measurement (G.oidanich I¢7: I44; Dardano & Trifone I985: 1 I9)· But it is not clear that such distinctions reflect general current usage {Fochi I97 I: I46). Goidanich {I967: I4I) reports only differences of register for most of these forms; Fogarasi {I983: I96) states that carra is becoming archaic, and Santangelo {I9 8 I: I I9£) points out that although sacca used to be the prevalent form, today sacchi is preferred instead. Similarly, contemporary informants find carra archaic (c£ Brunet I985: 72). In any event, if these forms ever exhibited a generalized container/content contrast, this contrast cannot be accounted for in mereological terms.25 Perhaps related to the preceding contrasts is the case of pugni 'fistblow' and pugna 'fistful'. Although these two plurals seem to have been used inter changeably in the past (c£ Goidanich I967: I45; Fochi I97 I: I46), nowadays they have developed the distinct senses indicated by their glosses (c£ also dardei pugni 'to give fistblows' vs.due pugna di nocciuole 'two fistfuls of hazelnuts'). Furthermore, it is sometimes claimed that the feminine plurals of grido 'cry' and u rlo 'howl' are reserved for human vocalizations, while their masculine counterparts are used to refer to sounds which are either nonhuman or at least mostly nonhuman (c£ Roncari & Brighenti I98o: 59; Dardano & Trifone 1985: 1 1 8 £; Sensini I988: 66).Judging from the evidence in Brunet (I985: 55, 75), the case seems stronger for the plurals of grido than for the plurals of urlo. Similar claims have also been made for the plurals of strido 'shriek', but the evidence in Brunet (I 98 s: 7 4), albeit scant, runs directly against it. Alternatively, Rocchetti {I968: 67-9) has argued that the plurals ofgrido 'cry', strido 'shriek', and urlo 'howl' differ as to whether or not the screams are produced with a particular unifying intention. If they are, then the feminine plural is chosen; if not, then the masculine plural is used.Since animals rarely act intentionally, argues Rocchetti, we have an explanation for why nonhuman cries are usually referred to with -i. In any case, if all these plurals differ with respect to the source or the purpose of the sounds they denote-or indeed, if they do not differ semantically at all-then they would constitute yet another set of cases to which the mereological account would not apply.26 But grammarians also point out that some of the double plurals of Italian, including some of the ones we have discussed above, differ in their potential to participate in idioms.Consider, for example, the plurals of cuoio 'leather, hide'. According to Santangelo ( I98 1 : I Io), the feminine cuoia has only idiomatic uses (c£ aver le cuoia dura 'to have hard skins or to be shameless', stendere le cuoia 'to stretch one's skins or to stretch one's legs', tirare le cuoia 'to pull one's skins or to die', non capire nelle cuoia 'not to fit in one's skin or to be beside one's self ').The masculine cuoi 'leathers, hides', on the other hand, seems to only have
230 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
nonidiomatic uses. It should be clear, however, that idiomatic potential can shed no light on the present-day semantics of the double plural.By definition, an idiom is an expression in which the meanings of the parts do not figure in the meaning of the whole. Similarly, cases in which double plurals are used without any discernible difference in meaning cannot contribute to the elucidation of the semantics of the Italian double plural. Orecchio 'ear', for example, is sometimes claimed to have a double plural orecchiIorecchie for the same meaning 'ears'.More often than not, however, these forms are taken to be plurals for two different singulars-a masculine orecchio and a less frequent feminine orecchia (c£ Brunet 198s: 91 ).
A number of ltalian nouns are said to have two plurals-one of them 'collective', and the other 'distributive'.It has never been entirely clear, however, what these terms mean.In this paper we have proposed that collective and distributive plurals denote particular algebraic structures (mereologies) and argued that the algebraic structure denoted by a collective plural is embedded as a subalgebra (submereology) in the one denoted by its distributive counterpart. But collective and distributive plurals are clearly polymorphemic; they are composed of a nominal stem and a plural inflection.The question thus arises as to how the meaning of each one of these paired plurals arises from the meanings of its morphological components.The purpose of this section is to answer this question.As we shall see, our answer will have a bearing both on the formal semantics of individuation and on the morphology of number in Italian. To begin, let us take another look at the double plurals which do not participate in the collective/distributive contrast.One thing that emerges from these plurals is that they do not seem to be plurals of the same stem. The masculine inflection pluralizes a countable, figurative, container, or nonhuman stem. The feminine inflection instead pluralizes a mass, nonfigurative, contained, or human stem. Suppose we were to take a hint from these distinctions and claim that the collective and the distributive inflections do not combine with the same kind of stem either.Suppose, in other words, that we were to make the generalization that - i and -a always combine with different kinds of stem. To be more specific, let us require first that (29) Every nominal stem denotes a submereology in the universe of discourse.27 Notice that every mereology must be a submereology of itself-albeit one which we might want to call improper; all other submereologies will be called proper. The requirement in (29) thus allows a nominal stem to denote either a
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6 CONCLUSION
Almerindo E. Ojeda
23 1
proper or an improper submereology in the universe of discourse. Now we may impose the following constraints on the interpretation of our plural mor phemes.28 (3o) a. The collective plural inflection denotes the identity function over proper submereologies in the universe of discourse. b. The distributive plural inflection denotes the identity function over submereologies in the universe of discourse.
(3 I) [ginocchia ] = ·= (32) [ginocchi] = -
[ a ]([ginocchi- ]) [ a ]({ ab, cd, abed}) { ab, cd, abed] [ i]([ginocchi-]) [ i]({ a, b, c, d, ab, ac, ad, be, bd, cd, abc, abd, acd, bed, abed}) { a, b, c, d, ab, ac, ad, be, bd, cd, abc, abd, acd, bed, abed]
It should be clear that these interpretations require the stem ginocchi- to be ambiguous, as it may denote either a proper (3I) or an improper (32) submereology in the universe of discourse. But the claim that nominal sterns must be ambiguous in just this way is not new. A claim to the same effect has been advanced in order (i) to assign mass plurals their taxonomic interpretation, (ii) to account for the phenomenon of quantification over kinds, (iii) to provide a unified account of the descriptive and the generic uses of the definite arricle, and (iv) to account for the definite arricle in sentences like John was hit on the arm whenJohn has more than one arm (c£ Ojeda I993a, 1993b). In all these cases, an ambiguity is proposed which is based on an indeterminacy of individuation, which is what we have done in the present context. For consider again the sterns in (3 I ) and (32). If we adopt the interpretation of ginocchi- in (3 I ), the individual knees are a , b, c, d; if we on the other hand follow the interpretation of this stem in (32), then the 'individual knees' are ab, cd instead. The claim that nominal sterns are ambiguous as desired is not, therefore, one which is made ad hoc. In other words, if the proposed semantics of the Italian
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The two plural inflections in (3o) are thus similar in that they denote identity functions. They are different, however, as to the domains for which the said functions are defined. The function denoted by the collective inflection is defined for proper submereologies in the universe of discourse. The dis tributive inflection is on the other hand defined for all submereologies, proper or improper, in the universe of discourse.Collectives are, therefore, the marked members of the collective/distributive opposition of plurality. The effect of the constraints in (29) and (30) can be gathered from the equations in (3 I)-(32)· They indicate how the denotations diagrammed in ( Is) (16) might be computed relative to a grammar which abides the constraints in question.29 Hence and henceforth we omit the plus signs for the sake of brevity
232 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
(3 3) [ginocchio] (34) [ginocchio] -
[ o]([ginocchi- ]) [ o]({ ab, cd, abed}) { ab, cd} [ o]([ginocchi-]) [ o ]({ a, b, c, d, ab, ac, ad, be, bd, cd, abc, abd, acd, bed, abed}) - { a, b, c, d}
No singular noun will therefore have two plural counterparts; every singular will instead have its own plural. The anomaly that some singular nouns have two plurals in Italian can thus be disposed o£ Incidentally, it should be pointed out that the interpretation of ginocchio presented in (3 3) can be j ustified independently of the issues at hand. Consider, for example, the sentence in (3 5).
(35) Gianni e stato colpito al ginocchio. 'Gianni was hit on the knee.' If we assume that the definite article bears a presupposition of uniqueness, then how can (3 5) be true when Gianni has two knees? To solve this puzzle, notice that (35) involves collective reference to Gianni's knees; these knees are referred to as a whole in order- to define the area where he was hit. Since there will be a unique group containing Gianni's two knees, our puzzle is solved if we assume
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double plural is correct, then it provides new evidence for the claim that nominal sterns denote with a characteristic indeterminacy of individuation.30 Alternatively, one might claim that nominal sterns are vague rather than ambiguous. As far as I can see, however, the only way a noun stem can be ambiguous between a proper and an improper submereology is by having it denote a set containing these two submereologies as elements. Each plural would then be the 'context' that would pick the appropriate element of this set. But then, since submereologies are sets-of-individuals, noun sterns must denote sets-of-sets-of-individuals rather than simply sets-of-individuals as with the ambiguity proposal. Hence, even if everything else were the same, the ambiguity analysis should be preferred over the vagueness alternative on the grounds of descriptive simplicity. The claim that nominal stems are ambiguous in the relevant way can be motivated on further grounds, as this claim allows us to eliminate a long standing anomaly in the nominal morphology of Italian. For indeed, if our stems are ambiguous as desired, then each will serve as the basis of a distinct singular.31 Of these, one will be the singular of a collective plural, while the other will be the singular of its distriburive counterpart. To illustrate, the singular nouns corresponding to the plurals in (3 1 ) and (32) can be interpreted as follows:
Almerindo E. Ojeda 2 3 3
that ginocchio denotes the set of narurally occurring kneegroups in the universe of discourse (c£ (33)). For chen the uniqueness of Gianni's kneegroup will be able to satisfy the presupposition of uniqueness of the definite article in (35).3 2 Acknowledgements I am indebted to Maria Manea Manoliu for bringing the Italian double plural to my attention and to Antonella Bassi for going over the data with me. Received: 1 8.1 1 .93 Revised version received: 20.04-94
ALMERINDO E. OJEDA Linguistics Program University ofCalifornia at Davis Linguistics
Davis, CA 9561 6-8685
NOTES 1 Note that I do not restrict the notion of denotation (or reference) to NPs (or terms). I shall instead assume, following standard usage m model-theoretic semantics, that every (meaningful) expression denotes. 2 The only explicit characterization of collectivity I have come across regards plurals in -a as mass nouns (c£ Renzi 1988: 326). As we shall see below, such a view will not be able to do justice to all the plurals in -a . Numbers in square brackets refer to pages of the edition of Calvino's Racconti cited in the References. 4 More examples of this type can be found on pp. 1 48, 327, 369, 3 86, 393, 5 20, 5 5 1 . s Examples which are virtually identical ro rhe latter can be found on pp. 246, 249. 6 In brief. our assumption is that inter pretation is relative to a universe of discourse which has rhe structure of a mereology . The relation of constitution invoked in rhe condition of completeness can be defined as follows. A subset F of rhe universe of discourse constitutes an element x of rhe universe of discourse if and only if (i) rhe binary relation holds between every element of F and x, and
(ii) if the binary relation holds between some element r of the universe of discourse and x, rhen y overlaps with one or more elements of F. Overlap can in rum be defined as follows. Two elements X , y of the universe of discourse overfap if and only if there is an element z of the universe of discourse such that the binary relation holds both between z and x and between z and y (c£ Ojeda 1 993a). 7 The claim that the universe of discourse forms a mereology has been defended in Massey (1 976), Wald (1 977), Kri&a ( 1 987), Landman (1 989), and Ojeda (1 993a), to which the reader is referred for funher arguments. 8 Notice that we cannot simply say that a singular denotes a subset of the universe of discourse and a plural denotes a set of nonempty subsets of the said universe. This would mean that Italian nouns would denote objects of two different logical types: a singular would denote a ser of individuals and a plural a set of sets of individuals. Hence a correspondingly branched theory of nominal adjuncts would have to be developed. Since there is no evidence for the proliferation of meanings such theories would email, we
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USA e- mail: aeojeda@ ucdavis.edu
234 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural
mereological complement ofx with respect to y .
1 2 Technically, let �(F) b e the group constituted by a subset F of a (mereo logical) u niverse of discourse. F is closed under mereological complement formation if and only if, for all xE F other than �(F), F contains the mereological complement of x with respect to �(F). Notice that F can be closed under mereological comple ment formation even if it does not contain a complement for �(F). 1 3 Viewed as an ordered structure, a mereo logy is a set and a binary relation which satisfy the conditions of rransitivity and completeness mentioned above in the text. Viewed as an algebraic srructure, a mereology is a set which is closed under the operations of group and complement formation defined in the preceding foomotes and has no null element. 14 A mereology M is a submereology of a mereology N if and only if M is a subset of N which is closed under both group and complement formations as taken in
he speaks, however, of the horns of a rhinoceros. But a rhinoceros has two horns rather than one! Perphaps what this grammarian meant was that coma is used for horns of animals that have two horns of the same shape . A bull would rhus have coma while a rhinoceros could only have comi . If so, then a sense of equivalence or congruence would have developed in the case of coma out of the notion of duality. 16 Comi 'horns' may also refer ro the musical insrruments. Coma , presumably, cannot. We will address below rhe possibility of figurative senses for our plurals. 17 Brunet ( 1 98 5: 5 3) gives, however, rhe following example of lenzuola as the complement of Ira : (Arpino] Mi infagottai Ira le lenzuola, i ginocchi serrati fin quasi a/
menta '! bundled myself between the sheets, with knees held tightly almost up to the chin.' 1 8 A homomorphism from a mereology M into a mereology N is a function from M into N such that (i) the image in N of a group in M is equal to the group of images in N of the members of the group in M, and (ii) the image of the comple ment in M of a group of M is equal to the complement in N of the image of the group of M. If there is a homomorphism from a mereology M onto a mereology N, then N is a homomorphic image of M.
19 We have assumed that tra has here rhe sense of 'within' rather than 'between', and may therefore rake the collective mura as complement. 20 I should point our that there are at least two instances of tra le dita 'between the fingers' in I Racconti (388, 463]-and further counterexamples to the collective N. analysis of dita are mentioned in Brunet 15 Perhaps included also in this class is como (1985: 46). It would rhus seem char dita is taking over the [+HUMAN] uses of diti . 'horn'. According to Goidanich ( 1 967: 1 42), coma is used for horns 'of animals Indeed, according to Santangelo ( 1 98 1 : that have two', whereas comi is used for 1 1 2), diti i s used today only i n rhe Tuscan horns 'of animals that have one'. When dialects. Goidanich attempts to illusrrare the latter . 21 It is sometimes claimed that the plurals of
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would have to generalize to the worst case and regard all nouns as second order obj ects (see Ojeda 1 993a: 47). 9 See McCawley (1968: 568), Kritka ( 1 987: 10), Roberts ( 1 986: 1 74 f£), and Ojeda (1 993a: 43 f£). 1 0 Technically, let F be a subset of a (mereological) universe of discourse. F is closed under mereological group formation if and only if F contains any group constituted by any nonempty subset of F. 1 1 Technically, let x and y be two distinct elements of a (mereological) universe of discourse. If x is part of y, then it can be shown that the universe of discourse will contain one and only one element which (i) constitutes y with x and, (ii) does not overlap with x. This element is called the
Almerindo E. Ojeda 2 3 5 grido 'cry', strido 'shriek', and urlo 'howl'
-
constituted by all the elements of the universe of discourse). The latter is a submereology of a 'principal ideal' of the universe of discourse ( a submereology of the mereology which contains all the parts of some group, possibly e, of the universe of discourse). See Ojeda ( 1 993a). 28 We have not required in (3o) that the identiry functions mentioned therein be defined only for atomistic submereologies. Such a requirement is called for, however, if we are to account for the fact that, strictly speaking, mass nouns cannot be pluralized, either collectively or distri butively. 29 We should point out that (3oa) does not exhaust the semantics of the feminine plural inflection -a . For notice that this morpheme must participate in the formation of the noncollective nouns mentioned in the preceding section. To do so it must behave as a distributive plural inflection. This means that -a must in effect be an allomorph of -i when it inflects the mass, nonfigurative, con tained, or human stems mentioned in the preceding section. In fact, if the plural -a is to form mass nouns like cervella 'brain mass', then it must even be an allomorph of the semantically vacuous plural marker - i . Only when it forms a collective noun will its semantics be constrained by (3oa). 30 The same points hold if nominal stems were instead required to denote partitions of groups and the plurals in question were regarded as functors which closed patri tions under group formation. The col lective inflection would then be defined only for nonmaximal partitions while its distributive counterpart would apply to all partitions, be they maximal or non maximal. Both this approach and the one in the text assume that the stems of the plurals in question are ambiguous. The claim that nominal sterns denote maximal partitions was made in Link ( 1 983); the claim that nominal sterns denote not partitions but complete -
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also exhibit the collective/distributive contrast (c£ Goidanich 1 967: 1 42 £; Fogarasi 1983: 195; Devoto & Oli 1971). The claim is disputed in Rocchetti ( 1 968) and Brunet (1985: 5 5, 75). We shall return to these plurals at the end of the next section. 22 Historical grammarians sometimes regard the count/mass distinction either as a particular case of the distributive/ collective opposition (c£ Meyer-Lubke 1905: 693) or as one close to it (c£ e.g. Rohlfs 1 968: 36). Yet, as should become clear below, none of the feminine plurals in question can be taken to denote a proper submereology of the mereology denoted by its masculine counterpart. In fact, given the wide semantic gap between count and mass reference, these feminine plurals cannot even denote proper subsets of their masculine counterparts. 23 See Ojeda ( 1 993a) for a discussion of the count/mass distinction. 24 The feminine plural could also end in -e. In addition, the mass noun legna had only the meaning of firewood, not that of 'logs tuff' or wood. 25 If the plurals in -a refer specifically to units of measurement, then their primary function would be to combine with numerals. Examples like due carra difieno 'two carts of hay' (Fogarasi 1 98 3: 1 96), tre sacca di grano 'three sacks of grain' (Goidanich 1 967: 1 4 1), un sacco di tre staia 'a sack of three bushels' (Brunet 1985: 78) would thus fly in the face of the analysis of plurals in -a as mass nouns discussed above. 26 Santangelo ( 1 98 1 : 1 1 4) claims that grida differs from gridi in that the former is figurative whereas the latter is not. 27 We distinguish between submereologies of the universe of discourse and sub mereologies in the universe of discourse. The former is a submereology of the entire universe of discourse ( a sub mereology of the mereology which contains all the parts of e, the: group
236 The Semantics of the Italian Double Plural algebraic structures has been advanced in Ojeda ( 1 993a) and Eschenbach (1993). 3 1 We assume that a singular noun denotes the set of atoms or minimal elements of the atomistic mereology denoted by its stem (c£ Ojeda 1 9933). If sterns instead denoted partitions (c£ the previous foot note), each stem would simply be a distinct singular. 32 See Ojeda ( 1 993b) for a more extended discussion of sentences like (3 5). Inter estingly, (35) is synonymous with neither (i) nor (ii).
(i) Gianni e Stato col pi to ai ginocchi (ii) Gianni e stato col pi to e le ginocchia . 'Gianni was hit on the knees.' (35) reports Gianni was hit on one knee while the sentences in (i)-(ii) instead convey he was hit on both. (i) specifically suggests that each knee was hit separately, say by two different bullets, while (ii) implies the two knees were hit jointly, say with a cane. 0
Battaglia, Giovanni ( 1 9 8 1 ) Nuova Grammatico I14liana per Stranieri , 6th edition, Bonacci Editore, Rome. Battaglia, Salvatore & Pemicone, Vincenzo ( 1978), Grammatico Italiano , new edition, Loescher, Turin. Brunet, Jacqueline ( 1 98 5), Grammaire Critique de l'Italien 1 , 2nd edition, Preses Universi taires de Vincennes, Centre de Recherche de l'Universite de Paris-VIII, Paris. Calvino, ltalo ( 1 9 5 8), I Racconti, 8th edition, Einaudi, Turin. Dardano, Maurizio & Trifone, Pietro ( 1 985), La Lingua Italiano , Zanichelli, Bologna. Devoto, Giacomo & Oli, Gian Carlo ( 1 97 1 ), Dizionario della Lingua Italiano , Le Mon nier, Florence. D'Ovidio, Francesco & Meyer-Lubke, Wil helm (r go6), Grammatico Storica della Lin gua e dei Dialetti Italiani , trans. by Dr Eugenio Polcari from the 2nd German edition reworked by W. Meyer-Lubke, Hoepli, Milan. Eschenbach, Carola ( 1 993), 'Semantics of number',jouma l oJSemantics , lO, 1 - 3 1 . Fochi, Franco (1971), L'italiano Facile , 6th edition, feltrinelli, Milan. Fogarasi, Miklos (198 3), Grammatico Italiano del Novecento , 2nd edition, Bulzoni Edi tore, Rome. Goidanich, Pier Gabriele (r¢7), Grammatico ,
Italiano , 4th edition (posthumous), Nicola Zanichelli Editore, Bologna. Hall, Robert ( 1 956), 'II plurale italiano in '-a': un duale mancato?' Italica , 33, 1 4o-2. lordan, lorgu & Manoliu, Maria (1 974), Linguistica Romanza , trans. by Marinella LOrinczi Angioni, Liviana Editrice, Padua. Krifka, Manfred (1987), 'Nominal reference and temporal constitution: towards a semantics of quantity' [- forschungsstelle fUr natlirlich-sprachliche Systeme, Bericht 1 7], Universitat Tubingen, Biesingerstr. r o, D-7400, Tubingen. Landman, Fred ( 1989), 'Groups I, II', Linguis tics and Philosophy , 1 2, 5 59-605, 723-44· Lausberg, Heinrich (rg6z), Romanische Sprachwissenschajt, W. de Gruyter, Berlin. Link, Godehard ( 1 98 3), 'The logical analysis of plurals and mass terms', in R Bauerle et al. (eds), Meaning, Use, and Interpretation of Language , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin. Massey, Gerald (1 976), 'Tom, Dick, and Harry, and all the King's men', American Philosophical Quarterly , 13, 89-107. McCawley, James (1 968), 'Review of Current Trends in Linguistics 3 , Language , 44, 5 5693· Meyer-Lubke, Wilhelm (r 8go), Italienische Grammatik , Reisland, Leipzig. Meyer-Lubke, Wilhelm (rgos), Grammatik der italienischen Sprache , by Francesco '
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RE FERENCES
Almerindo E. Ojeda 237 D'Ovidio & Wilhelm Meyer-Liibke, 2nd edition, reworked by Wilhelm Meyer Liibke, Trubner, Srrasbourg. Ojeda, Almerindo {I993a), Linguistic Individ uals (- CSU Lecture Notes 31 J, Stanford, Center for the Study of Language Infor mation, Stanford University. Ojeda, Almerindo ( I 993 b), 'New evidence for a more general theory of singularity', in Andreas Kathol & Michael Bernstein (eds),
Proceedings of the Tenth Eastern States Con ference on Linguistics , Department of
della Lingua Italiana e dei suoi Dialetti
II ,
trans.
by Temistocle Franceschi, Einaudi, Turin. Roncari, Armida & Brighenti, Carlo ( I 98o), La Lingua ItaIiana per gli Stranieri , new edition revised and enlarged by Carlo Brighenti, Edizioni Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori, Milan. Santangelo, Annamaria ( I 9 8 1 ), 'I plurali italiani del tipo "le braccia"', Archivio Glottologico Italiano , 66, 95-1 5 3· Sensini, Marcello ( 1988), Guida alia conoscenza e all'uso dell'italiano scritto e parlato , with the collaboration of Federico Roncoroni, Amoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan. Wald,Jan (1 977), 'Stuffand words: a semantic and linguistic analysis of nonsingular reference', Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University.
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Modem Languages and Linguistics, Cor nell University, Ithaca. Regula, Moritz & Jemej, Josip ( I 965), Gram matica Italiana Descrittiva , Francke Verlag, Bern. Renzi, Lorenzo ( I 988), Grande Grammatica ItaIiana di Consultazione, 2nd edition, Societa editrice il Mulino, Bologna. Roberts, Craige (1 986), 'Modal subordina tion, anaphora, and distributivity', Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Rocchetri, A. (1 ¢8), 'Les pluriels doubles de l'italien: une interference de Ia semantique et de Ia morphologie du nom', Les Langues Modernes , 62, 3 5 I --9· Rohlfs, Gerhard (1 968), Grammatica Storica
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Orientation in French Spatial Representations and Inferences
Expressions:
Formal
M I C HEL AU RNAGUE Equipe de Recherche en Syntaxe et Semantique-CNRS, Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail
Abstract
1 INTRO DUCTION This work on orientation 1 comes within the framework of research in spatial semantics developed over the past ten years both in cognitive linguistics (Bierwich & Lang 1989; Herskovits 1986; Lang 1990; Talmy 1983; Vandeloise 1986a) and computational semantics (Habel 1987; Pribbenow 1993). 1t is part of a broader project which aims at giving a formal representation of the semantic content of French linguistic markers of space (Barilla, M. 1991).In the category of referents, this project has dealt with Internal Localization Nouns (henceforth ILN) such as haut (top), avant (front), intirieur (inside), bord (edge) which are all lexical elements pointing to the different portions of an object. As for spatial relations, we examined internal and external prepositions (sur (on), dans (in)! devant (in front of ), au-dess us de (above), etc.) as well as several verbs of motion (se diriger vers (to go towards), venirde (to come from), passer par (to go through)).
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In this paper we propose several formal tools intended to grasp an important aspect of static localization in language, namely orientation. We consider French spatial expressions used in localizing an entity in an internal way (Internal Localization Nouns such as haut (top), bas (bortom), devant (front), derriere (back)) or in an external way (prepositions devant (in front of), derriere (behind), au-dessus de (above), au-dessous de (below)). In order to represent these orientation phenomena, we build a logical framework made up of three levels that we call geometrical, functional, and pragmatic. First, we define a geomerry based on directions and relative localization operators. Then we inrroduce the functional notions that underly intrinsic orientation processes and we propose several formal definitions which may serve to represent the semantic content of the srudied lexemes. These definitions allow us to make a difference between deictic and intrinsic uses of these spatial expressions and to draw interesting deductions and inferences. Finally, we integrate at the pragmatic level various principles governing the interpretation of such orientationa! expressions. By taking into account the dif ferent inferential schemata linked to the use of spatial expressions in discourse, this modular approach constirutes an original contribution to the semantic and cognitive srudies of linguistic space.
240 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
2 A THREE -LEVEL SYSTE M F OR THE RE PRESENT ATION O F S P ACE IN L AN GU A GE This section is a summary of what is presented in Aurnague & Vieu (1993). Contrary to Leech (1969) and to a certain extent to Miller & Johnson-Laird (1976), several linguists showed that a purely geometrical representation of the semantics of spatial prepositions is not appropriate (Herskovits 1986; Lang 1990; Talmy 1983; Vandeloise 1986a). For instance, if sur (on) was represented only in terms of contact, we could not differentiate between the sentences:
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A semantic analysis of these lexemes highlighted some important properties of spatial structures in language {Asher & Sablayrolles 1995; Aurnague 1989; Aurnague & Vieu 1993; Borillo, A. 1988, 1992;Laur 1991).On the basis of these observations, a formal system of representation of spatial entities and relations was proposed which consists of three levels encoding geometrical, functional, and pragmatic data. Orientation does in fact play a great part in the semantics of most of these ILNs as well as in the semantics of prepositions such as sur (on), au-dessus de (above), derriere (behind), etc. (that is to say, in both referent and relation categories and in both internal and external cases). We present in this paper a formal treatment of orientation which improves various aspects of a previous formalization we gave in (Aurnague 1991 and Aurnague & Vieu 1993) to represent this important feature of spatial semantics.This new formal tool tries to grasp better the differences between deictic and intrinsic orientation, and it can be used to handle both internal and external localization ( le haul (the top}/ au-dessus de (above), /'avant (the front}!devant (in front of ), etc.). Here we follow the methodological choices that were defined for the whole research project Firstly, from an empirical point of view, the study has been based on a detailed and systematic linguistic analysis which must highlight and classify the different meanings of each lexeme, in particular the distinct spatial configurations it refers to. The second point addresses the elaborated formalisms which, beyond the representation of the semantic content, should have adequate inferential properries.More precisely, we want to be able to use the formal representations we build in order to draw inferences whose results have to be in accordance with the results of natural reasoning made by human beings. In this paper, we will first recall the main characteristics of the overall representation system of the semantics of spatial expressions already proposed and focus on the orientational part. We will then introduce new tools for dealing with orientation in internal and external localization processes.
Michel Aurnague 241
La tapisserie est sur le mur (The wallpaper is on the wall) L'armoire est contre le mur (The cupboard is against the wall)
2.1
The geometrical /eve/
At the geometrical level, we deal with the topological notions of inclusion, contact, boundary, etc., and with concepts related to projective geometry such as straight line, distance, order on a straight line, etc. At this level, we deal with the spatial referents of the entities, that is, the space portions determined by their matter at a precise moment. These elements are also called here individuals. The actual use of prepositions like sur (on) and dans (in) which allow us to
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In this example, the geometrical approach does not take into account the functional component of the semantics of the preposition sur (on) corres ponding to the notion of'support'. More generally, the functional aspects of the relations and entities involved in spatial expressions play a major part in the semantics of spatial markers. However, we do not claim, as Vandeloise does, that functional notions alone can fully explain spatial semantics and we think that geometrical and functional data need to be articulated. As in any field of natural language, pragmatic phenomena influence the semantics of spatial markers. For instance, a book is usualy said to be on the table, even though the book is on another book and thus not in contact with the table. Because the relation between the two books is not relevant, one can 'forget' about it and think of the book directly in relation to the table. In Herskovits ( 1 986), Herskovits shows that, if instead of two books one on top of the other, it was a lid on a teapot, it would be impossible to 'infer' that the lid is on the table. In this case, being on the teapot, the lid fulflls its function with respect to the teapot and this fact cannot be 'forgotten'. Several pragmatic principles can be isolated which are in fact instances of more general ones governing any kind of discourse or dialogue such as Grice's principles of cooperativity (Grice 1 975). For instance, the underlying pragmatic principles involved in the previous example are the maxims of relevance and quantity. If a fact is relevant (in this case the lid is on the pot), expressing a less precise fact (in this case the lid is on the table) somehow implies that the precise fact is not verified in the given situation. According to these remarks and to several others of the same kind, we have proposed to analyse and represent the meaning of spatial expressions by means of a three-level system which takes into account geometrical, functional, and pragmatic information.
242 Oriemarion in French Spatial Expressions
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situate an entity called 'trajector' with respect to another entity called 'landmark' shows the relational nature of the structures handled in language, as opposed to the absolute spaces used in robotics (where entities are localized by means of coordinates). Moreover, two properties of these absolute spaces seem to contradict the structures of space in natural language. Whereas in a coordinate system the positions of every entity need to be known exactly, the spatial information expressed in a text is often partial and imprecise. Another problem arises from the fact that the variable granularity of space in language (for instance, the same entity can be considered at one time as a point and later as a volume) is not compatible with the discrete structure characterizing an implementable coordinate system, where the minimum units are defined a priori. So knowledge representation at the geometrical level will be achieved through a relational structure rather than through a coordinate system. Consequently, the spatial referent of the entities will be viewed as primitive elements and not, for instance, as sets of points within a Euclidean space. Space is therefore built from the text and not assumed beforehand (this is similar to the construction of time proposed in Kamp ( 1979)). In order to reflect these characteristics of linguistic space, topological data are represented in our system by means of Clarke's individual calculus (Clarke 1981, 1 985; Randell & Cohn 1989) which we modified and completed so as to take into account some important spatial concepts in language. This calculus, which is based on the sole primitive relation of connection between two individuals (C(x, y)), is used to define some mereological, as well as Boolean and topological, operators. As regards mereology, we can mention inclusion, overlapping, and external connection between two individuals. In the Boolean part of the calculus, operators such as sum, product, and complement are introduced. As for topological aspects, the interior of an individual, its closure, and the properties of being closed and open can be defined. Individual calculus based on connection is not sufficient as it is to deal with some problems related to the semantics of space in language. Consequently, we extended this theory to express some fundamental spatial notions such as limits and contact. We introduced three types of limit relations (lim 1 , lim2, lim3) through which surface-, line-, or point-like individuals can be differentiated. These limit concepts are very important for the formalization of ILNs like dessus {top extremity), bord (edge), angle (comer), etc. (Aumague 1 991 ). We also added the strong contact notion represented by external connection (the individuals in contact are assumed to share part of their boundaries) a notion of weak contact (the individuals are not connected although they touch) which seems to match common sense better. Let us suggest that contact plays a big role in the semantics of the relation sur (on). At a second stage, spatial points are constructed as sets of individuals by a
Michel Aurnague 243
2.2
Thefunctional level
At this level, we deal with properties linked to the entities themselves and therefore we handle variables representing entities and not mere pieces of space. We use the 'function' strej (spatio-temporal referent) in order to associate an entity with the spatio-temporal individual it determines throughout its 'life'.2 One of the most important processes which takes place on the functional level concerns orientation. In the same way as we retricted the type of entity processed by the system, we introduce some constraints on orientations. First, the texts studied are 'instantaneous' in the sense that the entities described as well as the speaker do not change positions with respect to one another.
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method akin to the maximal filters construction for defining time instants in a theory of time based on events or periods (Kamp 1 979; van Benthem 1 98 3). To avoid inconsistencies, the construction of 'interior points' (the individuals of these points overlap two by two) needs to be differentiated from the construc tion of 'boundary points' (there are two externally connected individuals in these points); this is one essential aspect of our modification of Clarke's theory (Vieu 1 99 1 a). Having built the 'points' and introduced two new primitive relations between points 'is situated between' noted T and 'is closer to' noted K (adapted from van Benthem 1 98 3), we define the notions of straight line (maximal set of points satisfying three by three the relation 'is situated between'), equidistance, perpendiculars (two lines are perpendicular if in each line there exist two points such that the two points of one line are equidistant to each point of the other), parallels, etc. As already mentioned, at the geometrical level, not only do we take into account topological data, but we also integrate some imponant concepts from projective geometry. We associate a system of abstract (not oriented) axes and directions with the spatial referent of every entity and we locate the different portions with respect to the whole entity by 'projecting' them on these axes. It should be made clear that an important assumption of our study is based on the delimitations of the universe of spatial entities that we describe and process (essentially with respect to their shape). For the analysis of ILNs, we had to restrict the research field of spatial entities to solid, undeformable, and connected objects that also have a 'normal usefulness'. This is why we deal here with a class of individuals whose shape is roughly parallelepipedic, cylindrical, or spherical. However, we think that these methodological restrictions are quite reasonable because the mental encoding of the entities involved in spatial relations seems to call for a very simple specification of their shape (Landau & Jackendoff 1 993; Talmy 1 98 3). We can conclude the presentation of this level by saying that we obtained a complete relational geometry.
244 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
2. 3
The pragmatic level
Some pragmatic principles act on the semantics obtained at the previous levels in a significant way. On top of functional knowledge, they use world knowledge (in particular, knowledge of typical situations) and information about context. The principles we consider here may be seen as the instanciation of more general ones (such as Gricean cooperativity principles (Grice 1975)) in the spatial domain. First, pragmatic principles allow one to deduce, in some cases, more information than is really present in the text and is represented on the first two levels (so we need a non-monotonic logic on this level). For instance, the sentence Marie est dam Ia voiture (Mary is in the car) is generally understood as Mary is in the passenger space, discarding at the same time the alternative Mary is in the boot. Second, they may rule out some expressions (for example, expressions inferred at the previous levels) because, even though their 'crude' semantics is verified by the system and in the model, they cannot be uttered since, using the first process mentioned, these expressions would be regarded as conveying information contradictory with what is known. For instance, if we know that
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Moreover, we assume that an entity is oriented by a single speaker. As stated before, only abstract directions are handled in the geometrical module. The orientation process, which is greatly conditioned by functional features, consists in mapping an abstract orientation on to a concrete one. Apart from the notion of orientation, we introduce at the functional level some concepts belonging to 'naive physics' (Hayes 1985) such as support and containment. As shown in the beginning of section 2, support is essential in sur s semantics: an object hanging above a table, touching it, is not sur Ia table (on the table). Containment which plays a great part in the determination of natural inside can be described as the restriction to some potential movements of the content. At this level, we distinguish three types of entities: objects (as in all the examples above), locations (countries, cities, gardens . . .), and non-material 'space portions' (such as insides of objects, holes, cracks . . .). Using those categories and a lattice structure for representing plural entities, we define six types of part-whole relations which play a great part in some uses of dans (in) (Vieu 1991a, 199 1 b). Thanks to these tools, we introduce some formal definitions for the lexemes we study, that is to say, for ten ILNs as well as for the prepositions sur (on) and dam (in). According to our methodological choices, we check whether the definitions we give in our system allow inferences in accordance with natural 'deductions'.
Michel Aurnague 245
2.4
Focus on orientation
Let us go back to the way the orientational process was defined in the formal system we have presented up to now. We said that the spatial referent of every entity is linked to a system of abstract orthogonal axes; as we will see, this is not a very accurate representation of what really takes place. In fact, a detailed study of orientation shows that an intrinsic orientation follows from the internal properties of an entity, in particular its shape but also its function (Bierwisch & Lang 1989; Lang 1990; Vandeloise 1986b). Con sequently, the axes or straight lines arising in such an intrinsic orientation are linked to the entity itself and not just to its spatial referent. This is the case of a TV or a house which both have intrinsic vertical and formal orientations. Intrinsically oriented entities can be classified according to the way this orientation arises. For example, Bierwisch & Lang ( 1989) introduces a sub categorization of vertical intrinsic orientation into three classes. In that analysis, fixed orientation occurs when entities have a fixed orientation with respect to the earth's surface (mountains, rivers), whereas canonical orientation applies to situations calling for a normal position with respect to the vertical (TVs, desks), and inherent orientation occurs when vertical orientation comes from inherent properties of the entity (books, pictures). In the case of a contextual process, orientation is the result of the interaction between the entity involved and another entity in the context This means that the relevant axes in a contextual orientation derive from the interaction between these two entities. For instance, such an orientation occurs when one designates the front of a tree situated in front of a tent (in this case, the front part of the tree is the part which faces the entrance of the tent). In the framework of this study, we only consider a particular case of contextual orientation, namely
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Marie estdans le cojfre de Ia voiture = Mary is in the car's boot is true, then Marie est dans Ia voiture = Mary is in the car is not false, and yet in general we cannot answer where is Mary? with the latter sentence, for in most contexts it is interpreted as Mary is in the passenger space. A 'fixation principle' underlies the examples cited above. This principle, first introduced in Vandeloise (1986a), expresses the fact that the typical use of an object 'fixes' some of its characteristics. For instance, the front and the back of a car are 'fixed' by the usual-not the actual-direction of its motion; indeed, many intrinsic orientations are determined this way. Several other principles may be found. Third, we must mention the pragmatic phenomenon that enables us to loosen some conditions of the semantic definitions. This phenomenon was illustrated in the previous example of the books on the table which involved the maxim of relevance.
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Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
3
A N A LY S I S A N D F O RMAL I ZAT I O N O F O R I E N T AT I O NAL P R O CE S S
Having presented the main characteristics o f our system for the representation of spatial entities and relations, we are now going to describe the new tools we
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the deictic one, in which the orientating entity is the speaker. However, interpretations relying on vertical contextual orientation (which is given by gravity) will be formalized because, very often, vertical deictic uses are restricted to situations where the speaker is standing up. So ifwe wanted to give a very accurate account of the orientational process as it really occurs, we would have to associate predefined axes only to intrinsically oriented entities, whereas for a deictic orientation the axes would be defined by taking into account the interaction between the oriented entity and the speaker. However, this is not the case in the formalism already proposed, even though we could determine whether we are faced with a deictic or intrinsic case. First, and as we indicated above, every entity has (at the geometrical level) a predefined system of abstract axes associated with it. Second, although the formalism mentions elements which entail the association of an abstract direc tion with a concrete one (in an intrinsic case this process is triggered by the entity itself, whereas in the deictic one it relies on another element of the context, the speaker), this complex functional process is not described in details for each case.3 According to these remarks, our new orientation formalism has to fulfil two main points. First of all, it has to grasp how the axes derive from the function of the entities and the shape of their spatial referents. Concerning chis point, it can be underlined that giving an intrinsic orientation to an entity in a determined direction amounts to saying that for 'functional reasons' a particular portion of this entity constitutes an extremity in this direction (e.g. usually the neck of a bottle is up). A second requirement for the new formalism relies on the need to use the same orientational tool for internal ILNs, as well as for external localizations (e.g. devant (in front of), derriere (behind), au-dessus de (above), au-dess ous de (below)).4 The main reason for such a requirement is that, from an inferential point of view, we want to be able to combine formal definitions of external and internal markers and to derive calculations from these combinations. Another reason would be that, from linguistic and psychological points of view, the orientational mechanisms involved in internal and external localization seem to be very similar.
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introduce in order to deal with orientation. We will detail the formalisms operating at each level of the system. 3.1
The geometrical level
A1 V a , {3 (PT( a ) 1\ PT(f3 ) 1\ --.ND(a , {3)) => 3D d(a , {3) = D Henceforth, directions will be denoted by upper case characters so as to differentiate them from individuals and entities which are noted in lower case. Another axiom indicates that symmetrically ordered pairs of points determine opposed directions (the opposite operator '-' being defined below (Defi )): A2 V a , f3 (Pt(a ) 1\ Pt(/3 )) => (d(a , {3) = D <> d(/3 , a ) = -D) We introduce a primitive relation between directions Kd(D 1, D2, D3) which expresses that 'D 1 is closer to D2 than to D3' (in terms of angular values). Such a relation, similar to the primitive K expressing relative distance between points (axiomatized in van Benthem 198 3), is irreflexive and transitive (and thus asymmetric): A3 VDI , D2 --.Kd(DI, D2, D2)
A4 VD 1, D2, D3 (Kd(D 1, D2, D3) 1\ Kd(D 1 , D3, D4)) => Kd(D 1, D2, D4) As in the case of the primitive K between points, a second type of transitivity can be stated:
As VD1, D2, D3 (Kd(D1 , D2, n3) " Kd(D3, D1, D2)) => Kd(D2, D1, D3) The primitive relation Kd allows us to characterize the notions of opposite and orthogonal directions. The opposite of a direction is the direction which is the farthest from it, whereas a direction orthogonal to a given one is situated at an equal distance from this direction and its opposite (this last notion is defined in a set theoretical way):
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At the geometrical level we complete our ontology by introducing the basic concept of direction. Directions have already been used in various works in the field of Qualitative Physics (Davis 1989; Frank 1 992; Freksa 1993) or in semantic studies intended, for example, to handle the spatial information contained in car accident reports Gayez 1 992). A direction is viewed here as a primitive element which can be linked to ordered pairs of points by the following axiom, d( a , {3) being a new primitive function giving the direction determined by two points a and {3 and ND a relation expressing the notion of null distance (Aumague & Vieu 1 993):
248 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
Defi -(D I , D2) =def VD3 D3 � D2 � Kd(D1 , D3, D2) Def2 Ortho(D1) - def (D2: -D I - D3 1\ --.Kd(D2, D1, D3) 1\ --.Kd(D2, D3, D1)) Let us indicate that a particular axiom ensures the existence of the opposite of any direction: A6 \fD1 3 D2(VD3 D3 ¥ D2 � Kd(D1, D3, D2)).
Def3 Med(D1 , D2) -der {D3: {D I - D2 A D3 - D1) V (D 1 � D2 1\ -.Kd(DJ, DI, D2) A --.Kd(DJ, 02, DI))} Def4 VDI , D2, D3 D3 E Sum(D1 , D2) <:> (D3 E Med(D1 , D2) A VD4(D4 E Med(D1 , D2) => -.Kd(DI , D4, D3))) A7 VDI , D2, DJ{DI � D2 1\ D I � 03 A D2 � D3) => (Kd(DI , D2, D3) v Kd(D1, D3, D2) V D 1 E Med(D2, D3)) By means of the following two axioms we express the reflection or circular aspect of directions: AS \fD1 , D2, D3, Kd(D1 , D2, D3) () Kd(D 1 , -03, -02) A9 \fD1 , D2, D3 Kd(D1 , D2, D3) () Kd(-DI , -02, -03) Finally, we state a kind of transitivity between medians and we express the relation of a direction D with respect to two directions D2 and D3 in terms of the sum of these directions: A10 VD, D1, D2, D3 (D E Med(D1, D2) 1\ D E Med(D2, D3) 1\ D 1 D E Med(D1 , D3) AI 1 VD, D 1 , D2, D3{Kd(D, D2, D3) 1\ D1 E Sum(D2, D3)) � {Kd(D3, D1, D) 1\ Kd(-02, -D I, D))
� D3) �
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From A6 and the fact that the opposite of a direction is unique (which can be proved using A6 and asymmetry), it follows that the relation '-' can be characterized as a function. Consequently, we will use the operator '-' as a function rather than as a simple relation, -D denoting the opposite direction of a direction D. We can also define the median of two directions and a kind of sum or composite of directions. The median of two distinct directions correspond to the set of directions which are equidistant between these two directions. The sum of two directions is a subset of the median set constituted by the directions which are the nearest from these two directions (this set is a singleton for non opposed directions and its element corresponds to the median which is coplanar with the two directions, whereas for opposed directions it has for two elements in 2D space and it corresponds to a whole plane in 3D space). We give below the set theoretical definition characterizing medians and sums as well as a linearity axiom:
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The theory based on this primitive Kd includes other definitions and axioms concerning, among other things, extensionality and coplanar directions. Although these notions should be of great importance for a complete geometry on orientation, we do not introduce them here because they are not relevant to the semantics of the spatial relations we are dealing with in this paper. Several theorems can be proved from the set of definitions and axioms set out below, in particular with regard to orthogonality:5
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A3 A4 A7 A8 Defi TI \fDI , D2, DI � D2 � Kd(-DI , D2, DI) For every direction D2 different from D I , -D I is closer to D2 than to D I A3 A4 Defi TI T2 \fD -(-D) = D Idempotency of T3 \fD, DI, D2, D3 D I e Med(D2, D3) 1\ Kd(DI , D2, D) � A4 A7 Aw Def2 Kd(DI , D3, D) If D I is the median of D2 and D3 and DI is closer to D2 than to D it follows that D I is closer to D 3 than to D T4 \fDI, D2, D3 DI e Med(D2, D3) 1\ D I e Ortho(D2) � D I e Ortho(D3) A8 A10 Def2 Def3 T2 T3 If DI is the median of D2 and D3 and DI is orthogonal to D2 then DI is orthogonal to D 3 A9 Def2 Ts \fDI , D2, DI e Ortho(D2) <> -DI e Ortho(D2) Saying that DI is orthogonal to D2 is equivalent to saying that -DI IS orthogonal to D2 T6 \fD, D I (DI e Ortho(D) � \fD2(Kd(D, D2, -D2) <> Kd(D, D2, DI))) A3 A4 As A7 AS Def2 Def3 T2 T4 Ts IfDI is orthogonal to D, saying that D is closer to D2 than to -D2 is equivalent to saying that D is closer to D2 than to D I T7 \fDI, D2, Kd(DI , D2, -D2) <> Kd(D2, D I , -DI} A3 A4 A7 AI I Def2 Def3 Def4 T6 Saying that D I is closer to D2 than to -D2 is equivalent to saying that D2 is closer to DI than to -DI T8 \fDI , D2, DI e Ortho(D2) <> D2 e Ortho(DI) Symmetry of orthogonality A more complete presentation of this theory on orientations detailing the different deductions which can be drawn will be proposed in Asher, Aurnague, & Vieu (forthcoming). Let us indicate that this axiomatic needs to be studied further in order to minimize the number of axioms and to verify its properties from a model theoretical point ofview (in particular, soundness). To formalize correctly the orientational process, we also have to introduce at the geometrical level a set of thirteen predicates constituting an extension of
250 Orientation in French Spacial Expressions
Allen's relations6 (R) (Allen 1 984). Each formula R(x, y, D) indicates the configuration between the maximum intervals filled by the individuals x and y in the direction D? Beside the classical axioms related to Allen's relations we introduce here a postulate stating that for every pair ofconnected individuals x and y and every direction D, one of the relations m, o, s, d, for - stands between them: A I 2 Vx, y, D C(x, y) � mosdf
=
�oisidi�(x, y, D)8
Defs Ex�y. x, d) =derLimi(y, x) 1\ Vv((P(v, x) 1\ --.P(v, y)) � <m(v, y, D)) It can be observed that, in some cases, for two given individuals x and y (for instance, when we are faced with the vertex y of a triangle x) several directions may verify this relation. Generally, this occurs when a tangent to the surface cannot be associated with some particular point. If we wanted a unique direction to be selected, we would have to introduce more constraints or conditions. That is exactly what we do by introducing a relation 'Exts', which indicate that y is an extremity of x in the direction D, and z an extremity (of a part u of x) in the opposite direction: Def6 Exts(y, z, x, D) =derEx�y. x, D) 1\ 3u(P(u, x) 1\ P(y, u) 1\ Ex�z, u, - D) 1\ Salien�z, x) 1\ (--.3v Poin�z, v) V --.3v Point(y, v))) In this definition the predicate 'Salient' accounts for the visual and cognitive processes that lead us to select a geometrically salient individual z in the individual x. A further specification of this phenomenon requires a precise study of the underlying processes. The remainder of the definition ensures that this individual z constitutes an extremity in the direction -D and that one of these extremities is not punctual. Going back to the case of the triangle, such an additional condition allows us (by raking into account the orthogonal direction at the base of the triangle) to select a unique direction among the first set of directions. 3.2 3.2.1
Functional /eve/
Intrinsic orientation
Using the different tools we have built up to now at the geometrical level, and raking into account the properties of the entities themselves, we can tackle the
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We state that y is an extremity of x in a direction D if y is a limit of x (as underlined above, the concept of limit has been already formalized at the geometric level of our representation system), and furthermore if every individual included in x (and not included in y) precedes or meets y in this direction D:
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formalization of the orientational process. In this paper, we consider first the intrinsic case, examining only vertical and frontal orientation, that is, leaving aside the lateral case; the deictic case, as well as all contextual cases, is eventually grounded on the intrinsic orientation of some entity. Consequently, the latter is studied in the definition section (section 3.2.2). Basing our analysis on the remark we made about the importance of the extremity notion for intrinsic orientation, we introduce a new partial function mapping an extremity y of an entity x (and an extremity z of a portion of x) on to the corresponding direction D: Def7
Vx, y, z, D dir-ext(y, z, x)
=
D
�
(Part(y, x) 1\ Part(z, x) 1\
Exts(stref(y), stref(z), stref(x), D)) and z ofx. The above axiom which directly handles entities and not simple portions of space9 relies on the geometric relation 'Exts' (indicating that the individual stref(y) constitutes an extremity of stref(x) in a direction) as well as on the part whole relations between entities already defined in our system. Starting with the vertical intrinsic orientation, a particular direction of an entity can be considered as its upper intrinsic direction if, in a canonical position, this direction coincides with the gravitational upper direction. We 1 express these conditions by means of the following definition: 0 Def8 Orient-haut(D, x) =der 3y, z(dir-ext(y, z, x) (In-Use(x) > dir-ext(y, z, x)
=
=
D
1\ Can-Use(x) 1\
haut-grav))
In this definition, the predicate 'Can-Use' ensures that the entity x has a canonical use. The predicate 'In-Use' together with the non-monotonic implication (> denoting an implicature) allows us to resrrict the coincidence of the directions to 'normal' (canonical) uses of x. We think that the non monotonic logic proposed in (Asher & Morreau 1 99 1 ) could be a good framework for handling such information.
A similar formula specifies a lower inrrinsic orientation, and a biconditional links it to the previous upper orientation: Defg Orient-bas(D, x) =def 3y, z (dir-ext(y, z, x) - D
A Can-Use(x) A
(In-Use(x) > dir-ext(y, z, x) - bas-grav))
AI 8
haut-grav � - (bas-grav)
The processing of frontal orientation calls for more complex mechanisms that mirror more complex phenomena. We thus distinguish three cases, which, as we shall see, are not mutually exclusive. The first case occurs when the frontal orientation of an entity x is induced by what Vandeloise calls the 'general orientation' of x (Vandeloise 1986a), which
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Henceforth we will say that such a direction is generated by the extremities y
252 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
depends on various factors such as the direction of motion, the arrangement of the perception apparatus etc. So we first state that a given direction of an entity x may be considered as a front direction of type 1 if that direction x coincides with its general orientation: Def10 Orient-avann(D, x) =def3y, z dir-ext(y, z, x)
=
D 1\ Orient-gen(x, D)
Defi 1 Orient-avant2(D, x) =def3y, z{dir-ext(y, z, x) D 1\ Can-Use(x) 1\ Vu, D'{{Urilize(x, u) 1\ Orient-avann{D', u)) > D' - dir-ext(y, z, x))) =
This second case of frontal orientation which we call tandem orientation occurs with chairs, cars, clothes, etc. The third and last rule corresponds to entities whose frontal direction is opposed, in canonical use, to the user's frontal direction (cupboards, computers, TVs, etc.): Def12 Orient-avant3(D, x) =def3y, z(dir-ext(y, z, x) - D 1\ Can-Use(x) 1\ Vu, D'{{Urilize(x, u) 1\ Orient-avann(D', u)) > D ' - -dir-ext{y, z, x))) Finally, we express through the following rules that every entity having an intrinsic frontal orientation falls into one of these three cases and that front and back (intrinsic) directions stand in a relation of opposition: Def1 3 Orient-avant(D, x) =def Orient-avann(D, x) V Orient-avant2(D, x) V Orient-avant3{D, x) Vx, D Orient-avant(D, x) � Orient-arriere(-D, x) The formalization of the lateral cases, which is not completely worked out for rhe movement, is not considered in this paper. However, it can be underlined that this lateral modality calls for already more complex representa tions than frontal orientation does (which, as we just saw, is itself more complex than the vertical one). This property of our formal tools seems to match perfectly the observations made by psycholinguists about the acquisition and manipulation of orientation notions (Pierart 1 979). 3 .2.2
Definitions
Thanks to all the geometrical and functional tools introduced above, we can now express the 'crude' semantics of various internal and external localization
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We find in this category human beings, animals, arrows, but also cars and vehicles in general.U The second kind of frontal orientation covers all of the entities whose frontal direction coincides, in canonical use, with the frontal direction of the user. So, by means of this second rule, we state that a specific direction of an entity x constitutes a front direction of type 2 if the front direction ofevery entity using x in a canonical way coincides with this direction of x:
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lexemes. In particular, we will especially consider the formalization of their semantic component relative to orientation.
3.2.2.1 Intemal localization Let us start with Internal Localization Nouns (ILNs) and more precisely with the definition of the haut (top) of an entity. Intuitively, the intrinsic top corresponds to the portion of the entity situated in the pole whose direction is the intrinsic upper direction. Consequently, we state by means of the following definition that an entity y constitutes the intrinsic top of an entity x if y is the maximal element situated in the pole of x whose direction is D, and further more, if this direction corresponds to the intrinsic upper direction of x:
The direction D appearing in this predicate 'Haut-i' plays a very important part for the distinction between intrinsic and deictic top cases. In the case of an intrinsic top this direction comes from the entity itself, whereas in a deictic situation, it is given by another element of the context (the speaker) and does not have any special relation with the entiry: 12 Defi S Haut-d(y, x, D) =der 3s(Orient-haut(D, s) 1\ s � x 1\ Speaker(s) 1\ ln-pole(y, x, D) 1\ Vw(In-pole(w, x, D) � Part(w, y))) As we pointed out before, and in accordance with some experiments made by psychologists and psycholinguists (Carlon-Radvansky & Irwin 1 993), these vertical deictic uses are much more acceptable when they coincide with vertical contextual uses, that is to say, when the intrinsic upper direction of the speaker coincides with the gravitational up. In consequence, although in this study as a whole we do not consider contextual cases other than deictic ones, the contextual use of haut (top) seems an important configuration to describe:
Def16 Haut-c(y, x, haur-grav) =def ln-pole(y, x, haur-grav) 1\ V w(In-pole(w, x, haur-grav) � Part(w, y)) We give below the definitions corresponding to the concept of pole (and inclusion in a pole). Basically we can say that the pole y of an entity x in a direction D is constituted by the portion of x extending from the middle of x to its extremity in the direction D. These rules essentially rely on Allen's relations between the spatio-temporal referents of the previously mentioned entities (middle, extremity, etc.) in the direction D: Defi 7 Pole(y, x, D) =der 3e, m (Part(y, x) 1\ Middle(m, x) 1\ Ext(srref{e), stref{x), D) 1\ rn(stref{m), srref{y), D) 1\ f{stref{e), stref{y), D)) Defi 8 In-pole(y, x, D) =der 3u(Pole(u, x, D) 1\ Part(y, u))
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Def14 Haut-i(y, x, D) =der Orient-haut(D, x) 1\ In-pole(y, x, D) 1\ Vw (In-pole(w, x, D) � Part(w, y))
254 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
3.2.2.2 External localization
One of the goals of this study was to propose orientation tools which could be used to formalize the semantic content of internal as well as external localization lexemes. Now we are going to show how our orientational formalism help to express the meaning of the external preposition devant (in front of). We can say that an entity y is situated (intrinsically) in front of an entity x if y is included in the space portion situated in front of x (that is to say, the space portion delimited by means of x and its intrinsic frontal direction). In order to grasp such a configuration, we introduce the predicate In-sp(y, x, D) which specifies that an entity y is included in the space delimited by the entity x and the direction D. From a more formal point ofview, this is expressed by stating that a relation I11j or > stands between the spatia-temporal referents of y and x in the direction D:o Def19 In-sp(y, x, D) =def l11j >(stre�y), stre�x), D) Then we can characterize the fact that an entity y is situated intrinsically in front of an entity x, indicating that y has to be contained in the space delimited by x and the direction D, which in turn constitutes the intrinsic frontal direction of x: Def2o Etre-devant-i(y, x, D) =der Orient-avant(D, x) A In-sp(y, x, D) Here again the deictic use of the preposition devant (in front of) differs from the intrinsic use in the underlying direction given by a speaker describing the scene situated in front of him: Def21 Etre-devant-d(y, x, D) =der3s (Orient-avan�-D, s) A s 'F x A s 'F y A Speaker(s) A In-sp(y, x, D) A Etre-devant-i(x, s, -D))
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On the basis of our orientational tools, we can introduce similar formal representations for the ILNs bas (bottom), avant (front), am'ere (back). It is also possible to specify the semantic content of iLNs such as dess us (top extremity), dessous (bottom extremity), devant (front extremity), derriere (back extremity) using the same formalization of orientational phenomena. The only difference between the semantic definition of these lexemes and the representations associated with the ILNs haut, bas, avant, arriere, etc. is based on the topological and geometric aspects. For instance, the dess us (top extremity) of an entity is the uppermost surface (roughly) perpendicular to the upper direction and in contact with the exterior of the entity. We obviously need topological and geometric concepts here which are much more complex than the sole notion of pole in a direction. In Aurnague ( 1 991), several definitions are introduced in order to characterize what is an external surface perpendicular to a direction D and furthermost in this direction.
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The fact that the speaker is facing the landmark to which he gives a frontal orientation means that we consider a mirror configuration (between the orienting speaker and the landmark). This is expressed by the minus sign associated with the underlying direction of the predicate 'Orient-avant'. In fact, mirror deictic configurations are very frequent in French as opposed to tandem orientations which are less often used. 3 .2.3
Inferences
As we said previously in the description of our methodological choices, we wish
J.2. J . r Intrinsic-intrinsic case
An
example of an utterance made up of two intrinsic devant (in �rant of) prepositions is:1• Le tabouret est devant leJa uteuil
(The stool is in front of the armchair) LeJa uteuil est devant Max
(The armchair is in front of Max) Using the formal tools introduced for the preposition devant, we can give the following representation of these two sentences in which t, f. and m respectively denote the stool, the armchair, and Max:
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to obtain a semantic representation ofutterances allowing us to draw inferences which have to be in accordance with the deductions made by human beings. We already showed in (Aumague & Vieu 1 993) that the inferences we can draw with the formal definition dans (in), sur (on), as well as with ILNs such as haul (top), devant (front extremity), dessous (bottom extremity), match our common sense inruitions. For instance from le vase est sur le dessus de /'armoire (the vase is on the top extremity of the cupboard) we can deduce that le vase est sur le haul de /'armoire (the vase is on the top of the cupboard). We will not give here the different steps of such a reasoning because it essentially relies on topological, and not on orientational, considerations (the reason is that the lexemes haul (top) and dessus (top extremity) have a similar semantic content from an orientational point of view and differ only in terms of topological aspects). However, we shall set out some of the inferences and calculations we can make using the semantic definitions previously proposed for the external preposition devant (in front of). Looking at two sentences in which this preposition appears, we examine the results obtained by applying transitivity to their formal representations. We split the verification into three cases according to the deictic or intrinsic narure of the relation involved in each of the two sentences we combine.
256 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
Etre-devant-i{t, f, di) Etre-devant-i(f, m, d2) From the predicate 'In-sp' appearing in che definition of 'Etre-devant' we can deduce the following Allen's relations between the spatio-cemporal referents of c, f, and m: m; > (streqc), srreqf), di) Ill; > (streqf), scef(m), d2).
Etre-devanc-i(c, m, d2) <> Orienc-avanc(d2, m) 1\ In-sp(c, m, d2) Consequently, we succeed in calculating char le tabouret est devant Max (the stool is in front of Max) intrinsically, given the cwo previous sentences and the additional constraint ensuring the coincidence between the intrinsic frontal direction of the armchair and Max. The imponance of chis constraint is illustrated by Figures I and 2. In che first case, the cwo intrinsic directions coincide and le tabouret est devant Max can be uttered, whereas in the second configuration they are different so char che previous deduction cannot be drawn. Although, for pictorial facilities, we have represented aligned entities with identical or opposed intrinsic directions, ic may be noted that, in accordance with the definitions we proposed for devant (in front of), directional prepositions do not require alignment along the underlying direc-
Figure 1
Figure 2
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A very imponanc parameter in the sense char ic affects the overall deduction process concerns the identity of the directions d I and d2 underlying che cwo relations 'Etre-devant'. If we know char these directions coincide (which is formally expressed by di - d2) we can, on che basis of the axioms associated with Allen's relations (here we use che theorem V x, y, z, Ill; > (x, y, D) 1\ Ill; > (y, z, D) => >(x, z, D)), deduce chat >(stref(c), srreqm), d2), which, in accordance with the definition of 'In-sp', entails In-sp(c, m, d2). Associating chis face with the information about frontal intrinsic orientation of m: Orient-avanc(d2, m) contained in che definition ofEtre-devant-i{f, m, d2), we obtain:
Michel Aumague 2 5 7
tion.15 Moreover, the blocking of the inferences based on transitivity occurs every time the directions associated with the relations are different and not only when they are opposed (as illustrated in the figures).
3.2.3.2 Deictic-deictic case In an utterance such as the following, the landmarks involved in the two prepositions devant take their orientation from the speaker:16
The speaker can linguistically express the fact that this description completely depends on its spatial position with respect to the configuration by adding at the beginning of each sentence, an expression such as vu d'ici (seen from here). The following facts (based on the formal tools we described above), with t, p. and 1 denoting respectively the stool, the plant and the light, express the semantic content of the previous sentences: Etre-devant-d(t, p, d) Etre-devant-d(p, 1, d) The identity of the directions underlying each relation 'Etre-devant' comes directly from the hypothesis we made about the uniqueness of the speaker uttering such sentences and about the instantaneous character of such texts (the speaker doesn't change position). The same direction being associated with the two deictic relations 'Etre-devant', we can here again calculate that In-sp(t, 1, d) and finally conclude that Etre-devant-d(t, 1, d), which means that le tabouret est devant le lampadaire (the stool is in front of the light, deictically). We do not specify all the calculation steps because they are very similar to what has been shown in the previous example. Obviously, if the underlying directions had been different, it would not have been possible to draw such an inference. This may occur only when the spatial configuration is described from different positions or points of view in the two sentences (the same speaker occupying distinct positions at different moments or two speakers situated at distinct positions at the same moment which our work does not address). Figures 3 and 4 highlight the fact that transitive deductions work when a single speaker (Max) applies his orientation to the landmarks (the plant and the light): in this case (Figure 3) the sentence le tabouret est devant le lampadaire (the stool is in front of the light, deictically) can be inferred. On the contrary, the presence of two speakers (Max and Arthur in Figure 4) describing the spatial configuration from distinct positions means that
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Le tabouret est devant le plante (The stool is in front of the plant) LA plante est devant le lampadaire (The plant is in front of the light)
2 5 8 Oriemarion in French Spatial Expressions
Figure 3
the sentence le tabou ret est devant le lamp adaire is neither true from Max's nor from Arthur's point of view. Let us consider now what kind of calculation may occur if the previous spatial configuration was described by means of an utterance composed of a deictic devant combined with a deictic derri!re (rather than two deictic devant): Le tabouret est devant Ia plante
(The stool is in front of the plant) Le lampadaire est derriere Iaplante
(The light is behind the plant ) With t, p. and 1 denoting once again the stool, the plant, and the light, the following formulas express the semantic content of the previous sentences:
Etre-devant-d{t, p, d) Etre-derriere-d(l, p, -d) From the definitions of'Erre-devant' and 'Erre-derriere' and the relation 'In sp' we can state the following facts in terms of extended Allen's relations:
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Figure 4
Michel Aumague 259 II\ > (stref{t), stref{p), d) II\ > (stre£{1), stref{p), -d)
The second expression being equivalent to II\ > (stref{p), stre£{1), d), transitivity axioms associated with Allen's relations allow us to deduce that II\ > (stref{t), stre£{1), d) which means that: In-sp(t, 1, d) We also know, from the definition of deictic 'Etre-devant', that there is a speaker s different from t and 1 (the stool and the light) who has an intrinsic front orientation corresponding to the direction -d: In order to prove Etre-devant-d(t, 1, d) it remains to be stated that 1 is situated (intrinsically) in front of s or, in other words, that this speaker s faces the light to which she/he is applying her/his frontal orientation. From the expression Etre-devant-d(t, p, d) we can deduce that the speaker s, who utters these sentences, is facing p: Etre-devant-i(p, s, -d) The predicate 'ln-sp' appearing in the definition of 'Etre-devant-i' tells us that: mi > (stref{p), stef{s), -d) This relation combined with II\ > (stre£{1), stref(p), -d) (previously mentioned) entails by transitivity II\ > (stre£{1), stref{s), -d) which means that In-sp(l, s, -d). Consequently we have: Etre-devant-i(l, s, d) � Orient-avant(-d, s) 1\ In-sp(l, s, -d) Grouping together all the facts we have stated up to now we can, as in the previous example, infer the following formal expression, which indicates to us that le tabouret est devant le lampadaire (the stool is in front of the light, deictically): Etre-devant-d(t, 1, d) � Orient-avant(-d, s) 1\ s =1- t 1\ s =1- 1 1\ Speaker(s) 1\ ln-sp(t, 1, d) 1\ Etre-devant-i(l, s, -d)) These calculations show that it is possible to draw identical deductions from utterances describing a spatial configuration by means of different but semantically equivalent external relations.
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Orient-avant(-d, s) 1\ s =1- t 1\ s =1- l 1\ Speaker(s)
260 Orienta cion in French Spacial Expressions
3-2·3·3 Intrinsic-deictic case The last case we consider here combines an intrinsic use of the relation 'Erre devant' with a deictic one:
Le tabouret est devant
leJa uteuil
(The stool is in front of the armchair) LeJa uteuil est devant le lampadaire (The armchair is in front of the light) From the formal representation of these sentences (Etre-devant-i(t, f, d 1 )
1\
Etre-devant-d(f, 1, d2)), and with the same kind of calculation as previously
le tabouret est devant le lampadaire (the stool is in front
Once again, the whole deductive process is conditioned by the coincidence between the intrinsic frontal direction of the armchair d 1 and the deictic frontal direction d2 given to the light by a speaker s. Figures 5 and
6 illustrate
respectively what happens when these directions are identical and when they are notP Before finishing the presentation of the functional level, it may be mentioned that the notions of distance and relative size between the trajector and the landmark play a great part in the semantics of most spatial prepositions. Actually, the importance of these notions increases when we consider combinations of the same relation (as in the utterances above), because they constitute factors that can block the application of transitivity. However, although distance and relative size rely on geometrical tools, their part is heavily affected by contextual factors. Consequently, such phenomena have to be described and formalised at the pragmatic level.
Figure 5
Figure 6
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applied, we can deduce that
of the light, deictically: Etre-devant-d(t, I, d2)).
Michel Aumague 26 1
3·3
Pragmatic level
As we said
Def22 Prio-axiale-horizr (y, x, D) =der3D (D' e Ortho(D) 1\ D' e Ortho(haut grav) 1\ oo;(stre�y), srre�x), D ')) Def23 Prio-axiale-horiz2(y, x, D) =der 3D (D' e Ortho(D) 1\ D' e Ortho(haut grav) 1\ s;f;d;(stre�y), stre�x), D')) Def24 Prio-axiale-horiz3(y, x, D) =der3D (D ' e Ortho(D) 1\ D' e Ortho(haut grav) 1\ sfd(stre�y), srre�x), D')) Def25 Prio-axiale-horiz4(y, x, D) =der3D (D' e Ortho(D) 1\ D' e Ortho(haur grav) 1\ = (srre�y), stre�x), D'))
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at the beginning, we introduce at this level the underlying principles people use in order to filter out the relations inferred wrongly, or in order to deduce more information than the discourse actually contains. The pragmatic level modifies the semantics obtained at the functional level according to context and world knowledge. We have not yet identified and formalized all the pragmatic factors arising in orientation phenomena, but we shall illustrate their role through the description of the axial priority principle. As we showed at the functional level, the semantic representation of the preposition devant {in front of) constrains the positions of the trajector and the landmark with respect to the frontal axis. The definition stated that as soon as the trajector y is further on the frontal direction (associated to x) than the landmark x, y can be described as being devant (in front of) x whatever its lateral position with respect to x is (y can be on the left of/in front of/on the right of x). Nevertheless, because of the context of utterance (spatial configuration surrounding x and y, intentions of the speaker, etc.), we may want to say that y est e:xactement devant x (y is exactly in front of x) or y est davantage devant x que ne /'est z (y is more in front of x than z is), etc. The influence of the context can also be such that only the entities y situated exactly in front of x will be described as being devant x. By reducing the degree of freedom on the lateral axis, this pragmatic phenomenon amounts to focusing on the frontal direction; we call this 'axial priority'. In order to formalize the axial priority phenomenon, we introduce several definitions constraining the position of two entities y and x (repre senting the tajector and the landmark) with respect to a horizontal direction D ' which is orthogonal to the focused direction D. In fact, we consider four cases of axial priority. The first one takes into account the cases o and o; {overlapping of the extension intervals) whereas the fourth corresponds to = (equality con figurations). For their part, the second and the third definitions of axial priority bring together respectively the relations s; d; f; (inclusion of x in y along D) and the converse ones, s, d, f (inclusion of y in x along D): 18
262 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
Classifying the possible configuration of the entities on the lateral axis in such a way, we introduce a way of differentiating between the various entities situated devant (in front of) a given entity x. However, a complete formalization of this phenomenon of axial priority would require a precise study of the contextual elements leading to these restrictions.
4 CONCLUSION
be in front),
etre au-dessous de
(to be above), etc. We have shown that these
formal definitions could be used in order to draw inferences matching the conclusions of natural (i.e. human) reasoning. This modular representation of orientation (and more generally of space in language) constitutes, from this point of view, a real cognitive approach. It confirms the fact that the semantic analysis of spatial expressions must be justified in terms of 'non linguistic structures formation' as proposed by Lang
(1990). Ifwe go back to the goals we set for this study in the beginning, we may point out that both have been fulfilled because our formal tool correctly grasps the differences between intrinsic and deictic orientation, and can be used further more to deal with internal localization as well as external localization. Our guess is that these properties of the formalism correctly account for some of the mechanisms underlying the cognitive processing of orientation. Besides the point previously mentioned (notion of relative distance between traj ector and landmark, pragmatic phenomena, etc.), we expect to pursue this work along two main axes. From a formal point of view, we would want to be able to define directions from individuals so as to not introduce new elements in our basic ontology. This aspect is part of a broader purpose we pursue in our group which consists in elaborating a geometry (for linguistic structures of space) based only on individuals (Asher, Aurnague, & Vieu forthcoming). We are also trying to relate the behaviour of state directions involved in localization processes with dynamic directions underlying the expression of movement
{Asher et al. 1 994; Asher & Sablayrolles 1 995; Laur 1 99 1 ; Sablayrolles 1993 ). This integration of spatial and temporal data constitutes a necessity if one wants to analyse utterances describing moving or changing configurations. Concerning the cognitive aspects, we plan to elaborate, with various psycholinguists and psychologists, experimentation in order to test some of the
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By focusing our research on a detailed semantic analysis, we have proposed a formalization of orientation which allows us to represent the semantic content of spatial expressions such as le haut (the top), /'arriere (the back), etre devant (to
Michel Aumague 263
hypotheses related to our formal tools or in order to highlight important properties or concepts of orientation in language (Aumague et a/. 1 993). Received: I s.o7.94 Revised version received: 01 .02.95
MICHEL AURNAGUE Equipe de Reclrerclre en Syntaxe et Semantique URA I OJJ-CNRS Maison de Ia Recherche Universite de Toulouse-Le Mira if 5, allies Antonio Machado 31 o 58 Toulouse Cedex France e-mail:aurnague® iritfr.
I
2
I would like to thank Nicholas Asher, Myriam Bras, Laure Vieu, and the rwo anonymous referees for their advice and comments which enabled me to improve the content as well as the form of this work. I am also very grateful to Andree and Mario Borillo for their continuing encouragement and helpful remarks. In fact strif is not really a function as we do not presuppose the existence ofa space given a priori. It is just a notational trick to isolate purely geometrical aspects of entities from their functional aspects. Formally it can be defined as an equi7 valence class berween entities, which means that several entities may derermine the same space-time portion. For more details see Aurnague & Vieu ( I 993). In this work, we looked at siruations in which a deictic orientation is given to an intrinsically oriented entity. However, we adopt a strategy which gives priority to an intrinsic interpretation wirh respect to a deictic one. So when the analysed text calls for a spatial relation involving an intrinsically oriemed trajector, we first interpret this relation in its intrinsic sense. If the inferences induced by this intrinsic interpretation are not compatible with other elements of rhe rext, then we rry to make a deictic interpretation of the previously mentioned spatial relation.
4 A preliminary srudy and formalization of
external relations were made some years ago in our group by N. Hathour (Hathout I 989) which is akin on various points to the new formal tool we propose. This notion is necessary in order to grasp the semantic conrent of prepositions such as devant Iderriere (in fronr of/behind, §J.J). 6 This axiomatic which is grounded on six basic relations and their converse, plus entity (in total thirteen murually exclu sive relations), has been proposed in Allen ( I 984) in order to draw calculi on tem poral inrervals. It makes it possible to grasp rhe following configurations between rwo intervals x and y: <(x, y) >(x, y) m(x, y) m;(x, y) o(x, y) O;(X. y) s(x, y) s;(x, y) f(x, y) f;(x, y) d(x, y) d;(x, y) x-y
x precedes y y follows x x meets y y meets x x overlaps y y overlaps x x starts y y starts x x finishes y y finishes x x is included (during) in y y is included in x
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N O TES
264 Orientation in French Spatial Expressions
7
9
10
e denoting an event and y/e representing a slice of y whose rime marches the rime of e, a spatio-remporal version of 'orient haur' should be: Orient-hau�D. x) =d.r3y. z Dir-ex�y.z,x) 0 1\ Can-Use(x) 1\ Ve((Event(e) 1\ e c, streQx)) � (In-Use(x, e) > dir-ex�y. z, x)/e - haur-grav/e)) Bur not a mere buller which can only rake a contextual orientation. It can be deduced (from the definition of vertical intrinsic orientation) char when the speaker is in a canonical position, the direction applied to the spatial configura tion coincides with the gravitational upper direction. This specification of 'In-sp' is sufficient because we only consider parallelepi pedic, spherical, or cylindrical entities. If we wanted to rake into account more complex shapes (amphirheatres, arches, and more generally curved objects) we would have to state a much more complicated formula. We tested the latter for some particular entities and we showed that some interesting inferential properties obtained on the basis of this simple version of 'In-sp' were lost. Obviously these two sentences may also be interpreted in a deictic way. We assume here that when a lexeme pointing out a target with an intrinsic frontal orientation is identified in the analysed text the intrinsic interpretation of the preposition devant is chosen by defaulc. The relative preference for the alignmenc of the entities involved in an external or directional preposition greatly depends on contexrual factors. For chis reason chis variable (geomerrical) feature has not been integrated in the semantic definition of the preposition devant (in front of) and is controlled at the pragmatic level. In this case there is no more ambiguity because the two landmarks do nor have any inrrinsic frontal orientation so chat only a deicric interpretation of rhe preposition devant is possible. In Figure 6, rhe deictic orientation of rhe -
11 12
13
14
1s
16
17
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8
Several axioms are inrroduced in order to describe composition operations on these relations. The consrraint of spatial connectedness on the srudied entities ensures chat the extension along a given direction is an interval. Moreover, one may feel it is necessary to express these relations fully in terrns of projections of the individuals on to a straight line and of calculations on the resulting intervals (as is usual with Allen's relations). Previously we had in our system a predicate of projection alone with several axioms specifying irs behav iour. However, this predicate has nor been used here because it would have implied manipulating 'abstract' srraighr lines, points, and intervals not having the same srarus as the ones defined in Section 2. 1 . We think char such a specification requires a preliminary study of the cog nitive processes underlying these opera tions of projection. On the basis of chis posrulare and using the definition of inclusion (relation P of Clarke) as well as several theorems related ro Allen's relations, it can be proved for instance char: Vx, y, 0 P(x, y) � sf - s; f;(x,y, D) The function srref gives us the portion of space-rime filled by an entity; as a resul t of the instantaneity constraint previously mentioned, this portion corresponds here to a specific temporal slice temporally bounded by rhe event (or state) intro duced by the NL spatial expression analysed. We indicated earlier that, in rhe frame work of this work, we consider only 'instantaneous' utterances. However, the properties of inrrinsic orientation we define here concern the whole life of the entity (or at least a significant parr of it) and therefore they muse have a spatio temporal reading. We are presently working on a temporal rranslarion of such definitions in which directions should be considered as extended over rime (like the other spatio-temporal individuals). With
Michel Aurnague 265 light given by the speaker Max (facing it) could also be interpreted as a contextual orientation of the light by the armchair. Although it is true that these two orientations coincide in the configuration depicted by Figure 6, we should recall that, in the framework of this study, we only take into account intrinsic and deictic orientational processes.
I 8 The numbering of these definitions does not necessarily imply a greater acceptance for the spatial relation under considera tion. For instance, although two entities verifying the axial priority 2, 3, or 4 will be more 'in front of' than if they were in the configuration I, it is not always clear which of the configurations 2, 3, or 4 is the best.
RE FERE N CES
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I]CAI-91 .
Asher, N. & Sablayrolles, P. ( 1 995), 'A typology and discourse semantics for motion verbs and spatial PPs in French', Journal of Semantics . Special Issue on Lexical Semantics, 1 2. 1 . Aurnague, M . (1989), 'Categorisation des objets dans le langage: les noms et les adjecrifs de localisation interne', Cahiers de Grammaire , I 4, UTM, Toulouse, 1 -2 1 . Aurnague, M. ( 1 99 1 ), 'Contribution a I etude de Ia semantique forrnelle de l'espace et du raisonnement spatial: Ia localisation interne en fran�is, semanrique et struc tures inferentielles', Ph.D. dissertation, Universite Paul Sabarier, Toulouse. Aurnague, M. & Vieu, L. ( I 993), 'A three level approach to the semantics of space', in C. Zelinsky-Wibbelt (ed.), The Semantics
of Prepositions: From Mental ProcBSing to
Natural Language Processing , Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. Aurnague, M., Vieu, L., Borillo, A. & Borillo, M. (1993), 'Connecting linguistic and visual space: a natural reasoning approach', Proceedings of ICCS '93 , Donostia-San Sebastian. Benthem, J. van { I 983), The Logic of Time , Reidel, Dordrecht. Bierwisch, M. & Lang, E. (1 989), Dimensional Adjectives: Grammatical Structure and Con ceptual Interpretation , Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo. Borillo, A. (1 988), 'Le Lexique de I espace: les noms et les adjecrifs de localisation interne', Cahiers de Grammaire, 1 3, Tou louse, UTM, 1 -22. Borillo, A. (1 992), 'Le Lexique de l'espace: prepositions et locutions prepositionnelles de lieu en fran�ais', in L. Tasmowski & A. Zrib-Herts (eds), Hommage a Nicolas Ruwet, Communication et Cognition, Ghent. Borillo, M. ( I 99 I ), 'Semanrique de l'espace et raisonnement spatial' Proceedings cf the Colloque Sciences de Ia Cognition , MRT, Paris. Carlson-Radvansky, L. A. & Irwin, D. E. ( 1993), 'Frames of reference in vision and language: where is above', Cognition , 46, 223-44· Clarke, B. L. ( 1 98 I ), 'A calculus of individuals based on connection', Notre DameJournal cfFormal Logic , 22, 3, 204-1 8. Clarke, B. L. ( I 98 5), 'Individuals and points',
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Allen,]. (1984), 'Towards a general theory of action and rime', Artificial Intelligence , 23, 2, 1 23-54· Asher, N., Aurnague, M., Bras, M., Sablayrol les, P., & Vieu, L. ( 1994), 'Computing the spario-temporal structure of discourse',
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Papers of the 4th International Workshop , Chateau de Bonas, I 992, 43 5-52. Grice, H. P. { I 975). 'Logic and conversation', in C. P. Morgan (ed.), Syntax and Semantics , Academic Press, New York. Habel, C. ( 1 987), 'Cognitive linguistics: the processing of spatial concepts', T. A. Infor mations , 2, 2 I -56. Hathouc, N. (I 989), Un Modele logique pour le raisonnement spatial , Rapport de DEA, UPS-IRIT, June I 989. Hayes, P. J. (I 98 5 ), 'The second naive physics manifesto' in J. R. Hobbs & R. C. Moore (eds), Formal Theories of the Commonsense World , Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, NJ, I-36. Herskovits, A. (I 986), Space and the Preposition
in English: Regularities and Irregularities in a Complex Domain , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ' Jayez, J. ( I 992), 'Document de travail no J ,
Rapport d'activiti du groupe inter-pre 'Siman tiques des Langues Naturelles', June 1 992. Kamp, H. {I 979). 'Events, instants and tem poral reference', in R. Bauerle, U. Egli, & A. von Stechow (eds), Meaning, Use and Interpretation of Language, de Gruyter, Berlin, 376-4 I 7· Landau, B. & JackendofT, Ray {I993). 'What and where in spatial language and spatial cognition', Behavioural and Brain Sciences , I 6, 2 Oune I 993). 2 I 7-38. Lang, E. { I 990), 'Primary perceptual space and inherent proportion schema: two interact ing categorization grids underlying the
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Laur, D . ( 1 99 1 ), 'Semantique du deplacement et de Ia localisation en fran�ais: une etude des verbes, des prepositions et de leurs relations dans Ia phrase simple', Ph.D. dissertation, Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail, Toulouse. Leech, G. ( 1969), Towards a Semantic Descrip tion ofEnglish , Longman, London. Miller, G. & Johnson-Laird, P. (1 976), Longuage and Perception , Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Pierart, B. ( 1979), 'Genese et srructuration des marqueurs de relations spatiales entre trois et dix ans', Cohiers de /'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain (CILL), 5, 1-2, 4 1-59. Pribbenow, S. { I 993), 'Computing the meaning of localization expressions involving prepositions: the role of con cepts and spatial context', in C. Zelinsky Wibbelt (ed.), The Semantics ofPrepositions:
From Mental Processing to Natural Language Processing , Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin.
Randell, D. & Cohn, A. (1 989), 'Modelling topological and metrical properties in physical processes', in Brachman, Les veque, Reiter (eds), Proceedings of KR '89 , Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA, 3 5768. Sablayrolles, P. (1993), 'Spatio-temporal semantics in natural language: the case of motion', in M. Aumague, A. Borillo, & M. Bras (eds), Time, Space, Movement, Working
Papers of the 4th International Workshop , Chateau de Donas, 1 992, 69-88. Talmy, L. (1 983), 'How language structures space', in H. L. Pick & L. P. Acredolo (eds),
Spatial Orientation: Theory, Research and Application , Plenum Publishing Corpora tion, New York, 225-82. Vandeloise, C. ( 1 986a), L'Espace en Jranrais: simantique des prepositions spatiales , Seuil, Paris. Vandeloise, C. (1986b), 'L'Avant!l'arriere et le devant/detriere', Revue Quibicoise de Lin guistique, 16, 28 1-307, Universite de Quebec a Montreal.
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Notre Dame journal of Formal Logic , 26, I , 6I-75· Davis, E. { I989), Representations of Common sense Knowledge, Morgan Kau fmann Publishers, San Mateo, California. Frank, A. U. {I 992), 'Qualitative spatial reasoning about distances and directions in geographic space, Journal of Visual Languages and Computing ( 1 992/3), 34371. Freksa, C. {I 993), 'Using orientation infor mation for qualitative spatial reasoning', in M. Aumague, A. Borillo, M. Borillo, & M. Bras (eds), Time, Space, Movement, Working
Michel Aurnague 267 Vieu, L. ( 1 99 1 a), 'Semantique des relations spatiales et inferences spatio-temporelles: une contribution a !'etude des structures forrnelles de l'espace en langage nature!', Ph.D. dissertation, Universite Paul Saba tier, Toulouse.
Vieu, L ( 1 99 1 b), 'Spatial semantics: an illus tration by the relation dans (in)', in Bhatkar & Rege (eds), Frontiers in Knowl edge-Based Computing, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1991-Proceedings of KBC5 'go , December 1 990, Pune, India.
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]<>umal oJSnnantics
1 2: 2b<)-J I O
©Oxford University Press 1 99 5
The Double System of Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English RENAAT DECLERCK
University ofLeuven
and
ILSE DEPRAETERE
Abstract types of subclause in English differ from independent clauses in chat
they require a different tense form when the reference is co the future. We say I will be luzppy if the weather is nice tomorrow, but not •I am luzppy ifthe weather is nice tomorrow or •I will be luzppy ifthe weather will be nice tomorrow. As is clear from these examples, the two ways of referring to the
future are subject to different conditions, and each has a distribution of its own. This article investigates the two systems in detail. It shows how they fit into a more general theory of tense,
offers an explanation for their different distributions and examines the subtle semantic differences between their uses in clauses chat allow both (e.g. restrictive relative clauses).
1 I NT R O D U C T I O N It is clear from examples like Ifthe weather is fine, we'll have a picnic tomorrow that the English tense system provides two different means of referring to the future. The ungrammaticality of• Ifthe weather will be fine and • we have a picnic tomorrow shows that these two devices are subject to different conditions and that each has a distribution ofits own. Although the descriptive facts are well known, this double system raises a number of theoretical questions. The most interesting are whether there is an explanation for the different distributions of the two systems, and which factors induce a speaker to use the one or other system in clauses that allow either (as in restrictive clauses). Though it is in principle possible to tackle these questions in isolation, we believe it can be done more fruitfully within the framework of a general theory of tense. The framework we will make use of is that proposed by Declerck ( 1 99 1). We will begin by sketching the general outlines of this theory, limiting ourselves to those principles that will prove to be directly relevant to the subject under investigation. The starring point of the theory is that the use of a tense form in English implies that the speaker views the situation referred to as either past or non-past with respect to the time functioning as 'temporal zero-point' (which is usually the moment ofspeech). That is, any tense form locates its situation either in the 'past time-sphere' or in the 'present time-sphere'. These time-spheres are no
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As is well known, some
270 Tense Forms Referring to Furore Time in English
( I ) John said that he had worked hard all day, that he was tired and that he would go to bed early. The first clause contains an absolute tense form (said) which locates the time of the situation of saying in the past sector and by doing so creates a past time sphere domain (or 'past domain' for short). The time of the situation in question is called the 'central TO' (TO - time of orientation)2 of the domain. The times ofthe situations referred to in the other clauses are temporally related to this. To introduce a further couple of terms, we will say that these times are 'temporally subordinated' to the central TO, or that they are 'bound' by the latter. The central TO is thus the 'binding' TO. When the time of a situation is bound, the tense form used is a 'relative' tense form.3 For example, the past perfect form had worked in the first that -clause of ( 1 ) is a relative tense form representing the time of its situation as anterior to the central TO. The preterite form was is also a relative tense form: unlike said, which establishes the domain (and is therefore an absolute tense form), was expresses a relation in the past domain, namely the
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objective physical entities but represent the ways in which an English language user conceptualizes time. The past time-sphere is conceived as a time-span of indefinite length which lies wholly before (and hence does not include) the temporal zero-point (to). To locate a situation in this time-sphere the speaker uses the preterite (simple past). The present time-sphere is conceived as a time span of indefinite length which includes to and is divided by it into three 'sectors': the portion of the present time-sphere that precedes to is the 'pre-pres ent sector'; the portion that is centred on to is the 'present sector'; and the por tion that follows to is the 'post-present sector'. The- tenses used to locate situations in these three sectors are the present perfect, the present tense, and the future tense, respectively} For ease of reference, we can use the term 'absolute sectors' to refer to the above three sectors plus the past time-sphere. (These time spans are called 'absolute' because they are defined in direct relation to to-) The four tenses that are used to locate situations in one of these four sectors can therefore be called 'absolute tenses'. It is typical of absolute tenses that they relate their situation directly to to (by locating it in one of the absolute sectors) and not to the time of another situation or to another reference time. When the two situations are located within the same sector, there are in principle two possibilities: either both of them are represented as related to to. or one situation is related to to while the second is related to the first. To capture these possibilities we need the notion of 'temporal domain'. A (temporal) domain is a set of times which either consists of the time of a single situation or comprises the times of several situations that are temporally related to each other by tense forms. For example, the four situations referred to in (I) are located within a single temporal domain:
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(2) John said he had felt very tired when he was working.
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relation of simultaneity. And similarly, would go is a relative tense form, representing the time of its situation as posterior to the central TO. Since the rime of a situation can always serve as the binding TO for the rime of another situation, and is therefore always an actual or potential TO (cf note 2), we will replace the cumbersome term 'rime of the situation' by 'situation TO' and abbreviate this to 'ST0'.4 It follows that we can refine the definition of temporal domain by saying that it is a set of(one or more) TOs. Since a domain can only be established by a tense form, it necessarily contains at least one STO. If an absolute tense form is used, the STO is the central TO of the domain (and possibly the only TO in it). If a relative tense form is used, the STO is temporally subordinated to another TO, which may be either the central TO or any other TO in the domain (see below). It should also be noted that a TO is not necessarily an STO: it may also be an 'implicit' TO. For example, in John fwd woken up early that day the STO (the time ofJohn's waking up) is represented as anterior to the central TO of a past domain, but the latter TO is 'implicit' in that it is not identified as being an STO (the time of a situation). Another point worth making is that by 'time of the situation' (STO) we mean the time interval taken up by that part of the situation that is being referred to (and located in time) by the clause involving the relevant tense form. That is, we must distinguish between the STO and the time of the full (complete) situation as it actually takes place. In Two min utes agoJohn was in the library, the STO is the rime of that part of the situation that concides with the time indicated by two minutes ago. The time of the full situation may be much longer-John may have been in the library for hours and may still be there at to-bur this is not what the sentence makes a statement about. All that is claimed in the sentence is that two minutes ago it was the case that John was in the library at th at time. It is therefore necessary to distinguish carefully between the STO and the 'full situation'.5 (This is not to say that the two cannot coincide. They do when the sentence refers to the complete situation, i.e. if the sentence receives a 'bounded' interpretation.) It should be clear from the above comment on ( 1 ) that the preterite can be used in two ways: either as an absolute tense (establishing a past domain) or as a relative tense (expressing the domain-internal relation of simultaneity). The past perfect and the conditional tense, on the other hand, can only be used as relative tenses. When a relative tense form is used, the STO need not always be related to the central TO of the domain into which it is incorporated. The binding TO may also be another TO in the domain. For example, in (2) the working is represented as simultaneous with the feeling tired, which is itselfrepresented as anterior to the saying:
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(3) (a) (If we dump his body in Soho after we have killed him) the police will think that he was killed there. (b) Next Friday his excuse for being late will probably be that he h as been caught in a traffic jam caused by the Pope's visit. (c) (When you arrive in Tokyo) you will see that it is already dark. (d) (If I make up my mind to resign) you will be the first to hear when exactly I will do so. In each of these examples the head clause establishes a post-present domain and the STO of the that -clause is incorporated into it. Since the speaker treats the central TO as if it were to. he uses a 'pseudo-absolute' tense form in the noun clause. That is, the tenses used to relate an STO to the central TO of a post present domain are the preterite or present perfect for anteriority, the present tense for simultaneity and the future tense for posteriority. In Declerck ( 1 991) this system of tenses used to express a relation in a post-present domain is labelled the 'Present Perspective System' (PPS). (This label captures the fact that this system is based on a shift of perspective to the present: the post-present binding TO is treated as if it were Co·) Next to the PPS there is also a 'Future Perspective System' (FPS). This system consists of tense forms that create a post-present domain. It comprises the future tense in its absolute use as well as absolute-relative tense forms such as
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It should be noticed that in ( 1 ) and (2) the relative tense form used to express simultaneity is each rime the preterite, irrespective of whether the binding TO is or is not the cental TO of the domain. This means that there is a single system of relative tenses to express relations in a past domain: we always use the preterite for simultaneity, the past perfect for anteriority, and a form with would or were going to for posteriority, irrespective of whether the binding TO is the central TO or a bound TO. Apart from the notion of a temporal domain, we also need the notion of 'shift of temporal perspecrive'.6 By this we mean the phenomenon that when we expand a domain the domain in question is sometimes treated as if it belonged to another absolute sector. A well-known example is the so-called historical present: a situation that lies in the past of to is treated as if it were a present situation. Another example, which is directly relevant to the subject under discussion, is the use of tense forms to develop a post-present domain. Once a post-present domain has been established and we want to incorporate an STO into it, we treat the central TO of the post-present domain as if it were a present TO (i.e. as if it included to or coincided with to). This means that in order to relate the rime of a situation to this post-present TO we use one of the same tenses as we use to relate an STO to Co· In other words, the set of relative tenses used to relate an STO to the central TO of a post-present domain is the same as the set of absolute tenses. This is clear from examples like the following:
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the future perfect. The former represents its STO as the central TO of a post present domain. The absolute-relative tense forms also establish a post-present domain but represent their STO as either anterior or posterior to the central TO. Examples of such tense forms are will have left and will be going to leave, in which will establishes a post-present domain and have . . . -en or be going to relate the STO to the (implicit) central TO of this domain. The above principles represent only a fragment of the theory of tense offered in Declerck ( I 99 I ), but they suffice for our present purpose. What is especially relevant is the distinction between the PPS and the FPS We will argue that the present tense form in the if-clause of ifthe weather is fine tomorrow, we'll have a picnic is a PPS-form, whereas the future tense form in the head clause is an FPS form. PPS-forms should be distinguished carefully from another use of the present tense with future time reference, namely that illustrated by sentences like the following: .
This use of the present tense is also the result of a shift of perspective to the present: a post-present situation is treated as if it were a present one. However, this use is clearly different from the use of the present tense in the PPS. For one thing, the shift of perspective to the present which occurs in (4a-b) has a semantic effect which is absent if the present tense is a PPS-form: in (4a-b) the post-present situation is represented as 'pre-determined', i.e. as depending on a present arrangement, programme, plan, etc. For another, this use of the present tense is mainly found in clauses that are syntactically independent, whereas the PPS cannot be used in that type of clause at all (see below). Moreover, the use of the present tense can be found in head clauses supporting a subordinate clause using the PPS:
( s) We' re having a picnic tomorrow, if it does not rain. This means that the present tense in its 'arranged future' use resembles the future tense of the FPS in that it creates a post-present domain. By contrast, a PPS-form is unable to establish a domain. It consists of forms that can only be used to express a relation within a domain already established by a super ordinate clause. In what follows, the 'arranged future' use of the present tense will be dis regarded, because it is not directly relevant to the discussion of the distinction between the FPS and the PPS. We will conclude these introductory remarks with a brief note on the different distributions of the two systems. As noted above, one of the basic
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(4) (a) I'm leaving tomorrow. (b) Next year Christmas falls on a Wednesday.
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distributional differences between the FPS and the PPS is that only the former can be used in syntactically independent clauses. Compare: (6) (a) (Whatever happens, it will be no use asking him for details.) He will say that he h as not seen anything, h as not heard anything, and that he does not know anything at all. (b) (Whatever happens, it will be no use asking him for details.) He will not h ave seen anything, he will not h ave heard anything, and he will not know anything at all. (c) !(Whatever happens, it will be no use asking him for details.) He h as not seen anything, has not heard anything, and he does not know anything at all.
(7) (a) The meeting will be declared open by John, who will also introduce the main speaker. (*introduces) (b) The meeting will no doubt come to an end before it is 1 1 p. m. (*will be) (c) At the airport you will be met by a man who is wearing/ will be wearing a red jacket.
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T H E A N A LY S I S
1 . According to Declerck ( 1 99 1 ), the basic function of a tense is to express a temporal structure which has the form ofa chain of relations. This chain, which may consist of one or more links, relates the STO (i.e. the rime of the situation) to a 'basic TO', either directly or via one or more intermediate TOs. The basic TO (represented as 'TOt') is that TO in the structure of the tense from which the temporal relations expressed by the tense begins to be computed. In most cases TOt is to (speech time), but there are cases in which it is a post-present binding TO. Compare:
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In (6a) we have an instance of indirect speech, with PPS-forms in the that clauses. In (6b-c) the reporting clause he will say has been dropped, so that we have 'free indirect speech', i.e. the reported clauses are syntactically indepen dent. Example (6b) shows that the result is impeccable if we use FPS-forms, whereas (6c) shows that the result is bad (since we get an incoherent piece of discourse) if we try using PPS-forms: the present perfect forms in (6c) are not interpreted as PPS-forms at all, but rather as absolute tense forms (representing their situations as anterior to to). As regards the choice between the PPS and the FPS, subordinate clauses fall apart into three groups. In some of them (e.g. nonrestrictive relative clauses) the FPS is obligatory; others (e.g. adverbial time clauses) require the PPS, whereas still others (e.g. restrictive relative clauses) allow either system. For example:
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{X) (a) He has done it. (b) (If he does it) he will have to admit to his wife that he lias done it.
{9) (a) He will do it. (b) {If he decides to do it) he will have to admit to his wife that he will do it. Needless to say, will do is used as an FPS-form in (9a) and as a PPS-form in (9b). The essential difference between the two systems is therefore the different nature of the basic TO: in the FPS it is to. in the PPS it is a post-present TO referred to in the content. (Since the post-present TO is treated as if it were to. the set of tense forms used in the PPS is exactly the same as the set of absolute tense forms. There is no formal difference between them.) 2. One consequence of the different nature of the T0 1 is that an FPS-form is an absolute tense form, which creates a domain in the post-present sector, whereas a PPS-form is a relative tense form, which is used to locate an STO in an already established post-present domain. 3- It follows that the temporal specification effected by an FPS-form is context-independent, whereas that affected by a PPS-form is not? A PPS-form requires a context providing a post-present TO serving as T0 1 for the PPS form. This means that the interpretation of a PPS-form happens partly on the basis of the temporal structure expressed by the tense form itself and partly on the basis of this context. More specifically, the understanding that the PPS-form refers to the future is derived from the context: it is the head clause that represents the TO which functions as T0 1 for the PPS-form as posterior to to· Since the identification of the post-present T0 1 is essential to the interpretation of a PPS-form, forms that could in principle be PPS-forms cannot be interpreted as such when they occur out of context. This observation explains why the PPS cannot be used in syntactically independent clauses. Independent clauses must be fully interpretable in isolation. And even if such a clause is used in a context which helps to deter mine its pragmatic interpretation, the lack of formal difference between PPS forms and absolute tense forms renders it impossible to use the PPS for future time reference. Because any independent clause can in principle be interpreted
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In both (Ra) and (Rb) the present perfect form lias done locates the STO before the basic TO. In (Ra) this T0 1 is to; in {Rb) it is a post-present STO (the time of admitting) which is treated as if it were to· This means that the two present perfect forms realize the same temporal structure (viz. 'STO anterior to T01'), but that the T0 1 is to (speech time) in (Ra) and a post-present 'pseudo-to' in (Rb). (Note that in {Rb) the T01 is interpreted as posterior to to. bur that this relation is not signalled by the tense form lias done itself: it is inferred from the use of the future tense in the head clause.) The following sentences involving a future tense form are similar to {�la-b):
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Tense Forms Referring co Future Time in English
in isolation, reference to the post-present in such a clause must be both unam biguous and independent. For an SC (subordinate clause) to use the PPS, it is necessary that the HC (head clause) establishes a post-present domain, but it should be noted that this need not be done in an explicit way, i.e. by the use of an FPS-form. A post present domain can also be established implicitly by the use of an imperative, infinitive, or another form implying post-present actualization:8 ( 1 0) (a) Do it when the others (*will) have left. (b) I hope to do it when the others (*will) have left. Downloaded from jos.oxfordjournals.org by guest on January 1, 2011
What is necessary for the use of a PPS-form is that there is a post-present time available to function as T0 1 • This time must be an STO (the time of a situation), bur it need not be indicated by a tensed form. 4· In a complex sentence with an FPS-form in the HC, an SC may (under certain conditions) use either the FPS or the PPS. When it uses the FPS (as in I will join you, whereas Tom will stay at home), the temporal relation between the STO of the HC and that of the SC is not expressed by the tense forms: independently of one another, each of the two FPS-forms relates its STO to to and in doing so establishes a post-present domain. (These two domains may be pragmatically interpreted as simultaneous with each other, but this relation is not expressed by the tense forms.) By contrast, if the SC uses the PPS (as in I will ask lzim tomorrow wlzat date it is), the tense form of the SC locates the SC-STO (STO of the SC) in the temporal domain created by the HC and in so doing relates it to the HC-STO. S· It follows that when the FPS is used in both clauses, the speaker makes two independent predictions: there are, as it were, two speech acts. When the PPS is used in the SC, the speaker makes a single (bur complex) prediction: he presents the contents of the two clauses as forming a unit. The use of the PPS, which implies that the HC-STO and the SC-STO are located in the same domain, is therefore a sign that the two situations must be interpreted as related to each other. This relation may be purely temporal, but in most cases it is also a logical one: if there is no logical relation between two situations, there is as a rule no reason to relate them temporally to each other. As we will see, the use of PPS-forms in conditional clauses is conventionalized as a means of expressing a logical relationship rather than a purely temporal one: the logical relation is expressed as if it were a temporal one. (Though the basic meaning of any tense is to express a temporal relation, there are many uses of tense forms that are metaphorical extensions of this. For example, the preterite, whose basic meaning is 'remoteness in time' (i.e. location in the past time-sphere), is con ventionally used to express other forms of remoteness, e.g. remoteness from reality (counterfactualiry), as in I wislz I /mew tlze answer.) 6. Because the PPS is a way of expressing the temporal and logical relation
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between the SC-situation and the HC-situation, it implies that the SC is necessary for a correct interpretation of the HC. The fact that the HC and the SC are presented as one interpretive unit means that it is not only the case that the SC is dependent for its interpretation on the HC (which is obvious, since the SC is both syntactically and temporally subordinated to the HC), but that it is also the case that the HC depends for (at least part of) its interpretation on the SC. It is no coincidence that the types of SC in which the PPS must or may be used show this close interpretive relationship between the two clauses. The following are the most typical examples:
It is clear, then, that the use of the PPS is a sign that the SC is fully integrated in the HC, both syntactically and semantically. (However, full integration is not a sufficient condition. In all types of SC that allow the use of the FPS a cooperative speaker will have to use the latter system if the corresponding PPS form would be mistaken for an absolute tense form. For example, in John won't come because he is ill, the present tense is naturally understood as referring to the present (and not as a PPS-form). Future time reference therefore requires the use of an FPS-form (will be).) 7· It has often been noted in the linguistic literature that the types ofSC that" do not allow the use of the future tense do not allow the use of epistemic modals such as may or must either: ( 1 1 ) (a) *John will do it when/if he will have time. (b) *John will do it when/if he may have time. (c) *John will do it when/if he must have time.
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a. Conditional clauses expressing an open condition require the use of the PPS. In this type of if. . . then . . . sentence the logical dependence of the HC on the SC is obvious. b. Adverbial time clauses also require the use of the PPS rather than the FPS. In this case the interpretation of the HC depends on the SC in that the latter specifies the time of the HC-situation. (The very fact that the speaker decides to use a time clause means that he deems this specification necessary.) c. Restrictive relative clauses tend to use the PPS if the form in question cannot be mistaken for an FPS-form (e.g. I'll report this to thefirst policeman I see). This kind ofSC is essential to the interpretation of the HC in that the identifica tion of the referent of the antecedent NP depends on it. d. Noun clauses (i.e. dependent questions and statements) often use the PPS (e.g. Next time you should tell me what you think). This type of clause helps to determine the interpretation of the HC because it functions as one of the essential arguments of the predicate.
.z7H
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. .
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On the basis of this observation it is often claimed that will too is a modal auxiliary and that there is no future tense in English (see e.g. Huddleston 1 984: 1 73; Quirk et a/. 1 985: 2 1 J). However, the only conclusion that can be drawn from examples like ( 1 1 a-c) is that the auxiliaries will, may , and must have something in common which rules out their use in open conditionals and adverbial rime clauses. In our opinion, the fact that will cannot be used is an indication that future rime reference in these SCs requires the use of the PPS. (Why this should be the case is a question we will go into below.) The fact that the FPS cannot be used means that the SC-STO must be related to a post present T01 rather than to to· Once this constraint is seen, the impossibility of using epistemic modals in these SCs becomes predictable, since epistemic modals express an evaluation which is temporally located at t0• In the same way as He will come means 'I [now] predict his [future] coming', He may come means 'I [now] assert the possibility of his [future] coming'. (In other words, may is equivalent to 'It is possible that . . . will . . ' ) What will and may have in common is that they use to as basic TO (evaluation rime). This property excludes them from clauses that are subject to the constraint that the STO has to be temporally subordinated to a post-present T0 1 rather than to to· X . Contrary to the widespread view that 'the future is not a tense at all, but a mode' (Cygan 1 972: 9), w� believe that there is a future tense in English. In jolm will come tomorrow ·the form will come serves to locate a situation in time and therefore sari�fies the definition of a tense form. (We subscribe to Lyons' ( 1 977: 68) definition of tense, which says that tense 'grammaricalizes the relationship which holds between the rime of the situation that is being described and the temporal zero-point of the deicric context'.) This is not to say that we do not recognize the fact that the future tense has modal connotations (since an utterance about a situation that has not yet held is of necessity 'a subjectively modalized utterance: a prediction rather than a statement' (Lyons 1 977= X 1 5)). The point is that the element of modality does not alter the fact that the primary aspect of meaning of will come , and the basic reason for its use is that it locates the situation in the post-present sector. The modal element is important, though, in that it entails that a temporal domain created by an FPS-form is a kind of intensional domain.9 As noted by Givan ( 1 97 3: 1 o 1 ), 'the future modality by itself produces opacity in its scope', c£ also Vet ( 1 98 1 : 1 1 3). An SC that is incorporated in a post-present domain by means of a PPS-form is therebre interpreted opaquely, whereas an SC that uses the FPS is interpreted transparently. This means that an SC with a PPS-form is interpreted as part of the prediction made in the HC, whereas an SC with an FPS-form is interpreted as an independent prediction made at to (c£ Wekker 1 977= 7 1 ). In many cases this distinction is a subtle one and there is hardly any difference berween the two interpretations. For example, though it seems intuitively clear that ( 1 2a-b) are interpreted as ( 1 2a'-b'), respectively (c£
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Sampson I 97 I : s 88), it seems difficult to gauge what is the difference in communicative effect between them or to imagine contexts in which only one of them could be used. (The reason is that because in any case relates the two situations in terms of cause and effect, irrespective of whether the STOs are located in the same domain or in different ones.) 1 0
( 1 2) (a) John will be elected because he gets more votes than Tom. (b) John will be elected because he will get more votes than Tom. ( 1 2) (a') I predict john will be elected because he gets more votes than Tom'. (b ) I predict that John will get more votes than Tom and [I predict) that John will be elected because of that. '
(I 3) (a) (I can't give you my umbre!la.) My wife will wonder what I have done with it. (*will have done) (b) (If I give you my ring) I will have to explain to my wife why I am not wearing it any more. (*will be wearing) In these examples will creates an intensional domain (a future 'possible world') of which the intensional domain created by wonder or explain is a subdomain. Since the dependent question must belong to this subdomain, it must be represented as belonging to the domain created by will (c£ Abusch I 99 I ). This necessitates using the PPS. (Here and below an asterisk is used to indicate that an FPS-form is no valid alternative to a PPS-form, or vice versa. This does not necessarily imply that the form in question is ungrammatical.) The second type of SC requiring the use of the PPS for this reason is the conditional clause of an open conditional. Open conditionals refer to a future possible world in which the actualization of the if-clause situation entails the actualization of the HC situation. This possible world is an intensional domain, and hence a temporal domain, and both STOs (situation-TOs) must belong to it. This explains why the PPS is the rule in the SC: ( I 4) I f it doesn't rain tomorrow, we will have a picnic. (*won't rain)
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However, there are cases in which the distinction becomes very important, i.e. when there is some compelling reason for the SC and the HC to be interpreted in terms of the same intensional domain. If there is such a requirement, the FPS is predictably ruled out from the SC. There are at least two types of SC in which this is the case. The first type consists of noun clauses depending on a verb of propositional attitude (intensional verb) such a verb of saying or thinking. If the noun clause is to be interpreted opaquely, the contents of these clauses must be interpreted as belonging to the intensional domain created by the intensional verb in the HC. Since an intensional domain functions as a temporal domain, it follows that these noun clauses must use the PPS if the HC uses the FPS. (The same is true of their subclauses if these are also to be interpreted opaquely.) For example:
zl!o Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
( I s) (a) (Next year we shall see another America's Cup contest.) This time it will be Australia who will be making her first challenge. (LOB) 12 (b) Next year it will be Australia who is making her first challenge.
However, there are also contexts in which only one of the two systems is suitable. Consider:
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·
9· Because of the difference of basic TO, the contents of an FPS-clause are represented as either asserted or presupposed at to. whereas those of a PPS clause are represented as asserted or presupposed at the post-present TO to which the STO is temporally subordinated. 1 1 The prediction made i n an FPS-clause is a proposition which i s presented as true at to· This means that the FPS-proposition is either asserted or presupposed at to· When used in isolation, the clause John will come asserts that the tensed proposition John will come' is true at to· In a suitable context, the same clause may constitute a presupposition, as when John will come because I have asked him to is interpreted as 'It is because I have asked him to that John will come'. In some types of SC (such as nonrestrictive relative clauses) the proposition is always asserted, whereas in others (such as restrictive relative clauses) it is automatically presupposed. (For example, in The man who will be here tomorrow willfix it the tensed proposition 'a man will be here tomorrow' is presupposed to be true at to.) When the PPS is used, the proposition is not presented (asserted or presupposed) as true at to but as true at the post-present T0 1 • If the proposition is expressed in a noun clause depending on a verb of propositional attitude, it is asserted as true at T0 1 • Thus, in Next time she will say that the boy isfeeling sick the proposition 'The boy is feeling sick' is interpreted as asserted at the post-present T0 1 • ('Asserted' obviously does not mean here 'asserted by the present speaker', since the assertion is not presented as made at to· The proposition in question must be interpreted opaquely, i.e. as true in the post-present intensional domain.) In other types ofSC using the PPS, the proposition is not asserted but supposed or presupposed in the post-present domain. This is the case, for example, in conditional clauses (Ifjolm comes, I will tell her), adverbial time clauses (I will tell him when he comes), restrictive relative clauses (Thepupils who are late tomorrow will be punished), etc. (As noted by Ducrot I 972, wizen -clauses and restrictive relative clauses are presupposed, but if-clauses represent supposi tions rather than presuppositions.) At first sight there would seem to be little pragmatic difference between presenting an FPS-proposition as true at to and presenting a PPS-proposition as true at a post-present T01 • In clefts, for example, the that -clause may be represented as presupposed at to or as presupposed at the post-present T0 1 , without this leading to a clear difference of interpretation:
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( 1 6) (a) The man who will solve this problem will . . . (b) The man who solves this problem will . . . Whereas ( 1 6a) presupposes that the proposition 'A man will solve this problem' is true at to. ( 1 6b) presupposes that the proposition 'A man solves this problem' is true in the future possible world in which the HC-situation is true. The former will be strongly preferred if there is no logical link between the two situations, as in ( 1 7a), whereas the latrer is the rule if the relative clause has the connotation of an open condition, as in ( 1 7b): ( 1 7) (a) The man who willsolvelsolves this problem will be 47 years old. (b) The man who solves this problem will get a reward.
( 1 7) (c) The man who will solve this problem will get a reward. The use of the FPS-form will solve makes clear that the proposmon presupposed by the restrictive relative clause is now 'A man will solve this problem', which is presupposed at to· This means that the implied condition is now a closed condition rather than an open one: the speaker assumes the condition to be fulfilled at to. i.e. he treats the proposition 'A man will solve this problem' as one that is not 'subject to debate' at to· The above illustration makes clear that the difference between the idea 'FPS proposition presupposed at to' and 'PPS-proposition (pre)supposed at post present T0 1 ' may have a clear effect on the interpretation of the sentence. In clauses with a conditional interpretation it corresponds to the distinction between an open condition and a closed one. (We will return to this below.) Another possible effect of the PPS is that it may be used to suggest that the contents of the clause in question represent how the situation will be evaluated at the future T0 1 rather than how it is evaluated by the speaker at to· Consider: ( 1 R) (a) You will all be arrested because John will do something stupid. (b) You will all be arrested because John does something stupid. Our of context, both are equally appropriate, bur only the version with the PPS form can be used to create the impression that the situation is represented as it will be experienced and evaluated by somebody other than the speaker at T0 1 :
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In ( 1 7a), the two situations are not logically connected to each other, so that there is no reason for the speaker to relate the SC-STO to the HC-STO rather than to Co· In ( 1 7b) there is a logical link, in that the SC-situation is interpreted as a condition for the HC-situation. The PPS-form solves is used to represent this condition as an open one, i.e. as one that may or may not be fulfilled in the future. The PPS-form incorporates the SC in the temporal domain created by the HC, thus representing it as presupposed in the intensional domain (possible world) corresponding with the open condition. Apart from ( 1 7b), the speaker can also use ( 1 7c):
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( 1 9) The scheme is no good because you cannot rely on John. I am sure he will bungle it. You will see: you will all be arrested because he does something stupid. As pointed
out in Declerck ( 1 99 1 : 8o-9), the speaker sometimes uses the future tense to put the 'temporal focus' on a post-present TO and in doing so represents the situation as it will be evaluated in the future. For example:
(zo) (a) That thing rustling in the bushes over there will no doubt be a chipmunk: let's wait till it comes out. (Lakoff 1 970: 8 39) (b) President Bush will not have been the only President to defend this policy.
a.
An
FPS-form creates a post-present temporal domain, which functions as an intensional domain. The PPS expresses a relation in an already existing domain. b. The temporal specification effected by an FPS-form is context-independent, whereas that effected by a PPS-form is not. A PPS-form requires a context providing a post-present TO serving as TOt for the PPS-form. c. The use of the PPS is a sign that the situations of the SC and the HC are closely related to each other, not only temporally but also logically. The SC is fully integrated within the HC and the two situations are presented as forming an interpretive unit.
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The use of will be in (2oa) (where is would also be possible) means that the speaker puts the temporal focus on the future moment when he himself and the hearer will see the animal come out and will observe that it is a chipmunk. Similarly, the use of will have been rather than has been in (zob) creates the idea of a future time of evaluation: 'as history will show'. This special interpretation, which is triggered by the use of the FPS in HCs, can be achieved by the use of the PPS in SCs. In SCs that in principle allow either the FPS or the PPS, the PPS may be used to suggest that the HC-STO is the time of evaluation. In ( 1 9) the situation ofJohn doing something stupid is represented as it will be experienced at the post-present TOt. That the PPS can have this effect follows from the fact that it derives its future time reference from the FPS-form in the HC. 1 o. Summarizing section 2, we can say that the basic difference between the FPS and the PPS is the different choice of basic TO (TOt): to versus a post present TO. This difference in its turn entails the following:
Renaat Declerck and lise Depraetere 2ll3
3
F A C T O RS D E T E R M I N I N G T H E C H O I C E BE TWEE N F P S A N D PPS
In this section we will explore the reasons which may induce the speaker to relate an SC-STO to a future T0 1 rather than to to· In doing so we will make a distinction between SCs that in principle allow either system, SCs that require the PPS and SCs in which the PPS cannot be used. 3.1
SCs that allow both the PPS and the FPS
(2 1 ) (a) He got a good fat job and we congratulate him on his good luck. We hope that he will execute it in a manner that will entitle him to credit. (BR) (b) There is still one glittering prize to be grasped. The man who captures it will go down in history as one of the greatest of mortals. (LOB) (22) (a) Then it will make us think about unity because we will be using church in disunity. (SEU) (b) If we hide his shoes he will panic because he cannotfind them. (23) (a) A man who has discovered himself won't want to squander his talents or his money as he will have more interesting things to do. (SEU) (b) At this point you will have to save the document to disc as you have used all the available memory. (SEU) (24) (a) If you take the train and I take the bus, I will probably travel faster than you will. (b) If you take the train and I take the bus, I will probably travel faster than you do . (25) (a) If love, loyalty and courage count for anything, it won't be Violet's marriage that will break up . {LOB) (b) Surely, it won't be John who comes in first. (26) (a) He will be so drunk that he will be unable to do any work. (b) The new rules will be so devised that they do not allow any exceptions. (27) (a) What the next move will be only time, of course, will tell. {BR) (b) We can charge what we like. The public will decide whether or not it pays . (LOB)
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Typical examples of SCs that in principle allow either system are restrictive relative clauses, because -clauses, SCs of reason introduced by as or since , SCs of comparison, the wh -clauses of clefts, result clauses, dependent questions, and dependent statements. The following sentences illusrrate the two possibilities for each of these types of SC. (The (a) example each time uses the FPS, the (b) example the PPS.)
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(28) (a) The man who enjoys his work and approaches it creatively will find that the techniques, the competency and the professional polish will come to him automatically. (LOB) (b) The negro is Mr Robert Weaver of New York. One ofhis tasks will be to see there is no racial discrimination in Government and State housing projects. (LOB) In SCs of this rype the choice between the FPS and the PPS is not entirely free. The following are some reasons why the speaker may decide against using one of them:
(29) He is warred because he will be asked !*is asked for an explanation tonight. 3· 1 .2 A co-operative speaker will not use the PPS whenever the relevant PPS form would not be interpreted as a PPS-form but rather as an absolute tense form (cf. Depraetere 1 993: 1 95-6). Compare: (3o) (a) The boy will be no doubt be caught because he steals/will steal some money. (b) The boy will no doubt be caught because he is using/will be using the wrong ink. In (3oa), steals is clearly a PPS-form, because we use is stealing rather than steals to locate a (nonhabitual) situation in the present. However, the present tense form is using in (3ob) is naturally interpreted as referring to the present. (Generally speaking, a present tense form will naturally invite this inter pretation if it is a stative, progressive, or passive form.) A co-operative speaker will therefore avoid using is using as PPS-form in (3ob). If future rime reference is intended, he will use the FPS-form will be using instead. As is clear from the examples, it is the fact that there is no formal differentia tion between the absolute use of the present tense and its use as a PPS-form that requires the speaker to use the FPS whenever the PPS might cause confusion. (It can be traced to the same factor that the PPS and the FPS have a fairly rigid distribution, with many rypes of clause allowing only either of them.) The principle that PPS-forms should not be used if they could be misunder stood is a strong pragmatic principle (based on the Gricean Maxims) which overrules any other considerations in SCs where the speaker can in principle choose between the FPS and the PPS. 3.1 . 3 The speaker also has to use the FPS in SCs where the logical relation expressed by the conjunction does not hold between the two situations but
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3.1.1 Because a PPS-form depends for its future rime interpretation on the HC, the FPS must be used if the HC does not establish a post-present domain (either explicitly or implicidy): 1 3
Renaar Declerck and lise Depraerere 28 s
rather between the two speech acts (predictions) that are made. This is the case, e.g. in SCs of reason explaining why the speaker predicts the HC-situation: (3 1 ) (a) Our deficit this year is £ 1 ,20o,ooo. Next year the results will be somewhat better, because the economic climate will have improved . (b) John will be caught, because he will set off the alarm. noted by Sampson { 1 97 1 : s 88), we cannot replace will set off with sets off in (3 1 b) if the because -clause is to give the reason why the speaker states that John will be caught. The reason is that the speaker is not concerned with the temporal link between the two situations but rather with the reason for making the utterance at Y:l· It is therefore natural for him to relate the because-clause situation to Y:J, which ensures a transparent interpretation. As
{32) But you'll also find that this plan out-strips other insurance plans because most of your savings are invested , rather than going to provide an amount of life insurance which you may not need or even want. (SEU) 3- 1 .5 SCs that allow the PPS will as a rule use it if they are to be interpreted as belonging to the same intensional domain as the HC. As we have seen, this is the case in SCs that spell out the propositional contents of a verb of saying or thinking: (33) {If you do that) John will allege/think tomorrow that it is Friday, although it will only be Thursday. The FPS-form will be cannot be used in the that- clause because this clause must be interpreted opaquely. {It is, however, used in the although -clause, which is interpreted transparently.) This use of the PPS is, however, subject to the general constraint that its use must not give rise to confusion. The PPS will not be used if the relevant tense form would not be recognized as a PPS-form: (34) It will be painful, but interesting, to see what kind of god these people will create or what strong convictions they will develop . {BR) It should be noted in this connection that there are 'strong' and 'weak' intensional verbs. Strong intensional verbs are verbs like imagine, wonder, etc. whose object clauses virtually have to be interpreted opaquely (i.e. as belonging
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3- 1 .4 If the PPS is a possible option, it may be selected because the speaker wants to make clear through the choice of his tense form that the SC must be interpreted opaquely rather than transparently. Our above example ( 1 9) was an illustration of this. The following is a similar example in which the PPS represents the situation as it will be experienced by a participant in the situation at the future T0 1 :
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to the intensional domain (possible world) that they create.) Weak intensional verbs (e.g. see , say) more easily allow a transparent interpretation of their object clauses. It is in clauses depending on the latter type of intensional verb that the FPS may be required for reasons of clarity. (The same type of clauses will also more easily allow violation of the 'sequence of tenses' rule in indirect speech. In that case too the result is a transparent interpretation.) 3· I .6 In SCs in which the PPS is the unmarked system, the speaker will more easily use the FPS when the SC in question precedes the HC, especially if the verb of the HC is some distance away (cf Depraetere I 993: 2 I 9-29). Compare:
The cases in which the FPS-form is most suitable are those in which the SC in the corresponding PPS-form could be misinterpreted. A PPS-form depends for its future time reference on the HC. If the SC precedes the HC and its lexical material does not suggest future time, the PPS-form risks being misunderstood at first. On hearing the HC the hearer then has to adapt his initial interpretation. Since this requires considerable processing effort, a cooperative speaker will try to avoid this by using an unequivocal verb form in the SC. (Self evidently, this tendency will be stronger as the distance between the SC and the verb of the HC increases. In (3 sa) the use of the PPS-form fare in the SC presents no problem of interpretation as it is immediately followed by the verb of the HC.) 3- 1 .7 SCs that allow the PPS will preferably use it if they are syntactically subordinated to a SC whose verb is a PPS-form. Compare:
(36) (a) John will be punished because he is/will be late. (b) If John is punished because he isf?will be late, his parents will not protest. (c) John will be surprised ifhe gets punished because he isf?wi/1 be late. (37) (a) Their furore will depend on how good their training here has been/will have been . (b) If their furore rums out to depend on how good their training here has been f? will have been , their attitude towards us will change.
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(3 5) (a) Others have left school to make their way in a highly competitive technical and scientific world. How well theyfare will depend on how much they have assimilated in the years before and after the I I -plus. (LOB) (b) Europe is now going through this phase of development. Whether we (will) remain in it long will depend on many different factors. (c) What their move will be /is, only time, of course, will tell. (d) Whether it will strike f?strikes home for you or not will be for you to determine. (BR)
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(3R) (a) The religious group will forswear all proselytizing on the project it proposes IwiII propose . (b) No religious group, he declared in an interview, will receive Peace Corps funds unless it forswears all proselytizing on the project it proposes f? wiIIpropose . {BR)
J. I .8 In SCs that allow the use of the PPS, the speaker will as a rule use this system if he wants the SC to have the connotation of an open condition. This use of the PPS is especially common in restrictive relative clauses: 1 4
(39) (a) This Sunday's sessions-including the free dinner-will be open to anyone who makes reservations. {BR) (b) There is still one glittering prize to be grasped. The man who captures it will go down in history as one of the greatest of mortals. {LOB) The use of the FPS in SCs like these would suggest that the speaker is treating the condition as closed at to. i.e. that he takes the future actualization of the SC situation for granted. Compare: (4o) (a) The people that protest will be arrested. {b) The people that will protest will be arrested. The first sentence implies that the speaker reckons with the possibility of people protesting and being arrested because of this. The second implies that the speaker assumes there will be protesters. In other words, the conditional connotation is that of an open condition in (4oa) and of a closed one in (4ob). Restrictive relative clauses with a conditional connotation also use the FPS if they themselves contain or imply another if-clause:
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One reason for this persistent use of PPS-forms is the complex syntactic structure: one SC is embedded into another. Because of this, the temporal interpretation (i.e. the mental reconstruction of the temporal relations) would get difficult if the temporal relations did not run parallel with the syntactic relations. (The use of the FPS in an SC means that the SC is syntactically subordinated but not temporally subordinated.) A second element of explana tion is that in the (b)-(c) sentences of(36)-{3R) the relevant SC is embedded into an if-clause expressing an open condition. This kind of if-clause must use the PPS because its situation is supposed in the intensional domain established by the HC (cf above). Any clause that is a SC of the if-clause (and is fully inte grated i!J.to it) belongs to the supposition and will therefore also tend to use the PPS. {A switch to the FPS would mean that the SC in question is represented as {pre)supposed at to rather than as (pre)supposed in the post-present intensional domain. In the above (b)-(c) examples there is no reason whatever for choosing this representation.)
288 Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
(41 ) TheJackson report will provide some of the political support Mr Rusk will need if he is to get rid of department personnel engaged. (BR) This constraint fits in with the rule that we use the FPS rather than the PPS in if-clauses functioning as HC for another if-clause (whether overtly present or implied): We won't do it ifit will upset him (ifwe do it); see section 3·3 below.) 3.1 ·9 Restrictive relative clauses depending on a temporal noun may in principle use either the FPS or the PPS, bur require the PPS when the antecedent forms part of a phrase functioning as temporal adverbial:
The SCs of examples like (43a-b) have the same function as adverbial time clauses, which require the use of the PPS (c£ below). 3. 1 . 1 0 Apart from the principles pointed out above, there are a number of factors which promote the use of the PPS in restrictive relative clauses because they make for a high degree of integration of the relative clause into the HC. For example, the PPS is preferred (a) in nominal (headless) relative clauses, 1 5 (b) if the antecedent is a cataphoric demonstrative or a 'light' NP which depends for its reference on the relative clause, (c) if the antecedent is or contains an indefinite pronoun/determiner or a superlative, and (d) if the HC is an existential construction. The following sentences illustrate these tendencies: (44) (a) He will always give you what you need. (b) I will always go where you go . (4S) (a) The best places will be snapped up by those who come early. (b) I will ask the people I meet for some food. (46) (a) Tomorrow Jane will be here, and she will get you anything you want. (b) Miss Bantin will be there in person ready to give her friendly advice to all who care to take advantage of her visit to the Capitol. (LOB) (47) When the measures are made public, there will be a lot of people that don't like them. On the other hand, restrictive relative clauses invariably use the FPS when their antecedent is in nonrestrictive apposition or belongs to another type of constituent that is not fully integrated into the HC:
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(42) (a) But the day will come when you'll remember what I tell you now. (LOB) (b) The day will come, in midsummer, when you find your plants becoming 'leggy'. (BR) (43) (a) By the time the police (*will) arrive it will be too late. (b) And remember, the clutch is not a gradual affair like the one on a car. The instant you (*will) engage it the machine will rush away, with or without you. (LOB)
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(48} (a) These findings, and others which will in time be developed , will affect the method of glottochronological inquiry. (BR} (b) If they are adopted, these measures will benefit the students, at least those that will not receive a scholarship.
3 .2
SCsforbidding the use ofthe FPS
.
.
J.2. 1 The PPS must be used in if-clauses expressing an open condition (i.e. a condition that may or may not be fulfilled in the future), because the SC and the HC then form a single intensional domain (possible world). 1 6 They do so because the HC-situation is dependent on the SC-situation, which means that the HC must be interpreted within the possible world created by the if-clause. (The rwo clauses form part of the same 'scenario', which is rreated as a possible world.) The use of the PPS in open conditionals is not so much a logical requirement as something that has come to be conventionalized in English. In many European languages both the FPS and the PPS can be used in open conditionals. For example, in Dutch it is possible to utter (49b) as a (less usual) alternative to (49a):
(49) (a) Als we te laat komen , zullen we gesrraft worden. 'If we are late, we will be punished' (b) Als we te laat zullen komen , zullen we gesrraft worden. 'If we will be late, we will be punished' In (49b) the rwo STOs are located in different temporal domains, which are interpreted as simultaneous or following each other closely in time. This way of locating the situation in time fails to represent the close logical relationship berween them. (This is possible because the logical relation is in any case expressed by if . . . (then).) In English, however, it has become conventional to signal the logical link by locating the rwo situations in the same temporal (and intensional) domain. In ths way English is able to distinguish carefully berween open and closed conditionals (cf above). The reason behind the conventionalization may well be that the contents of an if-clause expressing an open condition are not asserted at to but supposed
·
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There are various types of SC in which future time reference strictly requires the use of the PPS: conditional clauses expressing an open condition, adverbial time clauses, concessive wh -clauses, that -clauses depending on statements of frequency of the type It will be thefirst time that . , SCs of proportion, and SCs of manner that are fully integrated into the HC.
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Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
3.2.2
The FPS cannot normally be used in adverbial rime clauses: 1 8
(so) (a) I will leave before John is !* will be back. (b) I will leave when John has arrived!* will have arrived. (c) I will stay here until John arrives !* will arrive.
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within the future possible world. In English, the FPS is used exclusively for predictions, i.e. to represent a future tense proposition as true at Co· A proposition expressing an open condition is true only in the possible world created by if. The use of the FPS would wrongly represent it as a prediction, i.e. as a proposition which is presented as true at Co· (That the FPS can be used in Dutch is a sign that Dutch does not use the FPS for predictions only. It can also use it to create the intensional domain of an open condition, and this domain can then be interpreted as coinciding with the domain that is independently established by the HC.) The result of the conventionalization in English is that the obligatory use of the PPS in open conditionals is primarily the expression of the logical 'if p, then q' relationship. This means that the speaker is less concerned with the temporal relation than with the conditional one, and this explains why most open conditionals use the present tense in the SC, even if the SC-situation precedes the HC-situation (e.g. Ifyou do that, you will be punished). The present tense is selected simply because it is the unmarked PPS-form: it is the form basically expressing simultaneity. (Of the three temporal relations that can be expressed by tense forms, simultaneity is the unmarked one.) When used this way, the present tense is an instance of what Declerck ( I 99 I ) calls 'sloppy simultaneity'. This term refers to che phenomenon that a tense form which is normally used to express simultaneity may be used in cases where the relevant situations are not (and are not conceived as) simultaneous. The clearest example of this metaphorical use of the present tense is when the two clauses contain distinct temporal adverbials, as in If he does not do it tomorrow, I will do it myself next week . 1 1 Here the sole reason for using the present tense in the if-clause is that the two clauses are conceived as belonging to one and the same intensional domain, namely the possible world corresponding to the open condition. Because the speaker is concerned with the logical relation 'if p, then q' rather than with the exact temporal relation between the two situations, he typically uses the unmarked PPS-form (i.e. the one expressing simultaneity), except in the rare cases where a more precise indication of the temporal relation is required (as in Ifyou haven't left by tomorrow . . . ). That this convention persists when distinct time expressions are associated with the two situations should not come as a surprise, for it is precisely in the cases where the temporal relation between the situations is signalled by time adverbials that it is lease necessary for chis relation to be expressed by the tense forms.
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(s 1 ) Ik zal vertrekken wanneer Jan aangekomen is!zal aangekomen zijn . 'I will leave when John has arrived I will have arrived ' If the FPS is used, the temporal relation between the SC-STO and the HC-STO is expressed only by the conjunction, not by the tense forms (both of which relate their STO to to). In English there is only one type of adverbial time clause in which the FPS can be used: (52) (a) In his preliminary report . . . Sir Hugh Cairns stressed that several years must elapse before he will know whether the improvements . . . are permanent. (Edgren I 97 I : I 09) (b) It is just a matter of time before the trainee schools will disappear altogether from the scene. (LOB) (c) It is still some time before the others will be here.
In this type of sentence the HC does not describe a situation whose time is specified by the time clause but indicates the distance between to and a post present TO identified by the SC. The possibility of using will in the SC can be traced back to the fact that the HC does not explicitly establish a post-present domain. On the other hand, the HC can be interpreted as doing so implicitly, and this entails that the PPS can also be used (and is in fact often the more natural choice): (s 3) It is still some time before the shops close.
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It is argued in Declerck ( 199 I ) that the STO of an adverbial time clause is temporally subordinated, not to the HC-STO bur to an 'implicit TO' in the semantic structure of the temporal conjunction. We interpret before , when , until , etc. as 'before the time that', 'at the time that', 'until the time that', etc. (Diachronically speaking, most temporal conjunctions have actually developed from such a prepositional phrase.) The word time in these paraphrases refers to the implicit TO to which the SC-STO is temporally subordinated. Thus, in (soa), the SC-STO must nor be related to to (by the use of will be as an FPS form), nor to the HC-STO (by the use of will be as a PPS-form), but must be temporally subordinated to the TO that is implicit in before . (The TO in question is posterior to the HC-STO, bur this relation is expressed by the conjunction only, not by the tense form.) In (soa) the SC-STO is represented as simultaneous with the implicit TO: beforeJohn is back is interpreted as 'before the time that/when John is back'. The obligatory use of the PPS in adverbial time clauses is again a convention typical of English and not shared by many other European languages. For example, the Dutch counterpart of (sob) may use either the PPS or the FPS (with a preference for the former):
292 Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
If the HC explicitly establishes a post-present domain, the bifore -clause normally uses the PPS, but occasionally examples using the FPS can be found:
The fact that adverbial time clauses generally require the PPS in modern English (if the HC establishes a post-present domain) is the result of a conventionalization which is probably due to two factors. One of them is that it is precisely in this type of sentence that we find the closest possible temporal link between the SC-STO and the HC-STO: the time clause gives a value to the time variable in the open proposition corresponding to the HC. It is therefore understandable that the SC-STO is located in the same temporal and intensional domain as the HC-STO. The second factor is the parallelism with conditional clauses. It is well known that there is a great deal of similarity between conditional clauses and time clauses in most languages. As pointed out by Hirtle ( 1 98 1 : 220), an adverbial time clause expresses a kind of sufficient (but not necessary) condition for the HC: in We shall light the lamp when it gets dark , 'the evenrual getting dark is seen as prompting, as conditioning . . . the lighting'}9 It is therefore not surprising that the use of the PPS in time clauses has become conventional at the same time as its use in conditional clauses (i.e. in the modern English period). A final note to be made in connection with adverbial time clauses is that (apart from the above exceptions) they do not allow the use of will at all, i.e. will is ungrammatical not only as an FPS-form but also as a PPS-form. The PPS form expressing posteriority must be formed with the help of be going to (or a phrase like be likely to):
( s s) (a) He will put on his goggles when pieces ofmetal aregoing tofly about Iare likely to beflying about . (b) She will go back to her mother's when she isgoing to have a baby. The reason why will cannot be used must have to do with the fact that posteriority in adverbial time clauses is always equivalent to the 'prospective' meaning (i.e. fururity with present orientation) which in English is typically expressed by begoing to .
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(54) (a) It will still be some time before the others C will) arrive. (b) We, in the trade, feel that many people think that this is a new version of the whole Bible. It is, of course, only the New Testament: it will be many years before the Old Testament, and the Apocrypha are available. (LOB) (c) Tobacco, it is said, is gradually being ousted by sweets. We fancy, however, that it will be some time before it will be a common sight to see men about town walking down Pall Mall with a sugar stick in the mouth instead of a cigarette. (Kruisinga 1 9 3 1 : 494)
Renaat Declerck and lise Depraerere 29 3
3-2·3 SCs introduced by a question word in -ever normally use the PPS for future time reference:20 (56) (a) Playing staff is to be reduced from 26 to about I 8, because whatever the Football Combination decide/ will decide Mill wall will not field reserve teams on Saturdays next season. (LOB) (b) However the money is shared/will be shared, some people will be dissatisfied. (c) Whoeverfinds /willfind the ring will get a reward.
(57) (a) I have promised to stand in for him whenever his state of health should make it impossible for him to attend the monthly meeting of the Board. (b) If you read the Sub-section as widely as that, any payment made by a company, whether it be an income or a capital payment, and whether there is consideration for it or not, will be a distribution. (LOB) Other types of concessive clauses with a conditional connotation also normally use the PPS: (58) However, the displacement of the cylinder can be converted to cubic centimetres. The compression ratio arrived at with the formula will be the same regardless of whether cubic inches or cubic centimetres are used. (BR) 3.2.4 That -clauses depending on the noun time in statements of frequency normally use the PPS if the HC uses the FPS.2 1 The following illustrate the two rypical patterns: (59) In future the company will have to pay $ Io,ooo each time it dumps f?*will dump toxic waste into the river. (6o) (a) He is coming here next week. It will only be the second time he has comel*will have come here since I 980. (b) I will have to stand in for him a couple of times. Today will be the first time I have to do so. In (59) it is presumably the conditional connotation that underlies the use of the PPS in the SC. In (6oa-b) there is a similarity with adverbial time clauses: in the
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The tendency to use the PPS in such SCs can probably be traced back to their conditional connotation (cf Hirtle I 98 I : 226). A sentence like He willgo wherever I go can be paraphrased as 'If I go somewhere, he will go there too'. Similarly, whatever the F. C. decide means 'if decision A is made and if decision B is made, and also if decision C is made, etc.'. This explanation is supported by the fact that we can find examples of SCs of this rype using should or the present subjunctive, which are forms that one would rather expect to find in open conditionals:
294 Tense Forms Referring ro Furure Time in English
same way as the SC-STO is related to an implicit TO in the latter, the PPS forms of(6oa-b) relate the SC-STO to the TO identified by the word time. (The difference between the present perfect in (6oa) and the present tense in {6ob) is that the former locates the situation in a period leading up to the future TO (and including it) whereas the latter locates it in a period which stretches from the future TO onwards into the future. In other words, the present perfect emphasizes the anterior part of the series of situations referred to, whereas the present tense stresses the posterior part.) Note, however, that in the pattern illustrated by {6oa-b) the SC will use the FPS if the HC does not do so:
3.2.5 The PPS is also the rule in SCs of proportion: {62) (a) The sooner the job isfinished f?? will befinished , the better. (b) The more people we tellf?? will tell about it, the more difficult it will be to keep it secret. Here again the conditional connotation appears to be the reason for the choice of the PPS. As noted by Hirtle ( I 98 1 : 227), 'what is presented as yet to be determined is the degree to which some aspect of the [HC-)event is realized, along with the condition for determining it. That is to say, the actualization of a given degree of the conditioning event constitutes the condition which will trigger the realization of the corresponding degree in the conditioned event'. 3.2.6 SCs of manner chat are fully integrated into the HC also use the PPS: {6 3) I hope that next time you will do as I say I? will say . Here again there is a conditional connotation: 'I hope that if I tell you to do something, you will do it'.
3·3
SCsforbidding the use ofthe PPS
The PPS is not used at all in SCs such as adversative clauses, comment clauses, nonrestrictive relative clauses, concessive SCs introduced by (al)though , SCs of reason introduced byfor, and in some types of conditional SCs. The following give an example of each. (The asterisks again indicate unsuitability as a PPS form rather chan ungrammaticalicy.)
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{6 1 ) (a) He is coming here next week. It is only the second rime he will have come I* has come here since I 980. (b) I will have co stand in for him a couple of times. Today is the first time I will do I* do so.
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295
(64) (a) I'll be in London tomorrow, whereas/while Bill will be /* is at home. (b) As you will seeI*see, he will not come tomorrow. (c) I will give it to Tom, who will bel*is glad to get it. (d) I will accept the invitation, although I will not enjoy I*do not enjoy being there. (e) I will not be here next month, for I will bel* am abroad. (� If, as you say, this decision will upset /*upsets her, I will consider changing it.
(65) (a) If, as you say, Bill will come here himself next week, I will not need to send him a letter. (b) If you will not be in receipt of a scholarship or Award or if the Award will be inadequate to meet full fees and expenses of your course and your maintenance, please state how you propose to meet those fees and expenses. (Haegeman I 98 3: I 5 3) The FPS is also the rule in if-clauses that serve as HC for another if-clause (whether overtly present or implied): (66) If it'll make you feel any better [ifl take it back], I'll take it back. (Tregidgo 1 974= 1 05) In this type of conditional, whose logical structure is 'if [if q, then p], rhen q', it has become conventional to use the FPS in the if-clause in order to distinguish it from the standard open conditionals, whose logical structure is 'if p. then q'.
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In (64a-c) there is a very loose syntactic and semantic relation between the two clausesP The SC has a large measure of syntactic independence and is not integrated into the HC semantically, as the latter can be fully interpreted without reference to the SC. What is expressed in the SC is the speaker's com ment on the HC-situation. This comment is made at to. not at the post-present HC-STO, and it is meant to be interpreted transparently. This explains the obligatory use of the FPS. In (64d-e), there is a clearer logical link between the two clauses, but the syntactic link is equally loose, and the SC again expresses the speaker's comment at to· (In (64e), the for-clause expresses the reason why the speaker makes the HC assertion.) The most interesting case is that of the conditionals. Whereas the PPS is a sign that the if-clause must be interpreted as expressing an open condition, the FPS is the rule in several other types of conditional. The first type is that in which the future fulfilment of a condition is assumed to be certain at to· The following are some typical instances of such closed conditionals, in which the FPS is used because the speaker 'is looking forward from the present moment' (Wekker I 977: 68). (For a fuller discussion, see Declerck I 99 I : I 92-222.)23
296 Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
The FPS can also be used in if-clauses that are not fully integrated into the HC (semantically and syntactically). Such if-clauses can be interpreted as having independent temporal reference, so that the speaker may use the FPS if the reference is to the future. This use becomes virtually obligatory if a present tense form would be interpreted as referring to GJ rather than as a PPS-form. For example:
In (67a-b) the if-clause is relatively independent and does not really express a condition for the actualization of the HC-situation: it is merely added for the sake of politeness. A present tense would therefore not be interpreted as a PPS form. The same is true of (67c). It should be noted that apart from the above three cases, in which will is (part of) an FPS-form, there are also examples of if-clauses in which will is (part of) a PPS-form, expressing posteriority in the post-present domain established by rhe HC: (68) In order to see whether the baby will be a boy or a girl, put the pregnant woman in the middle of a flock ofwrens. The baby will be a boy if they fly away in terror, because white boys stalk and torture and kill them. !fit will be a girl, they will cluster around singing , because girls grind grain and scatter some for the wrens. (adapted fromJacobsson 1 984: 1 40) However, in examples of this type will is less usual than begoing to : (69) I'll ring you up if I'm going to be late for dinner. Oacobsson 1 984: 1 32)
4 A LTER N A T I V E A N ALYSES Though it is common knowledge that (what we call) PPS-forms must be used . in some types ofSC, there are few linguists that have tried to explain the reason for this use or to provide for the use ofPPS-forms in a more general theory of tense. According to Leech ( I 97 1 : s9-6o), the use of the present tense in open conditionals follows from the fact that a situation referred to 'is not a prediction bur a fact that is taken as given':
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(67) (a) Well, if you won't think it rude, Harold, I shall toddle in. Oacobsson I 984: I 37). (b) I'll leave the mule here, if you won't mind . (ibid.) (c) We have strong faith that a rally to the defence of the Act will be a feature of next year's politics, if the Tory Parry will have the courage to come into the open and declare war upon it. Oacobsson 1 984: I 37-8}
Renaat Declerck and lise Depraetere 297 A conditional sentence . . . has the structure 'If X is a fact, then I predict Y.' Hence in the if
clause, it is appropriate to use the Present Tense, with its assumption of factual certainty, rather than the predictive auxiliary will. (p. 6o)
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However, this explanation (which wrongly suggests that the present tense in the if-clause is an absolute tense) fails because it is simply not true that an open conditional represents a situation as a fact. (If it did, a sentence like Jflze comes, wlziclz is rather doubifu l, I will ask him for an explanation would be semantically anomalous, which it is not.) An open condition represents a supposition, not an assertion. Besides, in those cases where the speaker does rreat the if-clause situation as a fact (i.e. as a closed condition), it is the future tense that is used, not the present tense (cf above). The view of rradirional grammarians (e.g. Jespersen I 932: 24, 2 5 1 ; Kruisinga I 93 I : I 3 3) was that the use of the present tense in adverbial rime clauses and open conditionals is a question oflinguisric economy: 'futurity need not be (and therefore rarely is) indicated by means of the tense of the verb; generally the main sentence shows unmistakably that the whole refers co the future' {Jespersen I 932: 24). However, this view fails to explain why the present tense is not only possible but actually obligatory in these types of SC. It also wrongly assumes that the use of the present tense in adverbial rime clauses is special, i.e. that it would be more logical to use the future tense. (This assumption need not be made once it is seen that in English the STO of the rime clause is related to the implicit TO expressed by the conjunction, not to the HC-STO.) According to Vet ( I 98 1 : 1 2 1 ), the use of the present tense in open con ditionals follows from a neurralizarion of the distinction between present and future tense. This neurralizarion is due to the fact that the speaker is not sure whether the possible world in which he locates the situation is the real world or an expected continuation of the real world. It seems difficult to gauge what this explanation is worth, since the only comment added is: 'Dans les phrases qui se referent a ce type de mondes, il y a une neutralisation entre le PR [Present] et le FUT, en ce sens qu'il n'est pas possible d'indiquer cette difference a !'aide de formes temporelles disrinctes (de Ia l'impossibilite de remplacer le PR . . . par un FUT.' A quite different approach is taken by those generative linguists who claim that the present tense (as PPS-form) is the result of' will-deletion' (see e.g. Fodor I 968: I 3; Kitrredge 1 969: I s; Ross 1 970; Lakoff 1 97 1 : 3 39; Sampson I 97 I : s 88; Vasudeva I 97 1 : I 67; Wekker I 98o: 99). Apart from the fact that it does not explain why the deletion takes place, this approach is vitiated by the fact that it lacks a solid empirical basis: there is simply no observational evidence supporting the claim that the present tense from the surface structure is derived from an underlying future tense. Moreover, the hypothesis proves deficient in that it wrongly predicts that John will say that he hears something is synonymous with (because derived from) John willsay that he will lzear something. (For further
298 Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
arguments against the will-deletion hypothesis, see Jenkins ( 1 972), Vetter (1973), Ejerhed Braroe ( 1 974).) According to Nieuwint ( 1 986: 378-9), the reason why we cannot use the future tense in an adverbial when -clause is that if we did the clause would not be interpreted as 'at the rime when the TC-situarion holds' but rather as 'at the rime when it is predicted that the TC-situarion will hold'. In his opinion, this is illogical: As the prediction of a future event always precedes the event predicted, the rime 'at which
There are two problems with this analysis. First, it does not explain why the use of the FPS in when -clauses apparently does not have this illogical effect, and is therefore not ungrammatical, in many other languages, e.g. in Dutch. Secondly, the claim that when he will arrive would mean 'at the rime when it is predicted that the TC-situarion will hold' appears to be ill founded. In those languages in which the sequence is not ungrammatical, it is never interpreted this way. (Since He will arrive is used to make a prediction at �. Nieuwint's claim implies that the rime specified by the Dutch equivalent of when he will arrive must be �· However, the when -clause cannot be interpreted this way: it specifies a future time.) Nieuwint crucially assumes that the STO of the when -clause can only be temporally related to the implicit TO (referred to by the time in the paraphrase 'at the rime that'). In actual fact, it is possible (even in English) for the STO of a when -clause to be bound by another TO: (7o) (a) He remembered that when he had told his friends about it, they had not believed him. (c) And later, when she had invited him to the flat, he had seen how well they were doing. (Ruth Rendell, Talking to Strange Men , Arrow Books, London: 1 987, 23) In these examples the STO of the when -clause is bound by the same (contextually given) past TO that also binds the STO of its HC: both STOs are represented as anterior to the past TO in question. (This is what Declerck 1 99 1 : 6 3 calls 'indirect binding'.) (In both examples the speaker could also use the past tense in the when -clause. In that case the STO of the when -clause would be bound by the implicit TO. This would be 'direct binding'.) If sentences like *john will do it when he will have time were grammatical, they would be similar to (7oa-b) in that both STOs would be temporally related to the same TO, namely to. Because the STO of the rime clause would thus be located in the post present, the rime specified by the when -clause would not be to. as is claimed by
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something will happen' precedes the rime 'at which something happens'. Seen in this light, it maks perfectly logical sense for will not to appear after when : saying 'when he will arrive the band will play the National Anthem' would be tantamount to saying that the playing of the National Anthem will precede HE ARRIVE and would therefore constitute a reversal of the order of events intended by the speaker. (378-9)
Renaat Declerck and lise Depraetere 299
Further deviations occur in tense sequences. Consider the sentence 'I shall take your photograph when you come'. The form 'When you will come' would be more correct; but we prefer to use here the present tense instead of the future. This usage may be interpreted as follows. First, the future tense is used in the first clause in the meaning S R , E ; second, in the second clause the point of speech is neglected. The neglect is possible because the word 'when' refers the reference point of the second clause clearly to a future event. A similar anomaly is found in the sentence, 'We shall hear the record when we have dined', where the present perfect is used instead of the future perfect 'when we shall have dined'. (296) _
This explanation raises a lot of questions. It does not seem correct that when is automatically interpreted as referring to the future. Besides, the present tense also occurs after after, before, and other temporal conjunctions, as well as in conditional clauses and various other types of SC. It is also significant that Reichenbach treats the use of a PPS-form in when -clauses as a 'deviation' and 'anomaly', adding that the use of an FPS-form 'would be more correct'. This view fails to explain why PPS-forms are not only possible but also obligatory in mos� of these clauses. Another problem is that Reichenbach does not make explicit what exactly he means by saying that the present or present perfect in when -clauses results from the fact that 'the point of speech is neglected'. How are we to understand the claim that neglecting the point of speech leads the speaker to use precisely the present tense (which is used to locate situations (as if) at the time of speech)?
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Nieuwint, but a post-present time (which, because of when , would be interpreted as simultaneous with the HC-STO). This is the way when -clauses in the future tense are interpreted in languages where they are not ungram matical. In the theory of Reichenbach { 1 947), the use of tenses in subclauses is explained in terms of the principle of 'the permanence of the reference point'. This principle, which is introduced to account for sequence of tense phenomena, is 'the principle that, although the events referred to in the clause may occupy different time points, the reference point should be the same for all clauses' (293). For example, in I had mailed the letter when John came the tense structure of the first clause is 'E�_R�_S', that of the second clause 'R2, Ez_S', and the two reference points coincide.24 A sentence like *I had mailed the letter when John has come is unacceptable because the tense structures of the two clauses (viz. 'E�_R�_S' and 'Ez_R2, S2 ') are such that reference points cannot coincide {since R1 precedes S whereas R2 coincides with it), whereas when requires them to coincide: 'the time points stated as identical by the word "when" are the reference points of the . . . clauses.' However, this theory proves inadequate where PPS-forms are concerned: it wrongly predicts that I willgive it to him when he is back should be unacceptable, since the tense structures of the two clauses {'S_R1 , E 1 ' and 'S, R2, E2') do not allow R2 to coincide with R1 • Reichenbach him self was aware of this problem:
300 Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
Recently, Hornstein { 1 990) has offered an adapted version of Reichenbach's analysis in which a new principle accounts for the use of sequence of tense forms and PPS-forms. According to Hornstein, we must distinguish between 'basic tenses' and 'derived tenses'. Basic tenses are syntactic constructs, more specifically configurations of S R E points ordered by two relations: linearity and associativity. Associated points (which are separated by a comma in the Reichenbachian notation, e.g. 'R, E') are interpreted as contemporaneous. Linearity means not only that a point ordered to the left of another point (e.g. {'E_S') is interpreted as temporally earlier but also that the order of associated points is relevant: 'E, R_S' is a different tense from 'R, E S', even though the two are interpreted as temporally identical. Every basic tense is an ordered triple, consisting of a relation between S and R a relation between E and R, and a compositionality operator (0) (which can be read as 'and'). For example: _
present past future
Formulas like these are then simplified as follows: S, R. E E, R_S S_R, E
present past future
The only basic tense whose representation cannot be simplified this way is the future perfect (whose meaning is '(S_R) 0 {E_R)'). From the 'basic tense structures' (BTSs) 'complex tense structures' {CTSs) may be derived. One way in which CTSs arise is through modification by temporal adverbs. CTSs are subject to a general constraint on derived tense structures (DTSs) (I s): CDTS (Constraint on Derived Tense Structures): DTS must preserve BTS BTS are preserved iff a. N o points are associated in DTS that are not associated in BTS. (In other words, a comma can become a line, but not vice versa.) b. The linear order of points in DTS is the same as that in BTS. In order to account for adverbial time clauses, Hornstein proposes a 'Rule for Temporal Connectives' (RTC), which 'combines tenses into multi-tense complexes' (43). The rule, given in (72), applies to syntactic configurations such as (7 1): TNS , . . . [adjunct TC [• . . . TNSz . . .]]] where TC is a temporal connective, e.g. when . (TNS - tense structure)
(7•) [
• . . .
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(S, R) 0 (E, R) {R_S) 0 (E, R) (S_R) 0 {R_E)
Renaat Declerck and lise Depraetere
301
(72) RTC (rule for temporal connectives): I n (7 1 ) , write the BTS ofTNS2 under the BTS ofTNS1• Associate the S points. Associate the R points by moving R2 to R 1 , placing E2 accordingly.
This RTC is subject to the COTS: 'the movement ofR2 to a position associated
with R1 must obey the COTS' (43). The tense structures that are acceptable in temporal clauses are those that result from the application of the RTC within the restrictions imposed by the COTS. For example, the sentence John
Harry arrived
came as
is grammatical because the RTC applies to the tense structures of
the two clauses without violating the COTS: E 1 , R�_S1
I I
E2, RLS2 However, *john came as Harry arrives is unacceptable because 'moving the point R2 co R1 leads to a violation of linearicy' (46): RTC -
l}j,
E 1 , R�_S1
E,
Hornstein (48) also points out that his rules predict the grammaticalicy of the present tense (as PPS-form) in John will sing as we leave the hotel:
(75)
S� _R1 , E1
S�_R1, E1 RTC -
S2, R2, E2
I I
SLR2, E2
Hornstein then applies the same analysis to open conditionals. According to him, 'these sorts of conditionals place rather strict restrictions on the tenses of the two clauses. These restrictions conform to the principles outlined above' (75). Thus, Grannie will walk home ifshe misses the last bus tonight is well formed because the application of the RTC obeys the COTS. The BTSs and OTSs are again as shown in (7 5). As pointed out by Salkie
( 1 994), Hornstein's theory raises a lot of problems.
We will not go into all of these here but restrict ourselves to two problems which are directly relevant to the PPS/FPS distinction. The first is that Hornstein traces back the (un)acceptabilicy of PPS/FPS-forms to a well formedness condition on syntactic tense structures: 'The COTS is a restriction on the syntactic manipulation of tenses, not their temporal interpretations.' (s 3). This renders it impossible to explain why it is precisely in SCs with a conditional meaning or connotation that the PPS must be used. It also disregards syntactic information that is not encoded within the syntactic tense
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RTC -
302
Tense Forms Referring ro Future Time in English
S�_RI, E l
I I
RTC -
SLR2 , E2 The CDTS similarly fails to filter out the ungrammatical use of the future perfect in when- clauses (e.g. *john will leave after we will have arrived): (S�_R1) 0 (R1, E 1) RTC -
I I
(SLR2) 0 (ELR2) Hornstein's theory also makes the wrong predictions for certain tense forms that are not ungrammatical as a means oflocating an STO within a pre-present domain. Consider: (78) (a) (said before the death of Bill's wife:) At that time Bill will be looking for a new parmer, for he will have been lonely since his wife died. (b) (said before the death ofBill's wife:) According to the scheme, Bill will no longer be there at 6. He will have left when John arrived (at s) . In (78a), died locates its STO in the past of the 'pseudo-to' functioning as a central TO of the post-present domain. In (78b), arrived is a relative past tense expressing simultaneity with an STO (the time ofJohn's leaving) which (by the use of will have left) is located in the past of the pseudo-to. In both sentences, the relevant past tense forms are perfectly grammatical, yet Hornstein's theory predicts that they are not: ·
RTC -
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structures: it does not account for the fact that the PPS is never possible in HCs or in clauses that are syntactically relatively independent (such as nonrestrictive relative clauses). The main problem for Hornstein's analysis, however, is that it is not even descriptionally adequate. While pointing out that his rules correctly predict the acceptability of the present tense in time clauses and conditional clauses referring to the future, Hornstein disregards the obvious fact that the same rules wrongly predict the acceptability of the future tense in the same types of SC. Thus, the sentences *john will sing as we will leave the hotel and *Grannie will walk home ifshe will miss the last bus tonight should be grammatical in his theory, since the RTC obeys the CDTS. (The CDTS is never violated when the two input tenses are the same.) Thus:
Renaat Declerck and lise Depraetere 303
5 CONCLUSION I . The basic difference between the FPS and the PPS is that tenses from the former relate the STO to GJ, whereas tenses from the latter relate it to a post present TO 1• From this it follows that an FPS-form creates a post-present domain
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This derivation violates the requirement of the COTS because we cannot associate R2 with R1 without altering the linear order of the times in (RLS2). In sum, Hornstein's theory is particularly ill equipped to deal with PPS forms: it wrongly predicts the grammaticaliry of FPS-forms in temporal and conditional clauses and cannot handle the grammaticaliry of past tenses functioning as PPS-forms. Another analysis we find in the recent literature is that of Comrie ( I 98 s ). Comrie argues that the PPS-use of the present tense is the result of the application of a 'syntactic rule', 'according to which in certain subordinate clauses, in particular conditional and temporal clauses, the future tense is replaced by the present tense. This rule overrides the meanings of the forms, so that even though you go out in tlze rain cannot be assigned future time reference (in the absence of scheduling), this time reference is possible for the present tense in the appropriate subordinate clause' ( I I 8). According to Comrie, this rule resembles the sequence of tenses rule in that it is a 'syntactic rule', i.e. a rule which 'is completely independent of the meaning of the tense forms involved . . . a purely formal operation' (Comrie I 986: 289-90). The claim that sequence of tenses is a purely syntactic rule is refuted in Declerck ( I 990, I 99 I : I 57-92). Some of the arguments adduced there plead against the existence of syntactic rules replacing tense forms by other tense forms. There does not appear to be any evidence supporting the view that some systematic uses of tense forms have no semantic motivation. An analysis in terms of a purely syntactic rule in any case fails to explain why PPS-forms must be used in a number of(semantically related) SCs, but cannot be used in others. Neither does it account for the use of will in some semantic subtypes of conditionals, such as closed conditionals. An adequate account of these must necessarily take meaning into account. Comrie's rule is also suspect in that it is a variant of the will -deletion rule: the effect of the rule is that 'the future tense is replaced by the present tense' ( I I 8). The arguments raised against the will deletion rule therefore also apply to Comrie's rule. Furthermore, it is a major weakness of Comrie's analysis, and in fact of all the analyses reviewed in this section, that it does not recognize that the use of the present tense forms part of a wider system. The present tense is just one of the many tenses that belong to the PPS. An adequate account of the use of the present tense as PPS-form must also account for the PPS-use of these other tenses (c£ section 5 below).
304 Tense Forms Referring ro Future Time in English
(So) (a) (b) (8 1) (a) (b)
I will punish him ifhe isl*will be late. I told him I would punish him if he was I* would be late. John will be !*is happy to hear that, whereas his wife will be !*is upset. I expected that John would be !*was happy to hear that, whereas his wife would be !*was upset.
This parallelism between the distribution of the FPS vs. the PPS and that of the conditional tense vs. the preterite extends to conditionals that have a hypo thetical or counterfactual meaning. (In this type, past time-sphere tenses are used to express remoteness from reality rather than reference to past time.) We have seen that we cannot use will in open conditionals, unless the if-clause itself functions as HC for another (overt or implicit) if-clause. In the same way
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(which is at the same time a temporal domain and an intensional one), whereas the PPS expresses a relation in an already existing domain. This means that the temporal specification effected by an FPS-form is context-independent, whereas that effected by a PPS-form is not. A PPS-form requires a context providing the necessary post-present TO 1• The use ofthe PPS is then a sign that the situations of the SC and the HC are closely related to each other, not only temporally but also logically: the SC is fully integrated into the HC, and the two situations are presented as forming an interpretive unit. 2. We have discussed the typical cases of SCs requiring either of the two systems as well as those that are compatible with both. As regards the latter, we have pointed out some principles that may induce the speaker to use the one system rather than the other in particular contexts. Generally speaking, the SCs that allow or require using the PPS belong to one of the following types: (a) SCs functioning as adverbials that are fully integrated in the HC (i.e. functioning as 'adjuncts' rather than 'disjuncts'; see Quirk et al. 1 98 s: 1071 ),25 (b) SCs functioning as an internal argument (subject or object) of the predicate of the HC, and (c) SCs that are restrictive modifiers. The six categories ofSC in which the PPS has to be used either express some kind of condition for the HC-situation or give a value to the time variable in the open proposition corresponding to the HC. Since it may be argued that not only in the former case but also in the latter the HC-situation is contingent on the SC-situation (cf above), the unifying principle may well be that in modern English the obligatory use of the PPS is conventionalized in SCs expressing or connoting an open condition (cf Hirtle 1 98 1 ). 3· A remark that can be added to the above conclusions is that the distinc tion between the FPS and the PPS for reference to the post-present runs perfectly parallel to the distinction between the so-called 'conditional tense' (e.g. would leave or was going to leave) and the preterite for reference to a time that is posterior to a past TO. Compare:
Renaar Declerck and lise Depraerere 305
we cannot use would in hypothetical and counterfactual if-clauses, unless the clause in question itself supportS an if-clause:
(82) (a) It would upset her if that happened !*would happen . (b) If, as you say, that man would be!*was able to open our safe (if he had the right instruments), we should consider buying another, more sophisticated one.
(8 3) (a) If we dump his body in Soho, the police will think chat he was killed there after he had been unable to pay his gambling debts. (b) If we organize this festival, it will introduce jazz to people that had never listened to jazz before. In (8 3 a) the FPS-form will t!Iink indicates the central TO of a post-present domain and was killed is a PPS-form representing its situation as lying in the past of this central TO. Since the situation of being killed is thus treated as if it were a past one (i.e. it lies in the past of the central TO which is treated as if it were to), the past perfect (had been ) is used to represent a situation as anterior to it. This form too is a PPS-form, as it incorporates its STO in the post-present domain. As a matter of fact, because the domain is created by a strong intensional verb (will think), the use of PPS-forms in the SCs is obligatory. The sentence becomes ungrammatical if we replace the PPS-forms was killed and had been by the FPS-forms will have been killed and will have been :
(8 3) (a') *If we dump his body in Soho, the police will think that he will have been killed there after he will have been unable to pay his gambling debts.
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The reason for this perfect correlation between the expression of future time in the present and past time-spheres is probably that it is both simpler and more economical to use parallel systems in the two time-spheres than to apply quite different rules. As it is, statements concerning the post-present can be reported in the past tense with tense forms that seem to be the result of a mechanical 'backshift' (sequence of tenses). This would not be possible (and hence cumbersome adaptations would have to be made to the tense forms) if the systems did not run parallel. (There may be a task here for psycholinguistic research, which could confirm whether this explanation in terms of economy and simplicity is correct.) 4· In this article we have been mainly concerned with the use of the present tense vs. that of the future tense in SCs referring to the post-present. However, chis distinction is just one instance of the more general distinction between the PPS and the FPS, and we could have referred to other tenses to illustrate the different distributions of these systems. Consider, for example, the following:
3o6 Tense Forms Referring to Future Time in English
In sentence (83b) the HC ( will introduce) similarly creates a post-present domain. The form lzad listened is a PPS-form which represents its STO as anterior to an implicit TO which is past with respect to the central TO. (The implicit past TO is interpreted as being the initial point of the situation referred to by will introduce , see Declerck ( 1 994) for a fuller discussion of this type of sentence.) Since the domain is not established by a strong intensional verb and since a restrictive relative clause in principle allows either the PPS or the FPS, the FPS-form will have listened can be used instead of the PPS-form had listened : (8 3) (b') If we organize the festival, it will introduce jazz to people that will never lzave listened to jazz before.
Address for correspondence: RENAAT DECLERCK University oJLeuven (KUL) Universitaire Campus B-8500 Kortrijk Befxium
Received: 1 7·03·94 Revised version received: 20.06.94
N O TE S While acknowledging that there is an aspect of modaliry in the use of any verb form making a prediction, Declerck ( 199 1 ) recognizes the existence of a 'future tense'. Forms like will do and is xoing to do ' which locate situation in the post-present, are considered to be instances of this. (See also below.) 2 Any time thar can serve as the origin of a temporal relation expressed by a tense form is called a 'rime of orientation' (TO). There are also tense forms (such as the furure perfect) which both establish a domain and indicate a relation in ir. These are called 'absolute-relative' tense forms (see below). � In Declerck ( 1 99 1 ) a distinction is made between 'rhe rime of the situation' (TS} and rhe rime (TO) at which the situation is l ocated {'TO,i,'). Since the two rimes by
definition coincide, we will ignore this distinction here and simply speak of the 'situation-TO' (STO). lr is not clear whether Reichenbach's ( 1 947) 'Event point' (E ) should be inter preted in the sense of our STO or in the sense of the time of the full situation. The same is true of Comrie's 'rime of the situation' (E), which is now defined as 'the rime point or interval which is occupied by the situation to be located in rime' (p. 1 22) and now as 'the time at which the siruation is located' (p. 245). 6 In order to avoid any misunderstanding we wish to state explicitly that the way in which we use the term 'shift of temporal perspective' is not the same as the way in which the term is used in Kamp & Rohrer ( 1 983}7 This accords with Allen ( 1 966: 1 79), who
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These illustrations make clear that the use of the present tense vs. the future tense for future time reference should not be investigated in isolation. It is just one instance of the more general distinction between the PPS and the FPS.
Renaat Declerck and lise Depraetere 307
X
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may have all kinds of adverbial connota tiom (reason, cause, concessive . . .) they can never be interpreted conditionally. This fits in with the observation that they cannot use the PPS. Compare: (i) A medal will be given to the com petitors that reach the finish. (ii) A medal will be given to the com peri tors, who will reach the finish. There is a clear conditional connotation in (i), bur not in (ii). Those introduced by a wh -word in -ever even require the PPS (c£ section 3.2.3 below). Will can, of course, occur in an open conditional if it is no FPS-form but a modal auxiliary (with volitional or habitual meaning): I will appreciate if·you wi/1 do thisfor me . Huddleston ( 1 993) considers this possi bility as 'strong evidence against an account in terms of sloppy simultaneity: a speaker subjectively conceiving of the situation as simultaneous would hardly include temporal modifications that explicitly state their non-simultaneity' (3 5 3). The flaw in this argument is that it is based on a faulty interpretacion of Declerck's notion of sloppy simultaneity: sloppy simultaneity does not mean that the rwo situations are conceived as simultaneous, it implies precisely that they are not conceived that way. Note that the FPS can be used in when clauses that are relative clauses, whether restrictive or nonrestrictive: (i) I look forward to the day when I wi/1 be 2 1 . (ii) During this period, when large numbers of school-leavers wi/1 be looking for jobs, there will be rela tively few retirements. (LOB) But the PPS is the rule in when -clauses that are in (restrictive or nonrestrictive) apposition to an adverbial adjunct, because these clauses share the adverbial function of their 'antecedent': (iii) We will visit the town this afternoon when the museum is open. ,
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1o
applies the terms 'free verb clusters' and 'bound verb clusters' ro what we call FPS forms and PPS-forms. In the same way as we use 'simation' as a cover term for anything that can be expressed in a semence (irrespective of whether it is an anion, evem, state, ere.), we use 'acrualize' as a cover term for the verbs that are typically associated with these categories (i.e. perJmn , happeu , 1/(lld ). An intensional domain is 'a domain of imerpretarion which has its own set of presuppositions and tnnh conditions, in terms of which propositions can be evaluated and imerpreted' (Rigter 1 9X2: 96; see also Abusch 1 99 1 ). The expression of a logical connection berween rwo simations does not necessar ily mean that they must be located in the same temporal domain. As we will see below, it is only when the logical relation is that berween an open condition and its consequent that the rwo STOs must be located in the same intensional (and hence temporal) domain. Quirk et a/. ( 1 9X5: 1 0oX) probably have the same thing in mind when they write: 'In general, the difterence berween the simple present and the modal [ will ] is that the simple present refers ro an assumed future actual simation whereas the modal refers ro the assumed predictability of a situation or situations.' Some of the examples we will adduce are attested examples from three corpora: the Survey tif" English Usage (SEU), the Brown Corpus (Bit) and the Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen CNpus (LOB). As noted by Quirk et a/. ( 1 9X5: 1 00X), the present tense can be used instead of the fu ture tense in noun clauses depending on verbs like hope , bet , doesn't maller, etc. Declerck ( 1 99 1 : -l5) treats this use of the present tense as a case of 'sloppy simul taneity' (i.e. a posterior simation is represented as if it were simultaneous) rather than as a use of the PPS. Although nonrestrictive relative clauses
30� Tense Forms Referring to Fu rure Time in English
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21
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rhey are not mopped up in rhe reference of pro-forms like do s1> or and so I neither. (For rhese and similar rests, see Ruther ford 1 970; Quirk et a/. 1 9X5: 1 07 1 .) 23 The occasional use of will in [f-clauses is also discussed by Leech ( 1 9 7 1 : 65). Quirk et a/. ( 1 972: 7X 1 ), Palmer ( 1 9n qX-9), Tregidgo ( 1 97-l. 1 979, 1 9Xo), Wekker ( 1 976, 1 9Xo), Close ( 1 9Xo), Comrie ( 1 9X2), Haegeman ( 1 9X 3), Haegeman and Wekker ( 1 9X-l) and Jacobsson ( 1 9X-l)· None of rhem, however, distinguishes rhe full array of possibilities. 2-l 'E_R_S' is ro be read as 'E(event time) anterior to R(eference rime, which is itself anterior to S(peech time)', whereas 'R, E' is to be read as 'E simultaneous wirh It'. 25 However, this is a strong tendency rather than a strict rule, as some of rhe SCs rhar pass Quirk et al .'s ( 1 9X5: 1 07 1 ) rests for disjuncts are not incompatible wirh rhe PPS: (i) At this point you will have ro save rhe documenr to disc as you ha,,c used all rhe available memory. (ii) whatever happens , we will go on. (iii) The inadequacy of our library system will become critical unless we act vigorously to correct rhis condi rion. (BR)
RE FERE N CE S Abusch Dorir ( 1 99 1 ), 'Sequence of tense, intensionality and scope', Proceedin,�s of the 7th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguis tics (1g88) , Stanford University Center for the Srudy of Language and Information, Stanford, 1 - q. Allen, Robert L. ( 1 966), The Verb Syslem 4 Presem-day A merican Enxlish , Mouton, The Hague. Close, R. A. ( 1 9Xo), ' Will in [{-clauses', in S. Greenbaum et a/. (eds), Swdies in Euglish Linguistics ji>r Randolph Quirk , Longman, London. Comrie, Bernard ( 1 9X2), 'Future rime ref-
erence i n rhe conditional protasis', Austral ianJournal ofLinguistics , 2, q3-52. Comrie, Bernard (1 98 5), Tense , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Comrie, Bernard ( 1 986), 'Tense in indirect speech', Folia Linguistica , 20, 265-96. Cygan, Jan ( 1 972), 'Tense and aspect in English and Slavic', Anglica Wratisfm,iensia , 2, 5 - 1 2 . Declerck, Renaar ( 1 990), 'Sequence of tenses in English', Folia Lit�l!,uistica , 24, 5 1 3-H· Declerck, Renaar ( 1 99 1 ), Tense in En.l!.lish: Its Structure and Use i11 Discourse. Routledge, London.
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(iv) In the remote future, when space travel has become as easy as train travel is now . . ., Lunik I may be recovered. (Edgren 1 97 1 : 1 o6) We do not agree, however, with Hirtle's explanation of the use of the present tense in rime clauses. According ro him, a condition necessarily precedes irs con sequenr, and since rhe presenr precedes rhe future, ir is therefore logical rhar we use rhe present tense ro refer ro rhe condi rion and rhe furure tense ro refer ro rhe consequenr. Conditional-concessive clauses introdu ced by e1'en if do so roo, bur these can be treated on a par wirh open conditionals. (The concessive element of meaning comes exclusively from even .) Wekker ( 1 976: X X) gives a corpus example rhar forms an exception: (i) The orchestra . . . has operated har moniously for years, bur rhis will be the first rime that some of irs members willlw11e travelled under rhe new union demands which call for increased basic rates plus travelling fees . . . The fact rhar rhe SC is nor syntactically integrated into rhe HC appears from a number of observations. For example, rhe SCs of (6-la-c) cannot be the focus of negation, questioning or clefring, and
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Declerck, Renaat ( 1 994). 'A special use of the Jenkins, Lyle ( 1 971), ' Will -deletion', in P. M. Perameau, L. N. Levi & G. C. Phares English past perfecr', in K. P. Carlon et a/. {eds), Papersfrom the Eigluh Regional Meet {eds), Perspectives in Er1glish: Swdies in ing of the Chicago Linguistic Society , Honour of Professor Emma Vorlat , Peeters, Chicago Linguistic Sociery, Chicago, Leuven, 1 9 )-104. 1 7 3 -Xl. Depraetere, lise ( 1 993). The Tense System in Er��lislr Relatil'e Clauses , Ph.D. disserration, Jespersen, Otto ( 1 9 3 2), A Modem Er�l!lish Grammar 4 Historical Principles, Part IV, Universiry of Leuven. Ducrot, Oswald { 1 972), Dire et ne pas Dire , George Allen & Unwin, London. Hermann, Paris. Kamp, Hans & Rohrer, Christian ( 1 9X 3). Edgreu, Eva ( 1 97 1 ). 'Temporal clauses in 'Tense in texts', in R. Bauerle, C. Schwarze & A. von Stechow (eds), Meaning, Use and English', Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala. Imerpretation 4 Language, de Gruyter, Ejerhed Braroe, Eva ( 1 974). The Syntax and Berlin, 15o-69. Semantics
till/ , Brepols, Turnhout. English Verb , Longman, London. Haegeman, Liliane & Wekker, Herman Lyons, John ( 1 977), Semantics , Cambridge ( 1 9X 4), The syntax and interpretation of Universiry Press, Cambridge. fururate conditionals in English', joumal es By: Grammar ,y- Contemporary Enxlish , Long Tense and Uni11ersa/ Grammar, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA man, London. Huddleston, Rodney ( 1 9X4), lmroduction to the Quirk, Randolph, Leech, Geffrey, Green baum, Sidney, & Svarrvik, Jan ( 1 9X 5), A GrammarofEnglish , Cambridge Universiry Cmnprehensi11e Grammar
3 1 0 Tense Forms Referring co Fucure Time in English che use of cense', jollma / •ifSemalllics , I , 95q;.
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Ross, John R. { 1 o:no), 'On declarative sen tences', in R. A. Jacobs & P. S. Rosenbaum {eds), ReadinJ!.s in En.�lish Tran1;,mational Grammar, Ginn & Co., Waltham, 2.2.2.-72. Rurherford, William E. ( 1 970), 'Some obser vations concerning subordinate clauses in English', LanJ!.IIaJ!.e . 46, 97- 1 1 S· Salkie, Raphael ( 1 994), 'Some remarks on rense and universal grammar', MS. Sampson, Geffrey ( 1 97 1 ), 'Subordinate future delerion and hyperclauses', LinJ!.IIistic lnq11iry, 2, 51!7-9. Tregidgo, P. S. {1 974), 'English tense usage: a bull's eye view', EnJ!.lish LanJ!.IIaJ!.e Teachinx }tlllrnal , 28, 97- 1 07. Tregidgo, P. S. ( 1 979), 'Tense subordination', English Lang11axe Teachingjollmal, JJ, 1 1) 1 7· Tregidgo, P. S. ( 1 9Xo), 'Tense-patterns in conditional sentences', Et1J!.Iish Lan}!.11age Teachitt,d"llrnal, 34, 1 X6-9 1 .
Vasudeva, Harender Nath ( 1 1)7 1 ), 'Tense and aspect in English', Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan. Vee, Co ( 1971 ), 'La notion de "monde possible" et le systeme tempore! et aspec ruel du fran�;ais', in R Marrin & F. Nef (eds), Le Temps grammatical (Langages 64 ), Larousse, Paris, 1 09-24. Vetter, D. C. ( 1 973), 'Someone solves this problem tomorrow', LinJ!.IIistic Inq11iry, 4, 1 04-X. Wekker, Herman C. ( 1 976), Tile £\pression •if" F11111re Time in Contemporary British Enxlish , North-Holland, Amsterdam. Wekker, Herman, C. ( 1 977), 'Furure refer ence in adverbial clauses in English', The lnterlanJ!.IIaJ!.e St11dies B11lletin , 2, 64-77. Wekker, Herman, C. ( 1 9Xo), 'Temporal sub ordination in English', in W. Zonneveld & F. Weerman (eds), LinJ!.IIistics in The Nether lands 1977- 1979 , Foris, Dordrecht, 96- 1 OJ.
