Time: Language, Cognition & Reality

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Time OXFORD STUDIES OF TIME IN LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT general editors: Kasia M. Jaszczolt, University of Cambridge and Louis de Saussure, University of Neuchâtel. advisory editors: Nicholas Asher, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, Johan van der Auwera, University of Antwerp, Robert I. Binnick, University of Toronto, Ronny Boogaart, University of Leiden, Frank Brisard, University of Antwerp, Patrick Cau- dal, CNRS, Anastasia Giannakidou, University of Chicago, Hans Kronning, Univer- sity of Uppsala, Ronald Langacker, University of California, San Diego, Alex Lascarides, University of Edinburgh, Peter Ludlow, Northwestern University, Alice ter Meulen, University of Geneva, Robin Le Poidevin, University of Leeds, Paul Portner, Georgetown University, Tim Stowell, University of California, Los Angeles, Henriëtte de Swart, University of Utrecht. published Time Language, Cognition, and Reality edited by Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure in preparation Future Times; Future Tenses edited by Philippe de Brabanter, Mikhail Kissine, and Saghie Sharifzadeh Time

Language, Cognition, and Reality

Edited by KASIA M. JASZCZOLT AND LOUIS DE SAUSSURE

1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © editorial matter and organization Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure 2013 © the chapters their several authors 2013 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2013 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 978–0–19–958987–6 Printed in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR04YY Contents

General Preface vii Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction: time, temporality, and tense 1 Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure

Part I. Time, Tense, and Temporal Reference in Discourse 1 Temporal modification 15 Nicholas Asher 2 Temporal reasoning as indexical inference 37 Alice G. B. ter Meulen 3 Perspectival interpretations of tenses 46 Louis de Saussure

Part II. Time and Modality 4 Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 73 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts 5 Semantic and pragmatic aspects of the interaction of time and modality in French: an interval-based account 98 Laurent Gosselin 6 Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions: the view from the Italian modals 128 Andrea Rocci

Part III. Cognition and Metaphysics of Time 7 Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 157 Simon Prosser 8 Tensism 175 Peter Ludlow 9 Temporality and epistemic commitment: an unresolved question 193 Kasia M. Jaszczolt vi Contents

10 An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 210 Frank Brisard 11 Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time: present and future 236 Paul Chilton

References 259 Index of Names 279 Index of Subjects 286 General Preface

The series Oxford Studies of Time in Language and Thought identifies and promotes pioneering research on the human concept of time and its representation in natural language. Representing time in language is one of the most debated issues in semantic theory and is riddled with unresolved questions, puzzles, and paradoxes. The series aims to advance the development of adequate accounts and explanations of such basic matters as: (i) the interaction of the temporal information conveyed by tense, aspect, temporal adverbials, and context; (ii) the representation of temporal relations between events and states; (iii) the human conceptualization of time; (iv) the ontology of time; and (v) the relations between events and states (eventualities), facts, propositions, sentences, and utterances, among other topics. The series also seeks to advance time-related research in such key areas as language modelling in computational linguistics, linguistic typology, and the linguistic relativity/universalism debate, as well as in theoretical and applied contrastive studies. The central questions to be addressed concern the concept of time as it is lexicalized and grammaticalized in the different languages of the world. But the scope and the style in which the books are written reflect the fact that the representation of time interests those in many disciplines besides linguistics, including philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. The current inaugural volume offers a carefully selected sample of analyses of various aspects of temporal reference. It emphasizes that linguistic means of conveying time, be they grammatical or lexical, cannot be considered in isolation from the semantic factors of sentence compositionality, pragmatic factors such as contextual relevance, and the process of utterance interpretation (including pragmatic inference), or philosophical and psychological factors such as the relation of the concept of time to the ‘reality of time’ on the one hand, and to the expression of temporality on the other. As such, the collection is able to offer only a flavour of each of these topics. Part I, Time, Tense, and Temporal Reference in Discourse, offers a sample of selected problems and solutions pertaining to the semantics and pragmatics of temporal expressions that stem out of their interaction with other elements in sentence structure. Part II concerns the interaction of time and modality. Part III, Cognition and Metaphysics of Time, comprises a selection of views on the epistemology, metaphysics, and cognitive processing of temporal reference. Finally, we would like to thank John Davey, Julia Steer, and Vicki Hart of Oxford University Press for their friendly and professional advice in the process of the viii General Preface preparation of this volume; Adrian Stenton, our copy-editor, for his careful reading of the text and his expert corrections and improvements to the draft, as well as for collating the bibliography; and finally Nicola Lennon, for preparing the indexes. Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure Cambridge and Neuchâtel 2012 Notes on Contributors

Nicholas Asher received a doctorate in philosophy from Yale University in 1982. His advisor was Ruth Barcan Marcus. He then spent twenty-four years at the University of Texas at Austin, first as an assistant professor, then associate professor, and finally professor of philosophy and of linguistics. In 2006, he became director of research of the French Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He is the author of four books, including two works on the formal theory of discourse structure and interpretation known as Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT), and one book finished in 2011 on lexical semantics and the composition of meaning. He has also edited two books, written some fifty-four journal articles, seventy papers for conference proceedings, and numerous book chapters. He has received several grants from the NSF and ANR, and has been awarded an ERC advanced researcher grant from 2011 to 2016. Frank Brisard teaches English grammar and pragmatics at the University of Antwerp, where he is a member of the Center for Grammar, Cognition, and Typology. His research interests include the semantics of tense and aspect in English and other languages, which he studies from a cognitive point of view. Recent publications focus on modal meanings and uses of tenses, the notion of imperfectivity (e.g. in French), and the ‘present perfective paradox’ (in English, Lingala, and Sranan). Pieter Byloo (Ph.D. 2009) is a researcher at the Center for Grammar, Cognition, and Typology at the University of Antwerp. His main interests include cognitive- functional semantics, grammaticalization, and corpus research. His dissertation dealt with the interaction of modality and negation in spoken Dutch and French. He is now focusing on the grammaticalization and (inter)subjectification of the Dutch modal auxiliaries. Paul Chilton is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University. He is a cognitive linguist and discourse analyst whose publications include studies in linguistics, discourse analysis, literature, and international relations. Laurent Gosselin is Professor of French Linguistics at the University of Rouen. His research focuses on the semantics of temporality (tenses, aspectual viewpoints, adverbials of time, and aspect) and modality in French. He is the author of Sémantique de la temporalité en français (1996, Duculot), Temporalité et modalité (2005, De Boeck-Duculot), and Les modalités en français (2010, Rodopi). x Notes on Contributors

Kasia M. Jaszczolt is Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy of Language at the University of Cambridge. She has published extensively on topics in semantics and pragmatics, including propositional attitude ascription, the representation of time, the semantics/pragmatics interface, and her theory of Default Semantics. One of her current projects concerns attitudes de se and first-person reference; the other is a theory of Interactive Semantics (in progress, OUP). Her books include Representing Time (2009, OUP), Default Semantics (2005, OUP), Semantics and Pragmatics (2002, Longman), and Discourse, Beliefs and Intentions (1999, Elsevier). Peter Ludlow is Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He has published on a number of topics ranging from the philosophy of language and philosophy of linguistics to issues in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. He is author of Semantics, Tense and Time: An Essay in the Metaphysics of Natural Language (1999, MIT Press). Alice G. B. ter Meulen (MA, philosophy; MA, linguistics, University of Amster- dam) obtained her Ph.D. from Stanford’s programme Logic, Philosophy of Lan- guage, and Philosophy in 1980. After two post-doctoral terms in the Netherlands, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1984, and gained tenure in 1989. She was subsequently jointly appointed as associate professor in philosophy and linguistics at Indiana University, Blooming- ton, and became a full professor 1996.In1998 she assumed the chair of modern English linguistics at the University of Gröningen in association with the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Research School. Currently her affiliation is with the linguistics department of the University of Geneva. Jan Nuyts (Ph.D. 1988, Habilitation 1994) is Professor in the linguistics department at the University of Antwerp. His major research area is cognitive-functional semantics, with a focus on the cognitive and functional structure of ‘time–aspect– modality’ categories—and the modal categories in particular. His most important books are Aspects of a Cognitive-Pragmatic Theory of Language (1992, Benjamins) and Epistemic Modality, Language and Conceptualization (2001, Benjamins). He is currently editing the Oxford Handbook of Mood and Modality (with Johan van der Auwera). Simon Prosser is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. His research interests lie chiefly in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics. His current research interests include the nature of conscious perceptual experience, the experience of time and its relation to the A/B-theory debate in the metaphysics of time, indexical thought and experience, the nature of concepts, and the metaphysics of emergent properties. Notes on Contributors xi

Andrea Rocci is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Argumenta- tion, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS) at the University of Lugano. His research interests lie at the intersection between semantics, pragmatics, discourse, and argumentation in different professional contexts, with a special focus on finance and journalism. He directed a Swiss National Foundation (SNF) research project on predictions and modality in financial news and currently directs a SNF project on argumentation in the newsroom. Louis de Saussure (Ph.D.) is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Neuchâ- tel, where he co-founded the Centre for Cognitive Science. He was lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris). He was a visiting scholar at the French Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and at University College London. His research in cognitive pragmatics focuses primarily on time and modality, but extends to the cognitive underpinnings of persuasion in discourse. This page intentionally left blank Introduction: time, temporality, and tense

KASIA M. JASZCZOLT AND LOUIS DE SAUSSURE

Representing time in language is one of the most debated issues in semantics, philosophy, and cognitive science and yet it is ridden with unresolved questions, puzzles, and paradoxes. There is no satisfactory theory of: (i) representing tenses; (ii) the interaction of temporal information coming from tense, aspect, temporal adverbial, and context—or any of these that happen to be available in a particular language; (iii) representing temporal relations between events and states; (iv) human conceptualization of time; (v) the metaphysics vis-à-vis epistemology of time; or (vi) relations between events and states (eventualities), facts, propositions, sentences, and utterances, to name only a few areas. Time also merits more research with respect to the linguistic relativity/universalism debate, language acquisition, and language modelling in computational linguistics, as well as theoretical and applied contrastive studies. The aim of the series inaugurated with this opening volume is to identify and promote groundbreaking research in any of these, as well as other related, areas pertaining to the question of what the human concept of time is and how it is represented in language. We believe that the launch of such a series is particularly timely in view of the recently intensified interest in the nature of time and the concept of time. Human representation of time is the subject of research of many disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. By necessity, the orientation of the current volume has to be narrower. It is predominantly linguistic and philosophical in that the main questions addressed here are: (i) temporal reference in discourse (Part I); (ii) the concept of time vis-à-vis epistemic modality (Part II); and (iii) the concept of time vis-à-vis the metaphysics of time on the one hand, and the linguistic expression of temporality on the other (Part III). The topic of temporal reference is addressed against the background of different theoretical assumptions and using different research methods. One of the main threads that 2 Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure permeates the chapters is the question as to ‘how many systems’ there are: according to some authors, the conceptual system equals the language system, à la, for example, Peter Carruthers or Gennaro Chierchia, while according to others, it is more promising to assume separation and divergence between language system and conceptual system, à la, for example, Noam Chomsky or Jerry Fodor. Some of the contributions address this fundamental question directly, while in others the assumption, one way or the other, is tacit throughout the developing argument. Temporal reference is a particularly rife ground for such debates in that it affords a wide variety of means across languages, as well as within a system of one natural language. What is expressed by grammatical tense or aspect in one language can be expressed by lexical means in another, or left altogether to pragmatic inference. Likewise, the grammatical or lexical means available for temporal reference are not ‘unshiftable’; their temporal value may vary depending on the context and perspective. Tense–time mismatches such as, for example, the use of a present progressive or simple present form for future time reference (sometimes dubbed ‘futurate progressive’ and ‘tenseless future’) in English, as in (1) and (2), are two of many examples of this phenomenon (see also de Saussure, this volume). (1) On Saturday I am giving a party. (2) On Monday Tom sits an exam. Pragmatic means are exemplified in the Thai sentence (3), that can convey a wide variety of temporal reference depending on the context, common ground, inferred relevance, default assumptions, and other contextual factors, as in (3a–i) (from Srioutai 2006: 45). The intended temporality, both external and internal, is left to be catered for by such pragmatic contributions to the overall utterance meaning.

I (3)m3ae:r3i: kh2ian n3iy3ai: Mary write novel a. Mary wrote a novel. b. Mary was writing a novel. c. Mary started writing a novel but did not finish it. d. Mary has written a novel. e. Mary has been writing a novel. f. Mary writes novels. / Mary is a novelist. g. Mary is writing a novel. h. Mary will write a novel. i. Mary will be writing a novel. Pragmatic means of conveying temporality are also exemplified in the use of juxtaposition of the simple sentences in (4) and the use of conjunction in (5). The order of the sentences, as well as the fact that they both refer to events (e1,e2), allow Introduction 3

for the pragmatic inference of the temporal order e1 < e2 (see e.g. Asher and Lascarides 2003 on the so-called rhetorical structure rule of Narration). (4) James took out a revolver and shot at the masked figure. (5) James took out a revolver. He shot at the masked figure. These three parameters (order, presence of a conjunction, and aspectual nature) are, however, not enough to explain temporal ordering, since it is easy to find examples where all are satisfied without temporal ordering necessarily occurring: (6) Paul left for China and Mary bought a new car. Notions such as the presence of a common topic, common participant(s), and/or a causal relation do play a role, but they probably still do not suffice to explain the ambiguity of (7), which can be interpreted as causal–temporal or as simultaneous–unrelated (if Mary takes the knife to cut the roast and kills the bandit with the revolver she holds with the other hand—certainly an improbable and funny context but theoretically possible). (7) Mary took the knife and killed the bandit. A number of conceptual parameters, such as the type of relation the eventualities are likely to exhibit, have to be brought into the picture; they have to pertain to both coded meaning and to world knowledge. But as (7) shows, still other types of information intervene, such as background knowledge (whether there is a roast and whether Mary has a revolver are, for instance, crucial for the interpretation of (7) ). There is a matter of divergence between formal semantic models, such as Asher and Lascarides (2003) and pragmatic ones, such as Sperber and Wilson (1995), on whether an adequate theory should account for time (a) with recourse to general cognitive processes aiming at discovering a plausible meaningful intention of the speaker, assuming that inference directed towards meaningfulness has to do with the discovery of mental states and relies on rapid and frugal heuristics, or (b) by assuming that temporal relations are due to the management of discursive formal rules operating at various levels of information structure. The fact that there are different levels of information which intervene in the processing of temporal reference implies not only that there has to be a model of integration of these (or a ‘merger’; cf. Jaszczolt 2005), but also that conflicts may arise between pieces of information in order for further interpretive effects to obtain. Such conflicts arise typically between semantic and pragmatic information, thus consequently at the interface between literal and enriched meanings. In particular, the temporality conveyed by an utterance can be about a time other than the semantic meaning of the tense would suggest. These time/tense mismatches are often solved through routines of contextual shift, for example with narrative presents or futures, but are far more complicated to account for in specific instances such as epistemic 4 Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure futures, tenseless presents, or futurate pasts in some languages like, for example, French. Contextual constraints operate also on the selection of a temporal reference appropriate to the act of communication: for example, a present perfect can call either for representation of a remote eventuality (typically a notable experience of the speaker, as in ‘I have eaten giraffe’; cf. Wilson and Sperber 1993) or, on the contrary, a recent one, thus forcing either a distal or a proximal interpretation. The ambiguity or indeterminacy of information provided by the linguistic code only is massive also in the domain of time, in that temporal reference is extended or narrowed down depending on the plausible informative intention of the speaker, or iteration is selected rather than a single occurrence, to list a couple of examples. Another example of the intervention of pragmatics is when an imperfective grammatical aspect is combined with an achievement and gets loaded with features normally excluded from imperfectivity, as in French imperfective pasts, in which case the representation is modulated, but semantics alone is not able to explain the representational output which ultimately depends upon the context. To all of this, one has to add the various types of interpretive outputs of the combination of these layers of information, connecting time with other notions, such as space and, probably most of all, epistemic modality. To complicate the picture even more, tenses are only one among many explicit or implicit ways to communicate information about time, and much is still left open for research in the area of time in language and thought. Some languages display grammaticalized means of referring to temporal distinctions that are not commonly shared, such as, for example, the so-called ‘consecutive’ tense in Swahili that cuts across the future/present/past distinction (see e.g. Givón 2005). To continue on the diversity, St’àt’imcets (Lillooet Salish) of British Columbia forms only the future/non-future distinction (according to Matthewson 2006); in Central Pomo, a Californian language, the future can be conceived of and expressed as realis or irrealis, where the choice reflects the speaker’s judgement of the degree of probability of the event (de Haan 2006: 42). Next, in many languages, the orientation of the subject vis-à-vis the timeline is different from that familiar from English: in Maori, for instance, the speaker ‘faces the past’, while the future is ‘behind him/her’ (Thornton 1987). The interrelations between time, evidentiality, and epistemic modality also differ among languages in interesting ways. Such cross-linguistic differences in expressing temporal reference constitute a vast subject area in itself and are left for separate volumes in this series. Likewise, the universalism/relativity debate is largely left for separate enquiries. Important as they are, they are probably the most frequented topics in the current research on temporality (see e.g. Filipović and Jaszczolt 2012a, 2012b), but in view of this expanse, are also orthogonal to our current concern, which is an introduction to the topics in language, cognition, and the reality of time. Introduction 5

What we have tried to emphasize in the, by necessity very limited, ‘taster’ represented by this introductory volume are the foundational issues, such as that linguistic means of conveying time, be they grammatical or lexical, cannot be considered in isolation from the semantic factors of sentence compositionality; from pragmatic factors such as contextual relevance and the process of utterance interpretation (including pragmatic inference); or from philosophical and psychological factors such as the relation of the concept of time to the ‘reality of time’ on the one hand, and to the expression of temporality on the other. As such, the collection is able to offer only a flavour of each of these topics. Next, in formal semantics, representation of time is a topic of cutting-edge research, following the tradition of Jespersen, Reichenbach, Montague, and more recently Dowty, Kamp, Partee, Steedman, and Hornstein, to name a few (see e.g. Kuhn and Portner 2002 for an overview; or Mani, Pustejovsky, and Gaizauskas 2005 for a selection of core papers; ter Meulen 1995 and this volume). Research in syntax and formal semantics normally focuses on the question of the logical form of sentences with time expressions. In contemporary logic, the discussion originated with the introduction of sentential temporal operators by Prior (e.g. 1957, 1967, 2003) and temporal logics are now proliferating (for various temporal logics see Øhrstrøm and Hasle 1995). On the other hand, representing tense as being anaphoric is also supported by convincing arguments (Partee 1973; Enç 1987; Hornstein 1990). The debate is far from settled. The topic is also of growing importance in cognitive linguistics (see e.g. Langacker 2012; Brisard, this volume; Chilton, this volume). Both orientations are represented in this volume, testifying to the presence of common interest in the semantic representation of temporal reference, and perhaps, as it is hoped, also contributing to the search for compatibility and unification of findings from various theories—a trend that is already noticeable between a formal semantic framework of Discourse Representation Theory and cognitive linguistics (see Hamm, Kamp, and van Lambalgen 2006). A related cutting-edge problem in research on the mental and semantic representation of time is the notion of an event. As van Lambalgen and Hamm (2005: 15), among many others, observe: “[t]he basic building block of the human construction of time is the event. This is however a fairly ill-defined notion . . . ” Ever since in the 1920s Ramsey distinguished abstract facts (Brutus’s stabbing of Caesar) from spa- tiotemporally located events (Brutus’s stabbing Caesar at a certain time and in a certain place), events have become the subject of disputes in philosophy and in semantic theory. Subsequently, beginning with Davidson’s(1967a) proposal of events in the logical form of action sentences, quantification over events became widely discussed (see e.g. Kim 1976; Parsons 1990; ter Meulen 1995; Landman 2000; Higginbotham, Pianesi, and Varzi 2000; Rothstein 2004; van Lambalgen and Hamm 2005). To give an overview of some central points in the debate: events can be coarsely grained or finely grained. For Davidson (1967a), events are individuated by 6 Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure their causal relations: events are identical if they have the same causes and effects (see also Taylor 1985). Neo-Davidsonians create theoretical constructs of events that are more finely grained in reconstructing the semantic roles of event participants (Parsons 1990; also e.g. Landman 2000). In contrast, for Kim, stabbing Brutus and stabbing Brutus violently are separate events (Kim 1976; see also Asher 1993; Maien- born 2005). Next, Schein (2002), for example, argues in favour of a fairly coarsely grained notion: in the sentence ‘Brutus stabbed Caesar’, the thematic role of the Agent (Caesar) is no different from the Agent of ‘Brutus insulted Caesar’; absolute thematic relations then relate to (real, finely grained) scenes to construct sentence meaning. Van Lambalgen and Hamm (2005) distinguish between event types and event tokens, where the latter incorporate time boundedness. Rothstein (2004) similarly proposes a technical construct of an atomic event. Events are also normally regarded as independent of the linguistic description, as in Discourse Representation Theory (cf. Asher 2000). In short, we are a long way from reaching a consensus on what a concept of an event is, but improvements to neo-Davidsonian approaches are currently being developed (see Asher, this volume). In the domain of cognitive post-Gricean pragmatics, the models developed to account for temporal reference mostly focus on the role of ‘procedural’ expressions; that is, expressions that provide instructions on how to specify and organize conceptual representations. Since the seminal work of Blakemore (1987), it has been assumed that a number of linguistic expressions provide rules or instructions that take representations in their scope. Procedural expressions are often equated with grammatical morphemes, but this equivalence, which converges with the still discussed bipartition between declarative memory and procedural system in the brain (Ullman et al. 1997), and the exact extension of the conceptual and procedural system, are still a matter of debate (see Escandell-Vidal, Leonetti, and Ahern 2011). In this line of thought, tenses, but also temporal connectives, are thought of as belonging to the domain of procedural expressions (Nicolle 1996; Moeschler 1998;de Saussure 2003). Tenses, in this respect, provide instructions about how to saturate the temporal variables they encode in such a way that their anaphoric functioning is accounted for. De Saussure (2003) suggests that there is a higher-level procedure of temporal interpretation at the level of the utterance that manages the temporal variables coming from various sources: tenses, adverbs and connectives, conceptual information, and broader contextual information. Concerning other aspects of temporal ordering, diverging schemes of temporal and causal enrichment in and- conjuncts have been proposed by both Levinson (2000), in a neo-Gricean framework, and Sperber and Wilson (1995), in a relevance-theoretic framework, jointly confronting the discussion on default discourse relations in Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT; see e.g. Asher and Lascarides 2003) in a debate which in the end splits the perspectives between a more conventionalized conception of meaning (neo-Gricean) and a more cognitive one (relevance-theoretic). Introduction 7

Next, moving to the philosophy of time, most of the current discussions of the metaphysics and conceptualization of time originate in McTaggart’s(1908) ‘The Unreality of Time’, which initially polarized the field into the so-called ‘A-theorists’, who accept the view that the flow of time is real and that events come pre-packaged with their temporality, and ‘B-theorists’, who accept the earlier-than/later-than relations between (real) events and the unreality of time (see e.g. Le Poidevin and MacBeath 1993; Ludlow 1999 and this volume; Jaszczolt 2009 and this volume; Smith 1993; Parsons 2002, 2003; Mellor 1998; Fine 2005; Le Poidevin 2007; Prosser, this volume). The questions addressed here include the relation between internal and real time, the concept of time flow, and the indexicality of time, with the overall objective of shedding more light on how human agents represent time in the mind and how this representation relates to reality and to language (for an overview see also the papers in Callender 2011). In an interdisciplinary volume of this kind, ‘tense’ is a treacherous term in that it can be used in very different ways. Philosophers writing about the metaphysics of time use the predicates ‘tensed’ and ‘tenseless’ to talk about the properties of the world, which stands in clear contrast to linguists’ use of ‘tense’ to talk about the grammatical system of a language. The first use is represented in the contributions by Prosser and Ludlow. In metaphysics, ‘tensism’ means a stance according to which time is real, which is associated with the A-theory mentioned above. This divides into the stances according to which either (i) the past, present and future are all real; or (ii) only the present exists (so-called ‘presentism’); or (iii) only the past and the present exist; or finally, (iv) only the present and the future exist. On the other hand, a ‘tenseless’ theory depicts reality in a way in which the past, the present, and the future are equal in status, in that time is not a feature of the world, corresponding to the views falling under the umbrella of McTaggart’s B-theory. Another focal thematic area is the relation between time and modality (see Byloo and Nuyts, this volume; Gosselin, this volume). Theoretical arguments for temporality as a concept akin to the attitude of acceptance are ample in the literature. For example, Hume talks about forming the idea of time from the succession of ideas and impressions. Locke, similarly, claims that it is not duration that makes up the concept of time but rather events themselves. Kant, Husserl, and Heidegger’s psychological ideas of time subscribe to a similar concept of retaining images (see also Kelly 2005a). On the other hand, in the 1920s, William James put forward an idea of the so-called ‘Specious Present’, according to which we are, at every moment, in direct contact not only with what there is, but also with what immediately preceded and what will immediately follow. So the future and the past are part of what is directly perceived. On these accounts time is a property of its users: it is a mode of presentation of states of affairs. Similarly, in current formal semantics, it is often claimed that the English tense/aspect system is founded on the same conceptual primitives as the system used in languages with evidentials, such as Hopi 8 Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure

(e.g. Steedman 1997: 932). Evidentials also provide a useful conceptual foundation for discussing future-oriented speech acts (see Rocci, this volume). The idea of time as goals is also carefully defended in van Lambalgen and Hamm (2005). Further, in temporal logic, there are possible-worlds accounts of pastness as historical necessity: historical possibilities diminish monotonically with the passage of time. The flow of time is then explained as a ‘loss of possibilities’ (see Thomason 2002: 209), and hence is modal through and through. Next, Ludlow (1999) argues that all past tense morphology in Indo-European languages is best analysed as evidential markers: pastness is evidence available now. Jaszczolt (2009) and Jaszczolt and Srioutai (2011) also present evidence in favour of the modal character of the past and of past-tense expressions. Enç (1987), and many others, argued for the modal character of the future tense as well as futurity as a concept. And, most importantly perhaps, it has also been argued that time is modal because it is intrinsically tied up with counterfactuality and it is at least conceptually plausible that time structure of one possible world may be different from that of another. Since the category of modality is shown to be instantiated in a wide variety of forms and degrees across the languages of the world (see e.g. van der Auwera and Plungian 1998), this account of the present, past, and future also seems to fit well with the current typologies of modality. As they stand, the issues raised by the notion of time, both external and internal, and its reflection in language, still appear to be of great complexity and many of them still await resolution. However, the intense research that this field is undergoing, together with the related domains of modality and evidentiality, keep opening new paths of investigations year by year. This volume offers a limited, but, we believe, accurate, survey of some of these issues and of the kinds of hypotheses that are currently being proposed to address them. The content of the volume is as follows. Part I, ‘Time, Tense, and Temporal Reference in Discourse’, offers a sample of selected problems and solutions pertaining to the semantics and pragmatics of temporal expressions that stem from their interaction with other elements in sentence structure. In Chapter 1, ‘Temporal modification’, Nicholas Asher investigates the question of how temporal adverbials affect the meaning of verb phrases. He proposes a theory of coercion and a semantics of types. Meaning shifts that involve coercion are understood as transformations that introduce a special type structure. Selectional restrictions are understood there as type presuppositions. He argues for the superiority of this approach over the standard neo-Davidsonian accounts. Next, in ‘Temporal reasoning as indexical inference’, Alice ter Meulen investigates the use of English aspectual adverbs with numerical determiners in information structure, such as ‘There are still/already three students here’. She distinguishes focused from backgrounded/presupposed/shared information in the common ground. She explains that the aspectual adverbs induce background assumptions and, on the theoretical level, Introduction 9 provide the focus alternatives. This is associated with their monotonicity and their potential to support scalar inferences. She also addresses the question of the behaviour of indexical predicates in the inferential process. In Chapter 3, ‘Perspectival interpretation of tenses’, Louis de Saussure addresses cases where the temporal reference indicated by tenses cannot be understood literally, that is, it proves to be irrelevant unless one of the components of the representation (the deictic point, the reference point, or the eventuality) is modified under the pressure of contextual consistency or relevance. He suggests that these situations imply a change in the perspective, or point of view, from which the eventuality is grasped. Three cases are discussed: (i) narrative (and other non-background) examples of French imperfective past, which he explains by a point of perspective replacing the reference point; (ii) futurate composed past (present perfects) in French, which imply a deictic shift in the future; and (iii) epistemic futures, which rely on a conceptual modulation of the represented eventuality. In the light of such cases, he envisages in his conclusion that some metarepresentational meanings may be obtained through simulative processes in the Theory of Mind. Part II concerns the interaction of time and modality. In ‘Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch’, Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts offer a cognitive-functional analysis of the interaction between time and modality, focusing on the semantic effects of the interaction between grammatical means of expressing tense and modal auxiliaries in a clause. Dutch provides a pertinent case for their analysis in that it has fully productive preterite and infinite forms and exhibits a flexible organization of the verbal group. Next, Laurent Gosselin, in ‘Semantic and pragmatic aspects of the interaction of time and modality in French: an interval-based account’, offers an insight into the complex relationship between temporal and modal meanings in French, utilizing a Reichenbach-inspired model in which intervals replace the traditional coordinates. He suggests that temporal and modal expressions constitute closely intertwined domains; an eventuality referred to in an utterance is (i) situated in time and (ii) presented with an aspectual viewpoint and a semantic modality, where the latter classifies the eventuality as an irrevocable fact or as a mere possibility. This modality is derived from the aspectual viewpoint. He presents a model that allows for certain predictions concerning the modal meanings of tenses. In Chapter 6, ‘Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions: the view from the Italian modals’, Andrea Rocci focuses on the interaction of future-time reference with modality and evidentiality in predictions. Predictions are a type of speech act that (a) requires the propositional content to be a future eventuality and (b) presupposes that the speaker has indirect evidence at his/her disposal to assert the propositional content. Future reference imposes precise and finely grained epistemological constraints on the admissible types of evidence. Rocci discusses in detail the behaviour of the Italian modal verbs potere (‘can’, ‘may’) and dovere (‘must’, ‘have to’) in a corpus of predictions. He finally analyses conditional 10 Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Louis de Saussure forms of dovere and points out that they give rise to a limited set of complex evidence types that support predictions. Part III, ‘Cognition and Metaphysics of Time’, comprises a selection of views on the epistemology, metaphysics, and cognitive processing of temporal reference. In the opening chapter, ‘Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time’, Simon Prosser adds a voice to the prominent debate between A- and B-theorists of time, juxtaposing the metaphysical questions it raises with debates concerning the nature of temporal experience and the semantics of temporal thought and language. He discusses some aspects of this interaction, focusing on an argument against the possibility of perceiving the passage of time. There are characteristics of language, thought, and experience that make the A-theory appear to be the common-sense view and in this context he points out the difficulties that face the B-theorist (who denies that time passes) in explaining these features. Next, Peter Ludlow introduces ‘Tensism’, the view that tensed accounts of the nature of time are not eliminable and not reducible, in that tensed facts are not reducible to non-tensed facts. He distinguishes metaphysical tensism and linguistic tensism. The first says that reality itself is tensed and that these tensed facts are not reducible to untensed facts. Linguistic tensism offers an analogous view concerning natural language, namely that language is tensed and that natural-language tense is not reducible to untensed facts. He assesses the arguments for and against tensism, addressing in the process some of the pertinent objections, and concludes by making a good case in favour of tensism, with the help of Fregean Sinn in the semantics. In Chapter 9, ‘Temporality and epistemic commitment: an Unresolved Question’, Kasia M. Jaszczolt further develops her argument for the modal supervenience of time by addressing the issue of the future–past asymmetry. In Representing Time (Jaszczolt 2009), she argued that on the level of basic concepts, temporality is epistemic modality, where our temporal concepts of past, present, and future eventualities alike are founded on the degrees of commitment to the truth of the proposition-like construct. Although the thesis of the modal supervenience of temporality was strongly supported by theoretical arguments and by evidence from various languages, there remained an important Unresolved Question (UQ). It concerned the translatability of what intuitively seems to be a qualitative difference between the past, the present, and the future into quantitative differences. In this chapter she presents and assesses two possible answers to the UQ: that (i) the differences between the past, present, and future are underlyingly quantitative rather than qualitative (the Direct-Quantitative View); and that (ii) the differences are qualitative and the value of modal detachment is contextually established (the Modal-Contextualist View). She concludes with some remarks on conceptual and naturalistic reductionism. Next, Frank Brisard offers ‘An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar’, beginning with an overview of the semantic analysis of tense and aspect in this theory and focusing on the English verb and the systematic contrast between perfectivity and imperfectivity Introduction 11 as well as the uses of the progressive and the perfect construction. He proposes that tense/aspect markers reflect the speaker’s/conceptualizer’s modal concepts and that temporal/modal meanings be analyzed as instantiations of a common epistemic schema. He concludes that an adequate semantic analysis of tense and aspect should be concerned with establishing a core schematic meaning for any relevant construction, and discusses the interaction with contexts of use with the help of the concept of a semantic map. To continue on a cognitive note, in ‘Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time: present and future’, Paul Chilton addresses the question of how morphologically marked tense relates to conceptual time. In particular, he focuses on present-tense forms, mostly with reference to English, and asks how they relate to times that lie outside the speaker’s present. The explanation invokes the notion of reference frame and the approach of the Deictic Space Theory (DST), that offers a geometrical model involving three conceptual dimensions: (i) time, (ii) modality, and (iii) attentional focus. Tense marking is understood here as inherently deictic, and hence geometrical notions are used to represent spatial concepts, where the latter underlie more abstract concepts such as temporal and modal ‘distance’. Next, he shows how the DST framework can be used to model the use of present tense to refer to the future, as well as the use of the future tense to communicate modality. This page intentionally left blank Part I

Time, Tense, and Temporal Reference in Discourse This page intentionally left blank 1

Temporal modification

NICHOLAS ASHER

1.1 Introduction It is quite striking how temporal adverbials can affect the readings of verb phrases. There are well-known examples: (1) a. John wrote a letter. b. John wrote a letter in an hour. c. John wrote a letter for an hour. d. John kissed Mary at ten in the morning. e. John kissed Mary for an hour. According to most linguists who espouse a view of lexical aspect that interacts with tense, (1a) is a paradigm example of a description of an accomplishment. Letter writing has a beginning and a natural culmination; the simple past tense applied to the verb phrase (VP) gives us a completed event of letter writing. The minimal pair in (1b–c) shows how a different temporal adverbial as an adjunct affects the interpretation of the verb phrase and can change the aspect of the eventuality described. In (1b), the accomplishment reading is still in full force; the letter is written and finished within an hour. In (1c), the for adverbial phrase modifies the VP and yields an entirely different way of thinking about the letter writing: in (1c) the letter-writing process goes on for an hour without necessarily coming to the culmination of a finished letter. A similar minimal pair in (1d–e) shows how modification with a temporal adverbial can shift the VP from the description of an achievement (a punctual event) to an activity or ongoing process whose termination is not implied, as one can continue (1e) with In fact he kissed her for a whole three hours. Another set of examples also motivates this study and shows that the effect of temporal adverbials on interpretation is not limited simply to temporal localization and shifts in verbal aspect: 16 Nicholas Asher

(2) a. She left her husband at the airport five minutes ago. b. She left her husband at the airport five years ago. c. She left the school five minutes ago. d. She left the school five years ago. These examples are quite striking in that the simple span of the temporal adverbial shifts the sense of leave, and husband or school.In(2a) and (2c), leave is taken by most speakers to be a physical separation between the woman and her husband or her school, whereas in (2b) and (2d) the overwhelmingly plausible reading is that the woman has left the institution represented by her husband (her marriage) or the school institution. The physical separation reading is still there in (2b) and (2d), but another sense of leave, school, and husband is clearly also invoked. How are these shifts possible? The calculation of verbal aspect has a long history behind it, but still there is no clear understanding of the issue. The last minimal pairs show that the effects of verbal modification go far beyond those of aspect composition. There is a general story to be told about coercion. To tell this story, I have to lay considerable groundwork, much of it developed at length in Asher (2011). I will have to explore what it is to select a sense of a word like husband. The story I shall tell, told at greater length in Asher (2011), has to do with types and meaning composition.

1.2 Type composition logic At the foundations of the shifts in interpretation is a theory of meaning composition, that is, a theory of how the meanings of individual words combine to form the meaning of larger meaningful components of discourse. Meaning composition proceeds according to function application with a choice of which syntactic categories function as functors and which as arguments. But not every word can serve as an argument to any other word as a predicate. Words come with selectional restrictions, some of which are already encoded in the syntax; for example, although Isabel is sleeping is a perfectly fine sentence, loves is sleeping is not a well-formed sentence. But many if not most words come with more fine-grained, semantic selectional restrictions on their predicates as well. For instance, a verb like hit imposes the restriction that its object or internal argument must be a physical object. Thus, (3) Mary hit John’s idea. is predicted to be difficult to interpret unless the context allows us to interpret John’s idea as some sort of physical object. Selectional restrictions of an expression « pertain to the type of object denoted by the expression with which « must combine. However, this information about the Temporal modification 17 type of argument is not really asserted. It is rather a type of presupposed content.1 Selectional restrictions resemble presuppositions because their satisfaction seems to be a prerequisite for any expression’s containing them having a well-defined semantic value. Their demands for satisfaction or justification percolate up the semantic construction very much in the way that ordinary presuppositions do. That is, (4a–b) make the same demands on the context of interpretation that the unembedded (3) does, patterning in a similar way to the presuppositional content of definite descriptions like the present King of France. (4) a. Mary didn’t hit John’s idea. b. Did Mary hit John’s idea? c. John didn’t see the present King of France at the exhibition. d. Did John see the present King of France? In dynamic semantics (Kamp and Reyle 1993; Groenendijk and Stokhof 1991), presuppositions constitute a particular sort of test on the input context. Consider a sentence like (5) Jack’s son is bald. The presupposition generated by a definite noun phrase like Jack’s son (namely, that Jack has a son) must be satisfied by the input context, if the interpretation of the rest of the sentence containing the definite is to proceed. One way of satisfying the presupposition in (5) is for it to be already established in the context of utterance of (5) that Jack has a son. This can occur, for instance, when (5) is preceded by an assertion of Jack has a son. Presuppositions can also be satisfied by contexts within the scope of certain operators, as in (6), even though it has not been established in the discourse context that Jack has a son:2 (6) If Jack had a son, then Jack’s son would be bald. In dynamic semantics the content of the antecedent of the conditional is encoded into the input context for the interpretation of the consequent and the presupposition it generates. Thus, the satisfaction of the presupposition by the antecedent of the conditional in (6) means that the presupposition places no requirement on the input context to the whole conditional, the context of utterance. The satisfaction of the presupposition by elements of the discourse context entails that the presupposition does not ‘project out’ as a requirement on the context of utterance. Thus (6)is consistent with the assertion that in fact Jack has no son. On the other hand,

1 That selectional restrictions are type presuppositions is a fundamental principle of Asher (2011). 2 One of the great successes of dynamic semantics has been to show that the behaviour of presuppositions introduced by material within the consequent of a conditional follows straightforwardly from the conception of the conditional as a complex test on the input context and thus offers a solution to the so called projection problem. 18 Nicholas Asher dynamic semantics predicts that if we change (6) just slightly so that the antecedent does not provide a content that satisfies the presupposition, the presupposition will project out as a requirement on the input context to the whole conditional: (7) If Jack were bald, then Jack’s son would be bald too. Selectional restrictions act in the same way in similar contexts. For instance, to say something like (8) The number two is blue. is to invite at the very least quizzical looks from one’s audience, unless the context makes clear that the number two refers to some sort of physical object and not the only even prime. However, a counterfactual with an admittedly bizarre antecedent can satisfy the type presupposition projected from (8) in much the same way as the antecendent of (6) satisfies the presupposition of the consequent: (9) If numbers were physical objects, then the number two would be blue. What happens when a presupposition cannot be satisfied by the discourse context? It depends on what sort of presupposition is at issue. Some presuppositions, such as those introduced by some uses of definite noun phrases, are easily ‘accommodated’. In dynamic semantic terms this means that the input context is altered in such a way that the presupposition is satisfied, as long as the result is consistent. Other presuppositions, such as that generated by the adverbial too, are much less easily accommodated. Given that operators like conditionals can add ‘intermediate’ contexts between the context of utterance and the site where the presupposition is generated, we need a theory of where and how to accommodate in case the input context does not satisfy the presupposition. Van der Sandt (1992) stipulates a particular procedure for handling the binding and accommodation of presuppositions: one tries to bind a presupposition first, and one tries first to bind it locally and then in a more long-distance way. Then one tries to accommodate at the outermost context first and if that fails one tries to accommodate at the next outermost context. The constraints on accommodation are that the addition of the presuppositional material be consistent with the discourse context. So, for instance, one cannot add the presupposition that Jack has a son to a context where it is established that Jack does not have a son. Something similar happens with selectional restrictions. In effect selectional restrictions are type presuppositions. Type presuppositions in normal circumstances are bound or justified in that the type of the argument expression matches the type presupposition of its predicate. But they can sometimes be accommodated. Consider the noun water. It can combine with determiners that require either a noun that denotes something of type mass (10a) or with determiners that are intuitively count determiners: Temporal modification 19

(10) a. some water b. a water One way of accounting for this is that water itself does not determine its denotation to be either of a subtype of type mass or of type count. If that is the case, then we can accommodate the requirements of the determiner simply by applying the type count or mass to the type of the expression water—in simplified terms, a water ends up denoting a property of properties that have a non-empty intersection with the collections of portions of water. On the other hand, this could also be a form of coercion by the determiner over its first argument.

1.3 Coercion and presupposition justification Sometimes the argument of a predicate does not satisfy the type presupposed by the predicate and cannot be accommodated in the given context. In that case, semantic composition crashes and there is no well-defined value for the semantic composition, as in (3). However, it is not obvious what the principles are for accommodating type presuppositions that sometimes permit the rescue of a predication in those cases where the argument’s type does not satisfy the predicate’s type presuppositions. Examining this issue takes us to the heart of coercion. Consider the following example, discussed at length in the literature, in particular by Pustejovsky (1995). (11) Julie enjoyed the book. The intuition of many who work on lexical semantics is that (11) is equivalent in meaning to: (12) Julie enjoyed doing something (e.g. reading, writing, ...) the book. The intuition shared by many is this: enjoy requires a noun phrase that denotes an event as its direct object as in enjoy the spectacle, enjoy the view, enjoy watching TV. This also happens when enjoy takes a question as its complement, as in enjoy (hearing) what he said. When the direct object of a transitive use of enjoy does not denote an event, it is ‘coerced’ to denote some sort of eventuality. It is problematic, however, to understand what coercion is. Is it, for instance, just the transformation of the denotation of the noun phrase the book into some sort of eventuality denoting expression?3 If that is the case, then how can we access in subsequent discourse the referent of the book?4

3 The account in Pustejovsky (1995) seems to adopt this line of attack towards the problem. 4 This problem makes the qualia story as developed in Pustejovsky (1995) a non-starter, as I argue in Asher (2011). 20 Nicholas Asher

(13) Julie enjoyed the book. It was a mystery. These observations are familiar but show that we cannot shift the meaning of the book to some sort of eventuality. Or at least if this happens, whatever process is responsible for the shift must also allow the book to retain its original, lexical meaning and its original contribution to logical form. The other alternative explored in the literature is to shift the predicate, in this case the verb, to mean something like enjoyed doing something with.5 At the very least, however, one will need some underspecified form of coercion to handle cases of gapping coordination like the one below. (14) Julie enjoyed (reading) a book and Isabel (watching) a movie. Anaphora tests using ellipsis are instructive here. The meaning of the activity is predicted on the predicate modification view to shift with the choice of direct object during semantic composition. But if that is the case, then the ellipsis predicts a peculiar reading of the second clause of (15)whereIsabel enjoyed doing something to or with the parade, when it doesn’thavethat:Isabel simply enjoyed the parade as an event. Or perhaps she enjoyed being in the parade. There is a sense that Isabel and Julie did different things with the book and the parade—andsimplyshiftingthepredicatedoesn’t do justice to this intuition. (15) Julie enjoyed her book and Isabel her parade. Things get much worse for the predicate modification view when we look at coordinations involving normal DPs and gerunds: (16) a. Julie enjoyed a book and watching a movie. b. Julie enjoyed a book and Justin watching a movie. c. I actually enjoyed the book and her writing. (Google) d. I enjoyed the movie and the story line but of course, I wish that the movie had not glorified Buddhism so much. (http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2003/thelastsamurai.html) e. I enjoyed the movie and its wry humour. (http://www.archive.org/details/home_movies) f. Whilst I enjoyed the book and reading about the mistakes made by Dan Brown, I think people are taking this too seriously. (http://www.lisashea.com/hobbies/art/general.html)

5 Nunberg (1995) and others have pursued this line of attack. Temporal modification 21

g. I really enjoyed the book and the biological innovations and theories expressed in it. (http://www.powells.com/blog/?p¼6863) h. I really enjoyed the book and how it uses someone’slifeinthestory and gives ideas on how to stay unstressed and calm. (http://www.silverhillsontheroad.com/teens/teenbook) While (16a–b) aren’t the best English, they are grammatical; and they, together with the attested examples above like (16h), spell big trouble for the predicate modification view. To handle the DP coordination, the predicate modification view predicts that Julie enjoyed doing something to watching a movie, which is uninterpretable. What would that doing be? Did she enjoy watching watching the movie? Similarly, the sluicing example in (16b) would predict an uninterpretable reading. All this is strong evidence that coercion does not involve a semantic adjustment to the predicate at the moment of composition. One might suppose that in fact coercion and type presupposition accommodation in general is not part of semantics at all, but rather a pragmatic mechanism. The ellipsis facts seem to point to a pragmatic account according to which the appropriate enrichments to predicates and/or arguments occur after semantics has done its job, and hence phenomena like ellipsis have been resolved. One problem with pragmatic accounts is they have difficulty accounting for the language-specificity of many coercions: pragmatic principles are supposed to follow from general principles of rational interaction between agents, and so they are expected to be universal. We’ve already seen that coercions are typically language-specific. In addition, we should expect pragmatic enrichment to allow coercions, say from objects to eventualities, whenever the grammar allows for an eventuality reading in the argument. But this isn’t true. Consider (17) a. The reading of the book started at 10. b. #The book started at 10. c. John started the book. It’s perfectly straightforward to get the eventuality reading for the object of start (17c) in an out-of-the-blue context. But it’s impossible to do this when the intransitive form of start is used with the book in subject position, even though an eventuality reading for the subject of intranstive start is available, indeed mandatory, as shown by (17a). So if you can’t shift the meaning of the predicate and you can’t shift the meaning of the argument and you can’t relegate the problem of coercion to the pragmatics garbage can, what is left? My answer is that you change the relation of predication that holds between the predicate and the argument. How would this work? What happens is that in response to a clash between the type of the argument and the type presupposition of the predicate, the relationship between the two is licensed. Such a 22 Nicholas Asher type conflict induces not a type shift in either the argument or the predicate but rather a type shift on the predication relation itself, which is implemented by introducing a functor that is inserted around the argument. Thus, the meaning of the argument does not shift—it remains what it always was; the predicate also retains its original meaning, but what changes is how they combine. Given that the sluicing examples recover just the verb’s meaning, this account makes the right predictions for (16b) or (15). Such shifts in the predication relation are lexically governed. It is the verb enjoy that requires an event but also which licenses a change in the predicational glue between it and its object when it is not of the right sort. In addition, as I argued in Asher (2011), these licensings are proper to certain arguments of the verb, or rather to the syntactic realization of other arguments of the predicate, where once again we are not dealing with a phenomenon of general pragmatic strengthening or repair but rather with a problem at the syntax/semantics interface, which is how to account for the differences in (17). My view requires the background assumptions that first, verbs, and predicates more generally, distinguish between arguments that denote eventualities and those that denote, say, physical objects, and second, there is a clear distinction between physical objects and eventualities. But it seems to me that both of these assumptions are cogent and well supported linguistically across a wide spectrum of languages. In the section after the next, I sketch a formal system that works out my view technically.

1.4 A sketch of a formal theory of lexical meaning 1.4.1 Types Types are semantic objects and they are clearly linked to denotations. In Montague Grammar (MG), which uses Church’s conception of types (Church 1936), types are identified with the set of entities in the model of that type. For example, Montague Grammar countenances two basic types: the type of all entities e, which is identified in a model with the domain of the model, and the type of truth values, t. Further types are defined recursively: for instance, all nouns have the same type, which is the set of all functions from the domain of entities into the set of truth values. But the type system in MG is far too impoverished to be able to determine the semantic values of expressions and hence the truth conditions of sentences or discourses. Types, however, do play a role even in Montague’s system. They have enough semantic content to check the well-formedness of certain predications. Given the sort of type checking relevant to examples of coercion that I have surveyed here, the type system must incorporate many more distinctions. It must distinguish various distinct basic types that are subtypes of e; for instance, it must distinguish the type for eventualities from the type for physical objects, as well as Temporal modification 23 distinguish the type for informational objects from these two. I’ve already indicated that even more fine-grained distinctions will be necessary in the type system: for instance, the distinction between states and events must be reflected there, and there are many other semantic distinctions that end up, in my view, as distinctions between types.6 Adjectives involve a type that is a function from types to types and whose value changes given the input type. Consider the adjective flat. It is clear that flat changes its meaning rather dramatically depending on the noun it combines with: (18) a. flat country b. flat curvature c. flat tyre d. flat beer Asher (2011) develops the semantics of types using the framework of category theory. For example, atomic types are objects in the category, while the type a ) b describes the category theoretic, exponent object ba, which is an object in category theory with the right sort of structure. The nice thing about the category theoretic approach is its representation of the sort of meaning shifts that occur in coercions. Coercion meaning shifts are understood as natural transformations introducing a particular type structure into the category when they are licensed. Figure 1.1 provides a picture of how they work: a coercion involving an argument of type b that is b triggered by a functor of type ga or ga b involves a natural transformation from the left-hand side of the BC arrow to the right side, where a new morphism is introduced from the functor and its arguments into the functor and a new composed type dependent on the types a and b and some operation B.We’ll look at some examples of such coercion. This transformation invokes polymorphic types with underspecification, as the type determined by B is a function of a and b. We will be looking at particular ‘instances’ of the dependency relative to particular argument types.

1.4.2 Type presuppositions again The next step is to implement talk of type presuppositions in a formal framework. Predicates impose type constraints in the context to come on the types of their arguments of two sorts, one an absolute requirement and occasionally another which licenses a modification of the predicational environment between the predicate and its argument. I code these type constraints in the lexical entry, which requires a

6 This already complicates the task of doing lexical semantics considerably, because the standard Church/Montague conception of types as sets fails to give a sensible notion of subtyping for higher functional types. For more discussion, see Asher (2011). 24 Nicholas Asher

BC ga×b × a × g ga×b × a × g

id × id × dep

ga×b × a × (a, g )

FIGURE 1.1 b Coercions complication of the lexical entry of all words that includes a context parameter in which these type presuppositions can be encoded. How does this parameter differ from the notion of a typing context already found in some approaches to the l calculus? A typing context in the standard l calculus or standard typing context can be understood as a function from terms to types. Our parameter resembles a standard typing context to be sure, but standard typing contexts are simply a way of encoding types on terms. The context is fixed and has no particular effect other than the standard one, which is to check the applicability of the rule of application. We need to change this to handle coercion facts. To do so I will add an argument to terms that is a type parameter and use this to store type information. This type parameter is an instance of what de Groote (2006) calls a left context in his reconstruction of the dynamic semantics of Kamp (1981); it can be an arbitrary data structure on which various operations may be performed separately from the operations of b reduction in the l calculus. This is the sort of flexibility we need to handle various operations of presupposition justification at the lexical level. These include Binding (in which the type presupposition is a super type of the type of the argument and thus satisfied by subtyping), Simple Accommodation (in which the two types are compatible in that they have a meet that is consistent, and the result is to take the meet as the result of the operation), and operations that allow the readjustment of the predicational relation. These operations together with the standard lambda calculus comprise the fragment of the Type Composition Logic (TCL) that is relevant for my purposes here. The function of TCL is to provide a procedure for how to compose meanings; it extends the ordinary lambda calculus with operations needed to handle coercion, among other things. Presupposition parameters pass the type presuppositions to the predicates. Presupposition parameters range over lists of type declarations on argument positions for predicates. With verbal predications, it is relatively uncontroversial that the Temporal modification 25 verb should pass its type requirements to its DP arguments. But what about modifiers, which are of concern here? Should the noun pass its type requirements to the modifier or the reverse? Given that the vast majority of adjectives in the world’s languages are subsective (that is, when an adjective ADJ is subsective, for any N, an ADJ N is necessarily an N), it seems that the noun’s type requirements are passed to the adjective. This requires a slightly more complicated lexical entry for a noun than usual. I assume that modifiers take first-order properties as arguments of the sort traditionally associated with nouns, but the noun’s lexical entry will also have a l abstracted variable for the modifier. Thus, letting P be a variable of modifier type, the functional type from first-order properties to first-order properties, the lexical entry for tree looks like this: À 19 P x P tree:pÞ x v 0 v 0 ( ) l l lp p arg1 ( )(l lp tree( , p )) tree ‘ ’ arg1 stands for the first argument position of the predicate; this argument position is always associated with the referential or denoting argument; the first argument position of a transitive verb will be its subject, while the second argument tree:p position will be filled by its direct object or internal argument. p arg1 says that whatever fills this first argument position must have a type that justifies the type p, or physical object. This includes the variable v in the lexical entry (19), but it may also include a variable contributed by the modifier. So summing up, (19) says that a noun like tree takes a modifier as an argument in order to pass along its type presupposition requirements to the modifier. In order for the modifier to combine with the noun, it must justify the presupposition that is appended via ( is a concatenation operation) to its presupposition parameter argument. By integrating this l term with a determiner and a verb, more type presuppositions will flow onto the presupposition parameter p. Finally, note that the modifier takes a simple first- order property, in this case lvlp’ tree(v, p’), as an argument. Thus, the final entry for tree will be: À 20 P: mod x: e P tree:pÞ x v 0 v 0 ( ) l l lp p arg1 ( )(l lp tree( , p )) ’ To save on notational clutter, I ll often just write argi when the predicate is obvious, or just list the type when the argument position and predicate is obvious. In practice, I will omit the typings of terms when they are obvious.7 Given these abbreviations, the general type of nouns shifts from the standard e ) t to mod ) 1, where 1 is the type of first-order properties.8 For NPs I will have the relatively simple type schema, a ) (P ) t), where a is a subtype of e.

7 I suppose that when no adjective is present, P in (20) applies to the trival subsective adjective, lPlx: elpP(p)(x) and so gives a predictable type for a simple NP. I deal with multiple adjectival modifiers through type raising to form a complex modifier; the exact logical form for such raised NPs will be a matter of meaning postulates. 8 See Asher (2011) for a detailed discussion of first-order properties. 26 Nicholas Asher

In general predicates must pass their typing presuppositions on to their arguments. In the TCL framework, nouns pass their typing requirements to adjectives. A VP passes its typing presuppositions to its subject, and a transitive verb passes its typing requirements to its object. For example, in The book is heavy, the type requirements made by the verb phrase on its subject argument should be satisfied or accommodated in order for the predication to succeed. In keeping with standard assumptions about the syntax–semantics interface, this means we must rethink the entries for our lexical entries to track these presuppositions and to put them in the right place. Consider an intransitive verb like fall. We want its type presuppositions to percolate to the subject. We can do this by assuming that an intransitive verb, or more generally a VP, is a function from DP denotations to propositions.9 This function will feed the appropriate type presuppositions to the subject DP in the same way that nouns feed their presuppositions to their modifiers. In order to do this properly, we must make our verbal predicates be relatively catholic as to the type of DP they accept. The specific type requirements that verbs will place on their arguments will not be placed on the DP itself, but be placed rather in the presupposition slot so that it may be propagated to a local justification site and justified there—i.e. on the individual argument term furnished by the DP, if that is possible. If the higher-order types 1, dp, etc. shift in type, it is usually because of a shift of one of their constituent types, from one subtype of e to another. It is quite difficult to shift higher-order terms directly, as we can see from the lack of coercions, say, from propositions to questions or from propositions to properties. Thus, for an intransitive verb like fall, we have the following lexical entry where argfall: p p 1 specifies the type assignment for fall on its first argument place to be of type p or of physical type. This first argument place is ultimately filled by the variable bound by the quantifier that is the translation of the DP in subject position. The variables that will end up as subject place arguments for the verb can be determined from the syntax of the l term for the predication. In particular, the variable introduced by the DP F will be one; and in the representation below, y is one as well. 21 F Fð argfall: pÞ y: p 0 y 0 ( ) l lp p 1 (l lp fall( , p )). The type of an intransitive verb or a VP, which in Montague Grammar has the type e ) t, now has the more complex type, dp ) (P ) t), or the functional type from general DP types to propositional types. Transitive verbs have a similarly trans- formed type. The lexical entries chosen determine how presuppositions percolate through the derivation tree, and they predict that presuppositions will be justified typically

9 This applies the same trick used to handle transitive verbs taking generalized quantifier arguments—it makes the latter functions from DP denotations to VP denotations. Temporal modification 27 locally to the argument’s typing context (the p that determines the typing of the argument). For instance, when we combine a determiner and an NP to form a DP that is an argument to another predicate f, then f conveys presuppositions to the NP or the DP’s restrictor. If such a presupposition is justified in the restrictor of a DP, it will also be justified in the nuclear scope. The converse, however, does not hold—leading to a notion of ‘global’ (restrictor) or ‘local’ (nuclear scope) justification. Furthermore, just as with clausal presuppositions (see (22) where his father is bound to the presupposed content of the proper name John), one presupposition can justify another: the type presuppositions on the nouns car and tree justify, indeed satisfy, the presupposition of the verb hit, which wants a subject and object argument of type p in (23). (22) John’s son loves his father. (23) A car hit a tree. We are interested in predicates that license coercions and these involve rather complex type presuppositions. Consider the verb enjoy; it requires its second argument to be an eventuality, of type evt, but it licenses a type coercion of its argument which introduces a second predication relation between its actual argument and some eventuality. I note this type requirement with the notation evt – «(hd(F) ), which means that the eventuality coerced is of a type to be determined by the type of the variable bound by the determiner of the second argument (F). We can now look at how a standard coercion interacts with composition. Let’s look at an example where enjoy applies to a DP like Anna Karenina as in (24). I assume that book introduces the type book, to avoid the contentious discussion of so called dual aspect nouns.10 I also will not go into details of the typing restrictions imposed by determiners of various sorts—again for a discussion see Asher (2011). (24) George enjoyed Anna Karenina. Constructing a logical form for the DP and applying it to the entry for enjoy gives us: 25 F F ag v QQð argenjoy: evt hd F book ak Þ ( ) l lp (p )l l p 2 «( ( ) )( ) (ly1 lp1 (enjoy(v, y1, p1) ^ ag(y1) ¼ v(p1))) Let us assume that polymorphic type presuppositions prefer a local justification, near the verb. Continuing the reduction and abbreviating our type constraints on x and y1, we get: (26) lFlp F(p * ag)(lv enjoy(v, ak, p * evt – «(hd(F), book)) ^ ag(x) ¼ y1(p * evt – «(hd(F), book)))

10 See Pustejovsky (1995); Asher and Pustejovsky (2006); Asher (2011); Luo (2010). For an extended discussion see Asher (2011). 28 Nicholas Asher

The presuppositions in the nuclear scope of the quantifier cannot be satisfied as they stand. But enjoy licenses a transformation and the introduction of a polymorphic type functor with a polymorphic type that will serve to justify the basic type presupposition. The polymorphic type functor will apply to the l abstract, ly1 lp1 (enjoy(v, y1, p1) ^ ag(y1) ¼ v(p1) ). For type presuppositions, this is a general procedure for presupposition justification. The functor introduces a predicate related to the polymorphic type. For example if the polymorphic type maps a cigarette to an event of type smoke(agent, cigarette), then we need to use the predicate smoke(e, x, y). When the polymorphic type is underspecified and of the form «(a, b) we take the predicate f«(a,b)(e, x, y). The functor instantiated for this example looks like this:

(27) lPlulp’’ 9z: «(evt, book) 9z1: ag(P(p’’)(z) ^ ’’ f«(ag, book)(z, z1, u, p )) Applying the functor on the designated l term within (26) and using the TCL rules for presupposition justification and the reduction rules of the l calculus, we get: 28 F F ag 9 9 ^ ¼ ^ ( ) l lp (p * )[lv z z1 (enjoy(v, z, p) ag(z) v f«(ag, book)(z, z1, ak, p))] We can now integrate the subject into (28) and exploit the fact that ag is a function to get the finished result: (29) lp9y(y ¼ g(p) ^9z: ag(enjoy(y, z, p) ^ ag(z) ¼ y ^

f«(ag,book)(z, y, ak,p))) The type of functor exploited in (27) suffices to handle all cases of event coercion with verbs whose type presuppositions are sensitive to both the type of the subject and object. I’ll call this the E functor. There are many others involved in coercion. The polymorphic types in event coercion describe a morphism from types of objects to polymorphic types of eventualities involving those objects, and the « reflects that morphism from objects to eventualities in logical form. Why should this transfer principle and type shift from objects to eventualities be sound? The answer has to do with the presuppositions of the particular words that allow for this morphism, like, for example, the aspectual verbs and enjoy. Enjoying a thing, for instance, presupposes having interacted in some way with the thing, and that interaction is an event. The verb enjoy, however, doesn’t specify what that event is. The event could be just looking at the object as in enjoy the garden or perhaps some other activity. Similarly, one can’t finish an object unless one is involved in some activity with that object, whether it be creating it or engaging in some other activity towards it. That is why such transformations are lexically based; it is the lexical semantics of the words that licenses the coercion and that makes the rules sound. Semantics gets us only so far. We now need to specify the underspecified eventuality type f«(human,book). This we can do by adding to the type system axioms Temporal modification 29 that defeasibly specify underspecified types—for instance, the first below says that if a human engages in doing something with a book, normally he reads it. . (a v human ^ b v book) > «(a, b) ¼ read(a, b) . (a v author ^ b v book) > «(a, b) ¼ write(a, b) . (a v goat ^ b v book) > «(a, b) ¼ eat(a, b) The type specification logic allows us to write appropriate axioms for specifying underspecified types. But the specification of the eventuality can also be given by the discourse context. Consider the following minimal trio. (30) a. Julie began with the kitchen, proceeded to the living room and finished up with the bedrooms. b. Yesterday Julie cleaned her house. Julie began with the kitchen, proceeded to the living room and finished up with the bedrooms. c. Last week, Julie painted her house. Julie began with the kitchen, proceeded to the living room and finished up with the bedrooms. As I argue in Asher (2011), the discourse in (30a) is not very felicitous because we don’t know what Julie is doing with the kitchen and the other rooms. It’s like trying to interpret an utterance of she’s nice in a context with no salient antecedent. However, once discourse specifies an activity, (30b) and (30c) are completely felicitous.

1.5 Back to time With this analysis of coercion in place, we can now tackle coercions linked to modification of a verbal complex (the interpretation of the VP and its projections that include tense, modality, and aspect,) and a noun. One of the advantages of the higher-order system is that we can reflect on the type of entries that we want for various words. It has been standard practice since Davidson (1968/69) to introduce additional eventuality arguments to predicates derived from verbs as I have done for the verbal predicates that characterize coerced eventualities. But one need not do this. Instead I could have characterized an event object more abstractly via a realization function. This permits a much more precise characterization of eventualities and requires the theory to be more precise about what requirements lexical meaning and composition make on the characterization of various types of entities, in particular eventualities.

1.5.1 Modifications of the verbal complex Many linguists—Smith (1991), Dowty (1979), Verkuyl (1972), inter alios—have observed that certain meaning shifts occur to the type of object denoted by the verbal complex 30 Nicholas Asher when aspect and tense are applied. Since Vendler’s work in the 1950s, it has been customary to distinguish between different types of denotations of verbs and their projections.11 Vendler and most of those following him (with the notable exception of Dowty) have talked of these denotations as types of eventualities, which include events of different types and states. Combined with Davidson’s(1968/69) treatment of action sentences, this has led to the received view of verbal modification by various projections, according to which verbal modification involves predication of an eventuality introduced by the verb (and bound by tense). If the modification applies at a node above Tense, for example with an adverb like allegedly or probably, then the eventuality is no longer available as an argument because it has been bound by tense and so such modifications are customarily treated as modifications of some sort of abstract entity like an intension. On the other hand, nominal modification has been treated in a more heterogeneous fashion but nevertheless still in a David- sonian fashion. Davidsonian event semantics is by and large quite successful. But there are cracks in the edifice. Davidsonian and neo-Davidsonian semantics have a neat way of explaining verbal modification that crucially involves events. Basically, verbal modification via syntactic adjunction becomes a simple matter of applying the property provided by the modifier to an event variable that also serves as the event argument of the verbal complex: . VP : VP MOD ! le(kMODk(e) ^kVPk(e)) However, there are good reasons to treat some modifiers, in particular modifiers that describe instruments or goals of the action described by the verb, more like semantic arguments of the verbal complex. That is the strategy I adopt in Asher (2011). Not all verbal modifiers saturate optional arguments. Some modifiers simply take the VP as an argument, as in Montague Grammar. In particular, temporal and locative modifiers seem to fall into this class. We can have several temporal modifiers that simply narrow down the time at which the event described by the verbal complex took place. Locative modifiers work similarly. (31) a. On Monday Isabel talked for two hours in the afternoon between 2 and 4. b. In Paris John smoked a cigarette on the train in the last second class compartment in seat number 27. The fact that temporal and perhaps other modifiers take the VP itself as an argument and are not arguments of the VP makes predictions in TCL. Predicates pass their type presuppositions on to their arguments in TCL, not the other way around. So TCL predicts that temporal adverbials can affect the type of the verbal complex, as

11 See Vendler (1967), Dowty (1979), inter alios. Temporal modification 31 seen in the examples in (1). These are examples again of coercion. Consider again (1c), repeated below: (1c) John wrote a letter for an hour. The temporal modifier for an hour takes the verbal complex as an actual argument but requires a realizer of that verbal complex, and a realizer of a particular type, namely activity or act. To be more precise, we need to think about what the verbal complex itself gives us; well, in the type system, the answer is clear: once the arguments are combined with the verb, we have a type of proposition, i.e. a subtype of prop. We could of course postulate an eventuality argument for the verb as in Davidson, but in the higher- order framework in which TCL is couched, we are not forced to do so. There is a certain advantage in doing this, because it allows us to have a clearer picture of what eventualities really are. Mathematical sentences like two and two make four intuitively do not have an event argument; they are timelessly true. Though we can apply the inflectional system within mathematical sentences, this need not introduce an eventuality, but perhaps only times at which the verbal complexes denoted by such sentences are true, as in the following: (32) Two and two always has and always will make four. Other verbal complexes may indeed under the inflectional system or temporal or spatial modification give rise to eventuality realizers. And then the semantics makes clear that these events exist at certain spatiotemporal regions. Eventualities are at least regions of space–time whose individuation principles may involve their participants or the properties they are described by. So let us assume that for (1c) the verbal complex provides a proposition but that the adjunct demands an eventuality realizer. A general map or coercion from propositions to their realizations is clearly part of our conceptual system, and the temporal adverbial forces the realization to be of activity type. On the other hand, a temporal adverbial of the form in an hour forces the realization to be of type accomplishment or achievement. Inflectional systems in most languages, which include temporal and aspectual markings on verbs, also make demands for an eventuality realizer and of a particular type. To fill out the picture, we need to have a clearer picture of the constraints on these coercions. First of all, the type presuppositions of the inflectional system and of the temporal modifiers have to be consistent. Second, not all subtypes of prop are equally happy with any temporal modifier, as many years of linguistic investigation have shown. (33) Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals for an hour. TCL accommodates the descriptive work on aspectual type via the type specification rules. We used the type specification rules before to say how to specify an underspecified 32 Nicholas Asher eventuality. Now as the type of the eventuality is given as a realizer of the verbal complex, we use the type specification rules to place negative constraints on coercion: certain subtypes of prop cannot have realizers of a certain type. One big advantage of such an approach is that it dissolves a problem that has plagued compositional semantics ever since linguists began to try to formalize the process of aspectual composition, according to which the type of eventuality realizer of a verbal complex is not only a matter of the inflectional system but of the lexical aspect of the verb and the nature of its arguments. To understand the problem, consider trying to figure out what is the type of the eventuality of: (34) Those politicians invented excuses to justify their inaction for years. Given the observation concerning (33), a Davidsonian approach would say that the eventuality introduced by the verb invent should not be compatible with a temporal modifier requiring an activity. However, with the plural subject it now appears that the overall realizing eventuality should be something like an activity. Standard ways of accounting for such examples postulate an iterative reading and introduce another eventuality spanning the individual inventions of excuses, an eventuality that lasted for years. This postulation already looks to be a form of coercion but not at the level of types and the compositional processes are hence rather obscure or at least quite stipulative. Furthermore, this large eventuality must presumably be an activity, but why isn’t a sum of achievement events also an achievement event? Similar puzzles crop up frequently when one tries to specify the aspect of a sentence realizing eventuality from the lexical aspect of the verb, and the semantics of temporal modifiers and inflection. In TCL, instead of trying to specify the aspect of the sentence denotation during composition, the compositional process puts constraints on the proposition realizer. These constraints can make use of all the information in the verbal complex at once, unlike the compositional calculation of eventuality aspect. For it is only after the verbal complex has been formed that an eventuality will be introduced into the logical form and the content of a sentence, if one is introduced at all. Sometimes the application of a temporal modifier to a verbal complex can affect the meaning of the predication in the verbal complex. This is a more complex form of coercion than the simple cases in (1), and more like the one we had with enjoy. Consider again (2). The verb leave subcategorizes for two logically related types for its argument: institution, location, and the location argument is often associated with a physical object. The noun husband,ontheotherhand, types its lambda abstracted variable as an agent which is a subtype of physical object, and this is the type it passes on to the type presupposition parameter. As it stands, this type does not satisfy the type presupposition of leave,butthereisa natural transformation from physical objects to their locations, which the type adjustment mechanisms can make use of in a way analogous to that in which we made Temporal modification 33 use of the transformation from individuals to eventualities they participate in. This gets us the reading of Mary leaving the location of her husband, which is included at the airport. To get the other reading of (2), the one prominent in (2b), we need to look at another map that is part of the type of husband. There is a natural morphism from the male individual participating in the marriage to the institution of marriage—i.e. an arrow from the type physical object to institution, licensed by the word husband. To get the preferences in readings here, we need to make one more assumption, and that is, that which coercion is licensed is the one that is more likely—and this could just be a matter of probabilities of distributions of readings that speakers have come across. As the temporal adverbial five years ago makes the second coercion more likely, that is the reading selected for (2b). This approach to verbal temporal modification and coercion provides a general mechanism that makes it possible to continue to refer to the individual picked out by her husband in subsequent discourse, but also the location of the individual or the institution. The account thus predicts copredications like she left her husband who is a stockbroker five years ago to be well-formed and can give a compositional analysis of them using our techniques of local type presupposition justification.

1.5.2 Temporal nominal modification Tonhauser (2006) investigates temporal modification in the nominal domain. She claims that nouns of many but not all subtypes of e support temporal modification, along with similar modal examples. (35) The president invited the former prisoners to the banquet. (36) The freed prisoners are now recuperating in the hospital. (37) #The former lions now lie buried. (38) Sarah Palin is a possible presidential candidate. (39) #The possible zebras are coming into view. Tonhauser claims that predications involving natural kinds and final stage level predicates like mother and daughter are not subject to temporal modification, which is not quite correct, as I show below. What goes on in such modifications? Let’s consider a noun like prisoner. Its morphology suggest that it is derived from a verb imprison. Deverbal nominals that end in -er typically denote participants in events or states that are realizers of propositional complexes involving the verb from which the noun is derived. Tem- poral adjectives and perhaps modal ones as well are counterparts of the tense and modal features in the nominal domain, and act in the same way. But interestingly, they interact not on the denotation of the noun but on the associated realizer. For instance, former prisoner would have the logical form in (40). 34 Nicholas Asher

^ (40) lxlp 9y9t(realize(y, [9z emprison(z, x)], p) ^ y < t ^ t ¼ ?) What is puzzling is how we get to (40) from the logical form of the noun prisoner, given in (41) and the entry for former, which is given in (42). 41 calP xy P prisoner: human prisoner: evtÞ ( ) l lp p arg1 arg2 ^ (realize(y; [9z emprison(z; x)]), p) P ranges over adjectival denotations in (40) and takes the entry for former as an argument. À À 42 x 9tP former: evt ? P Þ x ^ x t ^ t ¼ ?Þ x ( ) l p arg1 r( (Hd( ))) ( ) ( ) In words, this entry says that the temporal modifier requires a realizer as an argument (a time or an eventuality), but it allows for a transformation taking the head type of its actual argument into a realizer type r. r is a polymorphic type that denotes the maximal temporal entity that realizes the proposition resulting from predicating some underspecified property or relation to the actual argument. This underspecified property or relation is typically resolved to a property or relation introduced in the head noun with which the adjective combines—in this case, the property is that of being emprisoned. But the property may also be contextually supplied, as we will see shortly. The temporal adjective temporally locates its realizer type argument prior to some contextually specified time. Typically this is what linguists call the event time of the sentence introduced by the tense feature in the grammar, but in principle it could be also the speech time or in fact any salient, accessible temporal entity introduced in the discourse. To construct the denotation of the complete noun phrase, we note first that the argument with type human is incompatible with the type requirements of the adjective, which demands an argument that is either an event or a time. We now need to justify these type presuppositions together to construct the logical form in (40). In this case the justification requires only a simple coercion operator that makes the realizer argument available to the adjective and so places the effect of the adjective within the scope of an existential closure of the realizer argument. This is a relatively trivial operation in the l calculus, but this coercion operator is restricted to deverbal nominals with -er and -ee suffix morphology, in which both the realizer and participant arguments appear to be predicable by modifiers. Not all nouns that accept temporal modification are plausibly understood to be deverbal nouns. For example, bicycle chain, crew, house,ormother in law accept temporal modification as in (43) my former house (44) my previous bike chain (45) the previous crew Temporal modification 35

(46) my previous cat (47) a future mother in law but they are not plausibly analysed as deverbal nouns. They are, however, naturally associated with certain activities that can serve as realizers—living in a house, a crew’s running of a ship or an aeroplane, or ownership or many other relations suggested by the Saxon genitive used in conjunction with the temporal modifier.12 Note that with the Saxon genitive construction, even nouns that denote natural kinds license temporal modification. In fact it is the Saxon genitive that provides an activity or state associated with the noun and that consequently makes determinate the morphism that the coercion predicate can exploit to get a temporal entity of a suitable kind in order for the construction to succeed. To be more specific, let’s look at how we might compose the meaning of my previous cat. Cat has roughly the lexical entry of tree: À 48 P x P cat: pÞ x v 0 v 0 ( ) l l lp p arg1 ( )(l lp cat( , p )) Let’s assume that previous has roughly the same lexical entry as former. The two terms cannot combine, unless we invoke the natural transformation that takes us from the head type of the noun p to a realizer. This requires us to specify some relation or property that holds of the cat. In our example it is the Saxon genitive my that specifies an activity (that of owning), following the lines of the analysis of Asher (2011). Because the realizer is maximal, the transformation entails that the time to which the realizer is prior itself realizes the negation of the contextually specified content: ^ (49) lP lp9x(9v (cat(p x: p v: evt)(x) ^ R(v, [own(sp, x) ^ cat(x)]) ^ v t ^ ^ * * t ¼ ? ^ R(t, :(own(sp, x) ^ cat(x))))^ P(x)) If we resolve t to the speech time of the main sentence, we get a typical temporal interpretation of a sentence like my previous cat used to catch birds: prior to the speech time, a cat, which I no longer have, used to catch birds. Tonhauser’s observations concerning natural kind terms and final stage level predicates are partially correct. It’s often hard to figure out what morphism links an instance of a natural kind to an activity, though with the Saxon genitive construction the relation is grammatically given. In a particular discourse context describing a society in which people switch mothers or fathers on a regular basis (in the institutional sense if not the biological sense) or in which foetuses are able to talk, it should be all right to say my future mother. The former lions is difficult to interpret

12 For details on the analysis of the Saxon genitive as a construction introducing an eventuality or realizer, see Asher (2011). 36 Nicholas Asher precisely because there is no contextually, lexically, or grammatically given relation that could fill in the underspecified predication entailed by the coercion.

1.6 Conclusions In sum, there is a lot that coercion mechanisms can do when it comes to temporal modification. The mechanism is powerful but well-defined and it gives us a very different view of temporal modification from what Davidsonian or neo-Davidsonian approaches provide. In this chapter, I’ve sketched out a general theory of coercion and applied it to some examples of temporal predication. More investigation is needed to determine the empirical adequacy of the theory, but the initial results seem quite promising. 2

Temporal reasoning as indexical inference

ALICE G. B. TER MEULEN

2.1 Introduction Temporal reasoning in time about time is paradigmatic of situated reasoning in the first place because the reasoning agent himself situates the past as separated from the future, when receiving the information from which a conclusion is to be drawn. Any inflected phrase is in this sense obviously indexical upon this time of reception or production of the input to the reasoning, since true past tense statements require reference to events or states preceding the time of their reception/production, and true present tense statements require reference to an event or state temporally including it. For instance, although from (1a) we cannot infer at what time the described event took place, we do infer that it must have happened before (1a) was produced/received, as it is past tense input to the present perfect tense conclusion in (1b). (1) a. John walked to school. b. John has walked to school. An inference rule for a system of temporal reasoning in natural language should accordingly validate the transition from such a simple past tense accomplishment (1a) to its present perfect tense (1b). But no rule should make an inference from a past progressive accomplishment to its present perfect progressive tense valid, as (2b) is not only violating a morphological agreement rule, but also constitutes an intuitively incorrect conclusion, if it is based on (2a). Without the modifying temporal adjunct clause, the inference from (2a) with a past progressive accomplishment to (2c) with a present perfect progressive tense seems, however, unproblematic. (2) a. John was walking to school, when a bus hit him. b. *John has been walking to school, when a bus hit him. c. John has been walking to school. 38 Alice G. B. ter Meulen

As is well known from the earliest discussion of the ‘imperfective paradox’ in Dowty (1979), only divisible activities, sometimes also called ‘atelic eventuality descriptions’, supports a simple past conclusion on the basis of a past progressive premise, illustrated in (3a–b). (3) a. John was walking. b. John walked. Accordingly, the inference rules for temporal reasoning in natural language will also have to take aspectual properties of clauses into account, if they are to do justice to our intuitions on the validity of inferences with temporal information. The information that there was the causal interference of the bus accident, possibly preventing John from completing his walk to school, is altogether independent from this aspectual information, pace van Lambalgen and Hamm (2005). It is also well known that the order in which sentences are presented in discourse may affect the interpretation of their reference to the events they describe. This constitutes the second reason why temporal reasoning is paradigmatic of situated reasoning: that is, prior discourse situates the interpretation of a tensed clause by constraining its temporal reference. In the absence of conflicting information in the context, an eventuality referred to by a simple past tense clause is temporally included in the state or eventuality introduced by its preceding clause, only if it is either stative (including progressive) or a description of an activity. Otherwise, the order of the presentation of clauses determines the temporal order between the events they refer to. For instance, from (4a) we infer that John crossed the street while walking to school, but from (4b) we infer that he saw Mary after completing his walk to school. (4) a. John was walking to school. He crossed the street. b. John walked to school. He saw Mary. Obviously, the validity of such inferences also depends on the presuppositions to be accommodated of their premises’ content, on topic continuity, and compatibility/consistency of descriptive content. The temporal inference toolkit of the Dynamic Aspect Trees (DAT) in ter Meulen (1994, 1995, 2000) was designed specifically to account for the validity of such temporal reasoning patterns, illustrated in (1)(4), and some additional ones. Constraints on the introduction and portability of stickers in DATs, representing information contained in the conclusion, capture most core intuitions regarding the logical properties of temporal reasoning in English, based on their tense and aspect. Besides such well-known patterns of situated temporal reasoning in (1)(4), the location of the reasoning agent contributes essential situated information in evalu- ating statements with indexical verbs like come, arrive, and appear, on the one hand, Temporal reasoning as indexical inference 39 and go, leave, and disappear, on the other.1 Such verbs presuppose that the agent’s location is fixed once all input has been interpreted and the conclusion must be evaluated. Since these verbs describe actions of moving towards the agent, or away from him, they should be considered indexical predicates, as their evaluation requires a contextually fixed speaker location, just as the classical indexical adverbs here and now or the first person pronoun do.2 This chapter is intended to contribute some novel, elementary insights into this rich domain of temporal reasoning patterns, where such descriptive indexical predicates may appear in the conclusion though none of the premises contain any occurrence of these indexical predicates. The interaction of indexical predicates with aspectual adverbs, quantifying over the internal structure of events, proves to constitute especially interesting patterns of temporal reasoning that require proper investigation in natural language semantics and pragmatics.

2.2 Indexical predicates and aspectual adverbs If a hypothetical situation is described statically by (5a), we cannot infer anything about what is going on, what has happened, or what may happen. (5) a. There are three students here. b. There are still three students here. c. There are already three students here. However, the aspectual adverbs still and already contribute essential information about the future or the past of the described situation, assuming constant reference to the current location with here.3 Lacking any specific assumptions or background information, we apparently draw the conclusion from (5b) that students must be leaving and some have left, hence more than three students were here earlier. From (5c) we infer that students must be arriving or some have arrived, hence that fewer than three students must have been here before. Doing justice to such inference patterns introducing descriptive indexical predicates in the conclusion requires the reasoning agent and his location to remain fixed by the context for the inference, i.e. interpreting the premises in sequence. The DRT semantics of the English aspectual adverbs still, already, not yet, no longer in Smessaert and ter Meulen (2004) primarily captures the interaction between three truth-functional aspects of their meaning, i.e. their factual or descriptive content. Their meaning is based on three ingredients specified in (6):

1 See Barwise and Perry (1983), Perry (1992), and the updated survey of Situation Theory by Moss and Seligman in van Benthem and ter Meulen (2011: 253–335). 2 Adjectives and prepositions as left, right, behind,orabove should for the same reason also be considered indexical predicates, but since they do not seem to be directly involved in interesting forms of temporal reasoning, they are disregarded in this chapter. 3 Italics are used in this chapter to cite any words occurring in data, to avoid the harrowing questions regarding the denotation of quoted indexicals. 40 Alice G. B. ter Meulen

(6) (i) the indexical interaction between the speech time, the current state and its past or future; (ii) the two polarity transitions START (0/1) and END (1/0); (iii) temporal dependencies created by the temporal operators SINCE and UNTIL, with their established semantics. The stative, factual temporal content of the four basic English aspectual adverbs is specified in (7), modally introducing past ( ^) or future (^!) polarity reversals, where D is the domain of entities to which newly introduced entities are added, and cn the context at stage n of its construction, fixed if aspectual adverbs modify stative descriptions, otherwise updated to a next stage. (7) Basic aspectual adverbs

a. D, c0 [VP lx[INFL not yet P(x)]] D’,c0 ¼ D, c0 [ << P’(x, ) >> & ^![<< END (P’(x, ))>> & UNTIL (<< END (P’(x, )), (P’(x, )) >> )] l ¼ b. D, c0 [VP x[INFL already P(x)]] D’,c0 D, c0 [ << P’(x, þ) >> & ^[<< START (P’(x, þ))>> & SINCE (<< START (P’(x, þ)), (P’(x, þ))>> )] l ¼ c. D, c0 [VP x[INFL still P(x)]] D’,c0 D, c0 [ << P’(x, þ) >> & ^![<< END (P’(x, þ)) >> & UNTIL (<< END (P’(x, þ)),(P’(x, þ)) >> )] l ¼ d. D, c0 [VP x[INFL not anymore P(x)]] D’,c0 D, c0 [ << P’(s, x, ) >> & ^ [<< START (P’(s, x, )) >> & SINCE (<< START (P’(s, x, )), (P’(s, x, )) >> )] When adopted as update instructions to add new conditions to the current DRS at the construction stage cn, these clauses in (7) capture the basic temporal inference potential of the four aspectual adverbs in English. The since and until clauses serve to constrain the polarity transition to the last past or the first future one, given the current state of the context, and hence not to some arbitrary, distant one. This excludes any possible, intervening polarity transition for the relevant predicate, or gaps in the event it refers to. Hence these conditions ensure the continuity of the polarity, but also create an essentially indexical dependency on the current state of the context cn. It is clear that already and still are veridical, whereas not yet and no longer are anti-veridical.4

4 Let Op be a monadic propositional operator. Then: (i) Op is veridical just in case Op[ p ! p ] is logically valid. Otherwise Op is nonveridical. (ii) A nonveridical operator Op is anti-veridical just in case Op[ p ! p ] is logically valid. Still and already are veridical operators, and not yet and no longer are anti-veridical. Temporal reasoning as indexical inference 41

2.3 Scalar inferences and polarity in aspectual adverbs The intuitions to be accounted for in developing this theory of temporal reasoning in English are to a large extent based on the semantic monotonicity properties of the VPs modified by the aspectual adverbs. For instance, if there are still three students at t, then at any later time t’ there obviously cannot be more than three students, but there may be fewer than three students, as long as the presupposition that students are leaving remains a valid assumption. Similarly, if there are already three students at t, then at any later time t’ there cannot be fewer than three students, but there should be more than three students, as long as the presupposition that students are arriving remains a valid assumption. These presuppositions hence serve to constrain the set of later times to be considered, excluding times after the event of students leaving or arriving has ended. The numerical scale, counting in this example how many students there are, induced by the aspectual adverb still is hence decreasing into the future, whereas for already it is increasing. These monotonicity properties explain why (8a) is perfectly fine and coherent, as the decreasing still shares its monotonicity with the decreasing only at the scale’s lower end. But (8b) is prima facie unacceptable for semantic reasons, as the increasing already ordinarily cannot modify the decreasing only.5 (8) a. There are still only three students here. b. *There are already only three students here. Often in aspectual interpretation specific adjustments in the context may force or ‘coerce’ a special interpretation, overruling the otherwise common assumptions.6 In this way, we may coerce (8b) into expressing the speaker’s judgement that it is relatively early to have only three students here, if syntactically already modifies the polarized NP only three students. This syntactic structure would cancel its presupposition that students are arriving associated with already, retaining only its temporal meaning concerning its early occurrence. It would project instead the presupposition, triggered by the decreasing only, that the students must be leaving. It might constitute an interesting investigation in the semantics/phonology interface to study the prosodic contours of such coerced interpretations with conflicting monotonicity properties, as well as its effects, if any, on processing complexity. From a purely theoretical point of view, one might like to conjecture that their prosody could be quite different from the prosodic properties of the straightforwardly interpreted (8a), which would have repercussions for their syntactic analysis as well, if a compositional account is required.

5 This is strongly reminiscent of the constraint on coordination which requires NPs to have the same monotonicity properties for conjunction and disjunction; see Partee, ter Meulen, and Wall (1993: 382) for discussion of this constraint. 6 See Pickering et al.(2006) and also Asher, this volume. 42 Alice G. B. ter Meulen

The negative polarity data in (9) show that, as one may expect, in simple indicatives only the anti-veridical aspectual adverbs no longer and not yet license the polarity any; as their interpretation contains a negative polarity on the descriptive predicate P. Of course, the downwards entailing interrogative context in (10a–b) and the downwards entailing antecedent of a conditional (10c–d) themselves also license any; hence in such contexts still and already contribute merely the subjective timing information, i.e. the speaker’s judgement that it is relatively late for students to leave or early for them to arrive, respectively. (9) a. *There are still any students left. b. *There are already any students here. c. There are no longer any students left. d. There are not yet any students here. (10) a. Are there still any students left? b. Are there already any students here? c. If there are still any students left, . . . d. If there are already any students here, . . . In the next section such indexical information is reconsidered and structured to be focus information, where the remaining content of the clause is backgrounded, together with the presuppositions constraining the polarity reversals.7

2.4 Focus and information structure of aspectual adverbs Focus semantics is designed to account for the dynamics of the interpretation process as sequential updates of the context: UPDATE(cn,cnþ1). The input to the update is a syntactically parsed phrase, partitioned into given (topic) and new (focus) information, either possibly empty. Given information is considered to be either directly available, entailed, or presupposed by the given, current context cn,or, otherwise, accommodated before the update, and it is phonologically often marked as deaccented. It is considered to be ‘backgrounded’, i.e. not under discussion, negotiation or ‘at stake’. The new, or focus, information is the content with which the current context is updated to the next phase of interpretation cnþ 1.Itis information that provides new values for unfamiliar parameters by extending the set of assignments to parameters fixed earlier and their alternatives. It is typically negotiated in a dialogue or interactive situation to be included or excluded as shared information, assumed to be true by all the participants, even if only for the sake of argument. To account for focus, the semantic interpretation adds a space of alternatives to the background, for which the focus provides the current value. This space of alternatives is most often considered to be a set of propositions, truth value denoting

7 See Smessaert and ter Meulen (2004) for the semantics of prosodically marked aspectual adverbs as focus information. Temporal reasoning as indexical inference 43 semantic objects, but this is by no means a necessary assumption. Lambda abstraction over a variable of the requisite type creates the space of alternatives of suitable type in the background, and the focus serves as argument of that lambda abstraction in the update of the context. Given the informal discussion of our intuitions on inferences with aspectual adverbs and numerical determiners, two dimensions of focus alternatives are required: one varying over the cardinality of the set of students who are here, and the other over moments of time which could have been the current one, if the event were happening faster or slower than it actually is. Accordingly, the interpretation of (5b) requires first accommodating the backgrounded information in the Common Ground (CG), then the focus structure is determined to be the set of alternatives to the current situation, and finally the asserted focus information that the number of students is three is added.

(5)b.D, cn j[There are [FOC still three] students here]jD’,cnþ1. CG (i) there are students here ¼> 9 X [ students (X) & loc(X) ¼ lcn] (ii) students are leaving ¼>

9 Y,e [students(Y) & leave(e,Y) & e tcn] l< ’> ¼j j # ’# Focus structure: n, t [n X &n 3 &t tcn] Focus: l [n¼jXj &n# 3 &t’# tcn](3,tcnþ1) The focus alternatives are lambda-abstracted over ordered pairs consisting of the cardinality of the set of students and temporal reference points, to provide a set of two-dimensional alternatives where either there would be fewer than three students or the number of students was three at an earlier time. The focus or new information is the actual state in which there are three students. The presupposition triggered by the decreasing still is (ii) and should be accommodated into the CG before the focus information is added. Furthermore, the decreasing nature of still entails that at any later time there are still three or fewer students, while veridicality is guaranteed by (i). For the interpretation of (5c), a closely analogous information structure is required, but the cardinality of the set of students had to be smaller than three in the past and students are arriving, given the increasing monotonicity of already. The focus structure of alternatives is the set of ordered pairs consisting of numbers higher than three later, while the focus information itself adds that the current cardinality of the set of students is three.

(5)c.D, cn j[There are [FOC already three] students here]jD’,cnþ1. CG (i) there are students here ¼> 9 X [ students (X) & loc(X) ¼ lcn ] (ii) students are arriving ¼>

9 Y,e [student(Y) & arrive(e,Y) & e tcn] l< ’> ¼j j $ ’$ Focus structure: n, t [n X &n 3 &t tcn] l< ’> ¼j j $ ’$ Focus: n, t [n X &n 3 &t tcn ](3,tcn) 44 Alice G. B. ter Meulen

Comparison of (5b) and (5c) clearly brings out that the difference in monotonicity between still and already is backgrounded, but plays an important role in structuring the space of alternative values, while the focus information in both statements (5b) and (5c) is actually the same value applied to a different lambda abstraction to create the focus structure of alternatives. Assuming now the lexical semantics of x leave y as describing the event as a transition between the state of first x’s being at y to later x’s not being at y, cf. (11a), we infer from (5b) with present perfect tense that some of the students, who were at the location earlier, have now left. Mutatis mutandis, the inference from (5c) is that some of the students who were not here yet, have now arrived, exploiting (11b) as the lexical semantics of arrive. ¼ l ¼ ¼> (11)a.[[leave (e, x, y)]] x,e(loc(x) loc(spc)&move (e,x) F(loc(x) 6¼ loc(spc))) b. [[arrive (e, x, y)]] ¼ lx,e(P(loc(x) 6¼ loc(spc)) & move (e,x) ¼> (loc(x) ¼ loc(spc))) The anti-veridical aspectual adverbs share the common-ground conditions and the focus structure with their veridical counterpart, but negate the focus information. Accordingly, not yet three will be interpreted against the same backgrounded information as already three, but denies that the actual number of students is three. Ordinarily, no longer three also shares the backgrounded information of still three, but denies that there currently are three students. It appears also to be possible with no longer that the (ii) condition concerning the ongoing leaving of the students may be dropped from the CG without coercion effect. In such diminished CG, no conclusion is supported regarding the number of students who were here earlier. If the CG contains the assumption that the students are respectively arriving and leaving, the inference that there must now be fewer than three students here is validated in both cases. Further details of this outline of a direction of formalization may be developed in the various systems of focus semantics currently available.

2.5 Conclusions Aspectual adverbs are seen to contribute important temporal structure to the information that is communicated in their use with numerical determiners. They create cohesion within a context by presupposing a stage level event, even when subject is generic, serving as topic. The standard semantics of aspectual adverbs hence needs supplementing in information structure, when the backgrounded, shared information is partitioned with the focused information about the actual situation. Aspectual adverbs are also often used with polarity particles like only to create discourse cohesion by opening up ways to strengthened alternatives based Temporal reasoning as indexical inference 45 on a presupposed state that remains in force. For instance, in (12) the economy is assumed to continue to thrive as it did due to export, but now it thrives even more because of consumer behaviour. (12) The economy thrives no longer only due to export, but also to consumer behaviour. Consumer behaviour is not ordinarily thought of as a clearly stronger alternative to export as a force of economic health, but the scalar strengthening is induced by this context in accommodating the ongoing event presupposition of no longer only that export already makes the economy thrive and continues to do so.8 English may seem to function quite logically with regard to the observed duality of its system of aspectual adverbs, in comparison to other Germanic languages such as Dutch and German. They show a richer, more compositional tapestry of aspectual modification and polarity reversal. In particular, their counterpart of still may be used, often with marked prosody, as in the Dutch (13), with focus information about an ongoing monotone increasing event in an indexical predicate, adding more to whatever is presupposed to be already there, voiding its CG event assumption (ii). (13) Er komen nog drie studenten aan. There come still three students on. ‘Three more students are coming.’ The linguistic investigation of universal versus variable properties of aspectual information structure has never disappeared from the linguistic agenda. Its insights may have ripened enough now for new dimensions of formalization in terms of notions of information structure to account for the essential indexicality of temporal reasoning in natural language beyond mere temporal reference.

8 See, for some inspiring discussion of the force of not only, Horn (2000). 3

Perspectival interpretations of tenses

LOUIS DE SAUSSURE

3.1 Introduction This chapter deals with cases where the temporal reference indicated by tenses cannot be understood literally, that is, proves irrelevant unless one of the components of the representation (the deictic point S, the reference point R, or the eventuality E) is modified under the pressure of contextual consistency or relevance. I suggest that these situations imply a change in the perspective, or point of view, from which the eventuality is grasped. I tentatively discuss in the conclusion whether these linguistic facts call for a simulative explanation. Linguistics usually views tense as a referential device (typically ‘operators’ or ‘procedural items’)1 pointing on moments associated with the occurrence of eventualities (events, states, activities). We will ignore in what follows the various sophistications on offer in semantics, logic, and philosophy about what time and tense really are, sticking to the naive conception that moments indicated by tenses are somehow calculated, that tenses have an indexical component (they denote via the notion of speech time) (and an anaphorical one, cf. Partee 1973, which we don’t need to discuss in this chapter), and that accounting for tenses implies, as Recanati (2006: 64) puts it after preceding philosophers, “the need to capture the primacy of the internal perspective in dealing with the representation of time in language and thought”. The ‘moments’ associated with tenses are points and intervals bearing temporal relations, following the seminal work of Reichenbach (1947) and the many develop- ments and refinements of his initial schematic proposal. The nature of tense as an indicator of temporal reference has been subject to many discussions, which are

1 See Recanati (2006: Chapter 6) for a review of philosophical debates on the nature of tense. Recanati finds an advantage in treating tenses as operators since it allows us to “capture the internal perspective on time which characterizes our thought and talk” (p. 64). See Nicolle (1996), Moeschler (1998), and de Saussure (2003, 2011a) for discussions on tenses as procedural (vs. conceptual) expressions. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 47 widely represented elsewhere in this volume, notably the diachronic primacy of aspect over tense, of space over time, the possible reducibility of tense to modality (see Jaszczolt 2009) or to space and distance (Chilton, this volume), and the anyway complex intrication of temporal and modal meanings (see Gosselin’s, Rocci’s, and Jaszczolt’s chapters in this volume). I will not focus here on these issues but I will in the end have to consider some of them incidentally. In a number of cases, some of them very well known, tenses do not or not only refer to the time(s) they should refer to according to their intuitive semantics: some present tense utterances tell about a past or a future; some utterances with a past tense tell about a present or a future; some future tense utterances are about the present or the past. Either these cases call for a refinement of the theory, and then various possibilities are on offer, from the import of notions like modulation or accommodation to the contribution of complex compositional rules and semantic constraints; or they suggest the need for a completely other theory where time is not central to tense. We will not take a final decision on these possibilities, leaving this to philosophers. Our contribution regards the possibility of accounting for such cases through general pragmatic principles that take times as inputs, whatever the right metaphysical theory that explains these times, which are empirically taken to be understood by speakers. Indeed, some kind of conflict does often arise between the information conveyed by the tense as such and either a contextual assumption about the utterance being about some other time (as in That will be the postman when the doorbell rings) or a conflicting adverb (as in I’m leaving tomorrow). Such cases raise serious issues. The questions I am thus going to address are: How is it that such constrained referential morphemes as tenses allow for switches in their temporal denotation? How do we cognitively build such switched representations? What exactly is switched in such cases? What does it tell us about the properties of tense as a morpheme and about our ability to represent time through their indications? My claim is that there are three ways to switch the temporal meaning of a tense under the pressure of other linguistic and non-linguistic, contextual, information, which I will discuss in the light of three such cases in French, with occasional comparison with English. I will successively consider narrative and other non- background uses of the French past imperfective tense, future time reference with the French composed past (a tense morphologically equivalent to the English present perfect), and epistemic futures, which look quite similar in French, English, and in a number of other languages. An important caveat has still to be made: not all apparently switched uses of tense are truly such. A typical example of this is when the waiter, having noticed your calling, utters I’m coming when precisely going away. In that very case, some might say that the utterance describes a future state of affairs, which implies either that the present tense is not truly such but something else, for example an 48 Louis de Saussure ambiguous morpheme between present and other possible times, or a ‘temporally neutral’ morpheme, as many linguists and philosophers have suggested.2 On the contrary, one might stick to the simple and naive idea that the present tense is about the present time, as I do. Then, either the present of “I’m coming” uttered by the waiter going away represents a future time and has to be accommodated in a similar vein as Dowty’s(1979: 156) futurate presents (I’m leaving tomorrow) or it represents indeed the present time, which is counter-intuitive at first sight, but which I nonetheless suggest. Keeping in mind that verbal communication is about the pragmatic world, the waiter’s utterance is better explained as representing the present state of affairs (the waiter is coming), so that all the pragmatic consequences of that very representation are made accessible to the hearers: the waiter will be here in no time, the call has been noticed, etc. That the contextual information contradicts the truth of the representation is here another matter completely: doing so, the waiter informs that his going away is precisely an event that should not be taken into account, the only relevant information being that he’s on his way. In such a case, I claim, the present remains a true present entirely, without calling for anything like a deictic shift or whatever other kind of change in the representation (nor even for an extended-now interpretation). Said in Gricean terms: that the speaker violates ostensively the maxim of quality calls simply for re-establishing cooperation in terms of implicatures. What the tense itself represents here is in no way changed, switched, or accommodated. In what follows, I will turn to utterances whose understanding in context does call for a change in the tense’s structure, its placement on the line of time, or a component of its meaning. I will turn first to non-background meanings of the French imperfective past, which, I claim, imply a modification of the R-point; then I will discuss future switched present perfects in French, before I turn to epistemic futures dealing with, I suggest, a modification of the eventuality itself, thus, sche- matically, a modification operating on E, since E represents the moment where the expressed eventuality happens.

3.2 Narrative and other non-background use of the French imperfective past The French imperfective past tense, imparfait (IMP), differs from the English past progressive in that it doesn’t imply dynamicity (Molendijk 2005): the IMP is compatible with any predicate and normally implies a representation for which the eventuality is conceived of as being in the course of happening (activities and accomplishments) or ongoing (states) at R; with achievements, the IMP-utterance

2 See, for example, Recanati (1995, 2006: 74), and Sauerland (2002), among many others. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 49 normally triggers a representation of the preparatory phase, just as happens with other types of durative marking. In all these cases, IMP-utterances imply that the eventuality is unbounded so that no temporal ordering is expected between IMP- utterances (Kamp and Rohrer 1983). Yet with accomplishments and achievements, and also with activities (but less easily with non-agentive activities), IMP-utterances can also trigger an unexpected reading for which the eventuality is bounded, allowing forward temporal ordering with series of such IMP-utterances, therefore called ‘narrative’-IMP-utterances; we turn to this case of interest shortly. Typical IMP-sentences are durative, as exemplified below, and are usually described as setting up a background (Weinrich 1964): (1)Jeprenais mon bain lorsque le téléphone sonna. roughly equivalent to (1’): (1’)Iwas taking a bath when the phone rang. or: (2) Marie connaissait bien Max. roughly equivalent to (2)’ but impossible with a past progressive in English (2’’): (2’) Marie knew Max well (at this time / already . . . ) (2’’) *Marie was knowing Max well. A simple formula for the IMP which roughly fits with these canonical, standard, cases, can be something like (3): the reference point R, inherited from some other sentence with a perfective past or a punctual adverb, is situated inside an ongoing eventuality E (Reichenbach uses a notion of ‘extended’ time reference for this, which he applies to the progressive in English as well), and R precedes S: (3)R E&R– S The meaning of IMP-utterances with achievements is more complicated and calls for an extended discussion that we can’t pursue here. Typical interpretations of IMP-utterances with achievements are about a preparatory phase (as usual with durative marking of achievements), as with (4): (4) Paul atteignait la ligne d’arrivée quand la police arriva. ‘Paul was reaching the finish line when the police arrived.’ Yet when certain contextual constraints are met, IMP-utterances behave in a puzzling way, called ‘narrative’, where the completion of the eventuality, and thus boundedness is interpreted. This is apparently contrary to the formula in (3), which leaves the eventuality open after the reference point, which in turn blocks 50 Louis de Saussure temporal progression in discourse. Narrative cases are, however, obviously compatible with temporal progression, and thus aren’t about a descriptive background. They translate in English not with progressives but with simple pasts, even when the VP is dynamic. Here, what is represented is an event: (5) Le lendemain, Paul partait. ‘The next day, Paul left’ (*was leaving). (6) La clé tourna dans la serrure. Monsieur Chabot entrait, posait son pardessus et s’asseyait dans son fauteuil d’osier (adapted from Simenon, quoted by Tasmowski-de Ryck 1985) ‘The key turned in the hole. Mr Chabot came in, hung his coat on the hanger and sat down’ (*was coming in; *was hanging, *was sitting). (7) A huit heures, Marie trouvait ses clés et sortait. ‘At eight, Mary found her keys and left’ (*was finding; *was leaving). (8) Tintin mettait pied à terre sur l’aérolithe et plantait le drapeau du FERS. ‘Tintin stepped on the aerolite and planted the FERS flag’ (*was stepping; *was planting). It is argued in de Saussure and Sthioul (1999, 2005) that the right way to go into this puzzle is to assume that IMP gets accommodated when boundedness and/or temporal progression is mandatory because of contextual assumptions (as with (6) and (7)) or of an adverb ((5) and (7)). The question then is to know into what kind of representation the IMP gets accommodated, and how, without having to assume very counter-intuitively two different versions of IMP in the lexicon, one without boundedness and one with boundedness. IMP has a number of other meanings which don’t comply with the formula in (3) either; these are usually called modal in the French literature, although they rather deal with (among other meanings) conditional counterfactuality, indirect speech acts, and free indirect speech and thus are not all ‘modal’ in the usual narrow understanding of ‘modality’: i) (conditional) counterfactuality, as in (9): (9) Une minute de plus et le train déraillait. ‘One minute more and the train derail-IMP’. meaning something like (9’): (9’) One minute later, the train would have derailed. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 51 ii) indirect speech acts (similarly as with the English simple past): (10) J’avais une question. I have-IMP a question. ‘I had a question.’ iii) the ongoingness in the past of a thought occurring to a third party about some eventuality (free indirect speech): (11) La bonne ( . . . ) parlementa quelques instants avec un homme resté en bas, dans la rue. Il venait chercher le médecin ; il avait une lettre. Nastasie descendit les marches en grelottant, et alla ouvrir la serrure et les verrous, l’un après l’autre. (Flaubert, Madame Bovary) ‘The servant talked for a moment with a man downstairs in the street. He look- IMP [was looking] for the doctor; he have-IMP [had] a letter . . . (rendered as the other character’s perception in free indirect speech)’ (12)L’existence de Madame de Rênal fut changée. Julien l’aimait donc bien, puisque de lui-même il avait décidé de la revoir. (Stendhal, The Red and the Black) ‘Mrs de Rênal’s life was changed. Julien love-IMP [loved] her indeed, since he himself decided to see her again.’ (13) Mon père, en m’embrassant, fut saisi d’un tressaillement que je crois sentir et partager encore. “Jean-Jacques, me disait-il, aime ton pays.” (Rousseau, Confessions) ‘My father, kissing me, had a shiver, which I can still feel and share. “Jean- Jacques, he tell-IMP [was telling] me, love your country”’ (see de Saussure and Sthioul 2005). The recourse to contextual information is often mandatory in order to specify which reading is relevant, as in (14) (see also Sthioul 1998b: 213): (14) Le chef de gare actionna le signal. Une minute plus tard, le train partait. ‘The station officer turned the signal (on/off ). One minute later, the train leave-IMP [left/was to leave/would have left].’ (14) is ambiguous between three readings (the train actually left—narrative reading; the train was to leave in a minute so that it was the right time to switch on the signal—free indirect speech; the train was to leave in a minute and luckily the attendant switched off the signal so that it did not leave—counterfactual reading, probably best rendered in English with a conditional). Hence we conclude that general pragmatic constraints of discourse processing are brought in (for example 52 Louis de Saussure a principle of relevance of the kind proposed by Sperber and Wilson 1995) when it comes to selecting the intended interpretation. De Saussure and Sthioul (1999, 2005) suggest that in all cases where the formula (3) does not hold, the variable which is normally saturated by R is saturated by a moment at which a third party perceives the action as being in the course of happening, whatever it may be in terms of Aktionsart. In other words, when a narrative reading occurs with IMP, that is, when the completion of the eventuality and/or a temporal progression has to be inferred for contextual reasons of relevance or consistency, the reference point, which is not perspectival, is exchanged for a perspectival point viewing the action as ongoing (thus an inner viewpoint, so to speak).3 Narrative IMP utterances, often described as truth-conditionally equivalent to simple past utterances, are predicted in fact to be distinct from simple past utterances in that they imply a projection, or cognitive simulation, anchored on a third-party viewpoint. A similar line of argument can be pursued with utterances with the imparfait tense conveying free indirect speech (a third-party thought) and counterfactuality: in all these cases, we suggest that the IMP does not merely represent a past situation overlapping an anaphoric R-point but a simulated substitute. This line of argument may seem quite speculative, although fitting well with native speakers’ intuitions. But a decisive argument was provided by Sthioul (1998b), who noticed that narrative IMP cannot always commute with simple pasts (as previously held in the literature), so that there has to be a semantic difference between the two; and more precisely, a marker of subjectivity makes narrative-IMP natural and simple past odd. The argument is the following: the insertion of déjà (roughly: ‘already’) is possible with IMP as a marker of surprise about the occurrence of the eventuality (15), whereas it cannot bear this meaning with the simple past (SP) (16) (examples adapted from Sthioul 1998b: 213): (15) Le train quitta Londres. Une heure plus tard, il entrait déjà [surprise] en gare de Birmingham. ‘The train left London. One hour later, it enter-IMP already [surprise] in Bir- mingham station.’ (16) Le train quitta Londres. Une heure plus tard, il entra déjà [*surprise] en gare de Birmingham. ‘The train left London. One hour later, it enter-SP already [*surprise] in Birming- ham station.’

3 I don’t refer here (exactly) to what Recanati (2006) names ‘perspectival thought’, although the existence of a subjective viewpoint does indeed imply a contextual switch. The notion of ‘perspective’ here doesn’t deal with adopting another person’s assumptions, but rather with the non-propositional grasping of (here) an eventuality, thus a very much lower-level process than figuring out the conceptual/ propositional thoughts of someone else (which is also an existing and common mental process, of course). Perspectival interpretations of tenses 53

Both examples would translate in English with a simple past, but the specific notion of subjectivity with the IMP (and absence thereof with the French SP) is lost in the translation: (15’) The train left London. One hour later, it already entered Birmingham. Sthioul’s conclusion is that narrative-IMP sentences license markers of subjectivity; therefore, he claims, the eventuality is not represented with an R-point anaphorically obtained (in this case the event of leaving London), which can’t give relevance to the utterance since entering Birmingham station cannot be seen from the point provided by ‘leaving London’, but with recourse to a third-party perspective, here that of the individual feeling surprise, which serves as a substitute for the R-point in formula (3). Along this line of investigation, a point of representation is still situated inside an ongoing eventuality, but that very point is the perspective of some third party figured out as witnessing it. A further consideration worth paying attention to is that the IMP still bears an imperfective flavour, representing a situation as ongoing even if completed and bounded. Both parameters—inner and perspectival viewpoint—confirm the intuition often mentioned in the literature, that narrative-IMP offers a particularly ‘vivid’ rendering of eventualities, which makes it a preferred choice in a number of cases such as newspaper narratives or focus in literary fiction; ‘vivid’, we claim, is just an approximate notion of ‘represented as if seen and felt by a subjective perspective’. Why it is that a perspectival substitute for R allows for boundedness and progression is still a matter of debate. This analysis also has the advantage of collapsing all non-background IMP into a single category of subjective readings, implying that R is toggled with some third- party viewpoint or ‘perspective’, since a similar analysis can be made of all of them, while background IMP utterances are successfully explained without this perspectival device. Hence all non-background IMP utterances correspond to (3’) with S’, a projected non-egocentric, that is allocentric, deictic point, replacing the R-point of (3): (3’)S’ E&P– S Of course, the conclusion of this is that the semantics of IMP involves a variable to saturate either with R or with S’,sothat(3)and(3’) are saturated versions of a basic arrangement of coordinates; what leads to either (3)or(3’) is a procedure of context- dependency and relevance-checking (de Saussure 2003; de Saussure and Sthioul 2005). That the eventuality is represented through a perspective distinct from that of the speaker at S makes it an allocentric usage of language, assuming that perspectives are bound to an individual.4 An important question is whether such allocentric usages of

4 That a perspective point has to be bound to individualities is a complex and controversial issue. That one can represent an object from the perspective of an inanimate object, as in ‘on the left of the plane’ 54 Louis de Saussure language, triggered by a tense, are similar or different from what happens with forms of reported speech, for example, irony, if it is admitted that irony is a case of ‘mention’ (Sperber and Wilson 1995), that is, in their terms, an interpretive use of language; that is, a representation by the speaker at S of another representation, attributed to another instance, of some fact, thus a metarepresentation. What is actually at issue is whether the speaker of utterances of type (5)to(8) above is making a metarepresentation or not. I suggest the latter and will return to this below. The theoretical questions raised by the narrative IMP are about the nature of the process that leads to such pragmatic modulations of its meaning. In particular, while it is clear that a deictic shifting of the temporal reference with, for example, so-called ‘historical’ futures and presents, is somehow ‘just’ pragmatic—it is in no way inscribed in the semantics of the tense—what happens with the narrative IMP is unclear. It is in particular unclear whether abandoning the R-point and replacing it by another ‘perceptive’ deictically shifted point is a mere pragmatic-conceptual operation, that is, the result of general cognitive pragmatic principles of interpretation, or whether, rather, IMP encodes a less determined semantic description like ‘some point inside some eventuality’ together with a number of parameters determining how to saturate that point depending on collocations and contextual information. If so, IMP does not simply encode a combination of coordinates, but also imposes a kind of procedure about what to do with these coordinates according to contextual information, leading to a relevant interpretation. In many cases, the anaphoric R-point is available and thus used, but under specific contextual constraints (completion of the eventuality and/or progression), a S’ switched deictic point is constructed and used instead. IMP is not the only tense triggering such perspectival interpretations. Of particular interest are future uses of the French present perfect (passé composé) and epistemic futures (in various languages).

3.3 Future reference with the present perfect in French (passé composé) The French passé composé (PC) is morphologically equivalent to the English present perfect (PP), but presents a number of known differences with it. In particular, only the French PC is compatible with repetitive past experience (17), narration (18), and past adverbials (19) (that the English PP is normally unhappy with adverbials is an issue known as ‘the perfect puzzle’ since Klein 1992; see also Pancheva and von Stechow 2004): meaning on the left side of the plane having a front and a back, that is possibly on the right of the plane from the speaker’s point of view, is not a decisive argument since one can represent the viewpoint of virtually anything as if from an individual; furthermore, representing an eventuality from some point of perspective seems to imply the representation of an individual allocentric conceptualization of that eventuality. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 55

(17)J’ai aimé aller au cinéma / J’ai beaucoup aimé ça. ?I’ve enjoyed going to the pictures. / ?I have enjoyed this a lot. (meaning ‘I used to enjoy’) ‘I used to enjoy going to the pictures’ / ‘I used to enjoy this a lot’5 (18) Le concierge est descendu, il a fermé la porte et est parti. ?The attendant has come down (vs. came down), ?has closed (vs. closed) the door and ?has gone (vs. went away). ‘The attendant came down, closed the door, and went away’. (19) Marc est arrivé à cinq heures / hier. *Mark has arrived (vs. arrived) at five / yesterday. ‘Mark arrived at five / yesterday.’ Interestingly, futurate uses of the PC are possible in French, Italian, and in other varieties of Romance, but impossible with the English PP (maybe simply because futurate PC (FPC) requires a future adverb while the PP usually rejects adverbs). Typical examples of FPC are of the following kind: (20)J’ai bientôt fini / J’ai fini dans 10 minutes. I finish-PC soon / I finish-PC in 10 minutes. *I have soon finished / *I have finished in ten minutes. Tra un attimo ho finito. (Italian) ‘I am done soon, I will be done soon / in ten minutes.’ (21) Dans un an, j’ai fini ma thèse. *Within a year from now / *In one year, I have finished my thesis. ‘In a year, I will be done with my thesis.’ In a similar vein as with the narrative imparfait, Sthioul (1998a) suggests that FPC triggers an allocentric representation in the future from which the eventuality is conceived as past. As a consequence, in such cases, the semantic meaning of the tense is not modified at all (contrary to what happens with the imparfait when R has to be exchanged with another point) but wholly deictically transported in the future, wholly shifted to the right, so to speak. The French PC has two main realizations: (i) past, as with (17) and (18); and (ii) perfect resultative. Resultative PC utterances convey the information that a resulting state of a past eventuality relevantly holds at S, similarly to the English PP, as with (22), which communicates not only that the keys have been found at some time in the past, but that the change of state induced by this event still holds in the present (the speaker still has the keys):

5 J’ai beaucoup aimé ça can mean either ‘I enjoyed this very much’ or ‘I used to enjoy this very much’. 56 Louis de Saussure

(22)J’ai trouvé mes clés. I find-PC my keys ‘I found my keys.’ The kind of interpretation triggered by a FPC is of the resultative type (see de Saussure 2011b for a development): what is communicated is that the resulting states hold at the considered future point, whether the event itself has yet occurred at S or not. Resultative PC can be schematized as follows, where ‘s’ stands for the resulting state, and ‘O’ for overlaps. (23)E– R, S & E ! sOS Formula (23) reads: E is anterior to R simultaneous to S and E implies a new resulting state (perfect) s overlapping with S. According to the assumptions above, FPC is nothing more than (23) where S is simply exchanged with a perspectival point S’ whose position is indicated by a future adverb: (24)S– S’;E– R, S’ &E! sOS’ S’ is a future projection of S, from which E is represented as past. The position of S is known only relatively to that of S’, so that nothing is known of the position of E relative to that of S. This makes FPC practically equivalent to the anterior future (AF), which also describes a resultative state of affairs true at some point in the future, although without a S’ perspectival projection. Hence (21) appears similar to (25) as far as temporal reference is concerned, the deictic switching being the only difference between the two: (21) Dans un an, j’ai fini ma thèse. Within a year, I finish-PC my thesis. (25) Dans un an, j’aurai fini ma thèse. Within a year, I finish-AF my thesis. Both are about a thesis already finished at a point in the future indicated by the adverb phrase (‘in a year from now’). Thus, the question raised by FPC is about the difference in meaning achieved by it with regard to AF, since that difference can’t be about temporal denotation. A possible line of investigation is that FPC is a perfect type of futurate present. An obvious motivation for having recourse to futurate presents is to trigger practical implicatures about the present situation of speech with regard to what is expected to happen in the future. More specifically, I suggest that indeed the FPC triggers a deontic-practical modality, that is, information about the conduct or attitude to adopt in the present, in the light of what is predicted to happen. This meaning is Perspectival interpretations of tenses 57 obtained through an allocentric representation, that is, a representation which is attributed to some third-party (the speaker in the future, normally) viewpoint. The meaning of such utterances, I suggest, is that the sentence will be utterable with literal meaning at the point in the future indicated by the adverb; thus the eventuality is presented as a reliable prediction as if it were actually uttered at a time when it will be past, and hence verified as certain. All this is absent from what AF does. In short, an utterance like (21) means something like (26): (26) Let’s imagine we are one year ahead: I have finished my thesis. If this is so, then the temporal meaning of the utterance is deictically shifted by the temporal adverb, and the semantics of the tense is in no way modified. Under the pressure of the adverb, it is a whole pragmatic process of deictic shifting that occurs. Typical restrictions that apply to FPC confirm the assumption of a deontic-practical modality. Dowty (1979) notes that futurate presents in English—but the same holds roughly for French—imply that the eventualities enter into some scheme of planned actions: (27) below is natural because it presupposes that a chain of actions is planned that leads to the All Blacks playing against France tomorrow, whereas (28), which is about an unpredictable event, does not enter into a futurate present construction: (27) Tomorrow the All Blacks play / are playing against France. (28) *Tomorrow the All Blacks play well. (adapted from Dowty 1979) We suggest that the eventuality as planned makes it a good candidate for having implications on what course of action or attitude to have in the present. What is planned to happen is going to happen unless a (major) failure occurs, which is not to be expected, so one has to prepare oneself, or to act, in accordance with the assumption that the projected event will happen. Here, the present induces a strong epistemic commitment to the future on the part of the speaker, and, as a consequence, implies a deontic-practical modality about the present. For (27), this might be about the need to buy tickets, or simply to rejoice in advance about the great match we’re going to watch tomorrow (or whatever other relevant consequence in the circumstances). FPC might then simply be a perfect version of futurate presents (as Vet 1992 claims), therefore implying both ‘planning’, following Dowty, and, we venture to suggest, a deontic-practical modality in the present on the basis of strong epistemic commitment. Under the hypothesis of ‘planning’, non-agentive predicates are expected to not enter this construction, hence the contrast between (29) and (30): 58 Louis de Saussure

(29) Le président est bientôt sorti de sa réunion. The president soon get-PC out from the meeting. ‘The president will soon be done with the meeting.’ (30) ??/*Demain, il a plu. Tomorrow, it rain-PC. ‘Tomorrow it will rain.’ But things are less clear than with futurate presents. Actually, with FPC, it appears that (30) does become acceptable in the right context, as we show below; therefore constraints on planning are weaker, or absent, with it. A number of other observations made in de Saussure (2011b) show that FPC, being a resultative (perfect), prevents the future temporal adverb from modifying the temporal reference of the eventuality E or of the resulting state, but specifies a non-ontological parameter, which is the positioning of the switched deictic projection S’ (the adverb says that there is a future moment at which the resulting state is true, regardless of its leftwards extension). Also, FPC is incompatible with narration (unless a global resulting state is available) and often appears with aspectual verbs, which are the best triggers for resulting states. But other verbs are equally available: (31) Dans une heure, j’ai débouché la baignoire [et tu peux prendre ton bain]. Within an hour, I unclog-PC the bathtub [and you can take a bath]. States (and to a certain extent, activities) raise further problems with the PC in general as a perfective tense, which I will not address here. The ‘planning’ criterion is not entirely sufficient if it is not understood as I suggest (the inference of practical consequences in the present). Examples such as (32) and (33) explicitly express planning, but are no less odd than is, apparently, (30): (32) ?Dans dix jours, j’ai acheté des cigarettes. In ten days, I buy-PC cigarettes. (33) ?Demain nous nous sommes rendus sur place comme prévu. Tomorrow we get-PC there as planned. Let me now briefly elaborate on the hypothesis that futurate PCs are licensed pragmatically by the possibility of drawing an inference with practical implications in the present in the perspective of the actual happening of the eventuality. Such an inference is in effect very salient in the typical contexts of occurrence of this form: (34)J’ai bientôt fini / le président est bientôt sorti de sa réunion. I soon finish-PC / the President be-PC soon out of the meeting. ! it’s worth waiting a bit. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 59

(35) Dans une heure, j’ai terminé la réparation. In one hour, I finish-PC fixing the car. ! it’s worth a wait in order to get the car back, worth having a coffee in the nearby café rather than go home and come back to the garage later, etc. In contrast, (36), with the anterior future, bears no invitation to wait for the fixing to be done. Of course such an implicature can be made, but it is no way triggered by the tense, even in this context: a cancellation of such an implicature about what to be prepared for is easy with AF in (38), whereas it sounds unexpected to have it with the FPC in (37): (36) Dans une heure, j’aurai terminé la réparation (the mechanic to the customer). In one hour, I finish-AF the repair. ‘In one hour, I will have finished the repair’. (37) Dans une heure, j’ai terminé la réparation, ?mais je ne pourrai vous la rendre que demain. In one hour, I finish-AF the repair, but I can-FUT give it back to you only tomorrow. ‘In one hour, I will have finished the repair, but I’ll only be able to give it back to you tomorrow.’ (38) Dans une heure, j’aurai terminé la réparation, mais je ne pourrai vous la rendre que demain. In one hour, I finish-AF the repair, but I can-FUT give it back to you only tomorrow. ‘In one hour, I will have finished the repair, but I’ll only be able to give it back to you tomorrow.’ This happens because with an FPC the speaker presents a state of affairs as true in the future, but also invites planning in the present, in view of this future state of affairs, for all sorts of things that are not communicated by the AF proper. If it is true that futurate PC communicates practical-deontic modality in the present (triggering inferences on what attitude should be adopted), the tense as a grammatical marker here determines specific pragmatic inferences in specific contexts with specific communicative goals. What, then, about the apparent oddness of (30)? If the hypothesis is correct, then (30) should be natural if contextual information is retrieved by the hearer in order to derive an implicature relevant in the present circumstances. Actually, if we consider one farmer talking to another about the need to water their lettuces now, the example looks natural, because of the implications of tomorrow’s rain on the currently appropriate course of action: 60 Louis de Saussure

(39) Demain il a plu [et tes salades sont sauvées]. Tomorrow it rain-PC [and the lettuces are safe] ! no need to water the lettuces now. FCP therefore indicates: i) a deictically shifted interpretation, which is pragmatically constructed under the pressure of a future time adverb positioning the projected point at which the utterance is predicted to be utterable literally (allocentric/metarepresentational/interpretive reading), a case which Sperber and Wilson (1995) might want to treat as ‘interpretive use of language’ and assimilate to irony and free indirect speech, or any other kind of reported thought or speech (all cases of ‘mention’), that is, a metarepresentation. But we suggest that this cognitive effect is obtained through access to a third party’s viewpoint in the first place, a process which is not metarepresentational. ii) more importantly, FPC entails an epistemic modality of certainty (it is a prediction presented as certain, as if already verified) and, as a pragmatic consequence, a deontic-practical modality about how to behave in the actual present in the perspective of the eventuality happening with certainty in the future.6 FPC implies a ‘pure’ deictic switch: the whole situation described is transported so that it anchors on an allocentric projection of S in the future; things happen differently with IMP, and, as we see below, with epistemic futures. What these differences imply for the notion of allocentric perspective itself is discussed in the conclusion to this chapter.

3.4 Deontic-practical modality with epistemic futures Epistemic futures (EF) are those future tense utterances which in fact serve to communicate the likelihood of the considered state of affairs in the actual present. Typical examples are: (40) [doorbell rings] That’ll be the postman. (41) Ce sera le facteur. (French) (42) Sarà il postino. (Italian)

6 FPC is, however, compatible to some extent with expressions of epistemic modality. Very complex issues of scope intervene in such constructions, such as Dans un an j’ai probablement terminé ma thèse ‘In one year I finish-FPC probably my thesis’, which I can’t discuss here. See Mari (2012) on the topic of epistemic modality with perfect tenses and in particular the passé composé. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 61

Other forms expressing future time are also available, such as anterior future and periphrastic future: (43) That’s gonna be the postman. (44) Ca va être le facteur. (French equivalent with periphrastic future) (45) That’s gonna be that idiot Max again. (46) Ca va encore être cet idiot de Max. (French equivalent with periphrastic future) (47) [The person expected has not arrived] She will have missed her train. (48) Elle aura raté son train. (French equivalent with anterior future) French grammarians Damourette and Pichon (1911 1936) were, to my knowledge, the first to suggest that EF represents a time where the verification of the state of affairs as being true is performed. In more contemporary terms, this amounts to saying that epistemic futures also trigger a perspectival effect: they do not denote the state of affairs but they do represent the event of its acknowledgement in the future. In our own terms, EF sets up a point of view in the future from which the situation is grasped as being the case. If this is correct, then the tense in EF-utterances has just the meaning of the future tense in general (there is no deictic shift or other accommodation of the tense semantics) and the epistemic reading stems from pragmatic features through a change in the nature of the eventuality (from P, say, be the postman, the hearer gets to an event of ‘verify P’). EF triggers a change in the concept, not in the tense itself. Our assumption is thus twofold: a) EF represents verification, in the future, of an assumption about the present state of affairs; b) EF does this through perspective switching: the state of affairs is represented as verified by a third party located in the future who can truthfully assert its truth. We shall call (a) the verification hypothesis and (b) the perspectival hypothesis. We claim that (a) is actually a result of (b) and will provide arguments to this effect below. That EF is best explained by (a) is not consensual: other assumptions are available, notably if one considers the future as an epistemic modal marker rather than a tense (for counter-arguments see de Saussure and Morency 2012), or if one suggests that EF stems from complex compositional parameters (Caudal 2012). The advantage of (a)—besides intuition—is one of simplicity, keeping the future tense a tense about future time, dealing with simple coordinates on the timeline, so to speak; the epistemic meaning with EF is then derived inferentially through general pragmatic principles of information processing, which affords relevance to potentially incon- gruent representations (a state of affairs known to be present together with a future tense description of it). 62 Louis de Saussure

This view, however, raises a series of questions: What are the conditions that allow or trigger epistemic interpretations of future tense utterances? How do we proceed in order to move from the representation of a situation in the future to an inference about the present situation? And most of all: What is the difference between the meaning brought in by EF and that of explicit modal utterances, such as it is probably the postman ringing? We know that the switching of eventualities from ‘P’ to ‘verify P’ arises in contexts where two conditions are met: (i) it is mutually manifest in the context that a state of affairs compatible with P is occurring at speech time; and (ii) that the state of affairs is represented as true in the future, not in the present. The inference resulting from these two facts is that the speaker is unable to assert the truth of the state of affairs in the present but nonetheless feels able to assert its truth in some (near) future. From this then stems a further inference, that the meaning of the utterance is that of an epistemic attitude that is stronger than mere possibility (usually considered a high probability). The path of inference explaining epistemic futures is rather simple and easy to spell out within any pragmatic theory of implicatures that can deal with representational conflicts and general principles.7 But simple as it is, it is still far more complicated than the insertion of a simple epistemic adverb in a present tense clause, which communicates explicitly and quite directly the result of a far more lengthy path of inference with EF: (49) It is probably the postman. Hence the question arises of the difference in meaning obtained with EF as compared with that of (49). It is occasionally suggested in the literature that EF expresses not only an epistemic meaning but also inferential evidentiality,8 comparable to epistemic must (although with some particularities); in other words, EF would express that the communicated modal information, for example it’s most probably the postman in (49), is presented as being the result of reasoning, not a mere stipulation. Such reasoning would in turn be based on several premises, among which are (i) the grasping of a particular situation (for example the doorbell’s ringing), and (ii) background assumptions (for example if the doorbell rings at this time, it’s usually the postman). In this view, EF typically explains some event (like the doorbell’s ringing). But the evidential status of epistemic futures is very much debatable: in some cases, such as (50)or(51), no inference is available, no situation

7 In a Relevance-Theoretic framework, the search for relevance would start from the irrelevance of the utterance in qualifying a present state of affairs and move towards finding a motivation for the future representation through the assumption that if the speaker talks about the future when he’s expected to talk about the present, then he doesn’t know it for sure. 8 See Dendale and van Bogaert (2012) and de Saussure (2012) for a closer view of EF as possibly conveying an evidential flavour as a consequence of pragmatic processing. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 63 has to be explained. The epistemic meaning seems here to stem only from unreliable memory: (50) Call Max: he will know a plumber. (51) Elles seront sur ce présentoir là-bas (the seller answering about a brand of shoes) ‘They will be on that stand over there.’ All these things make inferential evidentiality an optional parameter for EF (therefore EF cannot be considered an evidential expression in the sense of Aikhenvald 2004). As far as reference to a mental state is taken as a ground for epistemic meaning, it is unclear whether EF is different from straight explicit epistemic formulations as in (49). In fact, what differs with EF with regard to epistemic adverbs has to do with practical things. For example, the most natural move following the utterance of (51) is to go and check, with the assumption that the shoes will be found where indicated. The seller who would in contrast utter (52) doesn’t seem to engage himself or the customer very much with a course of action leading to a potential purchase: (52) They are probably on that stand over there. He indicates the raw information without any idea of further verification, and, we would add, of the need to act accordingly (and he is thus a bad salesman: what is retained is that he doesn’t know the answer, whereas in (51), the speaker is thought of as being confident that the customer will find the shoes where indicated). This leads us back to the allocentric projection into the time of verification, in turn triggering other very pragmatic meanings about the need to take some particular course of action, something which is unavailable with (49)or(52). Hence, we suggest that EF implies two components of meaning which can be spelled out as follows. First, as Sthioul (1998b) claims, future verification is presented as being realized by an allocentric third party represented in the future, since, we should add, verification in itself implies a notion of direct perception or mental operations which have to be represented as held by some subject: verification is not an event that can occur in the world without a subjective individual being its locus. This component is activated with EF because the utterance seems rather to convey a prediction about the propositional content being asserted literally with the present tense in the future, as in (53) (rather than mere epistemic probability, as in (49)): (53) In some (near)9 future, it will be possible to utter truthfully ‘It is the postman’.

9 That is, a future where the current state of affairs still holds. 64 Louis de Saussure

It should be noted that (53) represents epistemic certainty in the future. Logically, if it is shared knowledge that the situation at S is uncertain, then it is impossible to assert its very certainty from a future standpoint, since, as a principle, an epistemic value at S can only decrease at Sþn.10 But here, communication is about predicting the truth in the future, not predicting what the future may look like starting from an assumption about a state of affairs at S. Second, and because of this epistemic load of ‘certainty in the future’, we claim that EF imposes a representation of a desirable course of action, or attitudes, to be held by the interlocutors in the very deictic present, an effect that is absent from explicit modal utterances. This is what we called (de Saussure and Morency 2012)a deontic-practical modality with EF utterances, just as with FPC, to which we return shortly. EF is not always possible, first because of semantic restrictions based on aspect (other restrictions to specific verbs and to personal pronouns are presented by Celle 2004 but rejected in de Saussure and Morency 2012; see also Bellahsène 2007 on such restrictions). These are explained by the (relative) permanence of situations as a necessary condition for future verification. Hence, in particular, incompatibility with achievements.11 There are also a number of language-specific features that make EF more or less available in various situations across languages, in particular when, as with Italian, EF has become the most standardized form for expressing probability. In such a case, because of grammaticalization, it is likely that EF triggers less complex inferences than in languages where EF appears as a form to be justified in context with regard to the more expected adverbial modal expressions (for EF in Italian, see Rocci 2000). In French or English, where EF is not the standard way of expressing probability, a number of truly pragmatic restrictions seem to appear, without any direct relation to aspect or formal parameters in general. A first set of pragmatic oddities appears, consistent with the ‘verification’ hypothesis, with utterances which represent situations that cannot be verified in any accessible future: (54) ??The Universe will be spherical. [epistemic reading] (55) ??God will be lenient with him. [epistemic reading] At the same time, the fact that EF can’t occur here challenges our hypothesis that verification is represented as assumed by some perspectival point of view, since as a

10 Caudal (2012) refers to this argument against the notion of verification with EF. 11 But it becomes possible with achievements in the passive form and with cleft constructions, at least in French; in de Saussure and Morency (2012), we argue that these cases induce a perfect reading and are therefore about a resulting state of affairs to be verified, not the eventuality expressed. States, activities, and even accomplishments are compatible with EF, although accomplishments seem to require a progressive form in English (I thank here Chris Hart and Paul Chilton for helping me with their native intuitions and Patrick Caudal for useful discussions), whereas in French non-stative verbs do not allow for an epistemic reading with an anterior future. Perspectival interpretations of tenses 65 principle, a perspectival point of view need not be conceived of as actual, so that a projection in a fictitious future should be possible. In fact such verifications are perfectly possible in other contexts: (56) He will have died thinking of his wife. (56’) Il sera mort en pensant à sa femme. (French equivalent of (56)) Future perspectival verifiability does not imply the factual, concrete, actual verifiability of the events in play. In (56), the speaker projects imaginatively a future consciousness which knows the thoughts of the deceased; and this is perfectly acceptable since human representation is not limited by ontological reality. In (56) the speaker is not merely making a simple conjecture but is adding a particular component of meaning. She communicates: ‘something similar to a future eventuality (of verification) is expected to prove that my assumption regarding the present is right.’ Whether this future eventuality is factually possible or not is a different question entirely. Thus examples like (54) and (55) call for another explanation. The supplementary hypothesis we wish to put forward is that which we have already developed regarding the futurate composed past in French: in both cases, we argue, representing a future truth bearing on the present is relevant only in cases where the represented eventuality has a causal impact on a fact currently relevant to the interlocutors, or an impact on the actions to be presently undertaken in relation to the situation represented. In sum: both FCP and EF trigger a deontic-practical modality that concerns S. The oddness in (54) and (55) yields here to another explanation. If the spherical nature of the universe were relevant for the interlocutors at speech time, then the epistemic reading would seem quite natural; it is the difficulty of imagining such a context that restricts this possibility and rules it out. (55) is problematic for similar reasons; yet one needs only to imagine a play, staged in the afterlife, where certain beings are surprised not to witness the arrival, in Hell, of a certain individual, a renowned sinner, thus making God’s indulgence relevant, and hence (55) appear normal, calling for a change in attitudes (‘it’s not worth waiting for him’). The oddness of (54) and (55) is only pragmatic: in (quite strange) contexts where the nature of the universe or God’s lenience bears an impact on what should be done in the present, (54) and (55) become acceptable. In sum, besides the representation of a verification of an eventuality by an allocentric projection, EF prompts for a particular deontic-practical modality. There is still a consequence of the allocentric projection that remains to be spelled out in order to get a full picture. So far, we have assumed that EF is about eventualities and facts, which is of course correct. But the way EF speaks about these eventualities and facts proceeds through an embedding of representations: the speaker represents another representation of facts, i.e. that of an allocentric instance. What is then actually represented by EF is not directly about eventualities and facts 66 Louis de Saussure but about beliefs: it is a belief about a present state of affairs that is presented as being verifiable in the future, combined with a consequence at the time of speech. This makes the epistemic future resemble cases like the French IMP (imparfait)of politeness ( J’avais une question ‘I had a question’, a case we did not discuss, but see de Saussure and Sthioul 2005), or the counterfactual IMP (Une minute de plus et le train déraillait, discussed above in (9)), where a present situation is envisioned in a different temporality, a different possible world, in order to produce specific interpretive effects. For the epistemic future, these effects would thus be linked not only to the epistemic nature of a belief that is uttered, but also to a specific degree of speaker endorsement or commitment, which distinguishes it from explicit modal formulations like I believe that P or Perhaps P, or even It is likely that P. In turn, the accuracy of the belief concerned has the deontic-practical consequences we mentioned. It is at this level, we think, that the difference is most clearly apparent between His train will be going through a tunnel, which can typically be imagined in a context where the utterance prompts one to wait for a better time to call again, and I think his train is going through a tunnel, which gives raw modal information. The latter utterance is descriptive of the belief itself, certainly allowing for a particular attitude or action, but not prompting for it outright. It thus appears, if we are correct, that what makes such an utterance relevant by comparison with more explicit modalities is not an evidential inferential meaning, but rather a prospective action or attitude to be adopted, which is to be undertaken in order to better adapt to a forthcoming situation which is represented by the future tense utterance as being verified in the future by an allocentric subject witnessing its occurrence. That a future representation prompts for adopting an appropriate attitude or behaviour fitting with the projected state of affairs is not surprising. It should suffice to explain, in the end, the effect of EF by contrast with other ways of communicating epistemic modality. What is more complicated is how pragmatic inference works when achieving a present-time interpretation of a future tense, or any other use of a tense which departs from its temporal semantics. If a time is semantically coded by a tense, then modifying this should imply cancelling normally non-cancellable components of meaning. Moreover, tenses being operators (Recanati 2006) or procedural expressions (de Saussure 2003, 2010, 2011a), the operation(s) they encode are not expected to be affected by contextual features. A perspectival account of the kind we proposed should, however, escape this difficulty through the notion of some indeterminacy, not of the time attached to the tense (EF remains primarily about a future), but reinterpreting the description of the state of affairs itself. Such a change, from the representation of a state of affairs by the verb, to the representation of the event of its verification, does not modify the structure of the tense: it is an operation basically of the same nature as a conceptual modification, realized for the sake of meaningfulness or relevance. This might not be a complex theoretical issue, as the contextual information forbids that the concerned state of affairs be conceived of as Perspectival interpretations of tenses 67 starting in the future, so that it has to be true now. That it is represented as true in the future only, though, triggers the inference that it is not certain now, hence the epistemic effect. But figuring out a future verification by means of an allocentric projection allows to conclude a more finely grained modality than uncertainty, since it is represented as verified. Hence the conclusion that it is (highly) probable.

3.5 Conclusion: allocentrism as an indicator of simulation in language We have identified in this chapter three cases which might be successfully explained through a notion of perspective shift: non-descriptive utterances with the French imperfective past (unavailable in English), French present perfect (‘composed past’) utterances with future reference (unavailable in English) and future tense(s) in utterances with a meaning of epistemic modality about the present (‘epistemic future’, available in both English and French and, most probably, in many languages).12 Switched imperfective past utterances in French, we claim, instantiate an allocentric perspective point of perspective, thus an allocentric deixis, instead of the usual Reichenbach’s reference point R; the eventuality is then represented as ongoing from the perspective of a third party distinct from the speaker at S. Composed past utterances in French with future reference are interpreted as a shifting of the entire combination of coordinates imposed by the tense so that it doesn’t anchor on S but on a substitutive allocentric S’ situated at a future time indicated by an adverb (mandatory); as a consequence, the eventuality is represented as past from the perspective of a third party at S’ itself in the future. Epistemic future causes a change in how the eventuality taking place at E is conceived: it is interpreted as verification of the eventuality or, as we suggested, grasping of the eventuality as being true; this evaluation is understood, we claim, as performed from a subjective perspective, that is, again, a third party distinct from the speaker at S. Switched imperfectives are generated when the achievement of the eventuality has to be inferred for reasons of consistency or relevance. Such an inference is not expected to cancel the basic imperfective meaning of the imparfait in French; therefore R should not be part of the semantics of this tense, but, instead, another variable, which saturates either with R or with an allocentric point of perception S’, depending on whether an inference of achievement is performed. Switched composed past (French ‘present perfect’) is another matter completely, since the semantics of the tense is not itself affected by the whole deictic shifting which occurs under the pressure of the temporal future adverb. Epistemic futures are ultimately not a matter of a particular tense (it occurs with any future tense) but of a conceptual modification (from the eventuality to its verification or, better, its grasping). If all of

12 Since the epistemic interpretation of future tense utterances ultimately relies not on linguistic, but on conceptual processes, it is likely that it is not bound to specific languages. 68 Louis de Saussure this is correct, then it is not really that a pragmatic inference interferes with the semantics of an operator (or ‘procedural expression’), which would be problematic, but rather that these interpretations are made possible either by variables in the semantic structure of the tense (as with the French imparfait), or by choosing another point of origin in the calculus (with doesn’t affect the semantics, as with futurate composed past), or by reinterpreting a conceptual meaning (as with epistemic futures). This chapter is not the place to discuss the complex matter of the ways for cognition to access non-egocentric perspectives, but let me recall that if time always has to do with the deictic consciousness, or origo (Bühler 1934), then a few consequences are worth noting. If origo is something mental which manages the link between (i) the perception of the self or proprioception (having to do with consciousness of one’s bodily situation) and (ii) the perception of the external world, then temporal deixis has to do with the management of this at the level of time. In simple words, the temporal origo links the knowledge about one being at some moment of time with other things—events—being at some temporal distance from it (de Saussure 2008). As a consequence, an allocentric point of view that implies an inner apprehension of an eventuality, such as that associated with the use of non- descriptive imperfectives in French, is nothing more than the grasping of a secondary origo point associated with an imaginary subjectivity perceiving the eventuality as ongoing. That this secondary origo gets established as a substitute of the R-point with past imperfectives in French does not cancel the deictic basis for the calculus of tense but, so to speak, establishes a secondary now-point associated with a third party’s presenteness (which is thus represented as distinct from S). The deictic shift that occurs with futurate uses of the composed past, i.e. the instantiation of the future point of view for which P is true, does not eliminate the original S-point from the consciousness of the interlocutors—needless to say—so that consequences in the very present are ultimately derived. These deontic-practical effects, as we called them, are ultimately what communication is about: very pragmatic issues about the practical world and thus appropriate behaviour that is expected to fit with the world as it is or as it is expected to become. A similar line of explanation is suggested for epistemic future utterances. Such a change in origo, brought about by the needs of understanding natural language, seems better explained as a case of simulation than as a case of applying tacit theoretical laws of folk psychology (although I will refrain from drawing strong conclusions here). Language is often seen as an elaborated metarepresentational device, and clearly the arguments in favour of this view are massive and span various levels of language structure. According to this widely shared view, linguistic structures represent other representations (assumptions) which are themselves bound to speakers and are either about facts or, even, about other representations (as with reported speech or irony). In this latter case, there are in fact three levels of Perspectival interpretations of tenses 69 metarepresentational embedding: the utterance is a representation of an assumption, which is a representation of another assumption (another representation) about a fact. One can even venture that in John says that Paul wishes that Mary thinks that P, two more levels are added to the metarepresentational structure. Metarepresenta- tions are rather easy to deal with within a folk-psychology Theory of Mind, and thus with a theory–theory kind of model, since the building blocks of metarepresenta- tions can be assumptions. They are in contrast not easy to deal with through the weaker technical apparatus of simulation theory, which undergoes critical theoretical issues, such as lack of theorization and a reliance on stipulative introspection. Yet perspective shift with tenses seems to activate something far more direct and low-level in cognition than the deployment of a tacit theory called for by a theory–theory account: apprehending a situation as if perceived by other eyes in no way implies the grasping of anything like the assumptions available to that third party. In turn, but in turn only, such a simulative operation allows for metarepre- senting; hence the feeling that futurate composed past utterances are about a time where the composed past sentence will be utterable, that epistemic future utterances are about a time where the sentence will be utterable with a present tense: all effects that seem quite metarepresentational. If we are right, which only further investigations might show, then language exhibits both types of mindreading process and thus a reconciliation is called for between simulation theory and theory–theory, or some adaptation to cope with both types of empirical facts in the realm of the Theory of Mind. This page intentionally left blank Part II

Time and Modality This page intentionally left blank 4

Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch

PIETER BYLOO AND JAN NUYTS1

4.1 Introduction Time and (different types of) modality are known to interact in many complex and often still poorly understood ways. This chapter explores one dimension of this interaction: that is, what happens semantically when expressions of these categories meet in a clause. Specifically, we will focus on the semantic effects of the interaction between tense and the modal auxiliaries in a clause—i.e. the grammatical devices for expressing these semantic categories. And we will use Dutch as our object of study, a language in which—unlike in English—the ‘flectional’ possibilities of the modals (with fully productive preterite and non-finite forms) and the flexibility in the organization of the verbal group allow an interesting range of combinations of these forms. We will approach the matter from a cognitive–functional perspective (Nuyts 2001). We hope, first of all, to demonstrate the relevance of the notion of a ‘qualificational hierarchy’ as assumed in this framework. And second, at a more basic theoretical level, we hope to illustrate the fact that the form–meaning relationship in language—in this case, the way the semantic qualificational hierarchy is rendered at the linguistic surface—is complex and determined by several functional dimensions, and hence requires a dynamic process type model of the kind assumed in the cognitive–functional perspective (pace tendencies against such an approach in some branches of cognitive linguistics). This chapter is organized as follows. In Section 4.2 we introduce some basic concepts and notions: the cognitive–functional perspective, a definition of the semantic and

1 This research was supported by an IAP VI project (P6/44) funded by the Department for Science Policy of the Belgian Federal Government, and by a research project (G.0443.07) funded by FWO- Flanders. 74 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts formal categories figuring in the study, and the notion of a ‘qualificational hierarchy’. Section 4.3 presents the methodology used in the investigation, and Section 4.4 offers a detailed analysis of our data. Section 4.5 summarizes the findings and discusses them in the light of the notion of the qualificational hierarchy, and Section 4.6 draws some conclusions, turning to the broader issue of the meaning–form mapping.

4.2 Basic concepts and notions 4.2.1 The cognitive–functional approach The central tenet of the cognitive–functional perspective (as discussed in Nuyts 1992, 2001, forthcoming b) is that language is essentially a cognitive system for communication. The assumptions as such that language is a means for communication, and that it is a cognitive system, can hardly be called new or controversial: they are at the core of large parts of language research, including, notably, in traditional functional linguistics and in cognitive linguistics. Yet each of these strands arguably (see Nuyts 2005b, 2007, 2009b) concentrates primarily on just one of these dimensions (functional linguistics on the communicative dimension and cognitive linguistics on the cognitive one), and although neither of them will deny the importance of the other dimension, they do not actively focus on it. The consequence is that they both run the risk of developing views or concepts which are potentially problematic from the perspective of the disregarded dimension. The point of the cognitive–functional perspective, then, is that in order to be fully adequate, a theoretical model of language has to account for the cognitive and the communicative aspects of language on an equal basis and in a fully integrated way. Specifically, this combination of perspectives suggests the following two general principles as being basic to any concern with grammar—although many approaches in current cognitive and functional linguistics are not obviously in line with them. Both principles pertain to the relations between form and meaning in language. . The principle of ‘depth’. Since language is a system for communication and since communication is, at least to a considerable extent, a matter of transferring information about the world, the linguistic systems in cognition do not operate in isolation, but are unavoidably closely interrelated with the cognitive systems responsible for storing our knowledge of the world, and for our reasoning with that knowledge, i.e. what are commonly called the ‘conceptual systems’. There- fore, a cognitive model of language use cannot afford to concentrate on linguistic form (and linguistic meaning) only but is forced to also actively deal with these conceptual systems and how they relate to the linguistic ones. . The principle of ‘dynamism’. Communication is a complex problem-solving activity involving several different and often conflicting concerns. And each communicative situation is different in these terms. Consequently, the linguistic Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 75

system must be a dynamic, i.e. a context-sensitive, flexible, and adaptive usage system. And using the system as such is not self-evident either: communicating is often ‘hard labour’, not only in terms of interpreting the situation correctly and deciding how to act adequately, but also in terms of getting the ‘shape’ of the linguistic acts right. Hence coding conceptual meanings into linguistic forms is something that speakers must work out dynamically, on every communicative occasion. The principle of ‘depth’ is obviously central in cognitive linguistics (cf. the frequent concern there with the nature of conceptualization), but hardly so in most traditional functional linguistic approaches. And the principle of ‘dynamism’ is not obviously satisfied in either strand. Thus, one consequence of both principles—one which figures as a major background element in the present chapter—is that in any concern with linguistic phenomena one should clearly distinguish between dimensions of meaning and dimensions of (linguistic) form, and one should not assume a simple relationship between them. There are numerous examples in current functional and cognitive linguistics in which this idea is not obviously met, resulting in potentially debatable analyses and proposals (see Nuyts forthcoming b for elaborate discussion). One case in point is the strong tendency in cognitive linguistics to argue against ‘process’ models of grammar—a model type with separate levels of semantic/conceptual and syntactic representation which are linked by ‘intelligent’ mapping procedures—and to opt for construction type grammars, which centrally turn around ‘constructions’ as fixed meaning–form units (or ‘symbolic units’) and on the unification of such constructions as the only type of ‘operation’ in the system. For instance, Langacker (1987) and Croft (2001) have argued explicitly against the process type of model (and both obviously adopt a construction type of grammar, even if their actual models are quite different). Yet process models are obviously in line with the above principles, while construction grammars are far less so. The question of how process models and construction-based models differ requires a much more complicated and subtle answer than is often suggested (many presumed differences are actually purely notational; see Nuyts 2008b, 2011). But in any case, the concept of a construction as a fixed pair of a linguistic form and a (conceptual) meaning is potentially problematic, not only as a theoretical concept, but also in view of the empirical facts of language. Our present issue, the interaction of time and modality, may offer another illustration of this point.

4.2.2 Time and modality: the semantic dimension Let us start with the semantic dimension, and offer definitions of the notions that will figure in the analyses below. Time and modality are traditionally cornerstones of 76 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts the system of ‘tense–aspect–modality’ categories or ‘qualifications of states of affairs’. While the question of how to analyse the semantic concept of ‘time’ is far from resolved, there is probably fairly little dispute over its basic definition as involving the situation of a state of affairs (SoA) on/relative to the time axis. There is, however, much less agreement on how to define ‘modality’ (see Nuyts 2006, forthcoming a, for surveys of alternative views). In this chapter we follow the analysis in Nuyts (2005a, forthcoming b; Nuyts, Byloo, and Diepeveen 2010). Space prevents elaboration, but, in a nutshell, we do not consider modality to be one coherent semantic concept. Rather, we assume a series of separate categories, which we still call ‘modal’ for the sake of recognizability, but which differ in a few fundamental respects, and each of which figures separately at the same level of analysis as the concept of time. For our present purpose, the following categories are relevant: . Dynamic modality, concerning abilities/potentials or needs/necessities. There are three subtypes: (i) participant-inherent (‘dyn-inh’)—marking the inherent ability or need of the agent participant to realize the SoA (cf. John can swim; I must go to the toilet); (ii) participant-imposed (‘dyn-imp’)—marking a possibility or necessity for the agent participant ‘imposed’ by the circumstances (cf. John can enter, the door is unlocked; you must pass through the kitchen to get into the garden); (iii) situational (‘dyn-sit’)—marking a potential or inevitability inherent in the SoA as a whole, rather than in any participant (cf. in an earthquake even this construction material can get damaged; the driver was so drunk that this car accident had to happen). . Deontic modality (‘deo’), unlike in the literature, defined here as indicating the degree of moral acceptability of the SoA (cf. we cannot fire him just like that, he’s been our best employee for years—meaning ‘it would be immoral to do so’). (See Nuyts et al. 2010 for discussion; the traditional ‘deontic’ notions of permission and obligation are called ‘directive’ here—see below.) . Epistemic modality (‘epi’), indicating the degree of likelihood of the SoA (cf. John might be home). There is a substantial difference between dynamic modality on the one hand, and deontic and epistemic modality on the other, in the sense that the latter two are ‘attitudinal’ in nature, i.e. they concern, in different ways, the extent to which the speaker can commit himself to the SoA, while this does not apply to dynamic modality.2 Dynamic modality actually appears closely related to ‘quantitative aspect’, indicating the frequency or ‘incidence’ of the SoA (semelfactive, iterative, habitual, etc.).

2 The claim that categories such as deontic or epistemic modality are a matter of ‘degrees of commitment’, hence are attitudinal in nature, is certainly not uncontroversial, but going into this issue is beyond the present scope; see Nuyts (2005a, forthcoming b) for discussion. Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 77

On the other hand, a category usually not labelled ‘modal’, but which can also be called ‘attitudinal’ and which is also expressed by one of the modals, is: . Inferential evidentiality (‘evi’), indicating that the SoA has been inferred indirectly from other, directly perceived or generally known, facts. This category is expressed by must (and its Dutch cognate moeten), for example in someone is knocking at the door, that must be John.3 Finally, a category also prominent in the modals, but, as indicated—in spite of its traditional labelling as ‘deontic modal’—of a kind very different from all the above, is: . Directive (‘dir’), marking a permission, obligation, interdiction, advice, etc. (cf. you must go now). This is not an attitudinal or even ‘qualificational’ category, but an illocutionary one (the same as expressed by the imperative mood; see Nuyts et al. 2010). Although this will not be our central concern in this chapter, our analyses will indirectly offer further support for this view of the semantic fields involved.

4.2.3 Tense and the modals: the linguistic dimension We will be looking at the interactions of the tenses and the modals, as the grammatical devices for expressing time and the modal (and related) categories. But tense and the modals are structural categories, not semantic ones, and although they are prototypically correlated with the semantic dimensions mentioned, their status in these terms is not always obvious, and they are occasionally also clearly used in other ways. This is true to a relatively limited extent for the modals. In our analysis in Section 4.2.2, their directive use is an illustration. A few other non-modal uses will be mentioned in Section 4.3. But it is true to a much larger extent for the tenses (see also de Saussure, this volume). Thus, one obvious issue is the equivocal status of the perfect. In principle, it expresses ‘completedness’, and this is not a temporal category but a type of phasal aspect (marking the stage of development of a SoA). It is known, however, that in many languages, including English and Dutch, the perfect also often functions as a time marker. This double status of the perfect will be very manifest in the analyses below. For some forms one can even dispute whether they are tense forms or modals: English will and Dutch zullen often invoke an epistemic meaning, next to or even

3 The traditional notion of evidentiality, as an indication of the source of information about the SoA, is arguably not a coherent semantic category. While inferentiality may be considered attitudinal, this is probably not true of, for instance, hearsay or speech reporting; see Nuyts (forthcoming b) for discussion. This issue is immaterial for our present purposes. 78 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts instead of a future time reading, and which is most frequent is highly unclear (they are inextricably ambiguous between the two readings in many of their uses). Hence it is no surprise that these forms are sometimes considered modals. For the present purpose, however, we will handle them as tense forms. Yet other non-temporal uses of tense forms will show up in the course of our analyses. Such observations about the ‘multiple’ mappings between semantic categories and formal categories are obviously relevant in view of our theoretical point, made in Section 4.2.1. But also in practical terms, in our analyses below we will have to pay close attention to the specific meanings involved in individual uses of both the tense forms and the modals in order to draw conclusions about the semantic effects of their interaction.

4.2.4 The hierarchy of qualifications of SoAs Central for our analyses is the concept of the ‘hierarchy of qualificational categories’ as proposed (in different versions) in the functionalist literature, and specifically the cognitive–functional version of it, rendered in (1) (here confined to the semantic categories mentioned above; see Nuyts 2001 for discussion).4 ‘Directive’ (see Section 4.2.2) is not in this hierarchy because, as mentioned, it is not a qualificational but an illocutionary notion, hence has a separate status (see Nuyts 2008a).5 (1) > (inferential) evidentiality > epistemic modality > deontic modality > time > quantitative (frequency) aspect / dynamic modality > phasal aspect > SoA This hierarchy is meant to account for the relative extension of semantic scope of the categories involved: higher in the hierarchy means wider scope; categories have

4 At face value, this kind of hierarchy may seem to resemble Cinque’s(1999) functional hierarchy, proposed within the generative tradition. The theoretical context of the latter is so radically different from the present, however, that a simple comparison is impossible—so we will refrain from making it. Likewise, the interactions between time and types of modality (most notably epistemic modality) in particular, including their scope relations, as discussed below, have also been the subject of debate in formal semantics (e.g. Condoravdi 2002; von Fintel and Gillies 2008; see also Kaufmann, Condoravdi, and Harizanov 2006), but the present conceptual framework is too different to allow a simple comparison, and space prevents an elaborate discussion here. 5 Note the quite different position of dynamic modality as compared to deontic and epistemic modality (cf. Section 4.2.2). Also note that the three dynamic subtypes are not mentioned separately. Dyn-sit might seem to be more of a sentence-level category than dyn-inh and dyn-imp, and hence to have wider scope than the latter two. Yet the three subtypes are all equally affected by a time marker (see also Section 4.4). So for now we do assume that they occupy the same position in (1). Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 79 scope over those below them, but not over those above them. For example, in John will probably come home tomorrow, epistemic probably does affect temporal tomorrow: the probability judgement concerns ‘John’s coming home tomorrow’. But the epistemic assessment is not situated tomorrow; it applies at speech time. And so it is probably the case that John will come home tomorrow is fine, but *it is tomorrow the case that John will probably come home is nonsense. Hence epistemic modality is higher in the hierarchy than time. The hierarchy in (1) is meant as a hypothesis about the conceptual position of these categories, however, and there are factors which complicate the picture at the linguistic surface. Important for this chapter is the dimension of performativity vs. descriptivity, which applies to the categories above time. Thus, in (1) inferential evidentiality is above time—but surely, in, for example, yesterday it still seemed we could reach the top, but ultimately we haven’t, inferential evidential seem is in the scope of temporal yesterday,andnotviceversa.Thepointisthatthe evidential form here is not performative, that is, does not render the speaker’s view at the moment of speech (as was the case with probably in the example above). It is used descriptively, that is without involving speaker commitment—it reports on a former qualification by the speaker which is no longer applicable at speech time. Other types of descriptive use of qualificational forms involve reporting on another speaker’s qualification of a SoA, or the mentioning of a hypothetical qualification, for example in a question, or a conditional clause. The ‘conceptual’ status of performative and descriptive qualifications is quite different, though: the hierarchy in (1) captures only the performative versions of the qualifications above time; the descriptive ones are (to hugely simplify the situation) part of the SoA at the bottom of the hierarchy (see Nuyts 2001: 39ff., 2009a for further explanation).6 Still, the qualificational scope hierarchy does have visible effects in linguistic structure, for example in the linear order of expressions of these categories in a clause, most clearly so in the range of affixal markers on the verb. In terms of our own investigation, then, we should expect to see the hierarchy reflected somehow in the ‘grammatical scope’ of the tense forms and the modals in a clause; that is, in their grammatical dominancy relations or ordering in the verbal group. Let us see whether and how this is the case.

4.3 Method and data As indicated, we focus on Dutch as our object of study, because the language offers an interesting range of possibilities in the interaction of the modals and the tenses.

6 The performativity vs. descriptivity distinction actually also applies to illocutionary categories, hence also to our category of directivity; see Nuyts et al.(2010) and below. 80 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts

Of course, we assume that, at least at the basic level of how the linguistic and the semantic levels interact, the situation in Dutch is not idiosyncratic, but somehow representative for the situation in language in general—but whether this assumption is correct remains to be seen in the light of future comparable studies on other, preferably typologically substantially different, languages. Our investigation is supported by corpus data. The modals served as our basis for selecting instances. We have limited ourselves to the three most central Dutch modals: kunnen ‘can’, mogen ‘may’, and moeten ‘must’. Four hundred instances per modal were selected randomly but, for the sake of representativeness, with an equal share of spoken and written ones, and within each of these categories, of Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch ones (we will not compare these subsets though). The spoken data were drawn from the ‘Corpus Gesproken Nederlands’ (Nederlandse Taalunie 2004), a representative nine million word sample of current spoken Dutch. The written data were selected from the ConDiv Corpus (Grondelaers et al. 2000)of newspaper language, complemented by expository texts of different kinds drawn from carefully selected Internet sources. For all instances we have determined the precise meaning of the modal (in its discursive context). Each instance was analysed by between two and four researchers familiar with the meaning categories. Cases of disagreement were resolved through discussion. Cases of ambiguity (a pervasive phenomenon in the Dutch modals, even more so than in the English ones) were not forced into one category, but received a label for each of their possible meanings.7 As a background for our discussion in Section 4.4,Table4.1 shows the results of this analysis. Per modal, and for the three modals together, the ‘abs’ column presents the absolute number of instances in each meaning category, and the ‘%’ column indicates the share of the number of instances in each meaning category in the total number of instances (i.e. 400 per modal, 1,200 in total). It is important to notice that ambiguous instances are included in each of the possible meaning categories (i.e. Table 4.1 offers what we will henceforth call ‘maximal counts’). For example, if an instance of moeten is ambiguous between ‘dyn-imp’ and ‘dir’,itis included in the counts for both meaning categories. Consequently, the sum of all frequencies in the ‘abs’ columnperverbisalwaysmorethan400, and for the total more than 1,200, and the sum of the shares of the different meanings is always more than 100 per cent. For ‘dyn’,Table4.1 shows the total and below it the separate counts for the three subtypes (again in ‘maximal counts’). (Examples will be given in Section 4.4.)

7 Multiple labelling of an instance was never the result of disagreement between the raters; it always reflects a consensus that the alternative readings are possible. Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 81

Table 4.1 Meanings of the modals

moeten mogen kunnen total (n ¼ 400) (n ¼ 400) (n ¼ 400) (n ¼ 1200) abs % abs % abs % abs % dyn 249 62% 73 18% 389 97% 711 59% ------dyn-inh 41% 00% 121 30% 125 10% dyn-imp 189 47% 61 15% 237 59% 487 41% dyn-sit 72 18% 17 4% 82 21% 171 14% ------deo 85 21% 85 21% 54 14% 224 19% epi/evi 12 3% 00% 14 4% 26 2% dir 103 26% 247 62% 20 5% 370 31% other 54 14% 53 13% 00% 107 9%

A few remarks are in order. . Dynamic modality in mogen is marginal, in spite of the 18 per cent share. The absence of dyn-inh is no accident; it does not exist (any more) in this modal. And instances with the other dyn types are idiomatic, frozen relics of a formerly productive meaning—(2) is an example.8 (2) daar mag u van overtuigd zijn ‘You can be sure about that/be assured’ [C] Therefore, we will disregard dynamic uses of mogen in the discussion in Section 4.4.2.3. . Epi and evi are conflated in one row for reasons of simplicity (they also behave comparably in our present study), but the label ‘epi’ only applies for kunnen, ‘evi’ only for moeten. Mogen does not have an epi meaning any more. . The category ‘other’ covers a range of special uses. Some may still be ‘modality- related’, others are clearly not. In many of these it is nearly impossible to assign a precise meaning because of their purely idiomatic character. One frequent example is the use of mogen in Netherlandic Dutch and of moeten in Belgian Dutch to mark a conditional clause (equivalent to English ‘if’): (3) Mocht[/Moest] je dat op je website plaatsen, dan heb ik geen bezwaar ‘If you posted that on your website, I would not object’ [C]

8 For reasons of space we will not provide word-for-word glosses of Dutch examples, unless necessary. The relevant modal and tense forms are in boldface. Corpus examples are marked by ‘[C]’ after the English translation. Corpus examples, especially spoken ones, are often simplified by omitting irrelevant parts, false starts, pause fillers, hearer interruptions, etc. Spoken examples maintain the transcription conventions of the Corpus Gesproken Nederlands: for example, no capitals, no punctuation (‘?’ indicates rising intonation, ‘.’ marks the border between transcription units). 82 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts

This use no doubt originates in the dyn meaning, but it makes no sense to still label it so in present-day Dutch. Given their non-modal and/or unclear status, all ‘other’ cases are henceforth left out of consideration (and are also no longer included in the frequency counts in the tables). Let us now turn to the combination of these modals and the tenses. We will henceforth not differentiate between the three modals, unless it is relevant.

4.4 Analysis 4.4.1 Modals and the ‘simple’ tenses The Dutch modals still have productive present, preterite, and non-finite forms. Table 4.2 shows their frequency for the three modals together—in general, and per modal meaning separately—in the simple tenses, i.e. without a tense auxiliary.9 For the sake of clarity, the final double column shows the frequency of the modals in complex tenses, which will be handled in Section 4.4.2. Table 4.2 offers the absolute frequencies of each tense form (‘abs’), as well as the share of each (‘%’) in the total number of instances of the three modals, in general, and split out per meaning category. The calculation of the share also takes into account the instances with complex tense, but, for the general count, excludes the instances classified as ‘other’ (see Section 4.3). The frequencies for the separate meaning categories again involve ‘maximal counts’ (see Section 4.3).

Table 4.2 Modals and simple tenses

without tense auxiliary with tense present preterite non-finite total auxiliary abs % abs % abs % abs % abs % general 844 75% 160 14% 24 2% 1028 91% 103 9% dyn 524 74% 97 14% 20 3% 641 90% 70 10% ------dyn-inh 83 66% 24 19% 11 9% 118 94% 76% dyn-imp 377 77% 63 13% 92% 449 92% 38 8% dyn-sit 126 74% 16 9% 11% 143 84% 28 16% ------deo 179 80% 18 8% 31% 200 89% 24 11% epi/evi 11 42% 00% 00% 11 42% 15 58% dir 281 76% 67 18% 51% 353 95% 17 5%

9 Non-finite forms can occur in simple tenses, for example in non-finite subordinate clauses (cf. om te kunnen winnen heb je een betere conditie nodig ‘to be able to win you need to be in better condition’), or when preceded by a non-tense auxiliary, for example another modal (cf. dit moet je kunnen oplossen ‘it must be possible for you to solve this’;ordat moet kunnen ‘that should be possible/acceptable’, with the non-finite modal as the main verb). Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 83

The frequencies of the alternative forms as such are difficult to assess, because of lack of information on the frequency of simple tense forms in general, but there is no reason to believe they would be abnormal. Also, in terms of the semantic effects of the combinations, an analysis of the instances reveals nothing surprising. Notably, the preterite—as compared to the present—straightforwardly situates the modal meaning in the past. For instances with a deo or dir meaning, this systematically means that the modal is used descriptively (see Section 4.2.2); performative uses are restricted to the present form. For dyn and deo, this situation is in line with the hierarchy in (1): meanings below time—thus also dyn—are sensitive to it, hence are situated in the past by a preterite; meanings above time—including deo—are not sensitive to it, hence a preterite changes their status from a qualification in the hierarchy (‘performative’) to a part of the SoA (‘descriptive’). Illocutionary categories are also insensitive to time (albeit in a different way), hence it is no surprise that dir behaves like deo in this regard. The only remarkable observation is that the category epi/evi only occurs in present-tense modals, never in preterite or non-finite ones. In fact, also intuitively, unlike present kan in (4), preterite kon in (5) cannot be read epistemically (see also Nuyts 2001; the same applies for evidential moeten). (4) Jan kan thuis zijn ‘John can/may be home’ (dyn and epi possible) (5) Jan kon thuis zijn ‘It was possible that John was home’ (only dyn possible) This is still consonant with the hierarchy in (1); all it means is that for some reason the epi/evi reading of these modals cannot be descriptivized by using the preterite form.

4.4.2 Modals and the complex tenses 4.4.2.1 Possible combinations If we turn to the complex tenses, the picture becomes much more complicated. Table 4.2 shows that combinations of the modals with complex tenses are rare compared with combinations with simple tenses. Assessing this is again difficult, for lack of data regarding the global incidence of simple vs. complex tenses in Dutch. There is one exception to the pattern, though: epi/evi is even more frequent in the complex than in the simple tenses. The reason will become clear later. Table 4.3 below shows in more detail the frequency in our data of combinations of the different modal meanings with different complex tenses (the key is as for Table 4.2; see Section 4.4.1). The labels in the top row refer to the following pattern types, presented here according to the ‘grammatical scope’ (or dominancy) relations 84 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts

Table 4.3 Modals and complex tenses

ABC D E Ftotal abs % abs % abs % abs % abs % abs % abs general 99% 11% 13 13% 15 15% 21 20% 44 43% 103 dyn 34% 00% 913% 11 16% 19 27% 28 40% 70 ------dyn-inh 00% 00% 00% 00% 114% 686% 7 dyn-imp 00% 00% 718% 924% 11 29% 11 29% 38 dyn-sit 311% 00% 27% 27% 725% 14 50% 28 ------deo 14% 14% 00% 729% 00% 15 63% 24 epi/evi 533% 00% 00% 00% 00% 10 67% 15 dir 212% 00% 529% 16% 529% 424% 17

(cf. Section 4.2.4) between the participating forms.10 The examples are constructed. We provide glosses instead of translations in them since the latter vary depending on the reading (see below).11 Pattern A: Present modal þ infinitive perfective aux þ past participle main verb (a) We moeten/mogen/kunnen de bloemen geplukt hebben We must/may/can the flowers picked have Pattern B: Preterite modal þ infinitive perfective aux þ past participle main verb (b) We moesten/mochten/konden de bloemen geplukt hebben We must/may/can the flowers picked have Pattern C: Present perfective aux þ infinitive modal þ infinitive main verb (c) We hebben de bloemen moeten/mogen/kunnen plukken We have the flowers must/may/can pick

10 We assume that the present/preterite marking on the finite verb has ‘grammatical scope’ over all verbal forms (the finite and non-finite ones), and that an auxiliary has ‘grammatical scope’ over all verbal forms (auxiliary or main) which ‘follow’ it. As will appear in the examples below, the actual ‘surface order’ of the forms in the utterance can sometimes differ from the grammatical dominance order as rendered in (a)–(f), due to word-order flexibility, but space prevents elaboration of this here. 11 The rules for when to use an infinitive vs. a past participle are irrelevant here. Most main verbs take hebben ‘have’ but some take zijn ‘be’ as a perfective auxiliary, but again this is irrelevant here. Combin- ations of a present/preterite modal þ infinitive future auxiliary þ non-finite verb, i.e. the future counterparts of Patterns A and B, are impossible in Dutch. A few other patterns are possible, viz. present/preterite future auxiliary þ infinitive perfective aux þ infinitive modal þ infinitive main verb, and present/preterite future auxiliary þ infinitive modal þ infinitive perfective aux þ past participle main verb. These do not occur in our data, though, and for the sake of space and digestibility, we will not consider them here. In Patterns C–F the modal itself can sometimes serve as the main verb (the ‘infinitive main verb’ is then lacking, and in some patterns the modal appears as a past participle). We do not handle these separately, though, since they are rare (three instances in our data) and generally do not affect the analysis (but it will be mentioned when they do). Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 85

Pattern D: Preterite perfective aux þ infinitive modal þ infinitive main verb (d) We hadden de bloemen moeten/mogen/kunnen plukken We had the flowers must/may/can pick Pattern E: Present future aux þ infinitive modal þ infinitive main verb (e) We zullen de bloemen moeten/mogen/kunnen plukken We will the flowers must/may/can pick Pattern F: Preterite future aux þ infinitive modal þ infinitive main verb (f) We zouden de bloemen moeten/mogen/kunnen plukken We would the flowers must/may/can pick In general terms, Patterns A and (especially) B are the least frequent by far. As will be shown in Section 4.4.2.3, these two patterns, unlike the other ones, also show considerable ‘behavioural differences’ between the three modals. Apparently, these patterns are marked for most uses of the modals. This is a striking difference from English, in which—considering that real past-tense uses of the preterite forms of most modals are rare if not fully extinct—Pattern A is basically the only possible combination. Pattern F, on the other hand, is significantly more frequent than the others, suggesting that it is special—the qualitative analysis below will show how. At the level of the individual meanings, however, Table 4.3 should be interpreted with care, since there are very few instances of most of these combinations in our data. In fact, some of the missing combinations are actually possible, intuitively. In most cases, then, one cannot make strong statements about the relative prevalence of patterns and meanings on the basis of these data. Nevertheless, Table 4.3 is a useful guide for the following qualitative exploration.

4.4.2.2 Major functions of the tenses in Patterns A–F Before going into the possibilities of the different modal meanings in Patterns A–F (in Section 4.4.2.3), let us first have a look at the most important functions which the tense forms in them serve, irrespective of the different modal meanings, since quite a few of these turn out to be ‘special’. These ‘special’ uses usually also exist without a modal, but, although again we have no comparative information about their frequency in ‘modal-free’ contexts, we have the strong impression that they are relatively more frequent in the presence of a modal. Patterns A and B behave comparably. In both, the tense form typically does either of the following two things: either (a) it situates the completion of the SoA before a reference time; or (b) it situates the SoA in the past. In (a), which we will call the ‘anteriority’ (‘ant’) reading, the reference time is contextually implied or expressed in the clause in a (temporal) adverbial phrase. In Pattern A this situation remains independent of the speech time, hence the utterance receives a hypothetical or generic reading. For example, (6) expresses that ‘your materials should be degreased by the time you use oxygen’, irrespective of the speech time, hence is not referring to any specific instance of the SoA, but is generically applicable. 86 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts

(6) Indien je met zuurstof werkt dan mag je de verbindingen niet maken met vet en vlas en alle ander materiaal moet goed ontvet zijn ‘If you work with oxygen, then you shouldn’t secure the joints with grease and flax, and all other materials should be well degreased’ [C] In Pattern B, the preterite situates the ‘completion of the SoA anteceding a reference time’ in the past (‘ant-pst’), i.e. with reference to the speech time, as in (7) (constructed because there are no instances in our data). (7)Wemoesten de bloemen geplukt hebben tegen 5 uur ‘We had to have the flowers picked by 5 o’clock’ In this ‘anteriority’ use in Patterns A and B, then, the perfect acts as a phasal aspect marker expressing ‘completedness’, rather than a time marker expressing pastness, and in Pattern B the preterite serves a purely temporal function. In (b), however, the perfect does serve as a past (‘pst’) time marker. An example with Pattern A is offered in (8). (8) dat moet toch beangstigend geweest zijn ‘That must have been frightening’ [C] The preterite in Pattern B can then do either of two things (depending on the circumstances): it creates a past in the past (hence serves as a time marker; ‘pst-pst’), as in (9), or it marks counterfactuality (instead of time; ‘pst-cf ’), as in (10) (which indicates that the SoA did happen).12 (9) We hielden er rekening mee dat hij onze list doorzien kon hebben ‘We took into account that he could have fancied our trick’ (10)wemochten dat niet gedaan hebben ‘We shouldn’t have done that’ [C] Patterns C and D behave in part differently, however. In Pattern C the tense form typically situates the SoA in the past (‘pst’); the perfect serves as a time marker here.13 (11)wehebben kortbij foto’s mogen maken van de toestellen ‘We were allowed to take close-up pictures of the airplanes’ [C] This purely temporal use of the tense form also occurs in Pattern D, expressing a past in the past (‘pst-pst’), i.e. with the preterite adding an extra temporal dimension, as in (12) (the context makes it obvious that this is the intended reading).

12 By ‘counterfactuality’ we mean ‘the opposite of what is expressed in the clause’.In(10), for example, this ‘counterfact’ is actually a factual SoA. 13 Note that in this case, as in most or all other cases in Patterns A–F, the ‘present’ tense as such, unlike the preterite, does not do anything in terms of situating the SoA in time. Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 87

(12) Annemarie had Griekse euro’s moeten meebrengen uit Kreta ‘Annemarie was supposed to have brought Greek Euros from Crete’ [C] This is, however, by far the least frequent situation in Pattern D. The dominant use of Pattern D (13 of the 15 instances in our data) is to express counterfactuality of the SoA. Usually there is still past-time reference (‘pst-cf ’). In that case the perfect still serves a temporal function, and the counterfactuality is due to the preterite. This is exemplified in (13) (from a live report of a soccer game). (13) Van Diemen had sneller kunnen inschuiven ‘Van Diemen could have crossed more quickly’ [C] But in a different context, even (a variant of) (13), for example, can be interpreted as a counterfactual referring to a present SoA, i.e. the preterite perfect auxiliary as a whole serves as a counterfactuality marker (‘cf ’); compare (14). (14) Als die verdediger daar nu niet in de weg stond dan had VD nu kunnen inschuiven. ‘If that defender had not been standing there, VD could have crossed now’ Also Patterns E and F in part behave differently. Pattern E is used to mark a future SoA (‘fut’), as in (15).14 (15) Door de symbolen in je dromen te ontcijferen zul je overdag bewuster kunnen reageren ‘By deciphering the symbols in your dreams you will be able to react more consciously during the day’ [C] Pattern F is also used to express a future, but a future in the past, i.e. with the preterite also serving a temporal function (‘fut-pst’). This applies to only one of the 44 instances in our data, however: the one in (16). (16) Een geschiedenis van de recente Nederlandse literatuur zou nog moeilijk kunnen geschreven worden. ‘Writing a history of recent Dutch literature would henceforth hardly be possible any more’ [C] In the overwhelming majority of instances of Pattern F, however, the preterite future auxiliary performs a number of entirely ‘non-temporal’ functions (many more than the past perfect in Pattern D; this no doubt explains the relatively very high frequency of Pattern F in Table 4.3). This includes marking counterfactuality (‘cf’), as in (17) (which implies that journalists do try to influence opinions), or serving as

14 Zullen here sometimes has an ‘epistemic flavour’ (cf. Section 4.2.3), but it is systematically impossible to decide whether this is an intended meaning. In any case, all instances do allow a future reading. 88 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts a mitigator, often of the modal auxiliary (‘mit’), as in (18) (from a live report on a race).15 (17) journalisten zouden niet aan opiniëring mogen doen ‘Journalists shouldn’t try to influence opinions’ [C] (18) inmiddels zou ‘t ook wel eens zilver kunnen gaan worden als ‘t tempo nog iets omhoog kan ‘Meanwhile it might become a silver medal if the speed can go up a bit more’ [C] 4.4.2.3 The modal meanings and Patterns A–F Let us now turn back to Table 4.3 and to the question of how the different meanings of the modals behave in the patterns.

4.4.2.3.1 Dynamic modality16 In our data, dyn-inh does not occur in any of the perfective Patterns A–D, and also intuitively this combination is impossible, at least when these patterns express pastness or anteriority, that is in the vast majority of their uses. For example, although (19) nearly automatically triggers an ability reading, none of the variants in (20) (not even Pattern D when expressing past counterfactuality) allows it.17 (19) Jan kan/kon zwemmen ‘John can/could swim’ (20) Jan kan/kon gezwommen hebben [Patterns A–B] Jan heeft/had kunnen zwemmen [Patterns C–D] ‘John can/could have swum’ When Pattern D in (20) is read as a present counterfactual, however, dyn-inh is possible: (21) Als Jan het in zijn jeugd geleerd had, had hij nu kunnen zwemmen ‘If John would have learned it in his youth, he would now be able to swim’ The incompatibility between dyn-inh and pastness/anteriority in these patterns is probably due to the fact that the former presupposes some kind of ‘permanency’ (abilities/needs do not change quickly), which is in conflict with the latter. This conflict is not present in the simple preterite in (19) because of the different ‘type’ of ‘pastness’ involved: the Dutch perfect is typically used to situate ‘incidental’ SoAs; the preterite to situate more permanent ones (Haeseryn et al. 1997: 121ff.). Dyn-imp and dyn-sit, however, are possible in all perfective Patterns A–D (even in the combinations missing in our data). But, in line with the general tendency, they

15 It is not always easy to determine precisely what zou does in these non-temporal uses, but we cannot explore this further here. 16 As mentioned in Section 4.3, we will leave aside the dynamic uses of mogen here. 17 There is one remarkable exception to this, i.e. when modal kunnen is the main verb in Patterns C–D: for example, ik heb dat ooit gekund ‘I once knew how to do this’ does express past ability. We will not go further into this here, though. Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 89 are much more common in Patterns C–D than in A–B, and the possibilities in the latter are restricted and different for the individual modals. Thus, in patterns A–B, in moeten both dyn-types appear to occur exclusively with the anteriority reading of the tense form—(6) above illustrates this for dyn-sit in Pattern A, (7) for dyn-imp in Pattern B. The dyn reading in these is not affected by the perfect expressing anteriority, but it is by the preterite expressing pastness in Pattern B (the dynamic necessity is situated in the past). A (past or counterfactuality in the) past reading of the type in (8)–(10) appears excluded. (22), for example, which practically excludes an anteriority reading, is impossible. (22) *Die auto moet/moest wel uit de bocht gegaan zijn met zo’n hoge snelheid ‘That car had to go off the road with such a high speed’ When kunnen is used in these patterns, however, a dyn-imp reading appears impossible. It is only possible, with an anteriority reading of the tense form, if the perfective auxiliary is replaced by the aspectual auxiliary krijgen ‘get’; cf. (23): (23) ??We kunnen/konden de bloemen wel geplukt hebben tegen 5 uur We kunnen/konden de bloemen wel geplukt krijgen tegen 5 uur ‘We can/could manage to pick the flowers by 5 o’clock’ But dyn-sit with kunnen is possible in these patterns, and not only with an anteriority reading, but also with a (past in the) past reading. (9) above is an illustration. A counterfactuality reading in Pattern B appears excluded though. We have no explanation for these seemingly quite ad hoc conditions, but they do underscore the fact that Patterns A and B are marked for expressing the dynamic readings of the modals. In Patterns C and D, however, the dyn-imp and dyn-sit readings in both modals appear unrestricted, with all the readings of the tenses in them. Thus, Pattern C systematically renders a simple past reading, which affects the dynamic meaning. (24) illustrates this for dyn-imp moeten. (24) De twee ‘Swingpaleis’-opnames van deze week heb ik moeten afzeggen ‘I had to cancel both of this week’s ‘Swing Palace’ recordings’ [C] Pattern D allows a past in the past reading, but our corpus instances are all past counterfactual. (25) illustrates this for dyn-imp moeten;(26) for dyn-sit kunnen. (25)ikhad eigenlijk van niks moeten gebaren ‘I should have acted as if nothing had happened’ [C] (26) De opleiding van onze 1.000 computergebruikers had beter gekund ‘The training of our 1,000 computer users could have been better’ [C] Note that only the SoA is counterfactual, not the potential/necessity. In other words, the modal is not affected by the preterite-marked counterfactuality. Also, a present 90 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts counterfactual reading of Pattern D is possible, even in (26), for example, if situated in an appropriate context: ‘if we had more instructors, then the training as we have it now could be better.’ But, interestingly, in that case the dynamic meaning is affected by the counterfactuality marker (‘the training currently cannot be better’). In general, then, there is hardly any overlap in what is expressed by Patterns A–B vs. C–D with dynamic kunnen or moeten. The only exception is a (past in the) past dyn-sit reading in kunnen, but even then the alternatives are not equivalent. Com- pare (27) featuring Pattern A and (28) featuring Pattern C: (27) De trein kan ook ontspoord zijn door een steen op de rails ‘It is also possible that the train was derailed by a rock on the track’ (28) De trein is kunnen ontsporen door een steen op de rails ‘The train has derailed [lit.: it has been possible for the train to derail] due to a rock on the track’ In (28), the SoA (the derailing due to a rock) is factual (it did happen for that reason), while in (27) its factuality status is open (we do not know whether the derailing is due to a rock). The reason might be that in (28) the perfect affects the modal and situates the dynamic value in the past, and due to this the inherently non- factive nature of dynamic modality is overruled and the SoA is anchored in real time (by the perfect), while in (27) the modal is not affected by the perfect, hence the dynamic meaning retains its non-factive effect on the SoA. Next, all dyn types, in both modals, occur in future Patterns E and F, in all their uses. The temporal uses are illustrated in (15) and (16) above (with Patterns E and F, respectively, and both with dyn-imp kunnen). In these the modal is affected by the tense auxiliary, as in perfective Patterns C–D, but the SoA is nevertheless systematically non-factual due to the inherently non-factive nature of the future (contrary to the factive nature of the perfect). The non-temporal use of Pattern F is illustrated in (18) (which is, however, ambiguous between dyn-sit and epi kunnen), involving a mitigating use of zou,orin(29) (with dyn-imp moeten), involving counterfactual zou (it implies that currently the Centre does collaborate). (29) We moeten er toch niet aan denken dat we die cursussen nog zouden moeten organiseren zonder de medewerking van het Centrum voor Volwassenenonderwijs ‘Just imagine we would have to organize these courses without the help of the Centre for Adult Education’ [C] 4.4.2.3.2 Deontic modality As Table 4.3 suggests, the possibilities of deo in Patterns A–F are highly restricted. It is possible in perfective Patterns A and B (though again with variation between the individual modals), with two readings of the tenses. One is the (past) anteriority reading. We have one corpus case, (30), with mogen in Pattern A, meaning: ‘it’sOK Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 91 for El Al pilots to have “forgotten” by the time they arrive here (for security reasons)’ ((30) is in fact ambiguous between deo and dir). (30) als mensen van El Al komen hier dan zijn ze alles vergeten wat ze hebben gedaan. en je mag alles vergeten zijn ‘When El Al people arrive here then they have forgotten everything they have done, and you/they may have forgotten everything’ [C] This use is also perfectly imaginable for moeten, and also for mogen and moeten,in past Pattern B. In past Pattern B, the deontic meaning then automatically receives a descriptive reading. Deo kunnen, however, seems impossible in this reading of Pat- terns A and B. For example, (23) above is also out with a deontic reading, and even replacing the perfective by the aspectual auxiliary krijgen ‘get’ does not work here. Also possible is the counterfactuality reading in Pattern B. This is illustrated by the only deontic instance in this pattern in our data, (10) above, featuring mogen. But a comparable use is possible with kunnen,asin(31), and also, albeit marginally (possibly dialectally restricted), with moeten,asin(32).18 (31)Jekon die bloemen nu toch wel even geplukt hebben voor mij ‘You could have picked those flowers for me’ (32)Jemoest die bloemen maar geplukt hebben ‘You should have picked those flowers’ Interestingly, in all these cases the deontic reading is performative, i.e. the counterfactual preterite only affects the SoA, not the deontic meaning. There are no deontic instances in Patterns C and E in our data, nor in Patterns D and F with a past or future in the past reading. Intuitively, these do not appear possible either, not even with deo in a descriptive reading. For example, neither variant in (33) seems to allow the reading that the SoA is morally necessary.19 (33)Wehebben/zullen de bloemen moeten plukken [?? in this reading:] ‘It was / will be our moral duty to pick the flowers’ As Table 4.3 shows, deo does occur frequently in Patterns D and F, but this is exclusively in their counterfactual (in D) and non-temporal (in F) uses. In the past counterfactual reading of Pattern D, the counterfactual SoA is situated in the past, but the deontic meaning is (in principle)20 performative, that is, not affected by the

18 This counterfactuality use of Pattern B is generally somewhat marked though; many speakers would prefer to use Pattern D to express this meaning. 19 (33) does allow a directive reading, however; see below. This goes to show that deo and dir do behave differently in a number of respects, which is, of course, in line with our treating them as separate categories (cf. Section 4.4.2). 20 A few cases in our data are descriptive, but always due to factors other than the tense form, such as appearance in a question, in indirect speech, etc. The same applies to a few descriptive deo cases in Pattern F. 92 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts perfect expressing pastness, nor by the preterite expressing counterfactuality. (13) above is an example with kunnen (ambiguous with dyn though); (34) features mogen. (34) Het ging over een in wezen volstrekt triviaal fait divers, dat politiek van geen enkel belang had mogen zijn ‘It was all about an essentially completely trivial fait divers, which [in the speaker’s present opinion] politically shouldn’t have played any role’ [C] Also, in a present counterfactual reading of Pattern D, the deontic meaning is not affected by the past perfective auxiliary expressing (present) counterfactuality. The situation is similar in Pattern F: the deontic meaning is (in principle; cf. footnote 19) performative, hence is not affected by zou when it is used as a counterfactuality marker, as in (17)above,orin(35).21 (In (35) the SoA is non-factual—it is open whether it will be realized in the future—but this can nevertheless be considered a counterfactual use in that it implies that at present the opposite of the SoA applies.) (35)Homeopathischeapothekenzouden uit woonzones moeten verwijderd worden ‘Homeopathic pharmacies should be removed from residential areas’ [C] 4.4.2.3.3 Epistemic modality / evidentiality For epistemic kunnen and evidential moeten the possibilities are strongly limited. They do occur in Pattern A, always involving a performative modal affecting a past SoA. (8) above is an illustration with evi moeten. But they are absent in our data, and are also intuitively impossible, in Patterns B–E. In Pattern F we do find epi kunnen, relatively (within this meaning category; cf. Tables 4.2 and 4.3), even very, frequently (the combination zou kunnen stimulates an epistemic reading of the modal), and apparently zou here serves exclusively as a mitigator of the modal, modifying its epistemic value while leaving its performativity intact, as in (18) above, or in (36) (both are ambiguous with dyn). (36) Irak zou wel ‘ns bommen met giftige gassen op Israël kunnen gooien ‘Iraq might drop bombs with poison gas on Israel’ [C] Evi moeten, however, is absent in Pattern F in our data, and is also intuitively impossible in it, even with zou serving as a mitigator. Inserting zou in (8), for example, rules out an evi reading, and even makes the utterance unacceptable.

4.4.2.3.4 Directivity The directive reading behaves quite like dyn-imp. Dir is possible in Patterns A and B (in spite of its absence in the latter in our data), but only to a limited extent, and with variation between the modals. Dir moeten only allows an anteriority reading. (6)

21 Interestingly, zou in our instances never functions as a mitigator of a deontic modal, in the way it does function as such in the epistemic use of kunnen (see below). Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 93 above (ambiguous with dyn, though) illustrates this for Pattern A. We have no instances in our data for Pattern B, but (37) shows that it is possible, with the directive situated in the past (descriptive). (37)Wemoesten het gebouw voor 5 uur verlaten hebben ‘We had to leave the building before 5 o’clock’ Dir mogen also only allows an anteriority reading in Pattern A, as illustrated in (ambiguous) instance (30) above. But it appears impossible in Pattern B; cf. (38). (38) ??We mochten het gebouw voor 5 uur verlaten hebben ‘We were permitted to leave the building before 5 o’clock’ Dir kunnen, finally, does not appear possible at all in Patterns A and B. Dir occurs freely (in all modals) in all other patterns, however, in all the readings of the tenses. Thus, Pattern C systematically produces a past reading, with a descriptive directive; cf. (11) above. The only corpus instance in Pattern D, (12) above, features a past in the past reading. But intuitively, this pattern also, and more readily, allows a past counterfactuality reading, as in (39), rendering a past counterfactual SoA and a descriptive (past) directive. (39)Wehadden de bloemen mogen plukken ‘We were allowed to pick the flowers (but we didn’t do it)’ Also, a present counterfactuality reading of Pattern D is possible, rendering a counterfactual (hence descriptive) directive. Pattern E systematically expresses a future directive (i.e. descriptive again), as in (40): (40) Het ontwerp vaste boekenprijs voorziet dat boekhandelaars geen prijskortin- gen van meer dan 5% zullen mogen toestaan ‘The draft of the fixed book price regulation stipulates that book sellers will not be permitted to give a discount of more than 5%’ [C] And in Pattern F, although a future in the past reading appears possible, in all corpus instances zou serves non-temporal functions. In (41), for example, it marks counterfactuality (it implies that currently nothing is censored), and in (42) it mitigates the speech act (the question). (41) wat zou er gecensureerd moeten worden? ‘What should be censored?’ [C] (42) zou ik je nou nog een keer terug mogen bellen ‘Could I call you back once more?’ [C] Unlike with deo, it appears that dir in this pattern cannot be performative but only descriptive. The descriptivity is due either to contextual factors, such as its appearance in a question, as in (41) and (42), or to zou itself. (43), for example, can only be 94 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts read directively if the speaker is reporting on an obligation issued by someone else but without enforcing it himself on the hearer. Hence zou in a way expresses counterfactuality again. (43)Jezou nu moeten vertrekken ‘You are supposed to leave now’ 4.5 Discussion Summarizing the analyses in Section 4.4.2.3, Table 4.4 shows how modal meanings and tense meanings (see Section 4.4.2.2 for the abbreviations) combine in the different patterns. It also indicates whether the modal meaning is affected (shaded)

Table 4.4 Possible combinations of modal and tense meanings

AB C DE F aux aux pret aux aux pret aux aux pret dyn-inh // /cf fut fut pst cf/mit ------dyn-imp moeten moeten pst pst pst fut fut pst ant ant pst pst cf cf/mit kunnen kunnen cf // ------dyn-sit moeten moeten pst pst pst fut fut pst ant ant pst pst cf cf/mit kunnen kunnen cf ant ant pst pst pst pst ------deo mogen mogen / pst cf / cf ant ant pst cf pst cf moeten moeten ant ant pst pst cf kunnen kunnen / pst cf ------epi/evi pst / / / / moeten / kunnen mit ------dir mogen mogen pst pst pst fut fut pst ant / pst cf cf/mit moeten moeten cf ant ant pst kunnen kunnen // Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 95 or not (not shaded) by the actual reading of the tense auxiliary and (if present) the preterite marker. Table 4.4 only differentiates between the modals when relevant. Now, the question arises as to how these observations match with the qualificational hierarchy in (1). In general, they match according to expectation, but there are some puzzling elements. The dyn meanings (when they are possible) are systematically sensitive to the tense forms when these indicate time and have grammatical scope (cf. Sections 4.2.4 and 4.4.2.1) over the modal, viz. the preterite in Patterns B, D, and F, and the perfective and future auxiliaries in Patterns C, D, E, and F. Since dyn is below time in the qualificational hierarchy in (1), the grammatical scope relation here corresponds to the semantic one, and everything is according to expectation. Likewise, in Patterns A–B the dynamic modal has grammatical scope over the perfective auxiliary; hence it is no surprise that the latter can in principle receive only an anteriority—phasal aspect—reading, which is below dynamic modality in (1). If a past-time reading of the perfective auxiliary were possible, the grammatical scope would not correspond to the semantic scope. There is one remarkable and highly idiosyncratic exception though: dyn-sit kunnen does allow a past reading of the perfect (unlike dyn-sit moeten, which behaves according to expectations). So, in this singular case the grammatical scope does not correspond to the semantic one in (1). But the semantic scope hierarchy in (1) actually does not ‘work’ either: the past meaning does not affect the dynamic meaning; it does not situate the latter in the past, unlike in all combinations of dyn-sit with a time referential tense auxiliary in Patterns C–F, including those with kunnen. Nor is the semantic scope turned around, such that it violates the hierarchy in (1): the dyn-sit reading does not affect the temporal one. Rather, the dynamic and temporal meanings are simply juxta- posed. One can speculate that the inversion of grammatical scope (vis-à-vis the normal semantic scope) is precisely meant to trigger this semantic effect (i.e. to neutralize normal semantic scope relations). But if this is so, why is it not possible with moeten as well, or with dyn-imp? We have no answer to this question. Next, deo modals generally ‘refuse’ to occur in the grammatical scope of the perfective or future auxiliaries when these mark time, viz. in Patterns C–F. This is in accordance with the semantic hierarchy (1)—but it means a deo modal cannot be descriptivized in this context. There is again one exception: in Pattern D deo does occur in the grammatical scope of the perfective auxiliary marking pastness, on condition that the preterite does not mark time as well. The deontic reading still remains insensitive to the pastness expressed by the perfect, counter to the grammatical scope relation but in line with the semantic hierarchy in (1), and in line with the apparent inability of a tense auxiliary to descriptivize deo. In Patterns A–B, where the deontic modal has grammatical scope over the perfective marker, it fairly systematically triggers a phasal aspect reading of the latter, and does not allow a temporal reading. Why the latter should be the case is 96 Pieter Byloo and Jan Nuyts unclear since not only phasal aspect but also time is in the semantic scope of deo. Once more there is one exception: in Pattern B, when the preterite receives a counterfactual reading, then a past reading of the perfect is possible and, in line with both the grammatical and the semantic scope, it does not affect the deontic reading (which is performative). Deo generally pushes the preterite into a counterfactuality reading in all patterns, except in mogen and moeten in Pattern B, where it receives a past reading if the perfective auxiliary expresses phasal aspect. And here, then, this preterite does descriptivize the deontic reading. Moving to the next category: that epi and evi should not occur in the scope of any time marker—be it the preterite or a temporal auxiliary, in Patterns B–F—was to be expected, since they have semantic scope over time in (1), and since even in the simple tenses they cannot be descriptivized by a time marker with grammatical scope over them. Apparently, unlike all other modal meanings, they do not tolerate a tense form serving as a counterfactuality marker either. This may be so because epistemic modality (and, possibly, inferential evidentiality) and counterfactuality are somehow semantically akin. Finally, it is striking that epi/evi only permit a temporal reading of a perfective auxiliary in their scope, not a phasal aspect reading, although the latter is lower in the hierarchy in (1), exactly like time. Finally, dir, despite being a non-qualificational meaning, is nevertheless sensitive to time markers, in a perfectly straightforward way. In all patterns, both the tense auxiliaries and the preterite when they express time and have grammatical scope over the directive modal, trigger a descriptive reading of the directive. This is entirely as may be expected: illocutions/speech acts function as such (i.e. are performative) only when they are bound to the speaker’s here and now. On the other hand, in Patterns A and B dir does not permit a temporal reading of the perfective auxiliary in its grammatical scope, but only a phasal aspect reading. Again, this is to be expected: one does not/cannot issue directives (permissions, obligations) regarding a SoA in the past. One last remarkable observation concerns the counterfactuality uses of tense forms. The preterite used as a counterfactuality marker systematically affects only the SoA, but not the modal meaning, and not even dyn. But the preterite perfect and future auxiliaries had and zou, when used to mark a present (or future) counterfactual, do affect dyn and dir, but not deo. We have no idea what triggers these differences, nor what this may mean for the status of counterfactuality as a semantic category. Exploring this further is in any case beyond the present scope.

4.6 Conclusion In conclusion, it turns out that the ‘qualificational hierarchy’ introduced in Section 4.2.4 succeeds fairly well in explaining—hence is empirically supported by—the complex behaviour of modals and tenses in the verbal group in Dutch. The semantic Modal auxiliaries and tense: the case of Dutch 97 hierarchy is never violated. And, in general, grammatical scope relations do respect the semantic hierarchy: the latter ‘shines through’ at the linguistic surface. But there are clearly other elements interfering, since in a few cases the grammatical hierarchy does not correspond to the semantic hierarchy. Sometimes this does not affect the semantic hierarchy—for example when a deontic modal remains performative in the grammatical scope of a time marker. But sometimes it does affect the semantic hierarchy in the sense that it is neutralized (but not violated, i.e. turned around), as with dyn-sit kunnen in Patterns A and B. And sometimes extra restrictions apply which are unexpected in view of the semantic hierarchy, even if they do not violate it, as we have seen in several cases in Patterns A–B. Presumably, many if not all of these are explicable on the basis of the inherent semantic properties of the categories involved: for example of the kind presented above for the incompatibility between dyn-inh and pastness as expressed by the perfect. Because we are not always able to formulate them at present, further research will have to show whether this assumption is correct. In terms of our concept of modal and related notions (cf. Section 4.2.2), our analyses have shown that dir behaves more like dyn-imp than like deo, which supports our treating them as separate categories. Also, although dir shows com- binatorial restrictions with time categories comparable to those in qualificational modal meanings, we have been able to explain these entirely on the basis of the inherent properties of illocutionary notions. So our analysis of dir as a type of the latter, which moreover stands outside the qualificational hierarchy, is not contra- dicted either. Our analyses do also raise some—again unanswered—questions, however, most notably the observation (made on several previous occasions; cf. Nuyts 2001) that the modals do not allow descriptivization of deo or epi/evi in certain conditions. Here, too, further research is needed to unravel the puzzle. Finally, in terms of the basic notions of the cognitive–functional approach, as discussed in Section 4.2.1, the deeper moral behind all of this is that it goes to show once again that one cannot assume a simple one-to-one relationship between form and meaning in language. The risk of such a view is alluring in at least some strands in current linguistics (cf. the basic concept of a construction as a fixed form–meaning pair; see Nuyts 2008b, 2011). The linguistic surface is shaped by the interaction of many semantic and functional dimensions, including general principles such as the qualificational hierarchy, but also by much more ‘local’ elements, such as the inherent semantic features of singular semantic categories or elements. A process type of model of language of the kind assumed in the cognitive–functional approach—with separate levels of conceptual representation and linguistic representation which are linked by ‘intelligent’ procedures sensitive to different kinds of ‘information’—is at least in principle compatible with this fact (pace arguments that have been formulated against it; cf. Section 4.2.1). For example, how a model based on the concept of constructions as fixed form–meaning pairs can handle it (in a ‘parsimonious’ way) is less obvious. 5

Semantic and pragmatic aspects of the interaction of time and modality in French: an interval-based account

LAURENT GOSSELIN1

5.1 Introduction This chapter aims at a better understanding of the complexities of the interaction between the temporal and modal meanings in French by means of a model inspired by Reichenbach’s(1947) classical apparatus but in which the coordinates are replaced by intervals (among other amendments). Such a replacement, we suggest, bears a number of theoretical consequences that allow a model to encompass a large scope of phenomena dealing with time, modality, and their interaction within a single framework. French shows a particularly complex variety of items where the complex interaction of time and modality have long been problematic for the grammatical tradition. In the argument developed in this chapter, we evoke the notions referred to by French linguists when tackling these objects of study, observing that the literature in the field too often struggles to resolve the semantics of temporal and aspectual markers with the classical but inaccurate assumption that temporal and modal expressions form separate categories. To the contrary, this chapter envisages a very different approach, in which each eventuality referred to in an utterance is not only situated in time and presented with an aspectual viewpoint, but also conveys a semantic modality that specifies that the eventuality is conceived of either as a fact or as a mere possibility. We argue that the modality is derived from the aspectual viewpoint on the basis of the modal asymmetry of linguistic time; that is, that what precedes the point of reference is irrevocable, and belongs to historical

1 I am extremely grateful to Louis de Saussure for his helpful comments and suggestions, which greatly improved this chapter. The interaction of time and modality in French 99 necessity, whereas what is posterior to the reference point is represented as merely possible. In this framework, this assumption leads to a set of predictions concerning the modal meaning of tenses and of the so-called ‘aspectual periphrases’ which are used in French to express phasal aspect (see Dik 1989). In Section 5.2, we argue against the classical conception of relations between time and modality, in particular, in the French tradition. We show that, to the contrary, temporal and modal expressions cannot be considered as strictly separate. Then we present the hypothesis of the modal asymmetry of linguistic time (Section 5.3), and our model using intervals (Section 5.4). The integration of the hypothesis of modal asymmetry of time within this model leads to a new analysis of modal values of aspectual viewpoints, and consequently of tenses (Sections 5.5 and 5.6). Finally, we extend this analysis to a number of ‘aspectual periphrases’ (Sections 5.7–5.9).

5.2 General preliminaries The French literature usually regards time and modality as strictly distinct,2 that is, it considers that what is temporal cannot be modal and vice versa. The idea stems from the grammatical tradition that reasons in terms of ‘modes’, that is, semantic modalities associated with paradigms of tenses. In this line of thought, all ‘modes’ but the indicative have exclusively non-temporal, modal values, whereas the indicative may have, depending on the context, either (non-modal) temporal values or (non- temporal) modal values, as summarized in Figure 5.1. A particularly interesting case in this respect is the traditional analysis of the French imperfective past (imparfait, henceforth IMP). This tense is traditionally seen as bearing a temporal meaning in most cases, as in (1a), but also a modal one, indicating irrealis, in a number of specific cases, including if-clauses but not restricted to them; see the examples in (1b–c):3 (1)a.Le1er janvier 182 ...,lebaron François-Armand de Luizzi était assis au coin du feu, dans son château de Ronquerolles. (opening sentence of Les Mém- oires du Diable by F. Soulié) On January 1st, 182 ..., Baron François-Armand de Luizzi sit-IMP (‘was sitting’) by the fire, in his castle at Ronquerolles.4

2 With the exception of Wilmet’s grammar (1997:§414), according to which “each category is attached to a formula that combines a modal variable with a temporal or aspectual variable” [my translation]. This dichotomy can also be found in English linguistics around the question of whether the future will is of a temporal or modal nature (for a criticism, see Vetters and Skibinska 1998: 255). 3 One can read, for example: “The indicative imperfect tense denotes a process situated outside the speaker’s present actuality. It takes on a temporal value when the process is shifted back in time and a modal value when it is considered possible outside the real universe” (Riegel, Pellat, and Rioul 1994: 305 [my translation]). 4 We provide full translations only when the gloss is not clear enough; conversely, we provide glosses only when necessary. 100 Laurent Gosselin

‘modes’

indicative non-indicative

temporal meanings modal meanings

TIME MODALITY MODALITY

FIGURE 5.1 The classical view on tenses and modality.

b. Si je gagnais au loto, je m’achèterais une voiture.5 If I win-IMP (‘won’) the lottery, I would buy a car. c. Sans son intervention, je me trompais de chemin.6 Without his intervention, I make-IMP a mistake about the way to follow ‘Without his help, I would have gone the wrong way.’ By comparison, it is assumed that the French simple past (henceforth SP) always has a temporal value (inscribing the eventuality, so to speak, in the realm of the real),7 though a more detailed analysis shows that there are in fact usages where the simple past expresses only a possibility, as (2) demonstrates: (2) Quant à Fausta, si cette révélation l’émut, si le visage bouleversé de ce père lui inspira autre chose que de la curiosité, on n’eût pu le savoir. (M. Zévaco, La Fausta)8 As to Fausta, if this revelation move-SP her, if the anguished face of this father inspire-SP her anything other than curiosity, one could not know it. ‘As to Fausta, there was no way of knowing if this revelation moved her, if the anguished face of this father inspired anything other than curiosity.’ This alleged dichotomy rests on questionable assumptions, notably that we hold as temporal that which is certain, proven, known, asserted, but as modal that which is uncertain, potential, considered, unasserted. It is striking to note that such assumptions are actually incompatible with the definitions of time and modality that are adopted even within those studies which posit them. Indeed, the classical view is that tense is about localization within a time period, determined in relation to the speech point (‘absolute time’) or to a point of reference (‘relative time’). Modality is itself a concept that is variously understood from trend to trend, but it is usually conceived of as the linguistic marking of the speaker’s attitude vis-à-vis the represented content. If we

5 On these usages, see Martin (1991); Gosselin (1999); Bres (2005); Patard (2007). 6 On these usages, see Kleiber and Berthonneau (2003); Berthonneau and Kleiber (2006); Bres (2006). 7 See, among others, Touratier (1996: 101–2); Caudal, Roussarie, and Vetters (2003: 63). 8 See Brunot (1922: 887–8). The interaction of time and modality in French 101 adhere to these definitions, the eventualities expressed in examples (1b–c) and (2)bear not only a temporal meaning but at the same time also a modal one. They are indeed situated on the timeline with regard to the speech point as anterior (past, examples (1a and 1c)), simultaneous (present), or posterior (future, example (1b)), but they are obviously entertained as possible or otherwise unreal, thus bearing a modal meaning. Two options are then on offer: either we alter the definitions of ‘temporality’ and ‘modality’, which does not seem very sound, or we reject the classical ‘dichotomy’ assumption in favour of a more elaborated account of the interaction of temporal and modal meanings as empirically observed. This, we suggest, amounts to considering time, aspect, and modality as essential components of all utterances, each in its own way, although not implying that their various meanings could not be selected in various circumstances according to pertinent schemes of interpretation.9 If this perspective is correct, then all eventualities, be it a state, an activity or an event, are situated in time—more or less precisely—but also presented under a certain aspect and according to a specific type of modality. Modality, in turn, should not be understood in the rather fuzzy way in which it is understood in the grammatical tradition, but rather as encompassing all possible ways the speaker positions herself vis-à-vis the propositional content, that is, including presenting the eventuality as merely true (what Kant calls ‘assertoric modality’).10 Furthermore, concerning these various levels of meaning, we observe the following: (a) they are not necessarily marked by morphemes specifically dedicated to expressing them, but generally result from the interaction between several markers (lexical or grammatical morphemes and constructions); (b) they have a reciprocal influence upon each other. This is illustrated in Figure 5.2.

Semantic

dimensions: time aspect modality

Markers: m1 m2 m3 m4 m5 m6

FIGURE 5.2 Relations between markers and temporal, aspectual, and modal meanings.

9 This entails in turn a conception where types of meanings are discriminated into, for example, ‘standard’ versus ‘derived’ meanings (or ‘values’), as in Gosselin (1996); ‘prototypical’ versus ‘non- prototypical’ meanings (De Mulder and Brisard 2006); or ‘descriptive’ versus ‘interpretative’ usages (de Saussure 2003, 2010 following Sperber and Wilson’s 1995 classic pragmatic distinction). 10 See Kronning (2004: 44). 102 Laurent Gosselin

In what follows, we will focus on the influence exerted by time and aspect on the modal status of the eventuality in French.11

5.3 Modal asymmetries in pragmatic and semantic times In numerous works, time is considered to have what may be called an ‘asymmetrical’ modal structure: the present and the past pertain to the irrevocable12 (‘historical necessity’),13 while the future is conceived of as open, undetermined, simply possible. This asymmetrical structure accounts for the fact that time presents itself as an irreversible flux, which continuously converts the possible into the irrevocable; this conversion occurs at a specific modal breakpoint involving a modal change. We represent this structure in Figure 5.3:14

PastModal breakpoint Future

Irrevocable Possible

FIGURE 5.3 The modal breakpoint.

or, according to branching time theory, in Figure 5.4:

Future Past

Irrevocable

Possible

FIGURE 5.4 Structure of branching time.

This modal structure has received various interpretations. In possible-worlds semantics, the general assumption is that it is of a metaphysical nature,15 that is, it expresses the objective structure of reality. However, this metaphysical conception is, contrary to what is sometimes claimed, far from obvious. It corresponds in fact to a vision of the structure of reality, both occidental and relatively recent, for which there is no omniscient God, no prophets, no divination, no destiny or determinism. According to another interpretation, this asymmetrical structure is that of subjective

11 I have analysed the interaction of temporal and aspectual markers in Gosselin (1996), of modal markers in Gosselin (2010a), and the interaction of time, aspect, and modality in Gosselin (2005, 2010a). 12 See von Wright (1984); Vuillemin (1984). 13 See Thomason (1984). 14 See Gosselin (2005: 89); Lagerquvist (2009: 52–3). 15 See Condoravdi (2002); Kaufman, Condoravdi, and Harizanov (2006: 99). The interaction of time and modality in French 103 time, and the modalities in question thus take on an epistemic value. For Culioli (1978) and Desclés (1994: 61), the modal breakpoint separates the certain (the past and present) from the uncertain (the future). In a more complex model,16 Langacker (1991) opposes known reality, present or past (defined as that which the speaker accepts as constituting reality), to irreality, which encompasses part of the present and past and the totality of the future. According to this perspective, we cannot entertain any certainties about the future, while the past and the present, so long as they are known, correspond to certainty. This division can also be correlated with the subject’s cognitive abilities. Accord- ing to Chafe (1995), an individual accesses the present via perception, the past via memory, and the future via imagination—and imagination seems incompatible with certainty. But this analysis does not seem adequate, since in real life we do in fact feel certain of many things about the future—especially the immediate future. We can even say that many voluntary movements of our bodies are guided by such a certainty. And, on the other hand, we do also feel a great deal of uncertainty about the past17—especially the remote past—even if we have knowledge of it (so long as we’ve heard about it), and it seems that we access it just as much by the imagination as we do by memory. In fact, the modal asymmetry of time is considered obvious only from the perspective of practical philosophy, from the point of view of deliberation and action. The argument is a classical one (see Plato, Protagoras 324b; Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea VI, 2, 1139b 6–11; Alexander of Aphrodisias, De Fato, 11–12): one cannot modify the past, one can only deliberate and act upon the future. In this respect, the modal difference is clear-cut and certainly unquestionable. In so far as this structure fundamentally concerns action, we will henceforth call this the pragmatic time. The modal asymmetry of pragmatic time is the fundamental condition for the possibility of free action (whether physical or verbal), and thus for all that presupposes acting freely: deliberation, rhetoric, ethics, and so forth. Even the recourse to Theory of Mind presupposes the modal asymmetry of pragmatic time: speech acts as well as mental states are themselves oriented towards the irrevocable, and thus towards the present or the past (e.g. admonition, repentance, or nostalgia), or towards the possible and thus the future (e.g. suggestions and all directive acts, hope, or fear). Argumentation itself entails the possibility of acting upon the beliefs of an audience, insofar as even a philosophy that would refuse to give any kind of credit to the obvious fact of modal asymmetry would nonetheless need to concede that—from a pragmatic angle—the future is open. Otherwise, a ‘performative contradiction’ would undermine it.18

16 For a critical discussion, see Gosselin (2005: 79–82). 17 See Jaszczolt (2009: 50). On the past–future asymmetry, see also Jaszczolt, this volume. 18 See Apel (1986). 104 Laurent Gosselin

In this perspective, it is the present moment (being the time of the decision about a projected action) that brings about the modal change between the possible and the irrevocable. The present moment thus introduces a modal breakpoint. The issue then is to assess whether and how much this asymmetrical structure of pragmatic time affects linguistic time. Since temporal semantics concerns the way utterances represent eventualities and not what we think we know of the world we live in, we must first point out that linguistic time mirrors neither pragmatic time, nor metaphysical time, nor a ‘subjective’ notion of time. Lan- guagedoesallowaspeakertoevokepastpossibilities (i.e. not only facts) and to present future events otherwise than as merely undetermined, or even as inevitable, even when they are not naturally plausible, as in the following ‘prophetic’ usage of the future:19 (3) Aussitôt après la détresse de ces jours-là, le soleil s’obscurcira, la lune perdra de son éclat, les étoiles tomberont du ciel . . . (The Gospel according to Matthew, 24:29, French version, Bible de Jérusalem) Immediately after the despair of those days, the sun darken-FUT, the moon lose-FUT its shining, the stars fall-FUT from heaven . . . ‘Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven . . . ’ (Holy Bible, King James Version) Some have been able to use the asymmetrical structure to give an account of temporal semantics with some success.20 Yet this is because such proposals posit a modal asymmetry comparable to that of pragmatic time, with a difference regarding the moment taken to create the modal breakpoint. Vet (1981), for example, interfaces Reichenbach’s model with possible-worlds semantics and takes the reference point R as the key moment, explaining: “The course of events, which is real up to R, can take various paths after R” (pp. 112–13). At the level of semantic time, it is thus R which is assumed as creating the modal breakpoint. We draw upon this assumption within our own framework, the Interval-semantic model of time (Gosselin 1996, 2005), which in turn leads to further predictions.

5.4 The Interval-semantic model ISM—for Interval-semantic model—is a Reichenbach-inspired model which was initially designed with the aim of accounting for the semantics of tenses in French;21

19 Contrary to Copley (2009: 11), we observe that although the indeterminacy of the future is unquestionable at the pragmatic level, it is not so at the semantic level. 20 See, among others, Beaver and Condoravdi (2003). 21 This model has been applied to other languages; see, among others, Hamdani Kadri (2006). The interaction of time and modality in French 105 its raison d’être comes basically from the identification of two major shortcomings of the original framework by Reichenbach which (i) is too simplistic as regards representations of the temporality of eventualities and (ii) suffers from inaccurate computational principles. Unsurprisingly, then, the ISM model presents two fundamental innovations that concern precisely representational format on the one hand and computational principles on the other. As regards representation, Reichenbach’s coordinates are replaced by intervals, which increases the number of potential relations. The ISM model implements four types of interval positioned along the temporal axis:22 – [B1,B2]: the eventuality’s interval, corresponding to the categorization and construction of an eventuality; – [I,II]: the reference-time interval, designating the ‘window of exhibition’, i.e. what is manifested, or shown, about the eventuality; – [01,02]: the speech-time interval every utterance implies as a speech act; – [ct1,ct2]: the circumstantial-time interval, whose construction is set off only by the presence of adverbials of time (of duration and/or location). In this framework, absolute time can be defined by the relation between [I,II] and [01,02].23 We can distinguish three types of absolute time: – Past: [I,II] previous to [01,02]; – Present: [I,II] simultaneous with [01,02]; – Future: [I,II] subsequent to [01,02]. The aspectual viewpoint24 corresponds to the relation between [I,II] and [B1,B2]. Four basic aspectual viewpoints can be distinguished (in what follows, SP stands for simple past, IMP for imperfective past, CP for composed past/present perfect, PR for present, FUT for future, FP for future in the past, PP for past perfect): (i) Perfective viewpoint: [B1,B2] coincides with [I, II] (Figure 5.5): (4) Il traversa le carrefour. He cross-SP the intersection. ‘He crossed the intersection.’

22 This model is, in certain respects, comparable to Klein’s(1994): [B1,B2] corresponds to TSit (‘time of situation‘, [I,II] to TT (‘topic time’), and [01,02]toTU(‘time of utterance’). 23 We conform to the non-standard definition of time proposed by Reichenbach, for which Klein (1994: 21–4) advances decisive arguments. 24 For elaboration, see Smith (1991). 106 Laurent Gosselin

I II B1 B2

FIGURE 5.5 Perfective viewpoint.

(ii) Imperfective viewpoint: [B1,B2] includes [I, II] (Figure 5.6): (5) Il traversait le carrefour. He cross-IMP the intersection. ‘He was crossing the intersection.’25

B1 I II B2

FIGURE 5.6 Imperfective viewpoint.

(iii) Perfect viewpoint: [B1,B2] precedes [I, II] (Figure 5.7): (6) Il a traversé le carrefour depuis dix minutes. He cross-CP the intersection since ten minutes. ‘He crossed the intersection ten minutes ago.’26

B1 B2 I II

FIGURE 5.7 Perfect viewpoint.

(iv) Prospective viewpoint: [B1,B2] follows [I,II] (Figure 5.8): (7) Il allait traverser le carrefour. He cross-FP the intersection. ‘He was going to cross the intersection.’ IIIB1B2

FIGURE 5.8 Prospective viewpoint.

25 The English progressive allows only dynamic aspect, whereas the French IMP also licenses states; see Molendijk (2010) for a comparison of English and French in this respect. 26 English normally forbids combining a present perfect with a temporal adverb (a problem known as the ‘present perfect puzzle’); see Klein (1992). Our English translation does not render the perfect meaning of (6), and the temporal adverb does not correspond accurately to the French depuis; the schema for (6), thus, is not accurate for English while being accurate for French, in the resultative meaning of the composed past. The interaction of time and modality in French 107

Three examples with their iconic aspectual–temporal representation are discussed below with further elaborations: Past tense with imperfective viewpoint (Figure 5.9): (8) La police recherchait le coupable depuis trois jours. The police search-IMP for the culprit since three days. ‘The police have been searching for the culprit for three days.’

depuis trois jours

ct1 ct2 B2 B1 III 01 02

la police rechercher le coupable 27 FIGURE 5.9 Example (8).

Past tense with perfective viewpoint (Figure 5.10): (9) La police rechercha le coupable pendant trois jours The police look-SP for the culprit for three days. ‘The police had sought the culprit for three days.’

pendant trois jours

ct1 ct2 B1 B2 I II 01 02

la police rechercher le coupable

FIGURE 5.10 Example (9).

Past tense with perfect viewpoint (Figure 5.11): (10) La police avait arrêté le coupable depuis trois jours. The police arrest-PP the culprit since three days. ‘It’s been three days since the police arrested the culprit.’

27 Examples are not translated inside the figures. Verbs are indicated in the infinitive. 108 Laurent Gosselin

depuis trois jours

ct1 ct2 B1 B2 I II 01 02

la police arrêter le coupable

FIGURE 5.11 Example (10).

These interval structures are computed from instructions coded by various items in the utterance in interaction with temporal–aspectual compositional rules and with background information (encyclopaedic and situational). Technically, a temporal– aspectual structure results from a network of constraints that apply to interval variables—a process which the above schemata only sketch for the sake of clarity. When several eventualities are in relation with each other (for example in a text), computational rules determine the relations that are set up between intervals. We represent such relations, still for the sake of clarity, by duplicating the temporal axis. For instance, when an eventuality with imperfective aspectual viewpoint provides the background for a foreground perfective one, as in example (11) and Figure 5.12, we take the latter’s interval (interval of the eventuality) to be established as identical with the interval of reference associated with the former.28 (11) Il pleuvait. Pierre prit son imperméable. It rain-IMP. Pierre take-SP his raincoat. ‘It was raining. Pierre took his raincoat.’

B1 I II B2 01 02

I II B1 B2

FIGURE 5.12 Imperfective background.

We account for the (at least apparent) contextual polysemy of temporal and aspectual markers by a notion of conflict resolution: the instructions encoded by

28 For more on background relations and the imperfective aspect, see Weinrich (1973); Reinhart (1986); Kamp and Rohrer (1983); Asher and Bras (1993). The interaction of time and modality in French 109 the items may occasionally conflict, either with one another, or with direct compositional rules. These conflicts prompt the regular and predictable conflict-resolution mechanisms, which, we suggest, have to do with a higher level of compositionality. A typical case in point is the combination of items deprived of frequentative meaning that nevertheless lead to an frequentative interpretation. This occurs in example (12), displaying a famous sentence by Proust (the beginning of his Remem- brance of Things Past): (12) Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure. For a long time, I go-CP to bed early. ‘For a long time, I used to go to bed early.’ The frequentative interpretation of (12) (made explicit in the English translation with used to) arises despite the fact that no frequentative meaning is associated with the linguistic items themselves. We suggest that the frequentative interpretation precisely obtains through a conflict-resolution mechanism. In fact, neither the French passé composé (roughly a present perfect) nor the verb phrase (se coucher de bonne heure) bear frequentative meanings. The reading of (13), without the duration adverb longtemps (‘for a long time’), leaves no doubt that the interpretation is not frequentative but singulative; thus iteration has to do with the insertion of longtemps. (13) Je me suis couché de bonne heure. I go-PP to bed early. ‘I went to bed early.’ However, it has to be noted that the adverb longtemps it is not a frequentative marker either, as the singulative meaning of (14) illustrates: (14) Longtemps, je t’ai cru mort, perdu! Assassiné! (Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, Le Prétendant IV, 5) ‘For a long time, I thought you were dead, lost! Assassinated!’ At this point, two options are available. Either (i) we postulate the presence of an ‘invisible’ (Vlach 1981: 71)or‘silent’ (van Geenhoven 2004, 2005) frequentative operator within these structures that is endowed with a semantic content yet deprived of a morphological and phonetic realization, or (ii) we consider iteration to be a value that emerges from the interaction between various constitutive markers in the utterance. The first solution is obviously unfalsifiable, if not circular. The second type of analysis (adopted by, among others, Vet 1981, Kleiber 1987, and Moens and Steedman 1988) considers iteration to be a means of resolving the conflict between discordant elements. In this example, it is the conflict between the duration adverb longtemps and the isolated eventuality that is resolved by the construction of an iterative series: the adverb no longer scopes over the eventuality, but, instead, over the series of eventualities. In such cases, we assume, compositionality is not ‘direct’ 110 Laurent Gosselin

(Barker and Jacobson 2007) but ‘holistic’ (Gosselin 1996, 2005), ‘Gestaltist’ (Victorri and Fuchs 1996), or ‘interactionist’ (Recanati 2004).

5.5 Modal values of aspectual viewpoints Rephrased in the framework of the ISM model, Vet’s hypothesis (Vet 1981) about the modal asymmetry of time (saying that the modal change occurs at R) takes the following form: in the indicative, it is the final bound of the reference interval (II) which brings about the modal break between the irrevocable and the possible. A simple test is associated with this hypothesis: if the right-bound context may indicate that the eventuality did not occur (or wasn’t completed), then the eventuality belongs entirely (or partially if it wasn’t completed) to the realm of the mere possible. With regard to the types of aspectual viewpoints identified above, this leads to the following predictions, which relate to what we shall henceforth call ‘aspectual modal values’: (a) With perfective (il traversa la route ‘he cross-SP the road’) and perfect (il a traversé la route depuis 5 minutes ‘he cross-CP the road five minutes ago’) viewpoints, the eventualities are entirely situated within the irrevocable, as in Figures 5.13 and 5.14, respectively:

I II B1 B2

FIGURE 5.13 Aspectual modal values with perfective viewpoint.

B1 B2 I II

FIGURE 5.14 Aspectual modal values with perfect viewpoint.

(b) With the imperfective viewpoint (Figure 5.15), the end of the eventuality is situated in the realm of the possible; hence, with telic eventualities, the occurrence of the well-known ‘imperfective paradox’29 (it remains unknown, unless there is further indication, whether the eventuality was completed or not: il traversait la route (quand soudain . . . ) ‘he was crossing the road (when suddenly . . . )’):

29 See Dowty (1979), and, for a recent restatement, Portner (2009: 243–5). The interaction of time and modality in French 111

B1 I II B2

FIGURE 5.15 Aspectual modal values with imperfective viewpoint.

With atelic eventualities, the same configuration simply leads to considering as possible only the fact that the imperfective eventuality, taken as a background, may continue after the completion of the foreground eventuality. For example, with Les élèves parlaient quand le proviseur entra ‘the students were talking when the principal entered the room’, whether the students continued to talk remains unknown in the absence of further indication, as is represented in Figure 5.16.30

B1 I II B2

III B1 B2

FIGURE 5.16 Aspectual modal values with imperfective viewpoint.

(c) The prospective viewpoint leaves the entire eventuality within the realm of the possible (il allait traverser la route (quand soudain . . . ) ‘he was going to cross the road (when suddenly . . . )’), as in Figure 5.17.

IIIB1B2

FIGURE 5.17 Aspectual modal values with prospective viewpoint.

5.6 Relations between temporal modal values and aspectual modal values We posited earlier that semantic time is relatively independent of pragmatic time. However, we suggest that specific meanings arise in the confrontation of these two temporalities, which are both asymmetrical but for which the modal breakpoint occurs at different times. We shall speak of ‘temporal modal values’ when the representation is built upon the speech time (02), corresponding to

30 The context can imply that the imperfective event is interrupted by the front-stage event (Ils réveillèrent ceux qui dormaient ‘They woke those who were asleep’) or, conversely—and especially when interpreted in the discourse as expressing perception (see Bres 2003; De Mulder 2003)—that the imperfective event continues beyond the modal breakpoint (e.g. Il s’approcha de la fenêtre. Il neigeait abondam- ment. ‘He approached the window. It was snowing abundantly.’). 112 Laurent Gosselin pragmatic time, and of ‘aspectual modal values’, as above, when the representation is built upon the reference time (II), corresponding to the semantic time. Divergences between these two types of representations appear in two kinds of situations: (a) First, the speaker presents a future eventuality as determinate at the semantic level, that is, pertaining to the possible at the pragmatic level. (b) Second, the speaker presents a past eventuality, pertaining to the irrevocable at the pragmatic level, as indeterminate (either partially or totally). The first case typically corresponds to the simple future, as in (15) and (16), and Figure 5.18: (15) La cavalerie attaquera à l’aube (Fauconnier 1979: 13) ‘The cavalry will attack at dawn.’ (16) Et Lady Helena ? Miss Grant ? Je ne les préviendrai qu’au dernier moment, lorsque tout espoir sera perdu de tenir la mer. Vous m’avertirez. Je vous avertirai, mylord. (J. Verne, Les enfants du capitaine Grant, Le Livre de Poche, 2004: 380–1) ‘And Lady Helena? Miss Grant?’ ‘I will only tell them at the last moment, when all hope to stay at sea is lost. You will warn me.’ ‘I will warn you, milord.’

B1 B2 01 III Aspectual modal values Temporal modal values

FIGURE 5.18 Futur simple (simple future).

This clash is usually resolved by the utterance bringing about particular commitment on the part of the speaker, whether an epistemic one (of certainty) or a pragmatic one to do something or to make someone do something (as long as the social situation warrants it). Contrary to what is often said,31 the epistemic value does not specifically belong to the future tense’s linguistic meaning (otherwise it would always be attached to it): it is merely inferred starting from the divergence between semantic and pragmatic time and with regard to contextual factors. Thus, in (15), depending on whether the speaker is Julius Caesar or a simple observer, the future

31 See Riegel et al.(1994: 312); Touratier (1996: 176–7). The interaction of time and modality in French 113 will take on an injunctive or predictive illocutionary force. Likewise, in example (16), the future alternatively marks the speaker’s commitment to act (je les préviendrai ‘I will tell them; je vous avertirai ‘I will warn you’), belief (tout espoir sera perdu ‘when all hope ...islost’), and an order (vous m’avertirez ‘You will warn me’). The case of the ‘prophetic’ meaning with the future tense (cf. example (3) above) is different, in so far as the prophet and those who consider him such admit that the future is (pre)determined and non-modifiable, so that there is a convergence, not a divergence, between pragmatic time and semantic time. The second case, which consists in presenting past events (thus temporally irrevocable) as (partially or totally) possible, is typical of narrative texts. It illustrates the capacity of the language to represent (that is, rendering as present, to simulate presence)32 past eventualities, by attributing a characteristic of the present—bringing about the modal breakpoint in pragmatic time—to a past moment (the Reference point). This device is particularly used in popular fiction to create suspense, as in (17): (17) Antoine Laho allait lâcher l’homme qu’il tenait vaincu sous son genou et se relever. (P. Féval fils, Les chevauchées de Lagardère,PressesdelaCité,1991: 964) ‘Antoine Laho was going to let go the man he’d pinned down with his knee and get back on his feet.’ While the eventualities are portrayed in the past, they are presented as possible because of the prospective aspect which situates the Reference point and thus the modal breakpoint before the eventuality-intervals. This is why what follows the utterance may indicate, without any incoherence, that they have in fact not occurred, as (18) illustrates: (18) (immediately follows (17)): Il n’en eut pas le temps et tomba la face contre terre avec un gémissement sourd. Un long couteau catalan était planté entre ses deux épaules ! ‘He didn’t have the time [to do this] and fell face first with a muffled moan. A long Catalan knife was planted between his shoulders!’ While reading, the reader can thus feel mental states that are normally oriented towards the future, such as expectation, hope, or fear, despite them being about past events. We will now confront these general principles in more complex structures in which certain eventuality-phases are selected. But it is necessary to explain beforehand how this selection of phases functions in French.

5.7 Phasal aspect Each eventuality (state or event) is effectively decomposable into five phases:33 three phases (initial, median, and final) constitutive of ‘internal’ aspect, and two peripheral

32 See Gosselin (2005: 11–28). 33 See Dik (1989); Vet (2002); Tournadre (2004: 23). 114 Laurent Gosselin phases (preparatory and resultant phases) corresponding to the ‘external’ aspect (Borillo 2005: 67). This phasal structure concerns the eventuality once grasped, and should not be confused with the internal pre-conceptual structure of changes and intermediate situations directly related to aspectual categories (states, activities, achievements, or accomplishments) as such.34 A state, for instance, corresponds to an absence of change (it is not dynamic) and is thus adequately represented with the absence of bounds. But what concerns us here is that, once a particular state is conceptualized in a predicate (for example be ill), it becomes virtually decomposable into five phases according to the general mereotopologic35 structure, as in Figure 5.19.

B1 B2

Phases: preparatory initial median final resultant

internal aspect

external aspect

FIGURE 5.19 The phasal structure of eventualities.

Phases can be picked up through various means. (19)–(21) give examples of phasal selection by aspectual periphrases: (19) Il était sur le point d’être malade. (preparatory phase) ‘He was about to be ill.’ (20) Il commençait à être malade. (initial phase) ‘He was starting to become ill.’ (21) Il venait d’être malade. (resultant phase) ‘He’d just been ill.’ The same holds of punctual eventualities, since even if it is true that a punctual eventuality does not allow for the observation of its internal aspect, all forms of dilation of these eventualities demonstrate their virtual decomposition into three internal phases.36 Traditionally, two main ways of selecting the phases of an eventuality in French are considered: verbal inflection and aspectual periphrases (typically comprising a

34 See Moens and Steedman (1988); Kamp and Reyle (1993: 558ff.); Gosselin (1996: 50ff.); or Croft (2011). This aspectual phasal structure varies with each aspectual category. 35 Mereotopology deals with the disposition of the parts within a whole (see Casati and Varzi 1999). 36 Victor Hugo especially favours such grossisements fantastiques ‘fantastic zooms‘ (see Gosselin 1996: 68–9 for a full page example we cannot reproduce here). The interaction of time and modality in French 115 semi-auxiliary37 followed by an infinitive verb or a participle).38 Yet these aspectual periphrases do not form a homogeneous class (François 1993, 2003). Gosselin (2010b, 2010c, 2011) posits that two classes of French aspectual periphrases must be distinguished for their syntactic and semantic behaviour, as specified in what follows. It is widely acknowledged that the general category of aspect subsumes two distinct operations: a categorization operation that constructs entities in time (‘conceptual aspect’) and a operation of ‘monstration’ (‘aspectual viewpoint’) which makes visible all or part of the entities constructed beforehand by the categorization.39 The categorization constructs eventualities—noted [B1,B2]—while ‘monstration’ determines an aspectual viewpoint, defined by the position of the Reference interval’s [I,II], relative to that of the eventuality. We hypothesize that periphrases of the first type select eventuality-phases through categorization; that is they extract subparts of eventualities as referents and involve semi-auxiliaries which we label ‘V-MAP’, bearing meanings of motion,40 mode of action,41 and phase, such as cesser de (roughly ‘stop to’), s’apprêter à (roughly ‘getting ready to’), partir (‘leave’), or rentrer de X (roughly ‘getting back from X’). A second type of periphrase, which we label ‘aux-AV’,introducesan aspectual viewpoint with recourse to aspectual viewpoint auxiliaries; that is, these define an interval of reference which marks off a visible zone of the eventualities (or a subpart of them) constructed beforehand. Of this type are periphrastic constructions such as venir de P (roughly ‘having just P’), être sur le point de (roughly ‘be about to’), or être en train de (roughly equivalent to progressive forms in English). With these distinctions and tools, a whole array of converging syntactic and semantic regularities can be explained; in particular: (a) that aux-AV can scope over V-MAP but not the reverse; (b) that only V-MAPs are recursive; (c) that only V-MAPs can be focused and thus occur naturally at the end of an utterance; and (d) that sub-eventualities (constructed by V-MAPs) can be specified with adverbs of manner. We elaborate on these regularities below.

37 Or ‘coverb’—a term used by Roy (1976), Wilmet (1997), and Kronning (2003). 38 To which certain prefixes can be added, like en considered inchoative with s’endormir or s’envoler (Martin 1971: 53), as well as ‘aspectual support verbs’ (see Borillo 2006), which also allow for the selection of an eventuality’s phase (e.g. être en larmes ! fondre en larmes, ‘be in tears ! burst into tears’; faire une recherche ! entamer/poursuivre une recherche ‘do research ! begin/continue research’). On the other hand, the presence (under certain conditions) of a temporal adverbial normally incompatible with the intrinsic structure of the eventuality may bring about conflict resolution consisting of keeping one of the latter’s phases (the one compatible with the adverbial; see Gosselin 1996: 56–63). Thus the presence of a duration adverbial scoping over an inherently punctual eventuality can lead to a shift towards the preparatory phase (e.g. il s’arrêta en dix secondes ‘he stopped in ten seconds’) or towards the eventuality’s resultant phase (e.g. il s’arrêta pendant dix secondes ‘he stopped for ten seconds’; see Borillo 1986: 138–9). 39 See Gosselin (1996, 2005). This type of distinction presents affinities not only with the Guillaumian aspectual tradition (Guillaume 1929) and with the cognitive perspective (Langacker 1987, 1991; Col and Victorri 2007), but also with approaches in formal semantics (see Smith 1991;CaudalandVetters2006;Klein1994; Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria 2002;Laca2005) and computational semantics (Battistelli 2009). 40 For arguments in favour of the analysis of motion verbs in French as semi-auxiliaries, see Lamiroy (1983); Gross (1986); Gosselin (2010b). 41 See François (2003: Chapter 5). 116 Laurent Gosselin

(a) That aux-AV can have scope over the V-MAP, while the converse is false (François 2003: Chapter 5; Laca 2005), is easy to explain. Monstration can scope over a (sub-)eventuality, but one does not see what could count as a categorization that might affect monstration, given that categorizations, conceptually, have to occur before monstration. (22)–(23) give some examples of French periphrases and their behaviour in this respect. (22) aux-AVs taking scope over V-MAPs: venir de ‘just having VP’ cesser de ‘quit’ þinfinitive être sur le point de ‘be about to . . . ’ finir de ‘finish’ être en train de (progressive) commencer à ‘start’ s’apprêter à ‘get ready to’ partir ‘go’ rentrer de ‘get back from’ (23) V-MAPs (cannot scope over aux-AVs):42 *cesser de venir de þinfinitive *finir de être sur le point de *commencer à être en train de *s’apprêter à *partir *rentrer de

(b) Only V-MAPs are recursive (see Laca 2005) insofar as for every V-MAP there exists at least one subclass of V-MAP capable of scoping over it, while an aux- AV, to the contrary, can never be under the scope of another aux-AV. This is because we can conceptually divide a sub-eventuality within another sub-eventuality, while we cannot conceive of what a ‘viewpoint holding scope over another viewpoint’ could look like. (24)–(25) provide examples. (24) V-MAPs scoping over V-MAPs: cesser de ‘quit’ s’apprêter à þinfinitive commencer à ‘start’ hésiter à continuer de ‘continue to’ s’apprêter à ‘get ready to’ cesser de þinfinitive hésiter à ‘hesitate to’ commencer à continuer de

42 For translations see (22). Let us point out that when a V-MAP has scope over aller/venir de þ infinitve, the latter are necessarily interpreted as motion verbs (unlike the aux-AVs): “Au moment où Doremus se disposait à aller remettre sa missive au courrier [ ...],Geroul entra dans la pièce.”‘Just when Doremus was getting ready to give his letter to the courier, Geroul came in the room.’ (M. Paillet, Les noyées du grau de Narbonne, 10/18: 13). The interaction of time and modality in French 117

tarder à ‘put off ’ rentrer de þinfinitive se hâter de ‘hurry to’ partir finir de (25) aux-AVs that cannot scope over aux-AVs: #43 venir de être sur le point de þinfinitive être en train de *être sur le point de venir de þinfinitive être en train de (c) Only a sub-eventuality, as opposed to an aspectual viewpoint, has the referential status that allows focus (without particular intonational or contextual contrastive marking; cf. Nølke 2001: 137). This explains that V-MAPs alone, as opposed to aux-AVs, may naturally occur in an utterance-final position (subsequent to either a pronominalization or an ellipsis of the infinitive; see Kronning 2003: 237), as in examples (26)–(27). (26) V-MAPs focused: Il commence ‘He’‘is starting’ continue ‘is continuing’ finit ‘is finishing’ cesse ‘is stopping’ hésite ‘is hesitating’ s’y met ‘is getting to it’ s’y acharne ‘is working hard to’ s’y apprête ‘is getting ready to’ s’y précipite ‘is hurrying to’ en revient ‘is (just) getting back’ (27) aux-AVs, unavailable for focus: ?*Il (en) est sur le point ‘is about to’ (en) est en train [progressive/dynamic aspect marking (‘being in the course of’)] (en) est en passe ‘is about to’ #Il y va ‘is going’ en vient.44 ‘is (just) coming from (there)’ (d) The sub-eventualities (constructed by the V-MAPs), in contrast to aspectual viewpoints, may happen in various ways, which can be expressed by adverb

43 This type of construction is possible (Havu 2006 gives an example from Stendhal) though, as long as venir de is interpreted as temporal and not as aspectual; see Section 5.8 below. 44 Indeed it does not seem possible to utter il y va/il en vient without it implying some form of movement (and thus functioning as V-MAPs), as shown by the impossibility of repeating il y va/en vient after Il va/vient de pleuvoir ‘It’s going to rain/has just rained’. 118 Laurent Gosselin

phrases indicating manner (see Damourette and Pichon 1911–1940,V,§1605; Kronning 2003: 241–2)asin(28)–(29). (28) V-MAPs with adverbial complement: Il commence avec précaution à þinfinitive continue ‘with precaution to’ s’apprête Il rentre précipitamment (de/à) þinfinitive part ‘hurriedly (from/to)’ s’acharne (29) aux-AVs incompatible with adverbial complements: *Il est en train avec précaution de þinfinitive est sur le point #Il vient avec précaution (de) þinfinitive45 va We thus confirm the existence of two distinct classes of aspectual periphrases that allow the selection of an eventuality’s phases via different routes: (i) categorization and construction of a sub-eventuality versus (ii) an aspectual viewpoint. Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of French verbal periphrases according to this classification: aux-AVs: aller, être sur le point / en passe / en voie / en train de,(en) être à, se prendre à, venir de46 V-MAPs: être prêt à, s’apprêter à, se préparer à, se disposer à, se proposer de, hésiter à, tarder à, partir, s’installer à, aller, s’arrêter à, s’acharner à, s’efforcer de, se dépêcher de, mettre du temps à, être long à, commencer à, se mettre à, continuer à/de, être occupé à, persévérer à, cesser de, (s’)arrêter de, finir de, (re)venir de, rentrer de, (re)descendre de, sortir de, etc. The recursiveness of V-MAPs, which follows from the possibility of constructing— via categorization—a sub-eventuality from another sub-eventuality, also testifies to the fact that the phasal structure (illustrated in Figure 5.17) holds equally for eventualities and for parts of eventualities, as well as for parts of parts, as long as they are categorized as sub-eventualities.

5.8 Classification and representation of aspectual periphrases We can also classify, from a semantic perspective, the aux-AVs and V-MAPs by the type of phase they allow the selection of (according to aspectual viewpoint or categorization of sub-eventualities, respectively) as is summarized in Tables 5.1 and 5.2.

45 These last examples would, of course, be acceptable if aller and venir were used as motion verbs. 46 This is but one of the usages of aller and venir. The interaction of time and modality in French 119

Table 5.1 Classification of the aspectual viewpoint auxiliaries (aux-AV) phase aspectual viewpoint aux-AV preparatory prospective aller être sur le point de être en passe / voie de internal aspect, unbounded imperfective être en train de (en) être à aller þ present participle initial inchoative se prendre à resultant perfect être/avoir þ past participle venir de

Table 5.2 Semantic classification of V-MAPs47 phase phasal V V of mode of action motion V preparatory être prêt à se proposer de partir s’apprêter à hésiter à s’installer à se préparer à tarder à aller se disposer à s’arrêter à monter courir internal aspect s’acharner à s’efforcer de se dépêcher de mettre du temps à être long à initial commencer à se mettre à median continuer à / de être occupé à persévérer à final cesser de (s’)arrêter de finir de resultant (re)venir de rentrer de (re)descendre de sortir de

47 This list is far from exhaustive; see Wilmet (1997: 79). 120 Laurent Gosselin

This classification calls for several remarks: (a) The distinction between verbs indicating phase, mode of action, and motion is not of aspectual nature: the first indicates only the concerned phase, the others also concern the way they happen. (b) A given element can represent various usages in context which relate to different subclasses. This is true, for example, of the verbs aller ‘go’ and venir ‘come’, which have given rise to an abundant literature (for the periphrastic future, see especially Vet 1993 and 2001). It appears that these two verbs can function, among other things, as: – full verbs (e.g. aller à / venir de Marseille), – motion verbs (e.g. aller / venir (en voiture) (de) faire les courses), – temporal auxiliaries with a future meaning (Dans cinq minutes, on va bien rigoler; example quoted by Sundell 1991 and commented on by Vet 1993: 79) or a past value (Nous venons récemment de perdre encore une sœur charmante; Lamartine quoted by Gougenheim 1929: 127), – aspectual viewpoint auxiliaries with prospective (Je vois que Pierre va se fâcher; Vet 1993: 74) or perfect meanings (Chatterton venait d’expirer depuis peu de jours lorsque parurent à la fois un poème burlesque et un pamphlet sur sa mort; Vigny quoted by Gougenheim 1929: 127; the adverbial [depuis ‘since’ þ duration] indicates precisely this type of aspectual viewpoint; see Gosselin 1996: 27).48 When there is a succession of two occurrences of aller in preverbal position (tu vas aller faire les courses), the former works as a temporal auxiliary or an aspectual viewpoint auxiliary (depending on context), while the latter can only be interpreted as a motion verb (e.g. Je vais aller me promener). (c) The V-MAPs may mark: – the co-occurrence of a sub-eventuality with an eventuality-phase (e.g. commencer à, continuer à, finir de); – the inclusion of a sub-eventuality inside a phase (e.g. s’apprêter à, hésiter à ...); for instance, rentrer de in the utterance rentrer de faire les courses marks the inclusion of the sub-eventuality in the resultant phase and not its co-occurrence with it, so that a prospective viewpoint on this sub-eventuality does not necessarily entail that the preceding phase still takes place. As a result, we notice that from (30), one cannot infer (31):

48 About the two values of venir de: Havu (2005) gives numerous attested examples which show that venir de sometimes combines with a past-time adverbial, and sometimes with ‘depuis þ duration’, marking perfection; see also Vetters (2010). The interaction of time and modality in French 121

(30) Paul était sur le point de rentrer de faire ses courses. ‘Paul was about to come back from grocery shopping.’ (31) Paul était encore en train de (finir de) faire ses courses. ‘Paul was still (finishing his) grocery shopping.’ In effect, it may be the case with (30) that Paul is already in the resultant phase (i.e. that he has finished grocery shopping, but has not begun going back home); – an overlap, possibly partial, of several phases (i.e. se hâter de, s’acharner à, s’efforcer de ...). (d) The verbs indicating a mode of action which are about the internal aspect (e.g. s’acharner à, se hâter de, se dépêcher de, être long à ...) are used to express the preparatory phase of the eventuality if the latter is punctual (i.e. if the internal phases are not accessible). We show in Gosselin (1996: 172–6) that this mode of conflict resolution—by shifting to the preparatory phase—is regular and predictable. This explains, among other things, why se dépêcher de becomes equivalent to ne pas perdre de temps avant de and why être long à is a quasi-synonym of tarder à when the eventuality is punctual, as in (32)–(33). (32)Ils’est dépêché de sortir il n’a pas perdu de temps avant de sortir. ‘He hurried to go out he didn’t waste time before going out.’ (33) Il est long à sortir il tarde à sortir. ‘He’s slow coming out he’s taking his time coming out.’ The V-MAPs select specific phases in constructing sub-eventualities, noted [B’1, B’2], [B’’1,B’’2], etc. As an example, we may consider the schematic representation associated with hésiter à commencer à manger ‘hesitate to start eating’ in Figure 5.20. For clarity we duplicate the temporal axes.

B1 B2

B1B2

B1B2 [B1,B2]: manger [B1,B2]: commencer [B1,B2]: hésiter

FIGURE 5.20 Hésiter à commencer à manger ‘hesitate to begin eating’.

The sub-eventuality marked by commencer à coincides with the initial phase of the eventuality manger, while that expressed by hésiter à is included in the 122 Laurent Gosselin preparatory phase of the sub-eventuality which also corresponds to the preparatory phase of manger. This structure thus illustrates both the fact that hésiter à commencer à manger is quasi-synonymous with hésiter à manger, and that avoir hésité à commencer à manger ‘having hesitated to start eating’ does not imply commencer à manger ‘start to eat’ in so far as B’’2 does not necessarily coincide with B’1 (i.e. the resultant phase of the sub-eventuality hésiter can begin before the beginning of the sub-eventuality commencer, which coincides in turn with the beginning of the eventuality manger). The aux-AVs, in relation to inflection, serve to indicate the position of the reference/monstration interval relatively to that of the eventuality, thus defining a type of aspectual viewpoint. With the utterance in (34) we associate the aspectual structure in Figure 5.21:

B1 I II B2

FIGURE 5.21 Example (34).

(34) Il était en train de rentrer chez lui. ‘He was going (was in the course of going) back home.’ Sub-eventualities (indicated by V-MAPs) can be combined with aspectual viewpoints (indicated by the aux-AVs and/or verbal inflection). The aspectual viewpoint corresponds to the position occupied by the reference interval ([I,II]) that is positioned both in relation to the most embedded sub-eventuality (i.e. the one corresponding to the most fine-grained stage of decomposition of the (sub-) eventualities), which we call the direct aspectual viewpoint, and in relation to the other eventualities and sub-eventualities within the structure, which we call indirect aspectual viewpoint. Thus, in the utterance in (35), the direct viewpoint, marked by the French imparfait, is imperfective on the preparatory phase instantiated by se disposer à (B’1 < I < II < B’2), but is prospective on the eventuality (II < B1). (35) Au moment où il se disposait à frapper deux coups discrets à la petite porte, elle s’ouvrit . . . (Ponson du Terrail, Une fille d’Espagne, R. Laffont, 1992: 264) ‘At the instant he was readying himself to discreetly knock twice at the small door, it opened.’ Figure 5.22 accounts for this: The interaction of time and modality in French 123

B1 B2

B1 I II B2 [B1,B2]: frapper deux coups ... [B1,B2]: se disposer à [B1,B2] / [I,II]: imperfective viewpoint (direct) [B1,B2] / [I,II]: prospective viewpoint (indirect)

FIGURE 5.22 Example (35).

Likewise, in example (36), the perfect viewpoint, expressed in this context by the past perfect (plus-que-parfait), targets the sub-eventuality se mettre à ‘begin’, which picks up the initial phase of the eventuality descendre ‘descend’; thus the direct aspectual viewpoint is a perfect viewpoint. (36) . . . un roulement ininterrompu qui venait d’en haut leur fit lever les yeux vers le plafond. Leurs cheveux se hérissèrent . . . Le plafond s’était mis à descendre !...Il descendait tout d’une pièce, d’un mouvement très lent, mais continu. (M. Zevaco, L’épopée d’amour, R. Laffont, 1988: 982) ‘ . . . an uninterrupted rolling sound that was coming from upstairs made them lift their eyes towards the ceiling. Their hair stood on end . . . The ceiling had begun to descend! It came down as one piece, very slowly, but continuously. But the indirect viewpoint is imperfective (hence the repetition of descendre in ‘il descendait’ with the imperfective imparfait), as illustrated in Figure 5.23.

B1 B2

B1B2I II[B1,B2]: descendre [B1,B2]: se mettre à [B1,B2] / [I,II]: perfective viewpoint (direct) [B1,B2] / [I,II]: imperfective viewpoint (indirect)

FIGURE 5.23 Example (36).

5.9 Modal interpretation of phasal aspect The hypothesis according to which the final bound of the reference interval creates—on the semantic level—a modal breakpoint between the aspectual modal values of 124 Laurent Gosselin the irrevocable and the possible, also applies to indirect aspectual viewpoints (with a V-MAP). If the indirect viewpoint on the eventuality is prospective, then the eventuality is entirely situated within the realm of the possible, whatever the direct viewpoints of the sub-eventualities (marked by the V-MAP). As a consequence, the right-hand context may invalidate the eventuality’s achievement (see example (35) above). When the indirect viewpoint is imperfective (on the eventuality), the initial bound belongs to the irrevocable, and the final bound to the possible, which implies that telic eventualities are (at least provisionally) indeterminate as regards their actual completion. This indirect imperfective viewpoint may result from diverse configurations, such as: – a direct viewpoint, imperfective or perfective, on a sub-eventuality corresponding to the median phase, e.g. il continuait/continua de faire la vaisselle ‘he continue-IMP/SP to wash the dishes’; – an imperfective or perfect viewpoint on the initial phase, e.g. il commençait/ avait commencé à faire la vaisselle ‘he begin-IMP/PP . . . ’; – a prospective or imperfective viewpoint on the final phase, e.g. il allait finir/ finissait de faire la vaisselle ‘he was about to finish/finish-IMP’. Take, for instance, the following example of an imperfective viewpoint on the initial phase, with an interruption of the eventuality: (37) La marquise se replaça auprès du feu, et vers minuit le sommeil commençait à la gagner, lorsque la porte s’ouvrit tout à coup . . . (Ponson du Terrail, Une fille d’Espagne, R. Laffont, 1992: 317) The marquise sat near the fire, and around midnight sleep begin-IMP to overcome her, when the door suddenly opened. It is noteworthy that with verbs of initial phase, this configuration, comparable to the ‘imperfective paradox’, occurs even when the initial phase is viewed from a perfective perspective, since the final bound of the eventuality is not accessible (which shows, by the way, that the imperfective paradox is not directly tied to progressive aspect, contrary to what is usually considered), as example (38) and Figure 5.24 demonstrate. (38) Arrivé chez lui, Paul se mit à faire la vaisselle, mais il ne la termina pas. (Vetters 2003: 123) ‘Once he had arrived home, Paul began to wash the dishes, but didn’t finish.’ When the indirect aspectual viewpoint is ‘terminative’ (i.e. perfective on the final phase) or perfect, the eventuality is entirely situated within the irrevocable; thus its occurrence and completion cannot be cancelled, e.g. il acheva de faire les courses/il The interaction of time and modality in French 125

B1 B2

I II B1 B2 [B1,B2]: faire la vaiselle [B1,B2]: se mettre à [B1,B2] / [I,II]: perfective viewpoint( direct) [B1,B2] / [I,II]: inchoative viewpoint (indirect)

FIGURE 5.24 Representation of example (38). rentra de faire les courses ‘he achieve-SP/come-SP back from shopping for groceries’. On the other hand, if the direct viewpoint on the sub-eventuality is imperfective on the final phase, again an ‘imperfective paradox’ situation arises, since the indirect viewpoint on the eventuality is then imperfective, as in example (39) and Figure 5.25. (39) Il était en train de finir de manger son gâteau (quand soudain . . . ). Hebe-IMPinthecourseof finish eathiscake (whensuddenly...). ‘He was finishing eating his cake (when suddenly ...).’

B1 B2

[B1,B2]: manger son gâteau [B1,B2]: finir de B1 I II B2 [B1,B2] / [I,II]: imperfective viewpoint (direct) [B1,B2] / [I,II]: terminative viewpoint(indirect)

FIGURE 5.25 Representation of example (39).

Let us illustrate this with a final example, (40), taken from journalistic discourse: (40) Hosni Moubarak venait juste d’arriver à Addis-Abeba hier matin, où il s’apprêtait à participer au 31e sommet de l’Organisation de l’unité africaine (OUA). Son cortège traversait les rues de la capitale éthiopienne en direction du palais des conférences ...(Libération.fr 27 June 1995) ‘Hosni Mubarak had just arrived in Addis Ababa yesterday morning, where he was getting ready to participate in the 31st summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). His convoy was crossing through the streets of the Ethiopian capital toward the conference centre . . . ’ The journalist chose a past reference point (situated by hier matin) to show, through the use of various aspectual viewpoints, what was happening at that moment, as if 126 Laurent Gosselin the scene were occurring before the reader’s eyes. All the elements preceding the final bound of that reference point have irrevocably occurred, while those which follow are merely possible. Thus arriver à Addis-Abeba is presented as perfect (by the aspectual auxiliary venir de), thus as having occurred. Then participer au sommet de l’OUA is viewed prospectively (because of the verb s’apprêter à), and thus as possible. On the contrary, traverser les rues de la capitale . . . is presented by means of an imperfective viewpoint (marked by the imparfait), which situates only the beginning of the eventuality within the irrevocable, its end (the actual arrival at the conference centre) remaining only possible. The subsequent passage, in (41), indicates precisely that these possibilities did not occur: (41) . . . lorsqu’une camionnette est venue se mettre en travers de la route au niveau de la mission diplomatique palestinienne. Des coups de feu ont éclaté . . . Le cortège a immédiatement rebroussé chemin et Hosni Moubarak a repris l’avion pour Le Caire .... ‘ . . . when a pick-up truck came to block the road near the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission. Shots rang out...The convoy immediately turned around and Hosni Mubarak took a plane back to Cairo .... It thus becomes apparent that, contrary to what Reyle, Rossdeutscher, and Kamp (2007: 630) claim, the aspectual viewpoint plays a decisive role at the truth-conditional level, despite the fact that it has no referential status. More precisely, if an eventuality occurred at a certain phase, the preceding phases in the phasal structure necessarily occurred too, whereas those that follow remain open. As a result, the assertion of an eventuality phase entails the presupposition(s) of the preceding phases.49 Since in assertive utterances the reference interval is equivalent to the assertion interval (Klein’s 1994 ‘Topic Time’), the phases on the left-hand side of this interval are presupposed. Thus from (42) we legitimately infer (43), but not (44): (42) Pierre a continué de manger son gâteau. ‘Pierre continued eating his cake.’ (43) Pierre a commencé à manger son gâteau. ‘Pierre started eating his cake.’ (44) Pierre a fini de manger son gâteau. ‘Pierre finished eating his cake.’ In this perspective, presuppositions such as Jean used to smoke, conveyed by utterances like Jean a cessé de fumer ‘Jean quit smoking’, are not due to the specific properties of the verb cesser ‘quit’ but to general inferences based on the selection of an eventuality’s terminal phase. The same presupposition would occur with other

49 For more on the notion of temporal presupposition, see Molendijk (1993); Molendijk and Vet (1995). The interaction of time and modality in French 127 verbs specifically indicating the terminal phase, such as, in French, arrêter de ‘stop’, or, with telic eventualities, finir de/achever de/terminer de ‘finish’, ‘achieve’. This applies to factive constructions as well. A factive presupposition associated with a phase entails the presupposition of the preceding phases, but not of the following ones. Utterance (45) entails (42) and (43), but not (44). (45) Luc ignore que Pierre a continué de manger son gâteau. ‘Luc doesn’t know that Pierre continued to eat his cake.’

5.10 Conclusion We have attempted to show that the relations between temporality and modality in French should not be thought of in the perspective of a clear-cut dichotomy. On the contrary, temporality and modality are two essential, interrelated, dimensions of the utterance. We suggested that their connection is achieved at the semantic level by the aspectual viewpoint. Indeed, it is the aspectual viewpoint, expressed mainly by verbal inflection and aspectual periphrases, which determines the position of the modal breakpoint that opposes the possible to the irrevocable. The aspectual viewpoint, defined by the position of the reference interval relative to that of the eventuality, constitutes the essential element of the representational semantic–cognitive apparatus which simulates the presentness of a past moment (see also de Saussure, this volume, for other aspects of temporal simulation with modal effects), to which is attributed the basic modal property of the present of hosting the modal breakpoint. In narrative discourse, it is this temporal–modal organization that enables a reader to have mental states oriented towards the future (expectations, fear, hope, and so forth), and at the same time tied to past events. Aspectual viewpoint is no less important for truth-conditional semantics and inferences; only by taking it into account is it possible to predict legitimate inferences about the completion of eventualities expressed in utterances. 6

Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions: the view from the Italian modals

ANDREA ROCCI

6.1 Introduction This chapter investigates the interaction between reference to future eventualities and evidentiality via the semantics of a set of modal expressions. During the last two decades, research in typological and historical linguistics has increasingly considered the categories of tense, aspect, modality, and evidentiality—the so-called TAME categories—as one tightly interrelated macro-domain. The meanings traditionally ascribed to these categories have been tied together by the discovery of cross- linguistically recurrent grammaticization paths and by the reconstruction of semantic maps aimed at capturing “the sum total of the semantic possibilities of the category under investigation” (de Haan 2006: 45) in terms of synchronic polysemy and diachronic semantic change. While the mapping of these polysemic and diachronic connections is not sufficient by itself to provide a semantic or conceptual analysis of the meanings involved (and even less a fully-fledged language-based ontology) it does suggest that our reasoning about eventualities in time is deeply and pervasively intertwined with the way we reason about alternative possibilities and about evidence. The interactions between reference to future eventualities and modality have been an object of interest for philosophy since Antiquity, with a major focus on the logical–ontological issue of (in)determinism and of the truth conditions of statements about the future inaugurated by Aristotle (De Interpretatione, 9). We perceive the future as open to different possibilities—certain things, at least, can turn out otherwise—as opposed to a settled present and past where no real alternative possibilities are open and the only alternative possibilities that we can envisage are Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 129 either counterfactual (abstracting from certain aspects of what actually happened) or epistemic (relative to our incomplete knowledge of what actually happened). In this chapter, we will not directly approach this asymmetry between future, present, and past in our common-sense ontology (cf. Bonomi 1980; Kaufmann, Condoravdi, and Harizanov 2006). We will look into a distinct, but related, epistemological asymmetry that concerns the kinds of evidence, reasons, or arguments that may justify taking an epistemic stance towards a future state of affairs. We do not base our beliefs about what will be the case on the same kinds of evidence on which we rely for our knowledge of the present or the past. To do so we will turn to a study of prediction, a speech act that, according to Searle and Vanderveken (1985: 186) corresponds to asserting “with the propositional content condition that the propositional content is future with respect to the time of utterance and the additional preparatory condition that the speaker has evidence1 in support of the proposition”. In particular, we will conduct a corpus-based semantic investigation of the behaviour of the Italian modal verbs potere (‘can’, ‘may’)anddovere (‘must’, ‘have to’) in speech acts of prediction. The main goal is to examine whether and how these two modal lexemes function as evidential strategies in predictions, manifesting the kind of evidence the prediction is based on, and also eventually acting as anaphorical or cataphorical pointers towards other discourse utterances where the evidential basis of the prediction is made explicit. In the latter case the modals function not only as evidential strategies but also as markers of argumentative discourse relations between a predictive standpoint and the arguments that support it. This functioning as both a marker of evidentiality and a marker of argumentative discourse relations has been observed in the inferential evidential uses of the Italian necessity modal dovere,which are very similar to those of English must. It has also been attested for other expressions of epistemic modality in Italian, including the epistemic reading of the Italian future tense (which is diachronically a modal), as well as for certain epistemic expressions of possibility such as the impersonal constructions può darsi che / può essere che (‘it may be that’), or the epistemic adverb forse (‘maybe’, ‘perhaps’), all expressing different nuances of inferential evidentiality. (1) La macchina di Giovanni non è nel parcheggio. Dev’essere andato a casa. John’s car is not in the parking lot. He must-ind-pres-3rd-sing have gone home. ‘John’s car is not in the parking lot. He must have gone home.’ In (1), the presence of the modal deve not only signals that the prejacent—that is the proposition over which it takes scope—is the result of an inferential process, but also constrains the interpretation of the immediate co-text, allowing the addressee to establish an argumentative relation between the utterance in which it appears and co-textually recoverable evidence. The modal functions as an evidential both

1 Italics are ours. 130 Andrea Rocci conceptually (by restricting the source of evidence) and procedurally (by prompting the addressee to the recovery of evidence of the required kind in the context).2 The thesis that epistemic dovere—and English must—incorporate an element of inferential evidentiality in their semantics emerges clearly from the fact that they are incompatible either with direct perceptual evidence (2) or with reportative evidence (3). (2) *Giovanni dev’essere andato. L’ho visto che usciva. *‘John must have gone. I saw leaving.’ (3) ?? Giovanni dev’essere andato a casa. Me l’ha detto Laura. ?? ‘John must have gone home. Laura told me so.’ The interpretability of (3) can be saved assuming that the speaker does not trust Laura completely as a source of information and some further inference is needed to conclude that John has left. Alternatively, the first sentence in (3) can be read as a free indirect discourse, where Laura is the subject performing the inference. In both cases the possibility that the prejacent is accepted on the basis of a simple testimony is excluded. The fact that dovere functions procedurally as a pointer for the addressee to recover the evidence from the situational or discourse context can be shown by comparing dovere or must with other epistemic expressions, such as belief predicates (I think, I believe, I’m sure that), which are devoid of this procedural element: (4)a.E’ andato a casa presto. Doveva essere stanco. He went home early. He must-ind-imperf-3rd-sing be tired. ‘He went home early. He must have been tired.’ b. E’ andato a casa presto. Sono sicuro che era stanco. ‘He went home early. I’m sure he was tired.’ While the modal in (4a) unequivocally points anaphorically to the preceding utterance as the evidence supporting the conclusion, the belief predicate in (4b) is more fuzzy: it expresses a subjective state of certainty of the speaker, which might derive from a variety of sources, and which may or may not include what is observed in the preceding utterance. This behaviour of modal verbs as evidential markers fits neatly with a semantic analysis of the modals as context-dependent relational predicates such as that proposed by the theory of Relative Modality (RM). The bare bones of this approach, initiated by Angelika Kratzer (1977, 1981, 2012) are the following. Modals are treated as relational predicates of the form M (B, p) selecting two arguments: the prejacent p and a set of propositions, called the conversational background (B). Modal expressions of necessity like dovere can be understood in terms of the logical consequence of the prejacent from the conversational background, while possibility expressions such

2 On the distinction between conceptual and procedural encoding in language see the classic paper of Wilson and Sperber (recently republished as Wilson and Sperber 2012). Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 131 as potere ‘can, may’ are to be conceived in terms of the logical compatibility between the prejacent and the background: (Def. 1) Dovere ‘must’ (B, p): p is a logical consequence of B (henceforth, symbolically: B & p). (Def. 2) Potere ‘can’/ ‘may’ (B, p): p is logically compatible with B (symbolically: B ◊ p). One advantage of an RM approach is that the variety of modal ‘flavours’ results from an invariant modal force and a variety of conversational backgrounds reconstructed in the context of utterance. In accounting for modal meanings it is useful to distinguish between a few basic kinds of propositions that may enter modal conversational backgrounds. For the purposes of this chapter I will use a tripartite distinction between alethic, deontic, and epistemic conversational backgrounds.3 Alethic conversational backgrounds are composed of propositions that are facts of a certain kind. These can range from the basic ontology of the universe, both metaphysical and physical, to very specific sets circumstances (circumstantial conversational backgrounds). As we will see in the following sections, social reality can be treated much in the same way as physical reality and backgrounds including institutional facts or economic laws function largely in the same way as an alethic background. Deontic conversational backgrounds are composed of propositions corresponding to some sort of norm or ideal—states of affairs that are ‘good’ with respect to some normative system or system of preferences. It can include values, laws and regulations, contracts, and commitments, as well as the simple desires, preferences, and goals of an agent (teleological conversational backgrounds).4 Epistemic5 conversational backgrounds are composed of a set of beliefs of an information source, be it an individual, an institutional subject, or an epistemic community, which may or may not include the speaker and hearer. Often, but not necessarily, an epistemic background is interpreted deictically as referring to the belief set of the speaker at the moment of utterance. While this tripartite distinction can be useful in explaining the behaviour of the modals, it is important to bear in mind that the contextual determination of the conversational background is not limited to the selection of one of these three kinds. First, as we will see, many conversational backgrounds are complex and involve combining propositions of different kinds.6 Second, in actual discourse the set of propositions

3 See Kronning (1996, 2001) for a similar tripartition and Portner (2009: 140ff.) for a partially overlapping tripartition. 4 This admittedly is a very extended sense of the term deontic. Portner (2009: 139) prefers to refer to this range by the term priority modals. 5 The proper term for this kind of background should be doxastic, as the term epistemic refers to knowledge rather than belief. I keep the term epistemic because of its widespread use in linguistics. 6 Getting formally right what we here loosely call ‘combining’ different conversational backgrounds is not a trivial task. In ‘classic’ Kratzer-style Relative Modality this work is done through a rather complex 132 Andrea Rocci selected in context is typically determined in a much more finely grained manner (e.g. neither deontic,norlegal, obligation, but a particular contextually relevant international treaty that the country we are speaking about had signed). Within an RM framework, the evidential component of must or dovere can be accounted for in a semantic analysis in terms of finer presuppositional restrictions on the type of propositions that make up an epistemic conversational background, by formulating restrictions that exclude direct evidence and reports. Conversely, recent work on languages with fully grammaticalized systems of evidentiality (cf. Faller 2011 on Cuzco Quechua) has set out to analyse morphemes expressing direct, inferential, or reportative evidentiality as different kinds of modals which impose different presuppositions concerning the evidential source on their conversational backgrounds. Furthermore, in an RM framework the anaphoric properties of the modals can be accounted for by their very context-dependency. This can be represented explicitly by a procedural component of the meaning of the modal, instruct- ing the addressee to recover the propositions making up the B from the discourse context. For proposals for adding a procedural component to RM semantics see Rocci (2005b, 2008, in preparation). Having briefly introduced how modal verbs can function as evidential strategies and how their functioning can be captured by a semantics along the general lines of RM, it is worth considering in more detail the context of the speech acts of prediction, which makes up the object of investigation of this chapter. In other words, the question is why the context of predictions is interesting for analysing evidential properties of the modals, and of Italian modal verbs, in particular. One justification for a descriptive investigation can be simply that the well-known inferential evidential reading of dovere exemplified in (1), which is available with several tenses of the indicative mood of this modal verb,7 is blocked when the possible worlds semantics machinery by introducing two sets of propositions that do different jobs: the modal base and the ordering source (see Kratzer 1981; Portner 2009). A different formal method, compatibility restricted union, is proposed by Frank (1996). We will assume the latter in this chapter without discussing it. Other, more pragmatically oriented, solutions are discussed in Papafragou (2000) and Rocci (in preparation). 7 This inferential reading of dovere is accessible in the present, imperfect, and remote past tenses of the indicative mood. The possibility of this reading in the remote past tense is often omitted in the semantics literature on modality in Italian as well as in the grammars, but it is perfectly natural and appears rather frequently in novels as a point of view marking device: Giovanni dovette prendere una scorciatoia. Perché arrivò là prima di tutti quel giorno. Giovanni must-ind-rem-pst-3rd-sing take a shortcut. Because he arrived there before everybody else that day’ ‘Arguably, Giovanni took a shortcut. Because he arrived there before everybody else that day.’ In these remote past uses of dovere the inference is never situated in the past and remains anchored to the origo of the utterance (speaker and speech time). In other words, the past tense morpheme reads like a raised constituent taking scope on the prejacent alone rather than on the modal. The origo (the starting reference point for deixis) can indeed shift to the past (or even to the future) when the epistemic modal is Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 133 prejacent refers to a future state of affairs and thus is not available in predictive speech acts. Similarly, the inferential evidential reading of the Italian future tense is available only when the proposition does not refer to a future state of affairs: when referring to the future, the future tense loses its evidential constraints (cf. Rocci 2000, 2005b).8 So, it makes sense to look at the modal constructions that do occur in predictions and see whether they fulfil an evidential function or not, and if they do, to see what kind of evidentiality they express and whether this evidential function gives rise to argumentative discourse relations of some kind. In fact, beyond this descriptive goal—which will dictate the organization of the present chapter—there are issues of broader import that make the journey intriguing and worth taking. The first issue concerns what we could call the common-sense epistemology of predictions, that is, to put it simply, the fact that predictions, being about future events, impose certain restrictions on the kinds of evidence that might reasonably bear on them. We will devote a few words to this issue before moving to a detailed analysis of the corpus of Italian economic–financial news that provides evidence for our study of prediction and justifies its rationale.

6.2 Evidence for predictions Let us move, for a while, outside the realm of semantic studies of modality and evidentiality to examine the idea that what legitimately counts as evidence or arguments for a statement depends crucially on the basic logical type of the proposition that is being put forth. This idea has circulated for a long time in the studies of argumentation and informal logic in various forms: it is famously, but obscurely, embedded under indirect reported speech or under an attitude verb. Under appropriate contextual conditions in narrative discourse the same shift can be caused by free indirect discourse (cf. Rocci 2005b: 239–59; Hacquard 2010). However, these shifted interpretations with embedding of the modal or with free indirect discourse are only possible with the imperfect form of dovere (doveva). Thus the remote past cases remain unembeddable and always anchored to the hic et nunc of the utterance. 8 The lack of inferential evidentiality in the Italian future tense when it refers to future eventualities can be demonstrated by showing that, contrary to its properly evidential counterpart, it accepts embedding under a reportative as in Giovanni ha detto che verrà ‘Giovanni said that he will come’. In fact, when referring to future eventualities the Italian future tense also accepts embedding under clauses such as Nessuno pensa che ‘Nobody thinks that’,asinNessuno pensa che verrà ‘Nobody thinks that he will come’, which suggests that it also lacks a proper epistemic component. When referring to present states or to past eventualities the future tense rejects both kinds of embedding, as shown by *Nessuno pensa che Giovanni sarà andato via ‘Nobody thinks that Giovanni must/will have left’, and ??Luigi ha detto che Giovanni sarà andato via ‘Luigi said that Giovanni must/will have left’. For a more detailed discussion see Rocci (2005b). These observations on the future reference uses of the future tense should suggest a reconsideration of the use of Italian data in theoretical discussions of the relationship between tense and modality. For instance, while we are sympathetic with Ludlow’s(1999) thesis that the Italian future tense morpheme is, not only etymologically but also semantically, a modal, his statement that in Italian “when the future is used, it is most likely being used to express possibility or uncertainty” (p. 159) is not entirely warranted. We hope to soon present an empirical study of the use of the future tense in journalistic economic–financial predictions conducted with Johanna Miecznikowski. 134 Andrea Rocci defended in Toulmin (2003 [1958]: 13) and is implied by the whole doctrine of the status causae in classical rhetorical theorizing. A recent discussion of this idea in logical terms that can be transferred to a semantic investigation is offered by Freeman (2005) in his epistemological treatment of the problem of premise acceptability in the theory of argumentation. Let us consider one of Freeman’s examples: (5) a. There was a red apple on the windowsill. b. Horatio placed that red apple on the windowsill to show his love for Ophelia. Imagine, as Freeman asks us to, that the two statements9 are put forth as part of an argumentative exchange. Freeman observes that the addressee of (5a) and (5b) will proceed rather differently in determining whether these statements are acceptable—i.e. have an “epistemic presumption” (Freeman 2005: 21–37) in their favour. While (5a) can be based on direct perceptual evidence by the speaker, and count as “personal testimony” for the addressee, (5b) is more complex because the speaker “is not reporting what he has seen but explaining Horatio’s overt act in terms of Horatio’s dispositions and intentions” (p. 93). For the addressee this would never count as a simple testimony based on direct perception; rather it could be accepted as an expert opinion if the addressee is “aware of the proponent’s having expertise or at least special credentials concerning Horatio’s intimate affairs” (p. 93). For Freeman, the different conditions of presumption of the two statements are closely connected with the different logical type of the two propositions. The first corresponds to what Freeman calls a description, that is a contingent extensional non-evaluative statement: it only contains observational predicates, like “x is an apple,yis a windowsill, x is on y”. The example in (5b), on the other hand, belongs to the broad class of interpretations. It invokes non-observational concepts such as Horatio’s love—a disposition—and the apple being a sign of that love. These are intensional concepts and make the statement an intensional one whose truth conditions depend not only on the state of the actual world but also of other possible worlds. Freeman defines interpretations as contingent, non-evaluative intensional statements. According to Freeman (p. 108) interpretations either assert or presuppose nomic regularities,thatis “subjunctive conditionals” (i.e. counterfactual in the broad sense) of necessity or possibility that make a claim about a set of possible worlds of some sort. Physical causation is, according to Freeman, one such conditional: saying that p causes q entails that, for all the worlds where certain physical laws hold, wherever p is the case, q is also the case. Other kinds of nomic regularities that Freeman recognizes include personal ones, which concern the connections between human goals, beliefs, and action, and institutional ones, which concern what necessarily follows or is possible given a certain institutional state of affairs (cf. Searle’s notions of constitutive rule and institutional

9 Freeman’s discussion (legitimately) ignores illocutionary aspects so that statements become inter- changeable with propositions. Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 135 fact, for instance in Searle 2005). In his classification of statements Freeman further distinguishes descriptions and interpretations from two other logical kinds: (analytic- ally) necessary statements and evaluative statements. In this chapter we will not be concerned with these two further kinds or with the general applicability of Freeman’s approach as a tool for exploring the relationship between modality on the one hand, and the kind of evidential support we provide for our statements on the other.10 What we will take from Freeman for the purpose of this chapter is first, the general idea that the logical type of the propositional content of an assertive speech act11 constrains the type of evidence on which it can be based, and second, the distinction between descriptions and interpretations. Let us consider how predictions constrain the kinds of relevant evidence by reviewing first the main evidential distinctions that are typically drawn by grammaticalized systems of evidentiality. Evidential systems (cf. Willet 1988; Aikhenvald 2007) typically distinguish between direct sensory evidence, inference, and reports. Finer distinctions are often drawn within each of these domains. Some evidential systems discriminate sight from other sensory evidence within direct evidence and, within the domain of reports, set apart quotative evidentiality with an overt reference of the quoted source from hearsay with no reference to the source. Within the realm of inference there seems to be a cross-linguistically significant distinction between inferences based on results, or more generally, direct observable circumstances that function as a sign of non-observable states of affairs, and conjectural inferences, which are variously characterized as based on logical reasoning, general knowledge, or simply non-perceptual knowledge (cf. Willett 1988; Aikhenvald 2007; Squartini 2008; Faller 2002a, 2011). In Italian, the evidential use of dovere in the indicative appears to be, at least preferentially, associated with inferences from observable data. In this category, the subcategory of actual results exemplified in (6) is the one most frequently encountered in the corpus. (6) Il monte Hiei, tradotto da Antonietta Pastore (e purtroppo il suo impegnativo, accurato, lavoro deve aver subito l’intervento di qualche malaccorto redattore che ha fatto scempio di nomi e concetti letterari e del buddismo esoterico) è anch’esso un romanzo autobiografico. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 23 April 2006) ‘Mount Hiei, translated by Antonietta Pastore (and unfortunately her hard, accurate work must have suffered the intervention of some clueless editor, who

10 This will be the object of a subsequent publication (Rocci, in preparation). 11 We do not consider here the interesting issues of evidence and of argumentative support in relation to non-assertive speech acts. A generalized approach to evidence in relation to all kinds of illocutionary acts will have to consider that evidence can be relevant to the truth value of different kinds of felicity conditions (e.g., in Searlian terms, preparatory conditions, sincerity conditions, etc.). An example of treatment of inferential evidentiality in non-assertive speech acts is offered in Rocci (2007). 136 Andrea Rocci

wrought havoc with names and concepts, both the literary and as pertaining to esoteric Buddhism) is also an autobiographical novel.’ With respect to this typology of sources of evidence, predictions exhibit a series of constraints, the most obvious one being the fact that future events are not directly observable. Less obvious is the restriction that predictions impose on evidence from reports: it is possible to base one’s prediction on what other people say about the occurrence of future events, but in this case the words of others cannot be taken as a form of testimony as the impossibility of direct evidence holds also for the other subjects. Reports can merely have the value of expert opinion, presupposing or embedding an inference of the source. Alternatively, reports may refer to the verbalized intentions and plans of an agent, again embedding the agent’s reasoning concerning the feasibility of the planned course of action. Inference is also subject to restrictions concerning the applicable inference schemes. If we consider just the linguistically relevant categories mentioned above, we can immediately see how the category of inference from results—at least in the strict sense—cannot be applied, as there are no observable results of future events. As we will see in the following sections, these basic epistemological restrictions on predictions are reflected in the use of modals in the speech acts of prediction. Given these constraints on evidence, to what basic logical type of proposition should we ascribe predictions? Here, assuming that the fourfold typology proposed by Freeman (2005) is basically correct, we will put forward the hypothesis that predictions are a form of interpretation; they are non-evaluative intensional statements. Predictions assert that a certain state of affairs will necessarily, probably, or possibly be the case in view of a set of facts in the actual world and of a nomic regularity which can be of different types (including the physical, personal, and institutional ones examined by Freeman). Predictions are thus inherently modal. As we will see in the following sections, the modals occurring in predictions function as a diverse and intermittent manifestation of this inherent modality.

6.3 The data: a corpus of financial news The corpus we use to explore the use of modals as evidential strategies in predictions was collected as part of a broader research project12 on a unique discourse genre and consists entirely of economic–financial news reports. The corpus consists of one full month (April 2006) of three Italian business newspapers (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italia Oggi, and MF/Milano Finanza) and contains roughly four million words, the strictly economic and financial sections of the papers amounting to 6,515 texts and

12 The corpus was collected for a research project entitled Modality in argumentation. A semantic- argumentative study of predictions in Italian economic-financial newspapers. The project was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant: 100012-120740/1) from 2008 to 2011. Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 137

3,087,056 running words. A balanced sample of 200 texts (101,974 running words) from the financial sections was used to create a manually annotated sub-corpus. The multi-layer annotation scheme used there includes tags for a variety of formal and functional categories, amongst them the formal structure of articles, reported speech, and, most importantly, predictions and future states of affairs.13 The choice of this terrain for studying the interaction of predictions and modality was motivated by the semantic features of the genre and its socio-pragmatic functioning. Predicting or ‘forecasting’ future events represents a central discourse activity in economics and especially in finance (Merlini 1983; Bloor and Pindi 1990; Walsh 2004, 2006; Donohue 2006). While partly delegated to experts—academic or institutional economists, financial analysts, etc.—it remains a central concern of all market participants such as managers and investors, as well as journalists. Speech acts about future events are so central to investment activities that the field of finance created its own indigenous speech-act label to deal with them metalinguis- tically: ‘forward looking statements’ (cf. McLaren-Hankin 2008). In the financial markets, the uncertainty inherent in making statements about the future, and hence ‘unsettled’ events (cf. Kaufmann et al. 2006: 99) is combined with the uncertainty deriving from an incomplete knowledge of the present situation, which typically takes the form of the so-called information asymmetry between insiders and out- siders (Barone-Adesi 2002). The hypothesis behind the corpus selection is that the social ontology, the epistemic constraints (cf. Cooper and Ebeling 2007) of investment activities and of financial journalism, and, last but not least, the complex ways in which they depend on the ontology and epistemology of time, make the financial markets a particularly favourable ground for exploring the communication of reasoning about possible future events (and hence for exploring, at a linguistic level, the relationship between the linguistic representation of futurity, modality, and evidentiality). Data from the Italian corpus confirm the centrality of predictions in financial news. As shown in Miecznikowski, Rocci, and Zlatkova (2012), acts of prediction play a quantitatively and also hierarchically dominant role in the genre of economic financial news, making up more than one-third of the annotated sub- corpus in terms of word count, and being present in more than half of the headlines and in more than one-third of the highlights. An informal survey of the predictions in the corpus reveals that predictions are typically qualified by modals and accom- panied by supporting arguments. They are often relative to conditional scenarios and routinely attributed by the journalist to sources, including financial experts, named or unnamed insiders, and rumours. Quantitative corpus data also show the import-

13 The annotation was carried out using UAM Corpus Tool, a freely available open source environment for the annotation of text corpora created by Mick O’Donnell (http://www.wagsoft.com/CorpusTool/); see O’Donnell (2008). 138 Andrea Rocci ance of modality in predictions, and in particular of the two modal verbs dovere and potere. If we extract the statistically more prominent keywords from the speech acts of prediction (with respect to the rest of the annotated sub-corpus)14 we obtain five inflected wordforms of the modals among the twenty highest-ranking keywords, four of them among the ten highest-ranking, as illustrated in Table 6.1. As Table 6.1 shows, the future and the conditional forms of the modal verbs dovere and potere are highly prominent in the predictions that are found in the corpus of Italian economic financial news. If the prominence of the future forms of the modals is perhaps unsurprising given that we are dealing with predictions, the equal prominence of the conditional mood forms is perhaps more difficult to explain. The three main modal uses of the Italian conditional mood are usually considered to be the following (cf. Miecznikowski and Bazzanella 2007): (i) a hypothetical use, typically in the consequent of a subjunctive conditional construction, where the antecedent is evaluated as weakly possible or counterfactual; (ii) a reportative evidential use, indicating that the prejacent has been reported by a named or unnamed source; and (iii) an attenuative use, where the conditional appears to function as an illocutionary force modifier downgrading the illocutionary force of the speech act. In principle, all three uses of the conditional could be relevant in financial news predictions. In the following sections we will present a qualitative analysis of the use of modals in these utterances assuming an RM semantic analysis of the modals, and look at the kinds of conversational background that the modals adopt, as well as the way in which these conversational backgrounds relate to prediction. In the final sections of the chapter we turn to examining more closely the functioning of the conditional

Table 6.1 Most frequent modals in speech acts of prediction in the corpus

Rank Wordform Gloss Keyness15

4 Potrebbero CAN cond. pres. 3rd plur. 42.53 5 Dovrà MUST ind. fut. 3rd sing. 40.0 7 Dovrebbe MUST cond. pres. 3rd sing. 27.99 8 Potrebbe CAN cond. pres. 3rd sing. 25.61 13 Potrà CAN ind. fut. 3rd sing. 13.37

14 This means that we calculate the statistical keyness of words occurring in the segments tagged as ‘predictions’ using the remaining text of the tagged sub-corpus as the reference corpus for the calculation. The keywords of predictions are those words whose relative frequency in the ‘predictions’ text is significantly higher than their relative frequency in the reference corpus. Keywords are automatically calculated by the UAM Corpus Tool software. 15 A keyness value of 100 indicates that the word appears 100 times more in the corpus under study than in the reference corpus. Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 139 forms in order to highlight how they give rise to constructions which impose specific evidential constraints on their conversational backgrounds.

6.4 Evidential implications of future-oriented alethic and deontic modals All of the occurrences of the modals pertaining to the indicative mood that we encountered in predictive speech acts in the corpus—most of them in the future tense, some in the present tense—can be classified as deontic or alethic circumstantial modals. As we have observed above, the epistemic inferential reading of indicative dovere is blocked with future prejacents, so it is expected that in predictions we encounter only non-epistemic modals. As for potere, clearly epistemic readings of the possibility modal with non-future prejacents are possible, but as shown in Rocci (2005a, 2005b), they are rare and do not seem to function as inferential evidentials or to be able to license argumentative discourse relations, except when they are negated and signal an epistemic impossibility. This contrasts with the behaviour of other markers of epistemic possibility in Italian, such as the adverb forse (‘perhaps’, ‘maybe’) and the impersonal comple- mentizer constructions può darsi che/può essere che (‘It may be [the case] that’) which do signal inferential evidentiality and argumentative discourse relations (cf. Rocci 2005a and Rocci and Zlatkova, in press, respectively). With future prejacents, the distinction between ‘root’ (deontic and alethic) and epistemic readings becomes apparently more blurred, especially in the area of circumstantial uses of the modal. Coates (1983, 1995), who observed a similar phenomenon for English can, referred to these uses as mergers. Consider the following example: (7) Può scoppiare un temporale. ‘A storm may/?can break out.’ If (7) is uttered under a darkened cloudy sky it can be taken to mean either that the breaking out of a storm is compatible with what ‘we’ (or the relevant epistemic community) know about the world, or that this state of affairs is compatible with the current atmospheric circumstances and with the nomic regularities of physical (and specifically meteorological) causality. Thus we can attribute to the modal either an epistemic or a circumstantial conversational background. Interestingly, when the modal potere is inflected in the future tense, as in (8), the impression of overlap or merger between epistemic and circumstantial reading disappears and only the circumstantial reading remains. (8) Potrà scoppiare un temporale. ‘It will be possible for a storm to break out.’ 140 Andrea Rocci

In (8), the future tense clearly takes scope over the modal and the modal selects a conversational background of future atmospheric circumstances, rather than of present knowledge. Similar effects can be achieved if we add temporal adverbials to (7): the adverbials, as shown in (9), take scope over the modal in a manner quite unlike what will be expected with epistemic modality: (9) Può ancora scoppiare un temporale. ‘A storm can still break out.’ These remarks prompt us to hypothesize that, at least in the indicative, for potere too no genuinely epistemic readings are possible with future prejacents. In fact, in the corpus of predictions we have not found any likely candidate for epistemic status, either in the present or in the future tense. What we find, with both potere and dovere, is a variety of circumstantial and deontic conversational backgrounds. What is interesting, however, is to look at how these non-epistemic conversational backgrounds relate to the kinds of evidence on which predictions are based.

6.4.1 Economic causality: necessity and impossibility Purely alethic circumstantial interpretations of the modal potere in the present and future tenses are encountered in the corpus. These readings select a conversational background composed entirely of facts of the world belonging to a certain loosely and contextually defined kind (and of the associated nomic regularities relevant for the domain). Most of these alethic circumstantial readings clearly involve causal relations, but they are not concerned with physical causality. Rather, they signal what we might call economic causality. They are typical examples of discourse focusing on the economy, where events in the markets are not seen as the result of human actions, but as quasi-natural events causally related by virtue of ‘economic laws’, which are imagined to operate blindly.16 The negative form of potere is used to express economic impossibility. The combination of this same possibility modal with only type quantifiers is, remark- ably, used to express economic necessity, as shown in (10)and(11). (10) Meno rosee le prospettive per i consumatori: secondo Browne il prezzo della benzina non potrà che salire data l’impennata del greggio. In Gran Bretagna il prezzo della benzina ‘potrebbe salire oltre una sterlina al litro’, ha detto Browne, che ha pero tenuto a sottolineare che BP passa ai clienti una frazione degli aumenti dei costi reali. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 14 April 2006)

16 This kind of discourse, of course, corresponds to the ontology and rhetoric of classical economics, as wittily pointed out by Searle (2005: 1): “When I was an undergraduate in Oxford, we were taught economics almost as though it were a natural science. The subject matter of economics might be different from physics, but only in the way that the subject matter of chemistry or biology is different from physics . . . . At no point was it ever suggested that the reality described by economic theory was dependent on human beliefs and other attitudes in a way that was totally unlike the reality described by physics or chemistry.” Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 141

‘Less rosy the outlook for consumers: according to Browne gasoline prices can only rise in view of the surge of the crude oil price. In Great Britain the price of petrol “could rise to more than one pound per litre”, said Brown, who was keen to stress, however, that BP passes on to its customers a fraction of the actual cost increases.’17 (11) Solo se ci fossero segnali di possibili ribassi del costo del denaro in America si potrebbero giustificare rendimenti decennali così contenuti’–osserva Holger Schmieding, co-responsabile settore economico europeo di Bank of America. ‘Ma siccome non ci sono questi segnali, anzi la tendenza è quella opposta, i rendimenti decennali non possono fare altro che aumentare. Il ragionamento è semplice: chi investe su una scadenza decennale vuole solitamente interessi più elevati rispetto a chi acquista obbligazioni a breve scadenza perché il rischio “temporale” è maggiore. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 14 April 2006) ‘“Only if there were signs of possible decline in the cost of money in America one could justify such limited ten-year yields”, observes Holger Schmieding, co-head of European economic sector of Bank of America. “As we do not have these signs, and, in fact, the trend is the opposite, the ten-year yields can only increase. The reasoning is simple: investors on a ten-year maturity typically want higher interest rates than those who buy short-term bonds because the ‘temporal’ risk is greater.”’ The Italian non . . . che constructions in (10) and (11) express an ‘only’ quantifier taking scope over potere. Thus the modal sentences in (10) and (11) assert that there is no proposition in a contextually relevant contrast set C other than the prejacent that is compatible with the conversational background. These quantifiers also presuppose that the prejacent is indeed compatible with B (cf. Horn 1996 on the semantics of only). Only, by asserting the impossibility of the alternatives to the prejacent in C, transforms the modality expressed by potere in an indirectly expressed alethic circumstantial necessity (¬◊¬ p), under the assumption that the alternatives in C are exhaustive. It is worth pausing at these two examples to observe how the functioning of these two expressions of alethic circumstantial necessity relates to the manifestation of the evidence on which the predictions are based. The key lies in observing their behaviour as context-dependent expressions that seek to saturate the conversational background variable in the discourse context. In examples (10) and (11), the saturation is provided, in part, by the causal clauses that precede the modal (in view of the surge of the crude oil price, As we do not have these signs, and, in fact, the trend

17 Edmund John Philip Browne was group Chief Executive of BP (1995–2007). 142 Andrea Rocci is the opposite) which, in combination with the other circumstances of discourse and the relevant nomic regularities, yield the causal necessity. This causal chain is at the same time an argumentative one and constitutes the evidence on which the prediction is based.18 Contrary to what genuine epistemic inferential modal expressions do, these alethic circumstantial modals do not refer directly to the speaker’s knowledge, beliefs, or reasoning processes but to the underlying real-world relations— causal in this case—that license the inference. The extended text of example (11) is also noteworthy for another reason: it contains, in the last sentence, a shift between what we have called economic causality and its main, underlying, more basic form of connection: economic rationality. The latter concerns the goal-oriented behaviour and practical reasoning of human agents (investors in this case) and arguably involves teleological, rather than alethic,modalities(cf.Portner2009: 185–6). Under the assumptions of classic, non-behavioural, economics, these can be equated with causal connections because the agent’s goals are considered as given (utility maximization) and the rationality of the agent is presumed.19

6.4.2 Quantificational readings of the possibility modal Let us now consider example (12) below. It selects an alethic circumstantial conversational background of economic facts including oil price and rising interest rates and relates them to consumer spending in a temporally generic statement: (12) Gli altri rischi che gravano sull’evoluzione del commercio internazionale sono di natura macroeconomica: prezzo del petrolio e rialzo dei tassi d’interesse possono influire sui consumi. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 12 April 2006) ‘The other risks that loom over the evolution of international trade are macroeconomic in nature: oil price and rising interest rates can influence consumer spending.’ This reading is close to the so-called “sporadic” (Kleiber 1983)or“quantificational” (Portner 2009) reading of possibility modals, canonically exemplified by Lions can be dangerous. It does not directly express a prediction concerning a singular event (oil price and rising interest rates will possibly influence consumer spending or consumer spending will possibly decrease). Instead, it offers a generalization (possibly

18 More precisely, we have here an instance of the argumentation scheme from the cause to the effect. This argumentation scheme exploits the basic entailments of the common-sense ontology of causation to infer a conclusion. If we admit that ‘p causes q’ entails that, for all the worlds where certain physical laws hold, wherever p is the case, q is also the case, we can use this entailment to infer q from p. For an in-depth discussion of contemporary theories of argument schemes and a theoretical proposal making explicit the connection between argument schemes and commonsense ontologies, see Rigotti and Greco Morasso (2010). 19 Additionally, the incompleteness of the information available to the agents is ignored as the markets are presumed to be informationally efficient. Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 143 inductively based on previous comparable occurrences) that supports the implicit prediction with an implicit weak epistemic evaluation.20

6.4.3 Economic circumstances and agent’s goals In the corpus the necessity modal dovere is never found with a strictly alethic circumstantial conversational background corresponding to what we have called economic necessity. This appears to be consistent with the use of the combination of potere with quantifiers of the type of only to represent this notion that we have seen in (10) and (11). Certain purely alethic circumstantial readings of dovere are possible, especially when dealing with physical causality and non-human events, as when uttering (13) under a cloudy sky: (13) Deve piovere. ‘It’s going to rain.’ Incontextssuchas(10)and(11), however, purely alethic circumstantial interpretations of indicative dovere appear more difficult to access than the deontic ones. We have, however, a number of occurrences of future tense dovere that come close to expressing alethic circumstantial necessity, but are subtly different, such as, for example, (14). (14) Giovedì si è passata per la prima volta in quattro anni la soglia del 5% per i tassi a dieci anni. La conseguenza più immediata di questo aumento ricade sui tassi per i mutui immobiliari. Chi aveva contratto mutui a tassi variabili—e sono stati in molti—si trova alla scadenza del primo periodo e dovrà rinego- ziare tassi di 200 o 300 punti superiori a quelli di un paio di anni fa. Questo significa che una famiglia media con un mutuo di 400 mila dollari potrebbe trovarsi a dover pagare anche fino a mille dollari in più al mese. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 15 April 2006) ‘On Tuesday the threshold of 5% for fixed ten-year interest rates was crossed for the first time in four years. The most immediate consequence of this increase will be on mortgage rates. Those who had subscribed to variable rate mortgages—and there are many—are at the end of the first period and will have to renegotiate rates of 200 or 300 points higher as compared with those of a couple of years ago. Thismeansthatanaveragefamilywithaloanof400 thousand US dollars could have to pay even up to a thousand dollars more a month.’ Two factual propositions are anaphorically recovered by the preceding discourse context and are added to the conversational background: Ten-year fixed interest rates have climbed over the 5% threshold and Those who had subscribed to variable rate mortgages are at the end of the first period. These are social, economic facts. These facts alone, however, are not sufficient to make necessary the renegotiation of

20 Compare with the inferential chain: Lions can be dangerous and Lambert is a lion, therefore Lambert may be dangerous. 144 Andrea Rocci the mortgage with rates of 200 or 300 points higher than those of a couple of years earlier. Other institutional facts are possible as outcomes. In order to make the proposition necessary, we need to add a non-factual proposition: a goal like if they want to keep their houses,orin order to keep their houses.Whatwehavehereisa combination of an alethic circumstantial conversational background and a deontic teleological conversational background. Deontic conversational backgrounds containing ideals, goals, values, or laws21 always need to combine22 with actual circumstances in order to make singular propositions necessary. What makes examples such as (14) special, however, is the fact that it is taken for granted that the agents will act rationally to fulfil their goal. This additional premise makes the modal a predictive one, equivalent to the alethic modal.

6.4.4 Deontic readings of potere Deontic readings of potere, such as the future tense reading in (15), can also give rise to predictions: (15) Europa (e mondo) attenti, a Citigroup sono state tolte le redini. La principale banca americana e stata perdonata dalla Federal Reserve e, per crescere, potrà tornare a fagocitare prede sui mercati globali: dopo un anno di forzata moratoria sulle grandi acquisizioni, imposta davanti alla scoperta di scandali e inadeguati controlli interni, la Fed ha concluso che il colosso dei servizi finanziari ha ‘compiuto significativi progressi’ nella governance e nella ges- tione del rischio, sufficienti a togliere i freni a piani di conquista. Anche se ha mantenuto un avvertimento: ‘Esamineremo attentamente ogni proposta di espansione di Citigroup’. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 5 April 2006) ‘Europe (and the world) beware, Citigroup has been unleashed. The major US bank was pardoned by the Federal Reserve and, in order to grow, will again be able/allowed to engulf prey on global markets: after a year of an enforced moratorium on large acquisitions, set in the wake of the discovery of scandals and inadequate internal controls, the Fed concluded that the financial services

21 Not all deontic conversational backgrounds need to combine with circumstantial ones: directive and commissive ones already originating from singular commands or singular promises do not. 22 One possibility of formalizing this combination is represented by the set-theoretic operation of compatibility restricted union (Frank 1996): if BA is the alethic circumstantial conversational background [ and BD is the deontic conversational background, the complex conversational background will be BA !BD. n This operation generates one or more complex conversational backgrounds BA-D corresponding to the n union of BA with a maximal subset BD of BD compatible with BA. The compatibility restricted union may n generate more than one BD set, as there could be different ways of resolving the incompatibilities between BA and BD. This can happen, for instance, in practical reasoning, when BD contains desires that are revealed to be incompatible when confronted with the circumstances in BA. The agent has to choose the desire to – n which they will give precedence (cf. Frank 1996: 43 6). In these cases we assume that only one BD set is selected pragmatically as relevant for determining the complex conversational background (cf. also Frank 1996: 44–5). Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 145

giant has “made significant progress” in the governance and risk management, sufficient to remove the brakes to plans of conquest. However, the Fed maintain awarning:“We will carefully review any proposal for expansion of Citigroup.”’ The deontic conversational background of potrà in (15) originates from the directive power of the Fed, which has eased a prohibition issued against Citigroup. This is equivalent to permission. In order to understand how this modality works in the prediction, we have to pause for a moment to consider the nature of the prejacent which concerns Citigroup taking over other companies. Corporate takeovers are institutional actions, rather than natural actions, and norms have causal power over them. This means that the deontic prohibition of the Fed amounts to a special kind of alethic impossibility: it is not that a takeover without the Fed’s consent would be illegal; it would be void or null. Thus, the deontic modal ends up counting as a circumstantial alethic one. The circumstantial possibility is then combined with an additional premise concerning the intention (in order to grow, plans of conquest, etc.) to derive an indirect prediction.

6.4.5 Deontic readings of dovere: schedules and plans The necessity modal dovere is routinely used in predictions in the corpus with different deontic conversational backgrounds. One type of deontic conversational background found in predictions consists of the formal or informal commitments made by institutions, and particularly companies, in the form of plans or schedules. In (16) below we find a basic example of this recurrent pattern: (16) Il prossimo 20 aprile gli azionisti dovranno votare sul fatto che sussistano ancora o meno i requisiti di onorabilità richiesti al manager per presiedere una banca. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 5 April 2006) ‘On April 20 the shareholders are to vote on whether the manager still satisfies the requirements of integrity necessary to chair a bank.’ Other researchers working on Romance modal verbs with journalistic corpora have remarked on these uses and provided divergent interpretations. Kronning (1996, 2001) insists on the predictive nature of similar uses of French devoir, and for this reason he considers them a subtype of alethic modality, a “restricted” alethic modality. According to Kronning, these uses are based on narrative scenarios to which the future is expected to conform: the prejacent p is true in all the worlds consistent with the scenario. Squartini (2004) examines similar examples in French and Italian, coming to a diametrically different conclusion. For Squartini, examples like (16) represent evidence of a reportative evidential reading of dovere/devoir. 146 Andrea Rocci

In fact, the conversational background B invoked by dovere in examples such as (16) is neither alethic (propositions that are facts in the world) nor primarily reportative23 (propositions asserted by another speaker), but rather deontic (propositions denoting norms, commitments, or goals). Plans formulated by companies and other organiza- tions denote strategic or tactical goals to which certain members are committed. At the same time, plans take the form of written documents that can be used by external observers as sources of information. Thus, the deontic and the reportative do overlap in the journalist’s perspective. The deontic commitment, however, remains primary with respect to its use as evidence in a prediction by a third party. Regulative rules, in the form of laws, regulations, and legally binding agreements (e.g. contracts) can also form the basis of prediction signalled by indicative dovere on the basis of the assumption that the subject can and will probably abide by the regulative rules: (17) Gli statunitensi posseggono il 15% di Lukoil, precisa il gestore, e in base agli accordi con i russi devono salire al 20% acquistando titoli sul mercato. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 1 April 2006) ‘The Americans hold 15% of Lukoil, the money manager elaborates, and according to the agreement with the Russians, they are to climb up to 20% by buying stocks on the market.’ Neither kind of deontic background warrants an attitude of absolute certainty: in (17) the Americans might pull out from the deal with the Russians by paying a penalty; in (16) the board of the bank might just cancel the shareholders’ meeting. Interestingly, while the addressee may well assess the degree of certainty of the prediction on the basis of the nature of the deontic background involved, the writer, by using a deontic modality, does not commit himself directly to a given degree of epistemic certainty towards the prediction. Should the implicated prediction turn out to be false, the speaker could always claim that the deontic modality was correct.

23 In terms of the tripartition of conversational backgrounds that we have adopted here, a reportative conversational background can be considered a subtype of the epistemic conversational background, corresponding to the beliefs to which the source is committed (the beliefs of the source’s social persona, independently of their sincerity). The speaker may or may not associate herself with this belief set. Faller (2011) argues that certain reportatives fall outside the scope of epistemic modality and should be based on a separate informational conversational background because they can be used also when the speaker does not believe the prejacent. This is consistent with her adoption of a strict definition of epistemic modality in terms of knowledge. Here we maintain that a broader definition of epistemicity in terms of a set of beliefs associated with an information source can be more advantageous in dealing with issues of evidentiality, subjectivity vs. intersubjectivity, polyphony, and point of view that arise with epistemic modals (compare also with von Fintel and Gillies’ 2011 notion of epistemic modality). Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 147

6.5 Modals and the conditional mood in predictions: dovrebbe Having examined how different kinds of alethic and deontic uses of the modal verbs dovere and potere contribute, indirectly, to relate predictions to recurring types of evidence and to point to the discursive manifestation of such evidence in the co-text, we now turn to a construction based on the conditional mood form of the modal dovere (henceforth DOVREBBE) which, in the literature on Italian modals, is considered epistemic and has been seen as a marker of both inferential and reportative evidentiality (cf. Squartini 2004; Pietrandrea 2005, 2007). In Rocci (2006, 2008, 2011), taking inspiration from an analysis of its French analogue devrait by Kronning (2001), we proposed that the modal and evidential functioning of DOVREBBE, as well as its contribution to argumentative discourse relations, are best understood if we relate this construction to circumstantial alethic and deontic uses such as the ones that we have examined in the preceding sections. More precisely, we proposed that this epistemic–evidential DOVREBBE is a necessity modal based on a complex conversational background: one which combines an alethic or deontic conversational background with a second conversational background, motivated by the presence of the conditional morphology. We first present the semantic analysis we propose for the modal and then move to examining how this analysis accounts for the evidential and discursive properties of this construction in the predictions found in the corpus. In order to do so we conducted a systematic analysis of the conversational backgrounds of all the occurrences of dovere in the conditional mood in the 200 texts of the sub-corpus. As shown in Table 6.2, the conditional of dovere occurs in the third person only, mostly in the singular, and nearly always has a predictive function which can be traced back to the DOVREBBE construction. The remaining four occurrences are purely deontic, comparable to English deontic ought (cf. von Fintel and Iatridou 2006), and will not be discussed here.

6.5.1 The semantics of dovrebbe: conversational background and conditional restriction According to the hypothesis mentioned above, DOVREBBE involves a double conversational background Bii, consisting of the combination—in terms of the set- theoretic operation of compatibility-restricted union—of an alethic or deontic background Bi and a conditional restriction C(Bii ¼ Bi [! C):

Table 6.2 The conditional of dovere in the sub-corpus

Wordform Morphological gloss Tokens In prediction dovrebbe cond. pres. 3rd sing. 56 53 dovrebbero cond. pres. 3rd plur. 11 10 Total 67 63 148 Andrea Rocci

ii i (Def. 3) DOVREBBE B (B ,C,p): Presuppositions: a. C is a set of propositions non-factual for the speaker in w0, which are weak presumptions in the relevant epistemic community. i b. B is a set of propositions which are either true in w0 (alethic)or commitments in w0 (deontic). Semantic entailment: p follows from Bi [!C DOVREBBE imposes a presuppositional condition on the saturation of C that is important to explain the epistemic and evidential functioning of the construction. First of all, C is composed of propositions that are not known to be facts in the world. They are non-factual, or ‘counterfactual in a weak sense’: they may turn out to be false. In this broad respect, the propositions C are like the antecedent of the Italian subjunctive conditional constructions in whose consequent the conditional mood is used. However, unlike subjunctive conditional constructions, where the antecedent is either remotely possible or ‘counterfactual in a strict sense’ (known to be false in the world), the C of the DOVREBBE construction corresponds to propositions for which there exist ‘weak presumptions’ within a relevant epistemic community. In the following two sections, with the help of corpus examples, we consider the alethic or deontic conversational backgrounds of DOVREBBE before turning to the nature of its conditional restriction.

6.5.2 Alethic conversational backgrounds: economic causality Consider example (18) below: (18) Il dato relativo alla vendita di nuove case negli Usa a febbraio ha fatto registrare un vero e proprio crollo (–10,5%, a 1,08 milioni di unita), il calo più forte da nove anni. Aumenta anche il numero degli alloggi invenduti, un fatto che – se confermato in futuro – dovrebbe riflettersi in una riduzione dei prezzi degli immobili, con effetti di raffreddamento sulla crescita dell’infla- zione. Questa statistica ha sostanzialmente ribaltato quella relativa alle case esistenti, che aveva messo in mostra una crescita del 5,2% a febbraio. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 3 April 2006) ‘The sale figures for new homes in the US in February showed a real slump (–10.5%, to 1.08 million units), the strongest decline in nine years. The number of unsold houses is increasing, a fact that, if confirmed in the future, should be reflected in reduced house prices, with a cooling effect on the growth of inflation. This statistic is essentially in reverse to that relating to existing homes which depicted growth of 5.2% in February.’ In (18), dovrebbe signals a consequence based on economic causality, and can therefore be interpreted as based on an alethic circumstantial conversational back- Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 149

Table 6.3 Subtypes of alethic Bi in the sub-corpus

Saturation of Bi No. of occurrences

Economic causality 32 Complex causality 6 Calculation 2 Human psychology and reasoning 1 Total: 41 ground similar to the causal uses of potere and, to a lesser extent, to the quasi-causal uses of dovere in the indicative examined in the previous sections. Here, however, the causal necessity is conditional on the continuation of the slump (which, by the way, would be normal and expected). The majority of the occurrences in the 200 texts sample (41/63) have an alethic Bi, in most cases clearly identifiable with what we have called economic causality, as demonstrated in Table 6.3. A small number of predictions (six) are based on complex causal processes which involve both economic facts (with economic nomic regularities) and other kinds of propositions (including their relevant nomic regularities). These include physical causation, the (psychological and organizational) weight of habits, and the economic rationality of agents. Backgrounds combining economic events with the policy of central banks also belong here. While economic rationality and policies are, in principle, a teleological and a deontic concept, they are not really treated as such. Economic rationality we have already discussed. As for central bank policies, they are regarded more as nearly stable elements of the functioning of the system than as deontic commitments of agents. In two cases, the prejacent of dovrebbe is the result of a calculation (e.g. short-term interest rates), performed according to a conventionally accepted method, from a more basic value (e.g. primary interest rates). We should note here that the role of calculation is not simply epistemic (as it would be in the natural sciences) but properly causal: banks do not discover short-term interest rates when they calculate them, they establish them. The interest rates come into being as institutional facts according to the calculations. Finally, there is a sole example of psychological causality, which is, in fact, used meta-argumentatively (non dovrebbe sorprendere ‘it should not come as a surprise’).

6.5.3 Deontic conversational backgrounds Not all examples of DOVREBBE found in the corpus correspond to a background of economic circumstances. The other twenty-two of the sixty-three occurrences of predictive DOVREBBE in the 200-text sample are analogous to (19): 150 Andrea Rocci

(19) Stando a quanto emerso ieri nella riunione del cda Bnl, Bnp sarebbe orientata a lanciare la prossima settimana l’Opa, che dovrebbe concludersi tra il 15 eil 20 maggio. Secondo indiscrezioni la banca di Parigi avrebbe predisposto tutto per annunciare già stasera l’ok della Consob e i dettagli dell’operazione, con le date di inizio e di conclusione. (Il Sole 24 Ore, 13 April 2006) ‘According to what transpired from yesterday’s meeting of the board of BNL, BNP would be inclined to launch the takeover bid next week, to be completed between the 15th and 20th of May. According to rumours, the Paris bank prepared everything to announce this evening the OK of Consob and the details of the transaction, with the dates of commencement and conclusion.’ They invariably refer to the plans of corporations and other institutions that play a role in the markets. In just one case these plans make reference to the precise calendar scheduling of events. In most occurrences with DOVREBBE, plans are inside corporate information reported off the record by anonymous insiders (indiscrezioni). This contrasts with the more public plans and scheduling that we find with deontic indicative dovere (as well as with the simple future tense). Not surprisingly, in (19) we find instances of the reportative conditional mood (sarebbe orientata, avrebbe predisposto) in clauses immediately preceding and following the one with DOVREBBE. The relationship between dovrebbe and the reportative use of the Italian conditional mood is better understood if we look more closely at the nature of the conditional restrictions C, discussed in the following section.

6.5.4 The nature of conditional restrictions In most of the occurrences of DOVREBBE in the corpus it is relatively easy to identify propositions in the immediate discourse context that make the conditional restriction C explicit. These ‘antecedents’ can take the form of: (i) prothases introduced by the conditional conjunction se ‘if’ with the indicative mood or non-finite verb, as in (18) (se confermato in futuro ‘if confirmed in the future’); and (ii) other kinds of subordinate clauses; as well as (iii) independent sentences introducing an explicit or implicit modality to which DOVREBBE points anaphorically, realizing a form of modal subordination (cf. Roberts 1989). However, DOVREBBE differs from the plain hypothetical conditional mood (and from the English modal would) in that it does not accept antecedents that are epistemically evaluated as weak possibilities. As a result, we do not find protases with ‘se þ imperfect subjunctive mood’,24 nor, in the case of modal subordination, discourse antecedents epistemically modalized with a mere

24 For instance, if we were to add a finite verb to the verbless protasis in (18) it would rather be an indicative future form (se verrà confermato in futuro) than an imperfect subjunctive one (se venisse confermato in futuro). Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 151

Table 6.4 Conditional restrictions for the alethic Bi in the sub-corpus

Conditional restriction of alethic Bi Tokens

Continuation of a trend, stability of a situation 5 Hypothesis (including the hypothesis of the stability of a situation) 4 Confirmation of an expectation 4 Reportative (expert predictions, insider predictions) 14 Rebuttal (unless improbable event occurs, risk materializes) 5 Modal subordination (dovrebbe . . . dovrebbe) 2 Generic reference to a margin of uncertainty 7 Total 41 possibility modal (in contrast with the admissibility of modal subordination sequences ‘might...would’ in English and ‘potrebbe . . . conditional mood’ in Italian). If we look at the occurrences in the 200-text sub-corpus, we find that C always belongs to one of the semantic types from a very restricted inventory. When Bi is alethic, we find the distribution of conditional restrictions represented in Table 6.4. As Table 6.4 shows, in a certain number of occurrences C is simply identified with the continuation of a trend or the stability of a situation, where the latter are taken as defaults in economic causality, just as they are in naive physics.25 Another group involves the introduction of an epistemic layer of hypothesizing with antecedent structures of the type If the hypothesis X is confirmed. Since the hypothesis is nominalized, it is usually not clear who the subject of the hypothesizing is. The content of the hypothesis is again always a default. Among these defaults we find again, for instance, the (hypothesis of) the stability of the situation. Confirmation of an expectation is another C that contains an explicit epistemic evaluation whose subject is not spelled out. The most common type of C is reportative. In the case of an alethic Bi, it is nearly always an expert prediction—in one case it’s an insider one. So, in the latter uses of DOVREBBE, the prejacent p is the case in all the worlds where a set of factual economic circumstances with the relevant economic nomic regularities is the case (Bi) and the experts are right (C). The experts’ being right is another default, or weak presumption. Defaults can be formulated negatively in the form of exceptions or rebuttals (Unless improbable, event X happens). Not surprisingly, one of these exceptions is the disappearance of a trend. Finally, the weakly presumed antecedent can be derived anaphorically via modal subordination as the truth of the prejacent of a preceding dovrebbe.

25 We have already mentioned how in our texts economic causality is, in certain respects, treated as if it were physical causality. The pervasive and sometime subtle use of physical metaphors in economic and financial discourse addressing experts and laypeople is an important issue (cf. Richardt 2003) that overlaps significantly with the expression of alethic causal notions in predictions through the use of modal as well as of aspectual lexicon and morphology. We hope to address this issue in a forthcoming publication. 152 Andrea Rocci

Table 6.5 Conditional restrictions for the deontic Bi in the sub-corpus

Conditional restriction of deontic Bi Tokens

Realization of the plan (including approval by a deliberative body) 13 Reportative (insiders’ disclosures, rumours) 5 Rebuttal (unless plan changes due to circumstance X) 1 Hypothesis (scenario) 1 Generic reference to a margin of uncertainty 1 Unclear, indeterminate 1 Total 22

When Bi is deontic, the saturation of the conditional restriction C is as in Table 6.5. With a deontic Bi, the most frequent non-factual default is represented by plan realization (If everything goes according to plan), which also includes the official sanctioning of the plan by a deliberative body. The plans that we find with DOV- REBBE are not the content of an official corporate disclosure or publicly available schedules. Rather, they correspond to inside information reported from unnamed sources and to rumour. In some cases this origin is made partially explicit by phrases such as according to rumours or if rumours are confirmed. Thus, in these occurrences, the prejacent follows from a set of rumoured plans (Bi) and the non-factual assumption that the rumours are true (C)—the truthfulness of what is said being a (Gricean) normal condition of communication. Furthermore, plans can involve alternative scenarios so that the prejacent follows from the set of plans (Bi) and the non-factual assumption that one of the alternative scenarios addressed in the plans is indeed the case (C). Finally, exceptional circumstances might dictate that the original plans are abandoned or revised. This gives rise to a conditional restriction in rebuttal form, similar to those found with alethic Bi.

6.5.5 Conversational backgrounds and evidential bases of predictions: a summary The exploration of conditional restrictions of DOVREBBE can provide a deeper insight into the evidential and discourse functioning of this modal construction in prediction. Both Bi and C point to premises of different kinds that are to be recovered anaphorically in discourse context, extracted from subordinate clauses of different types and even from sub-clausal elements such as abstract nominals (cf. Hobbs 2010 on clause-internal discourse relations). Thanks to the constraints on the saturation of Bi and C, DOVREBBE ends up pointing to a limited set of combination of argument schemes (or topoi; cf. Rigotti and Greco Morasso 2010) supporting the prediction: either you have a causal argument scheme, possibly combined with an argument from authority based on expert opinion, or you have Modal conversational backgrounds and evidential bases in predictions 153 an argument based on commitments, that are further grounded in the authority of the insiders’ position to know. Two distinct evidential roles of reports emerge: the opinion of the experts and the insiders’ position to know about the plans. In both cases the recourse to evidence from reports is combined with, rather than alternative to, the recourse to inference. It is important to stress that the weak presumptions in C, corresponding to defaults, normal conditions, do function as premises in the reasoning supporting the prediction. Contrary to the conversational background of other epistemic modals, these presumptions are not directly associated with the beliefs of the speaker at the moment of utterance, but rather with a generic epistemic community, a social- ized doxa from which the speaker can distance himself more or less markedly.26 It could be tempting here to evoke two notions that play an important role in Aristotelian rhetoric in the characterization of rhetorical premises: the notion of eikòs, that is what is to be expected because it happens most of the time, and the notion of endoxon, that is what the majority or the experts believe.

26 Theorists of linguistic polyphony in the French tradition (cf. Nølke et al. 2004: 39) would call ON—from the French impersonal third person pronoun on—this kind of collective epistemic subject distinct by the speaker at the moment of utterance. They distinguish two variants of ON, or rather two poles to which actual utterances may be more or less close. On the one side there is the viewpoint of a concrete collective of individuals in the discourse world, while on the other side there is indeterminate ON of the doxa, of the idées reçues. It appears that the conditions C of DOVREBBEE can be of either type. This page intentionally left blank Part III

Cognition and Metaphysics of Time This page intentionally left blank 7

Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time

SIMON PROSSER

7.1 Introduction In this chapter I shall give what may be a rather unexpected point of view on the philosophical debate concerning the reality of tense and the related notion that time passes, and its bearing on the correct semantics for tense. I shall suggest that there can be no mental representation of objective ‘tensed’ features of reality of the kind that might be thought to occur when we experience time passing or think of times as past, present,orfuture, whether or not such features are part of mind-independent reality. This, I hold, has important consequences for metaphysics; but (as will be most relevant to this volume) it is also likely to have important consequences for a correct semantics for tense. In a nutshell, no correct semantics for tense can treat what philosophers call ‘A-properties’ (such as real pastness, presentness,orfuturity, as explained below) as semantic values. The major philosophical debate over the metaphysics of time is between various version of the A-theory (also known as the tensed theory) of time and the B-theory (or tenseless theory) of time. The ‘A’ and ‘B’ designations refer to the A-series and B-series described by John McTaggart (1908, 1927). These are two different kinds of time series. In an A-series, one time is present while other times are ordered by their degrees of pastness or futurity. Pastness, presentness, and futurity are seen as irreducible properties of times; they are not relations. I shall follow standard usage and call these properties A-properties; though (perhaps confusingly) they are sometimes also referred to by philosophers as tenses,ortensed properties. A B-series, by contrast, involves no A-properties; times (or events) are ordered by the relations of being earlier than, being later than,orbeing simultaneous with, but no time is objectively past, present,orfuture (for ease of exposition I shall tend to gloss over the distinction between times and events in what follows, though for some metaphysical purposes it does matter). 158 Simon Prosser

It is often held to be part of our ‘common-sense’ view of the world that times have A-properties, and that these change as time passes. Thus, as I write, the publication date of this article is future but, by the time you read it, that same publication date will have been momentarily present and is now becoming ever more past. McTaggart claimed that such changes led to contradiction; no time can have more than one A-property, yet if time passes then every time has every A-property. There has been much debate over whether the apparent contradiction can be removed by appealing to the fact that no time is simply past, present, and future, but instead can only be described in more complex ways, for example by saying that my writing this line is now present, but will be past (i.e. in the future) and was future (i.e. in the past). McTaggart held that change (understood as above) was essential to time. Conse- quently his somewhat radical response to his alleged paradox was to conclude that time is unreal. Few have followed him. Instead, philosophers have divided over whether change, as construed above, is essential to time. A-theorists answer in the affirmative; according to the A-theory, there is real, dynamic change (or temporal becoming) and, at least on some versions of the A-theory, time should be understood as an A-series that is in constant flux as time passes. The B-theory, by contrast, denies that there is dynamic change of the kind described by the A-theorist. According to the B-theory, times are ordered only as a B-series; no time is objectively past, present,orfuture, and the apparent passage of time is an illusion. Nothing really changes in the dynamic, A-theoretic sense; B-theoretic ‘change’ consists only in the world being in one state at one time and in another state at another time—much like variation across space, where there is one state of affairs in one place and another state of affairs in another place. The A-theory comes in several variants. The traditional ‘moving spotlight’ A-theory, according to which the present is like a spotlight that ‘moves’ along a time series all parts of which are equally real, is no longer popular, perhaps in part because of difficulties in responding to McTaggart’s paradox (though this is controversial). An alternative, though still with relatively few advocates, is the ‘growing block’ theory according to which reality consists of all past and present times, while the future is seen as ‘open’, and not yet real.1 As future times become present, more of reality comes into existence; the present is the ‘edge of becoming’. There are several other variants of the A-theory, and I shall not attempt to list them all. The most popular version of the A-theory today, however, is presentism, according to which reality consists entirely of the present, and the past and future do not exist. Although many B-theorists have regarded presentism as a bizarre view, it must be said that it has a certain plausibility in so far as it captures the common-sense view

1 The moving spotlight theory was discussed, though rejected, by C. D. Broad (1923), who instead advocated a growing block theory. For a more sympathetic recent discussion of the moving spotlight theory see Skow (2009), and for a more recent growing block theory see Tooley (1997). Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 159 that although Socrates once existed he does not exist now (not even in a remote, inaccessible region of space–time), and the first child to be born in the twenty- second century will exist, but does not exist yet (again, not even in a remote, inaccessible region of space–time). Presentism gives us a quite different picture of the world from other A-theories; according to presentism, nothing ‘moves’ along a series of existing times, but rather there is a single reality whose nature changes. Strictly speaking it is unclear that presentism should posit A-properties at all; nothing exists that could instantiate past and future A-properties, and to ascribe presentness to the one reality is thus redundant (though presentists do nonetheless hold that past- and future-tensed utterances can be true, and there has been much debate over how this could be so).2 Presentism is nevertheless usually described as an A-theory because most versions hold that time passes and there is real, dynamic change. One can, if one wishes, separate A-properties from change. One could define an A-theory as any theory that posits A-properties, and a dynamic theory as any theory according to which time passes and there is dynamic change (it is probably safe to regard passage and dynamic change as equivalent, however, and I shall do so in what follows). There is nothing obviously incoherent about a theory according to which times have objective, irreducible A-properties, yet time does not pass.3 But such views have rarely been held; it is normally assumed that the A-properties relevant to the A-theory carry with them the dynamic notions of change and passage (even though, as presentism shows, the converse need not be true). In any case, I shall adopt the common practice of using ‘A-theory’ to mean any dynamic theory according to which time passes and there is dynamic change. In what follows I shall argue that our apparent experience of the A-theoretic passage of time is an illusion; we cannot be aware of, or perceive, time passing. I shall then argue that this makes the A-theory implausible and quite possibly unintelligible; the discovery that the relevant aspects of experience are illusory leaves us with no way to grasp what it is that the A-theorist is claiming to be true. If I am right, then any attempt to account for the temporal features of experience, thought, or language should proceed as though the B-theory were true. After outlining an argument for this view I shall then discuss the projects that arise from it, along with some possible steps forward. My discussion will move rather quickly, describing some of the views and arguments in outline and glossing over many details (though more detailed versions of some of the arguments can be found in Prosser 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013). Rather than getting into the technicalities, important thought they

2 For a survey of the latter debates over presentism see Caplan and Sanson (2011). 3 See Parsons (2002) for one possible development of such a theory. If I understand correctly, the “four- dimensionalist tensism” described by Peter Ludlow in his chapter in this volume, involving perspectival properties but no ‘movement’ of the now along the time line, is another. 160 Simon Prosser are, my main purpose here is to motivate, and begin to outline, a much-neglected project—the project of accounting for experience, thought, and language from a B-theoretic point of view.

7.2 Is it possible to perceive the A-theoretic passage of time? One of the main reasons—perhaps the reason—for accepting the A-theory is that it seems to best vindicate our experience of the world. It just seems to us as though time is passing; we seem, in other words, to be aware of time passing (I shall speak interchangeably of being aware of something and of perceiving it; and these should be taken broadly, with no restriction to the five standard sensory modalities). This is perhaps most apparent in the experienced dynamic nature of change and motion, though there also seems to be an associated sense that one is ‘moving’ through time toward the future (though clearly ‘moving’ must be a metaphor). Numerous A-theorists have appealed to this in defence of their view. The A-theory has often been seen as the obvious, common-sense view, while the B-theory has been seen as counter-intuitively denying what is manifest; and it has therefore been assumed that the onus is on the B-theorist to explain away the features of experience that seem to support the A-theory. My view, however, is that although the B-theorist must indeed provide a satisfactory account of experience, much of the debate over the A-theory rests on a largely unexamined yet highly problematic assumption that the passage of time is the kind of phenomenon that it is possible to perceive. Once this assumption is examined, however, it becomes clear that the passage of time, or any associated A-properties, cannot be perceived—they belong to the wrong metaphysical category to be possible objects of perception. Consequently, contrary to the apparent nature of our experience, and whether or not time really passes, we are not aware of it passing. I shall now sketch an argument to that effect.4 It is important to keep in mind that what is being denied is that we are aware of the passage of time as construed by the A-theory. This does not require the rejection of everyday thought and talk about the passage of time. The B-theorist does not deny that everyday statements such as I am aware that a great deal of time has passed since I first became a student can be true, but insists that they must be interpreted in accordance with the B-theory. So, for example, a B-theorist might hold that the everyday utterance just mentioned is true if and only if the speaker is aware that the time at which the speaker became a student is much earlier than the time at which the utterance occurs. (Note the use of the B-theoretic ‘earlier than’ in the truth conditions. This is just a very rough example; different B-theorists will give different

4 For a fuller defence of the argument sketched below see Prosser (2013). Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 161 specific semantic accounts.) The A-theorist, by contrast, should interpret the same utterance as asserting an awareness of real passage; something not reducible to the B-relations of ‘earlier’ or ‘later’. Before sketching the argument I must introduce some terminology. Let the phenomenal character of an experience be the subjective nature of the experience, often described by philosophers as ‘what it is like’ to have the experience. Thus the phenomenal character of a visual experience of something red is the subjective quality of the experience that differs from that of a visual experience of something blue. Now, whenever one is aware of something, there is an associated phenomenal character. When one sees a physical object, for example, there is a variety of visual phenomenal characters corresponding to the object’s colour, size, shape, and so on. When one is aware that one’s stomach is empty by experiencing a feeling of hunger there is another phenomenal character, and so on. So we should expect that an awareness of the passage of time should be associated with a specific phenomenal character; indeed it would seem baffling if someone were to claim to be consciously aware of time passing yet claim that there is no phenomenal character, nothing that it is like for them subjectively, by virtue of which they have this awareness. Indeed, the literature on temporal experience is full of vivid descriptions of this phenomenal character.5 It need not be claimed that this phenomenal character can exist apart from other phenomenal characters, or that one can be aware of passage without thereby being aware of something else. It may be, for example, that time seems to pass because of the way in which we experience change (in fact I shall suggest below that this is at least part of the story). To perceive something is to stand in a specific kind of relation to it. I shall call this a perceptual relation. Is it possible for a person to stand in a perceptual relation to the passage of time? I shall argue that it is not. Consider a person in some typical perceptual state; they have, for example, visual experiences of a variety of objects of different shapes and colours, auditory experiences of various different sounds, and so on. For every feature of the world perceived by a given subject at a given time, the subject’s experience has a phenomenal character. Different phenomenal characters allow the subject to perceive different features; if the phenomenal character of a perception of something red did not differ from the phenomenal character of a perception of something blue then the subject could not discriminate red from blue, and would thus perceive neither. Hence, for a given subject at a given time, there is a unique (one–one) mapping between phenomenal characters and perceptually discriminated features of the

5 For just a few of the countless examples of descriptions of this phenomenal character by both A- and B-theorists, see Le Poidevin (2007: 76), Schlesinger (1991: 427), Davies (1995: 275), and van Inwagen (2002: 64). 162 Simon Prosser world. Now, for all perceived features other than the passage of time (or associated A-properties) we have at least some idea of how this unique mapping can obtain. When I see a ripe tomato in front of me, an image of a specific shape, colour, and brightness is projected onto my retina. This stimulates only those retinal cells upon which the image falls; and stimulates those cells differentially according to the intensity and wavelength distribution of the light. This, in turn, produces an effect on the configuration of my brain. A different effect would have occurred if there had been a different pattern of retinal stimulation. My brain is thus reconfigured by the perceptual stimulus, and the resulting brain configuration either is, or at least causes, a perceptual experience with a given phenomenal character. A different brain configuration would have produced an experience with a different phenomenal character. Consequently, different perceived features produce different phenomenal characters, at least for a given subject at a given time. Something similar is true for all known forms of perception. It is not plausible that unique mappings of this kind are brute facts; they occur for the kinds of reasons just described. My argument thus takes the form of a challenge to the A-theorist to explain how the passage of time could map uniquely onto a specific phenomenal character. In other words, if the passage of time is experienced, it must be explained what it is that makes the experience in question an experience of the passage of time, rather than of something else; and it must be explained why no other experience (i.e. no experience with a different phenomenal character) constitutes an awareness of the passage of time. I think that there are good reasons to doubt that this challenge can be met. The effect of A-theoretic features (A-properties or the passage of time) on the physical world, in so far as they could be said to have any effect at all, would not be like the effect of one part of the physical world on another. The ripe tomato in front of me has a differential effect on the configuration of my brain, as described above. But the A-theoretic passage of time, or indeed the event of a time acquiring one A-property rather than another, would not have any comparable effects on the configuration of my brain; and consequently no comparable, differential influence over the phenomenal characters of my experiences. At best it might be argued that passage is an essential element of all physical causation; but this would apply to all phenomenal characters equally. In the light of this, it seems very hard to see how an A-theoretic feature of the world could stand in a unique perceptual relation to an element of my experience. It is therefore very hard to see how the phenomenal character that we associate with the awareness of passage could really be an awareness of passage.6 Unless some satisfactory response can be given we must take it that whatever the subjective nature of experience, it does not constitute an awareness of time passing.

6 Whether veridical or illusory, the phenomenal character is, of course, an awareness of something, and the B-theorist should explain what this is. For my own thoughts on this see below, Section 7.4, and also my (2012). Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 163

This signals big trouble for the A-theorist; not only does experience fail to provide any support for the A-theory but, as I shall argue in the next section, there is a serious danger that the A-theory is rendered unintelligible.

7.3 Can A-theoretic properties figure in thought or language? There has been much debate about the semantics of temporal indexicals and of linguistic tense, and sometimes these discussions have been linked to debates over the metaphysics of time. There are two different kinds of approach that one can take, in this regard. First, on the more conservative approach, one can consider what the implications would be for linguistic semantics if one or other metaphysical theory of time were correct.7 Thus, to mention one rather specific example, one might be interested in the extent to which I, here, and now are interdefinable. One might, for example, hold that here is the place where I am now; and I am the person who is now here. This is true in so far as I can only be in one place at a given time. But it is less clear whether now can be defined in terms of I and here. According to all theories other than presentism, I exist at more than one time. In that case, now cannot simply be the time at which I am here, for I may be here at many times. If I am made up of temporal parts, then we can at least say that now is the time at which this temporal part of me is here (though the reference to here would be redundant if my temporal parts are located at their times essentially). On the other hand, if presentism is true then I only exist at one time (now), so now is simply the time at which I exist; or, more succinctly, now is the time at which I am, just as, given presentism, here is the place at which I am. The second, bolder approach tries to draw metaphysical conclusions from the semantics. Thus, historically, debates between A- and B-theorists sometimes focused on whether B-theorists could give tenseless translations of tensed utterances, though for the last thirty years or so the emphasis has been more on whether B-theorists can give tenseless truth conditions, rather than translations, for tensed utterances. This has been an important part of the defence of the B-theory. Attempts to give positive arguments for metaphysical theories from semantic considerations have, however, proven more difficult. Moreover, drawing metaphysical conclusions from linguistic form strikes many philosophers as a perilous exercise.8 Rather than add directly to these debates, however, I would like to draw attention to what I think is a questionable assumption behind any approach that either assumes the A-theory or attempts to defend it in the above ways. This is the

7 See, for example, Ludlow (1999) for discussion of the implications of presentism for the semantics of tense. 8 For an example of an A-theorist drawing metaphysical conclusions from the nature of language, see Smith (1993). For scepticism about arguments of this kind, see Dyke (2007). 164 Simon Prosser assumption that A-properties, or the passage of time, could figure in the semantic values of linguistic utterances. If the above argument concerning the perception of passage is sound then genuine A-theoretic features of time are not reflected in experience in any way. This raises a problem. To put this in very simple terms: if the features of time posited by the A-theory cannot be perceived, then this raises a prima facie concern about whether such features can be referred to. One might perhaps give what appears, from the point of view of linguistics, to be a perfectly satisfactory semantics for tensed expressions, or for sentences involving passage (such as the everyday sentence mentioned above, or expressions such as a year has gone by ...), by assigning A-properties as semantic values. Provided one pays attention only to the assigning of semantic values to expressions in the construction of a semantic theory, and one does not think about how such entities could get to be the semantic values of expressions, the theory might appear acceptable. But, if what I am suggesting is correct, A-properties could never be semantic values, and any such semantics would therefore be incorrect. There are, of course, many imperceptible entities to which we can refer. We refer to abstract objects (such as shapes and numbers), to future events and objects, and so on. But arguably in each such case it is possible, at least in principle, to state some condition that is uniquely met by the entity referred to. Thus, for example, no one has seen a perfect circle or square, but we know how to define those shapes; and no one has seen the first film to be shown in the twenty-second century, but we know what it would take for something to be that film. Hence, when faced with the question ‘Which entity are you talking about?’, we have some idea of how to give an answer. When faced with the question ‘Which features of time are you talking about?’, what can the A-theorist say about putative A-theoretic features of time such as passage or pastness, presentness,orfuturity? If the argument given above is sound then the A-theorist cannot answer that they are the features with which we are all acquainted in experience. Neither can they be identified as the features referred to by tensed linguistic expressions, for we wanted to know which features those are. Neither would it really help to describe the A-series and explain the role of, say, pastness in this series relative to presentness and futurity. For this would only tell us that there are some properties of times that can be arranged in a specific temporal order; it still would not tell us which properties they are. What goes for language goes for thought; if we cannot refer to A-properties or passage then we cannot think of them either. I expect these claims to be met with incredulity by many. It is very tempting to find it obvious that one knows, in one’s own case, what one is thinking of, or talking about, when one thinks or talks of A-properties or passage, and consequently it is tempting to think that arguments such as that given above need not be taken seriously. If so, however, one should examine the source of one’s supposed understanding of these notions. Although I have argued that the A-theoretic passage of Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 165 time cannot be perceived, I have not denied that there are features of experience that give rise to our illusory sense of time ‘passing’. The danger, I think, is that when one thinks of passage, or the associated A-properties, one merely performs an off-line simulation of passage experience (just as, arguably, one neurologically simulates red- perception when asked to think of the colour red, or cat-perception when asked to think of a cat). But if passage-experience cannot be a genuine perception of passage, then putative A-theoretic concepts formed in this way fail to have genuine A-theoretic properties as semantic values. If all of this is correct then the A-theory is unintelligible; it cannot even be made clear what the A-theorist claims about the nature of time. Different ontological claims, such as the presentist claim that only the present exists, may be clear enough; but the ontological claims alone, with no notion of passage, do not seem plausible. In any case, it is the A-theoretic claims that are my target here, rather than the ontological claims associated with specific versions of the A-theory.

7.4 Experience and the illusion of passage If the conclusions of the last two sections are correct then the nature of temporal experience, along with temporal thought and the meanings of utterances containing terms such as past and future, must all be accounted for without appeal to A- properties or the passage of time. This is also largely true if the B-theory is accepted for any other reason. So those who reject the A-theory must embark on a substantial project, to explain the features of experience, thought, and language that have made the A-theory seem appealing. This project has been rather neglected by B-theorists, perhaps because, despite its obvious importance for metaphysics, it is a project concerning mind and language, not metaphysics. In the rest of this chapter I shall sketch some possible steps forward in this project. As well as any interest these steps might have in themselves, however, I hope that what follows will indicate something of the nature of what is, in my view, an important and much neglected project. In this section I start by considering temporal experience. The question before us, then, is why conscious experience has a phenomenal character that seems to lend support to the A-theory even though, if the above arguments are correct (or if the B-theory is anyway true), experience does not involve an awareness of the passage of time. Giving a full answer to this question is a substantial project; not only must the phenomenal character of temporal experience be accounted for, but the way in which this phenomenal character interacts with our thought about time must also be explained. Here I shall do far less; I shall make a methodological proposal, then I shall put forward a suggestion regarding just one piece of the puzzle.9

9 For more details, see Prosser (2012). 166 Simon Prosser

The methodological proposal derives from recent work in the philosophy of perception. In recent years intentionalism has become an increasingly popular view. According to intentionalism, all experiences have representational contents (they represent the world as being one way rather than another, and are correct or incorrect according to whether the world is as represented). Most intentionalists hold, further, that for a given subject at a given time the phenomenal character of the experience is determined wholly by its representational content. Consequently, I suggest, if we wish to explain why an experience has the phenomenal character that it has, it will be sufficient to state the representational content associated with that phenomenal character and to explain why it has that content. This is, in fact, more or less what cognitive scientists usually do when explaining illusions. If, for example, one wishes to explain why it is that, in the Hering illusion, one experiences a visual phenomenal character of the kind most naturally described as being of two curved lines (which occurs when looking at two straight lines superimposed upon a background of angled lines of various sorts), then one starts by stating that the experience represents two curved lines. One then sets out to explain why the lines are represented as curved, given that they are in fact straight. The assumption that the illusion is to be explained in terms of representation (or, rather, misrepresenta- tion) is so automatic as to easily go unnoticed. There is, of course, a deeper question in the philosophy of mind concerning why an experience with a given representational content has the phenomenal character that it has, or indeed why it has a phenomenal character at all; but one need not answer this kind of question in order to explain illusions such as the Hering illusion, and I suggest that the same is true for the illusion of time passing. There will, of course, be some mechanism that accounts for the occurrence of the illusion, just as there is for the Hering illusion; for the latter, this will concern facts about the way in which straight lines interact with the background upon which they are superimposed. But before we can consider such a mechanism for the illusion of passage (which would, in any case, be a job for empirical cognitive science) we must first know the representational content of the illusion; just as, before looking for a mechanism for the Hering illusion, we must know that the illusion consists in the two straight lines being represented as curved. What, then, might our experiences represent, such that time seems to us to pass? The obvious answer would seem to be that experience represents that time passes, but does so falsely. If the B-theory is true, however, then I do not think this answer can be correct. One reason is that if our thoughts or language cannot have genuine A-theoretic features as semantic values, as argued above, then it seems implausible that our experiences could have those semantic values either. But we can cast further doubt on the experiential representation of A-theoretic features by noting that most B-theorists hold not merely that the A-theory is false, but that it is necessarily false (i.e. there is no possible world in which it is true). I haven’t the space for a full defence of the claim here, but I think that there are reasons for doubting that a Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 167 necessarily uninstantiated but non-compositional feature such as the passage of time could be represented by an experience.10 Rather than dwell on arguments against the experiential representation of temporal passage, however, I shall instead put forward a tentative positive hypothesis. There are two main philosophical accounts of the persistence of objects through time. According to one view, objects persist by perduring; that is, by being made up of temporal parts that are located at different times. According to the other view, objects persist by enduring; that is, by existing in their entirety at each time at which they exist at all, and thus have no temporal parts. Broadly speaking, while there are certainly exceptions, B-theorists tend to be perdurantists while A-theorists, and especially presentists, tend to be endurantists. I think that the association between endurance and the A-theory is a very natural and intuitive one, and I think it may hold the key to at least one part of our puzzle. Although obviously metaphorical, our notion of temporal passage seems to involve ourselves, and perhaps other objects, ‘moving’ through time, and persisting through changes, while remaining one and the same entity. The idea of having a part in state S1 at time t1, and a part in state S2 at time t2, somehow falls short of capturing the way we imagine a change between states S1 and S2. We imagine change as involving the very same thing being in one state, then another; not merely a succession of different entities, with different properties, that happen to compose to form a temporally extended whole. So our intuitive, A-theoretic notion of change seems better captured in terms of the endurance theory than the perdurance theory. And, similarly, when we think of time passing or, equivalently, of ourselves or other objects as ‘moving’ through time towards the future, we imagine the very same object being at one time, then at another. The idea of a single identity being at a succession of different times seems somehow essential to our notion of ‘moving’ through time.11 My hypothesis, then, is that part of the explanation for our natural inclination towards the A-theory is that, whether or not objects really endure, our minds have a tendency to represent objects, perhaps including ourselves, as enduring. I doubt very much that the hypothesis that I have described provides a complete explanation of the way we experience time as passing; if nothing else, it tells us very little about the experienced direction of time. But it may at least help.

10 Again, for a more detailed argument, see Prosser (2012). 11 David Velleman (2006) has made a similar suggestion about the importance of our idea of ourselves as enduring in explaining the illusion of time passing; as he puts it, in order to have a sense of the future coming towards us, there has to be a ‘fixed point’, whose identity does not change, for the future to come towards. The idea that something must always persist through a change was put forward by Kant (see the First Analogy in his 1929 [1781–1787]), though there is no clear reason to think that he had the endurance/perdurance distinction, or anything like the A-/B-theory debate, in mind. See also Merricks (1995, 1999) for arguments that presentism and endurance are natural partners; though see also Parsons (2000) for one way that endurance might be reconciled with the B-theory. For some ideas about experience related to those described here, see Paul (2010). 168 Simon Prosser

Here I can only speculate about the mechanism that gives rise to the representation of endurance, and about whether our minds could have represented the world differently. Perhaps, for the reasons of computational economy that I describe below, this was the only way our minds could have represented objects over time. Or perhaps there are possible alien creatures whose minds would not represent objects in this way, and whose experience of time would therefore be very different from our own. Perhaps they would experience the world as B-theoretic. It is hard for us to imagine what this would be like; our difficulty may only reflect our being locked within our own way of experiencing time due to contingencies of our cognitive architecture, or it may reflect a deeper necessity to our own way of experiencing time. There is much more to be said about these issues; I shall not attempt to settle them here, though I shall make some further tentative suggestions. Let us suppose that experience does indeed represent objects as enduring rather than as perduring. It is necessary to make it clearer what this amounts to. What would be the difference between a mental representation of an object as enduring and a mental representation of it as perduring? After all, endurantists and perdurantists agree that it will be the same object at different times. The two theories do disagree concerning whether what is represented as occupying a particular time is the whole object or only a part of the object. So, when an object is seen, for example, the endurantist should say that the object is seen in its entirety whereas the perdurantist should say that only a part of the object is seen. Our question concerns not the real nature of the perceived object, but the nature that it is represented as having. How could we settle the question of whether experience represents objects as enduring or perduring? I do not have a knock- down argument, but offer the following in support of the plausibility of a hypothesis that should ultimately be judged by its role in an overall explanation of our experience of time. My suggestion is that human perceptual systems are lazy—they tend to represent the world in the simplest, most computationally economical way that helps the perceiver negotiate the perceived environment. An example of this is the way we perceive solid objects. Solid objects are, as we know, made up of many small particles (for example, atoms in a crystalline structure); but their surfaces look solid and continuous. Consider a visual perception of an object with no discernible parts, with no visible surface texture or patterns. Does visual perception represent the object as a single individual (with no parts), or as an object with parts, or is it neutral between these possibilities? We must be careful here; no parts are represented, but an absence of a representation of parts does not entail a representation of the absence of parts. Nevertheless I shall argue that something close to this might be true. It does not seem correct to say that the object looks (to the subject) as though it is divisible when no parts are perceived. Provided they had the same macroscopic properties, a divisible object and an indivisible object need not look any different Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 169 from one another; so there seems no reason to think that a divisible object with no discernible parts is represented as divisible. One should be careful not to conflate what is represented by the phenomenology with contents available to the subject in thought, however; someone who knows that an object is made of a fragile material may well say that the object looks as though it could be smashed, and therefore looks divisible. But since an indivisible, unbreakable object need look no different, it is not clear that the phenomenology represents the object as divisible in such cases. Perhaps one might focus attention on just one spatial region of an object, treating this region as an entity distinct from other regions of the object, and one may thus perceive the object as having parts (the temporal analogy would be that someone who understands the perdurance theory might focus attention on what they currently perceive and, understanding that what they see is just a temporal part, separate this in thought from other temporal parts of the object). But, again, it does not follow that the object looks as though it has parts (in either the spatial or temporal case), but only that one can pay selective attention to what one takes to be a part of the object. Note that an object does not have parts just in virtue of occupying distinct regions of space; the notion of a spatially extended object with no parts is perfectly coherent. None of these considerations seems decisive. But rather than opt for the conclusion that objects are neither represented in perception as having parts, nor represented as lacking them, I suggest that the most plausible story is that one’s perceptual system forms a representation of an object by combining simple representations of features such as its shape, colour, etc., and that the simplicity of these representations suggests that the object itself is represented as simple. There has, of course, been great progress in the empirical study of object perception and it would be instructive to go into some details of this, but for now it will suffice to note that plausible accounts tend to describe the visual system as building representations from simple elements—regions of space are marked as straight edges, or as surfaces, or a whole two-dimensional plane is simply marked as having a given colour, and so on. When faced with a surface with no discernible texture, for example, it seems plausible that the surface is marked as flat, rather than as having an unknown status between perfect flatness and currently invisible texture. An oversimplified representation—the surface is flat and continuous—makes sense from the point of view of computational economy. So my suggestion is that on the whole, where no structure is explicitly represented in experience, the object is represented as un- structured. In the temporal case, I assume that there is just a representation of an object—perhaps via some kind of mental file, whose contents are updated as changes are observed—and that since no temporal parts are represented, we should view this as a representation of an object with a constant identity, and no parts. To repeat, I do not claim to have shown this decisively, but put it forward as the most plausible hypothesis. 170 Simon Prosser

I have claimed that one part of the reason why time seems to pass is that objects (perhaps including ourselves) are represented in experience as enduring through changes. But perhaps it will not yet be clear why this kind of representation should make the world seem to us to be an A-theoretic world, incompatible with the B- theory. If the B-theory allows the possibility of enduring objects (as is sometimes claimed), then it is unclear why a world of enduring objects should not strike us as compatible with the B-theory. The answer, I suggest, lies in the way change is represented. Again, I shall have to gloss over some details and leave many possible objections unanswered here, but the general idea is as follows.12 When an object, O, is observed as first having a property F, then no longer having that property, there is a representational content at t1 of the form ‘O is F’, followed by a representational content at t2 of the form ‘O is not F’. These representations contradict one another. Moreover, in order for change to be represented it is not sufficient that there merely be a change in what is represented. The change itself must be represented; and, arguably, this requires a single representation that includes both of the conflicting contents.13 In that case there is a representation with a contradictory content; a single object is represented as both F and not F. If the world is represented in a way that is in fact contradictory it is not surprising that that the world should seem to us quite unlike a B-theory world, which holds no obvious inconsistencies. The world thus represented does not seem contradictory, of course. I speculate that this is because in addition to our taking the world to be one in which objects endure, we are also inclined to take the world to be much as the presentist thinks it is, where each moment in time constitutes a complete reality, so that different moments in time are distinct realities which cannot conflict with one another. We thus arrive at the idea that experience represents the world as one in which objects endure through changes while retaining their identities (that is, an object remains the very same object); the object exists though a succession of differing realities and we, as objects, move through time in the same way. This, I suggest, is an important part of the explanation of time seeming to pass, though I stress that there is more to add, at the very least in order to capture the experienced direction of time. There will, no doubt, be many objections to the above arguments, not least in

12 For full details of possible objections and the relation of the argument to debates over the problem of temporary intrinsics, see Prosser (2012). 13 The idea that a change of representation is not sufficient for a representation of change is one of the chief motivations for the specious present, the doctrine that our experience of the present encompasses an extended period of time. For present purposes I need take no view on whether there is a conscious experience of an extended period or a consciousness of the present moment combined with a short-term memory (in fact I am sceptical about whether there is a clear distinction between these options, despite frequent discussion of them in the literature on time consciousness). For more details on the specious present and its rivals, see James (1890), Broad (1923, 1938), Dainton (2000, 2001, 2008), Gallagher (2003), Tye (2003), Kelly (2005b), Le Poidevin (2007), and Phillips (2010). Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 171 relation to the claim that the representation of change in enduring objects is contradictory. There is some considerable debate among metaphysicians over whether the possibility of change makes endurance contradictory (see Lewis 1986 for an argument for perdurance based on the supposed contradiction), and many of the moves made there might seem applicable to the question of whether the experiential representation of change is similarly contradictory. For responses to some such moves see Prosser (2012).

7.5 Thought, language, and the A-theory Our project of explaining away the appeal of the A-theory goes beyond the explanation of those aspects of phenomenology that make time seem to pass. It is also necessary to explain a number of features of our thoughts about time, and of related linguistic representations. Ultimately, what we say about thought and what we say about experience must be integrated; the relation between our experiences and our thoughts must be explained. Here I shall touch on just one important issue relevant to this. One of the best-known puzzles concerning temporal thought is Arthur Prior’s (1959) ‘thank goodness’ argument. Suppose that at time t2 you have an appointment at the dentist for painful root canal surgery. At time t1, the day before the surgery, you experience feelings of dread when you think my root canal is tomorrow. But at time t3, the day after the surgery, you experience feelings of relief, and think thank goodness my root canal is over! Now, if the B-theory is true then the facts don’t change. It is eternally true that your utterance of my root canal is tomorrow occurs one day earlier than the appointment, and it is eternally true that your utterance of my root canal is over occurs one day after the appointment. The two most popular B-theoretic accounts of the semantics of temporal indexical terms like tomorrow and over analyse their contributions to truth conditions in terms of relations to either tokens or times. Thus, on a token-reflexive account, the utterance my root canal is tomorrow is true if, and only if, my root canal occurs one day later than my uttered token of tomorrow; whereas, on a ‘date’ account, my utterance is true if and only if my root canal occurs one day later than t1. But why, Prior asked, should it make sense to dread, or thank goodness for, states of affairs such as those? Why should I thank goodness, at t3, for the fact that my utterance occurs a day later than the root canal, when this was equally true at t1 (the time at which, in fact, I dreaded the root canal)? Prior concluded that the B-theorist could provide no satisfactory answer, and that this phenomenon provided support for his version of presentism. Given an A-theory, perhaps it makes sense to thank goodness for the root canal event being past; and it certainly makes sense to thank goodness for the root canal event not existing (though it must be noted that the presentist who adopts the latter explanation must then explain why it doesn’t make sense to 172 Simon Prosser thank goodness prior to the root canal, given that (according to presentism) it doesn’t exist then either).14 The correct response for the B-theorist lies, I think, in recognizing that truth conditions can be stated in different ways for the purposes of different explanatory projects. Consider, by analogy, an utterance U, said or thought by me, of there is a ferocious tiger near here. Suppose that U occurs at location L. Here are three ways to state the truth conditions of U: U is true if, and only if: 1. There is a ferocious tiger near to location L. 2. There is a ferocious tiger near to where U occurs. 3. There is a ferocious tiger near to where I am. It makes sense for me to fear the state of affairs expressed by U. But clearly the reason for this cannot be captured by either (1)or(2); neither the fact that a ferocious tiger is near some particular place, nor the fact that a ferocious tiger is near to where an utterance occurs, are in themselves reasons for fear. It is only (3) that really gives me a reason for fear. There may be explanatory purposes for which (1)or(2) give better accounts of the truth conditions of U; but when we want to explain the subject’s fear, (3) captures the truth conditions in the right way. In case it should be objected that it is (1)or(2) that captures the truth conditions of U and that (3) merely indicates a fact that the subject can infer from ‘I am the utterer of U’, it should be noted that there are some utterances containing indexical expressions for which it would be hard to state truth conditions without reference to the subject. Consider, for example, Uleft: a ferocious tiger is to the left. Since places and utterance tokens do not have left-hand sides it is impossible to state truth conditions for this utterance in the same manner as (1) and (2). In many cases it is the speaker or thinker’s own left-hand side that is relevant to the truth conditions of

Uleft; this would invariably be the case when Uleft is a token thought. So there are many cases in which the truth conditions are more usefully stated, and some cases in which they have to be stated, in what we might call person-reflexive terms. If the B-theory is correct then monadic predicates such as is past or is future are used in dealing with relations rather than properties. The ‘thank goodness’ problem only bites if the truth conditions for utterances containing these predicates must be given by the date or token-reflexive accounts, which are analogous to (1) and (2). If, instead, we adopt a person-reflexive account a solution is possible. Once again, however, the metaphysical issues interact with the semantic issues. Consider again my utterances of my root canal is tomorrow at t1 and my root canal is over at t3. Call these U1 and U3 respectively. If persons endure then the person-reflexive truth condition for U1 would have to be along the lines of ‘the root canal occurs the day

14 See also Jaszczolt (this volume) on the symmetry problem. Experience, thought, and the metaphysics of time 173

after the time at which I exist’ and for U3 it would have to be along the lines of ‘the root canal occurs prior to the time at which I exist’. But if the B-theory is true then these are inadequate, for if I endure, and the B-theory is true, then I exist at many times. This seems to provide a further reason why representing objects (including persons) as enduring might make the B-theory seem false, pushing our notion of time towards an A-theory. If, instead, we assume that persons have temporal parts, however, then we can give truth conditions for U1 and U3 in terms of these parts. Suppose I have temporal parts S1 and S3 at times t1 and t3 respectively. Then U1 is true if and only if the root canal occurs the day after S1 exists, whereas U3 is true if and only if the root canal occurs earlier than S3’s existence. S1 and S3 would have to understand these truth conditions in a first-person manner; otherwise they would state facts that could equally be accepted by S1 and S3. Given that causation is always directed towards the future, there might be good reasons for S1 and S3 to differ in their attitudes toward the root canal. S1, being located prior to the root canal, still has a chance to prevent it; whereas S3, being located after the root canal, can do nothing about it. So if the truth conditions are stated in person-reflexive terms that make reference to temporal parts of persons, then we can make sense of the differing attitudes of the different temporal parts of a person to the same event. In effect, Prior’s challenge to the B-theorist was to state a fact (a truth condition) that S1 had reason to dread, and a fact (a truth condition) that S3 had reason to thank goodness for. We can answer that challenge by saying that the fact that S1 is located earlier than the root canal gives S1 (but not S3) a reason for dread; whereas the fact that S3 is located later than the root 15 canal gives S3 (but not S1) a reason for relief. Perhaps if words like past and future wore their semantics on their sleeves, such that we could not fail to recognize that they imply relations to temporal parts of persons, we would find the B-theory easier to accept. The A-theorist who posits A-properties thinks that such words do wear their semantics on their sleeves; according to them the predicate is past ascribes the A-property of pastness. It may be that the surface form of these predicates naturally helps mislead us into supposing that there are A-properties of this kind, thus lending further intuitive support to the A-theory.16 But the B-theorist should hold that the semantic properties of is past are analogous to those of is to the left; in terms of surface form they are one-place predicates, but we use them to deal with two-place relations to temporal parts of persons.17

15 See Maclaurin and Dyke (2002) for a similar claim about the differing attitudes of temporal parts. 16 Smart (e.g. 1967) suggests something of this sort, as do I in Prosser (2006) (where I also discuss temporal parts of persons as unarticulated constituents of temporal indexical thoughts). 17 In Prosser (2006) I describe this in terms of John Perry’s(1986) notion of unarticulated constituents. For an entirely different approach to explaining away A-theoretic intuitions in terms of linguistic semantics, see Jaszczolt (2009). 174 Simon Prosser

7.6 Conclusions I hope that the above arguments, brief though they were, suffice to show something of the different challenges faced by the A-theorist and the B-theorist in giving a satisfactory account of temporal experience, thought, and language. The major challenge for the A-theorist, as I see it, is to explain how the features of experience that are so often used to motivate the A-theory could possibly constitute an awareness of A-theoretic features of time such as temporal passage. I have briefly described a reason for doubting that this can be done. Failing this, A-theorists must explain how to motivate their theory, and indeed how to render it intelligible, without recourse to the nature of experience; and I have suggested, again, that this looks like a very hard challenge to meet. The major challenge for the B-theorist, by contrast, is to explain away the features of experience to which the A-theorist appeals, and to give a satisfactory B-theoretic account of those elements of thought and language that might also seem to support the A-theory, such as the differing attitudes we take to the same events at different times. These attitudes must be integrated with an account of the contents of experience. There are many further related questions that have not been touched on above; for example, the question of whether perceptual contents have to be present-tensed in order to motivate actions, and the question of how the contents of perception (whether or not explicitly present-tensed) subsequently come to be represented in memory with constantly updated degrees of pastness. My suggestion that objects, including persons, are represented in experience, and often in thought, as enduring rather than perduring, may offer a small step forward. But what I hope to have shown overall is something of the variety of interlocking issues that must be addressed in a satisfactory account of temporal experience, thought, and language. 8

Tensism

PETER LUDLOW

Tensism is the doctrine that tense (like past and future tense) is not eliminable and not reducible to non-tensed facts. We can distinguish two kinds of tensism— metaphysical tensism and linguistic tensism. Metaphysical tensism is the doctrine that reality itself is tensed and that these tensed facts are not reducible to more basic untensed facts. Linguistic tensism is the idea that natural language is tensed and that natural language tense is not reducible to more basic untensed facts about language (or anything else). Sometimes people think that advocates of metaphysical tensism are mistakenly reading a feature about language into the metaphysics of reality. They might say that “well, language is tensed, but reality isn’t; you are just projecting a feature of language onto the world”. But this isn’t what is happening. Different languages of the world have different ways of expressing tense. Some of them use what we call tense markers, others use their aspectual system to express tense, some languages use evidential makers to express tense.1 Some languages use modals to express tense (English does this to express future tense, for example), and some use spatial predicates. The point is that tense is not a surfacey feature of the world’s languages; advocates of tensism (let’s call them tensers) think that tense is a feature of the world and that different languages find different strategies for expressing claims that involve this feature of the world. That is, metaphysical tense comes first. Linguistic tense is what we use to express metaphysical tense. Accordingly, when we say we are studying tensed features of language, we are not talking about surfacey properties of language. We are talking about the proper semantics of tensed expressions—we are talking about how tensed language hooks up with the world.2 We are attending to the linguistic expression of these claims

1 For example, an evidential marker that indicates that the speaker has perceptual knowledge of an event is sometimes used to express past tense. 2 Could we say that thoughts are tensed but that the world isn’t? I believe this position is no more stable than saying that language is tensed and the world isn’t. We will want to give a semantics for our thoughts, 176 Peter Ludlow because doing so lends clarity to the discussion about the metaphysics of tense and because doing so can expose metaphysical commitments that can otherwise be smuggled into the debate (I’ll highlight examples of this phenomenon below). In this chapter I explore the case for tensism, consider some of the objections and alternatives that have been offered to it, and then try to shore up the position in a way that answers some of the concerns. In particular, my plan is as follows. In Section 8.1,I’ll take a look at the initial case for tensism, and I’ll offer that the initial most plausible analysis of tense is thinking of it along the lines of Fregean sense. In Section 8.2,I’ll make the case that we can take tense to be a perspectival property that is consistent with four-dimensionalism in the sense of Sider (2001). In Section 8.3,I’ll take up a key objection that John Perry has raised against Fregean approaches to tense, an objection that I call the wrong candidate objection. In Section 8.4, I will offer a response to this objection, leaning on a theory of the cognitive dynamics of tensed language and how it is used to express tensed thoughts. In Section 8.5,I’ll take up alternative approaches due to Perry and James Higginbot- ham, and show that the approaches are either too thin to do the necessary work, or they smuggle in a notion of Fregean indexical sense. In Section 8.6 I’ll offer some concluding remarks.

8.1 The initial case for tensism Consider the following scenario. I am sitting in my office, aware that I have a meeting with the university president at three o’clock. I may even note to myself that I have the meeting at three. Let’s say that it is three o’clock but I don’t know it is, so I do not get up and go to the meeting. But then I look at a clock and see the time. I realize that my meeting is happening now, so I get up and run to the meeting. Now consider two possible three o’clock utterances: (1) I have a meeting with the President at three o’clock. (2) Oh no, I have a meeting with the President now!3 In the scenario I envisioned, the belief I have when I utter (1) does not get me up and off to the meeting, but the belief I have when I utter (2) does get me up and off to the meeting. So clearly there is something different going on in the two cases. The question is, is that something extra semantic? That is to ask, is the something extra built into the semantic content of my utterances?

and it will have to hook up to the world in the right way or it will not successfully play a role in our explanation of actions and emotions. 3 See de Saussure (this volume), for a discussion of how similar effects hold with epistemic futures and other cases such as present perfect with future reference in French. Tensism 177

There are related examples. Following Prior (1959), consider (3) contrasted with (4), and let’s suppose both are uttered at one o’clock GMT, on 11-11-11. (3) I am thankful that my root canal is over with. (4) I am thankful that my root canal is earlier than one o’clock GMT, on 11-11-11. Prior held that it simply isn’t enough to say someone who utters (3) is grateful the root canal was complete at one o’clock GMT, on 11-11-11—that just isn’t enough to explain the relief (thankfulness) an the part of the speaker.4 The speaker is presumably grateful that the root canal is safely in her past—the root canal is temporally removed from her egocentric position—and is not thankful that the root canal is earlier than some particular time point. So again it seems that something more is going on with the tensed version than in the untensed version, and again the question is whether this is a function of something extra being built into the semantic content of the utterance. The Fregean would answer “yes” to this question, but so would a number of non-Fregeans. For example, in relatively recent work John Perry (certainly not a Fregean) has suggested that we cannot be cavalier about rejecting a role for cognitive significance in the semantics.

I cannot accept that a semantic theory can be correct that does not provide us with an appropriate interface between what sentences mean, and how we use them to communicate beliefs in order to motivate and explain action. A theory of linguistic meaning should provide us with an understanding of the properties sentences have that lead us to produce them under different circumstances, and react as we do to their utterance by others. (Perry 2001: 8) Indeed, Perry offers the following “cognitive constraint on semantics”:

If there is some aspect of meaning, by which an utterance u of S and an utterance u’ of S’ differ, so that a rational person who understood both S and S’ might accept u but not u’, then a fully adequate semantics should say what it is. (Perry 2001: 9) We will get to Perry’s positive proposal in Section 8.5, but let’s take a look at the Fregean position first. To a first approximation, we could characterize the difference in sense between these two utterances as follows, where F1 indicates a first gloss on a Fregean sense analysis. (1-F1) An utterance u, at three o’clock of ‘I have a meeting with the President at three o’clock’ is true iff [the individual picked out by the sense of ‘I’ in u] has a meeting at three o’clock.

4 See the chapters by Prosser, de Saussure, and Jaszczolt (this volume), for additional discussion of this example. 178 Peter Ludlow

(2-F1) An utterance u, at three o’clock of ‘I have a meeting with the President now’ is true iff [the individual picked out by the sense of ‘I’ in u] has a meeting at [the time picked out by the sense of ‘now’ in u]. Setting aside the specifics of how details of the Fregean sense story are going to work, this looks pretty reasonable, but many philosophers have objected to such a move. One set of objections is metaphysical, and revolves around an alleged con- undrum one gets into by wedding tense to a standard four-dimensionalist picture of time. The second set of objections has to do with puzzles in constructing a coherent tensed semantics if we think of tense in Fregean terms. I’ll take up these concerns in the next two sections of the chapter.

8.2 Tensism and four-dimensionalism Suppose we wanted to add tense to the standard four-dimensionalist picture of time, as described in Sider (2001) and widely held in philosophy. To make things vivid, let’s just think about the temporal indexical ‘now’ (the same point can be made with the basic tenses). Let’s say somebody utters sentence (2) above, containing the word now, but then they utter it again a week later (let’s say they have a weekly meeting with the university president). So it seems that the notion of now, whatever that is, has moved along the time-like dimension of space–time. But wait! Movement is supposed to take place in time. And we were supposed to be characterizing time. So how could that movement take place in time? The same problem occurs if we take future or past tense as well. The future region of space–time will shrink, and the past will grow. But again, what sense does that make? Shrinking and growing take place in time. One possibility here is that we move to a notion of second-order time. The indexical property does move, not in time proper, but in second-order time.Sowe get this: there is a second order event of it being now-at-t1, and it was now-at-t1 before it was now-at-t2. The problem with this move is that we can quickly generate regress. Why should we stop with second-order time? Indeed, we will have the same motivations to introduce tense at the second-order level as we had at the first-order level. To see this, consider the second-order version of Prior’s example. (3-2nd order) I’m thankful it’s now-at-t2 now and not yesterday. (said after a visit to the dentist at t1) Or suppose there is a meeting scheduled (by a clever philosopher) for when it is now-at-t2. I realize it is t2 and utter: (2-2nd order) Oh no, it’s now-at-t2 now! Tensism 179

We can even generate utterances that seem to cut across levels. So, consider the following. (3-cross-level) I’m thankful my root canal was now-at-t1 and not now. (said at t2) But apart from this there is a question of whether second-order tense is coherent. Either an expression like now-at-t1 loses all indexical content, in which case it lacks the cognitive significance to explain our actions and emotions, or if we kept it in it would have to be a monster in the sense of Kaplan—that is, it would be an indexical operator the reference of which is not anchored to the time and place of utterance of the matrix sentence, but can shift according to the linguistic context (for example in an embedded tensed clause). As noted by Kamp (1971) and Kaplan (1977, 1979, 1990), real tenses can’t be shifted to another time index or temporal perspective; thus we have the following examples. (5) *Yesterday I will be happy. (6) *Yesterday it was true that I will be happy. (7) *Yesterday it was true that I’m happy now. This suggests that the ‘now’ in ‘now-at-t2’ can’t be a genuine temporal indexical—i.e. not the one we get in a sentence like (2). I think that there is a way out of this problem, but it involves buying into some assumptions that I’ve argued for elsewhere—in particular it requires that we adopt that picture of the dynamic lexicon that I’ve defended in Ludlow (2000, 2006, 2007). On that view, word meanings are dynamic to the point that they can shift even within a conversation and even from moment to moment. For example, I’ve applied this idea to predicates like knows, where the standards for knowledge can shift with the introduction of a sceptical hypothesis. Applied to the case of tense, the thought is that not merely the referent of now but the sense of now can shift across time—or better, now has a different sense at different points in time. One way of thinking about this would be that there are many words now, and the now is not moving along a time-like dimension. There are simply different expressions now, each expressing a different sense at different points along the time-like dimension in space–time.5 What properties to these nows express? And more to the point, how do we express what they express at different times? Obviously, on this view, the sense of now in an utterance tomorrow cannot be the same as the sense of now in an utterance today. Here is a quick gloss of the concern and how we can answer it.

5 See Sklar (1977) for a discussion of the nature of space–time. 180 Peter Ludlow

The basic case of using an expression works like this, where we can give the content of the indexical disquotationally, since we give the content at the moment it is being used. (2-T1) ‘I have a meeting now’ is true just in case I have a meeting now. But what if we want to give the content of ‘I have a meeting now’ as uttered at some other time? For example, what if it was uttered yesterday? Well, I couldn’t have meant now, so now must have meant something else then. (2-T0) An utterance by me yesterday of ‘I have a meeting now’ meant that I had a meeting then (yesterday). I’ll say more about this in a bit, but for now suffice it to say that it will involve a theory of the cognitive dynamics of using expressions to track temporal sense. If we go with this picture, it is natural to ask what properties in the physical world we are tracking with these expressions. I believe that each subsequent use of now expresses a unique perspectival property along a time-like dimension in space–time. We can even extend this idea to relativistic physics if we take these perspectival properties to be relative to an inertial frame. They are, in effect, egocentric properties accessible to an agent who is embedded in time on an inertial frame—in effect, someone embedded in an arrow on a Minkowski space–time diagram.6 Now you might object that science is the view from nowhere, and there really should not be perspectival properties in science, and it may well be that such properties are not of use in physics. Physics, after all, does not need to be interested in every property. But it may well be that other theories cannot dispense with such properties—the theory of action, for example. It is also worth noting that even though general physics may not need such properties, any theory of the experimental setting in science would, because we want to understand the ways in which we talk about individual physical events, individual experiments, phenomena, data, etc. All of these require the use of indexicals in order to fix the items of interest, and in my view they will all ultimately involve an appeal to indexical sense. I don’t mean to suggest that four-dimensionalist tensism is the only way out for the tenser. Prior (1967, 1968), for example, thought the best solution was to opt for presentism. I don’t think that such a view is a non-starter, but I do believe that there are technical difficulties not anticipated by Prior and other presentists, particularly problems centring on the phenomenon of temporal anaphora (for example, as in ‘I turned off the stove then’). In Ludlow (1999), I attempted to address some of these difficulties on behalf of the presentist, and then, as now, I didn’t believe that the problems were insurmountable, but I do believe they remain unresolved. My point

6 See Sklar (1977) for a discussion of Minkowski space–time diagrams. Tensism 181 here is not to take sides on the best way out. I am simply taking the four-dimensionalist tenser option because it is the version of tensism that offers the minimal departure from standard views of tense and time. If I am right, then the best way to understand linguistic tense is that it expresses a real property of the world—metaphysical tense—and that metaphysical tense can be understood as an egocentric perspectival property. This property will be crucial in our semantic theories if we want them to account for why we engage in the actions and have the attitudes that we do. But what is the best way to characterize these properties in the semantics?7 Earlier I suggested characterizing them with the help of Fregean senses, but as we will see, this leads to some objections.

8.3 An objection to the Fregean story What is the harm of introducing Fregean senses to account for the ‘something extra’ in cases like (2) and (3) above? For my money the most interesting is one introduced by Perry (1977, 1979) and that turned on the following famous passage from Frege (1956 [1915–1919]). I will call it the wrong candidate objection.

If someone wants to say the same today as he expressed yesterday using the word ‘today’,he must replace this word by ‘yesterday’. Although the thought is the same, the verbal expression must be different so that the sense, which would otherwise be affected by the differing times of utterance, is readjusted. The case is the same with words like ‘here’ and ‘there’. In all such cases the mere wording, as it is given in writing, is not the complete expression of the thought, but the knowledge of certain accompanying conditions of utterance, which are used as means of expressing the thought, are needed for its correct apprehension. The pointing of fingers, hand movements, glances may belong here too. The same utterance containing the word ‘I’ will express different thoughts in the mouths of different men, of which some may be true, others false. (Frege, 1956 [1915–1919]: 24) Perry argued that Frege gets into trouble by trying to identify the sense of a sentence (utterance) with a thought. Why? Well, because ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’ presumably have different senses, and it therefore follows that ‘Today is a fine day’ and ‘Yesterday is a fine day’ must have different senses (since they are composed of different senses). But if I can express the same thought today with an utterance of ‘yesterday is a fine day’ that I expressed yesterday with an utterance of ‘today is a fine day’ then thoughts cannot be associated with senses. Different senses are deployed in expressing the same thought so thoughts are not in a one-to-one correspondence with the senses of sentences. Senses are not good candidates for characterizing cognitive significance.

7 On a perspectival interpretation of tensed utterances see de Saussure (this volume). 182 Peter Ludlow

Referentialists will say we are better off getting rid of senses and opting for a more austere theory. Accordingly, referentialists argue that we must keep the something extra out of the semantics—it will mess up the semantics in crucial cases. They accordingly suggest that the semantics for (1) and (2) should look like the following, where the R indicates a referentialist gloss. (1-R) An utterance u, by s, at t, where t ¼ three o’clock of ‘I have a meeting with the President at three o’clock’ is true iff s has a meeting with the President at t. (2-R) An utterance u, by s, at t, where t ¼ three o’clock of ‘I have a meeting with the President now’ is true iff s has a meeting with the President at t. The problem is that we now appear to have lost the content that was going to explain why I got up and got going after I uttered (2) but not after I uttered (1). We have abandoned the cognitive constraint on semantics that even a non-Fregean like Perry was happy to endorse. We thus get the following dilemma. dilemma: If we include the something extra in our semantics—if we make it part of the truth conditions—we mess up the semantics. If we leave out the something extra, we don’t seem to have a way of accounting for the difference in cognitive significance between (1) and (2). As we will see in a bit, some philosophers have argued that there is a third way here: that we needn’t go referentialist or Fregean, but there is something in between. For example, neither Higginbotham nor Perry are Fregeans when it comes to tense—both offer what they take to be a middle way that includes something extra in the semantics but not the full Fregean sense content. A bit later I’m going to argue that the middle way they offer isn’t stable. Before we get to their positive proposal, however, I want to make the case for the Fregean position, and before we do this we need to lay out the doctrines that the Fregean is committed to and see if in fact these doctrines lead to the conundrums that Perry claims. For example, in a very helpful mapping of the territory, Heck (2002) argued that Frege was committed to the following doctrines. (i) There can be different Thoughts that “concern the same object” and ascribe the same property to it. For example, the Thought that Superman flies and the Thought that Clark Kent flies are different, even though Superman is Clark Kent. (ii) Sentences of the form ‘N believes that a is F’ and ‘N believes that b is F’ can have different truth values, even if ‘a’ and ‘b’ refer to the same object. (iii) Sense determines reference. (iv) The sense of a sentence is what one grasps in understanding it. (v) The sense of a sentence is a Thought. Tensism 183

Perry’s argument can be taken as the claim that you can’t really hold all of these positions simultaneously, so something has to give. Not surprisingly, different philosophical camps have chosen different doctrines to reject. The referentialist’s way out is to reject (ii)—that is, to argue that the truth values are literally the same and that accounting for cognitive significance is not the job of semantics. Heck’s way out is to reject (iv)—that is, reject the idea that there is a single thought associated with the understanding of a sentential utterance. Here is how Heck makes the case for that position.

But why do we want to find something to call the meaning? What we (relatively) uncontro- versially have are speakers who associate Thoughts with utterances and restrictions upon how the different Thoughts they associate with a given utterance must be related if they are to communicate successfully: to put it differently, we have the fact that utterances have cognitive value for speakers, and we have communicative norms determining how the cognitive values a given utterance has for different speakers must be related if we are to understand them. (Heck 2002: 31) As Heck says in the same paper, “a given utterance can differ in cognitive value for two speakers without their being unable to communicate successfully”. I’m not entirely clear on Gareth Evans’ position but I believe that his way out was to reject (v)—that is, to break the link between senses and thoughts. The case for this can be found in Evans (1985: 307–8):

. . . there is no headlong collision between Frege’s suggestion that grasping the same thought on different days may require different things of us, and the fundamental criterion of difference of thoughts which rests upon the principle that it is not possible coherently to take different attitudes towards the same thought. For that principle, properly stated, pre- cludes the possibility of coherently taking different attitudes towards the same thought at the same time. Evans appeared to be saying that thoughts are to be identified with senses—but with different senses at different times. My own view is that Heck’s characterization of the situation is missing some details and that there are other assumptions (not necessarily Fregean) required to generate the problem that Perry claimed to see in Frege’s position. In particular, I believe that to really generate problems of the sort that Perry envisioned, one needs to introduce an additional doctrine. (vi) A sense is intimately tied to its manner of expression, so that the senses of ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ remain constant Perry seems to take it as a given that Frege was committed to this, but I frankly don’t see it, and this is the premise that is causing the trouble. In response to Perry, Branquinho (2006) and Ludlow (1999, 2008) have argued that this premise should be 184 Peter Ludlow rejected—we need to break the link between senses and their forms of expression. As I argued in Ludlow (2008), indexical expressions like today can be used to express or display senses, but they do not express the same sense on each occasion of use. This strategy holds the sense associated with a thought constant, but allows that different indexical expressions can display the same sense (albeit on different occasions of use). Branquinho (2006: 2) puts it as follows:

Cases where one is dealing with indexical contents are problematic because they often involve some realignment in the linguistic means of expression of a thought—on the part of a given thinker—as time goes by. In other words, there are situations in which the verbal expression of an indexical thought entertained by a thinker at a given time must, at a later time, be readjusted in a certain way by the thinker in order for the thought in question to be then entertained; so that one could presumably say that some attitude held at the earlier time towards the thought in question has been retained by the thinker at the later time, the very same thought being the object of the attitude on both occasions. Naturally, such readjustments are to be thought of as being operated in the linguistic means employed for the expression of the thoughts. It does not make much sense—at least in the light of the picture of content we are assuming—to think of the thoughts as being themselves subjected to any sort of change or realignment. For what it’s worth, one can also make the case that Evans had something like this in mind as well. Here is the passage in Evans (1985) that seems to support the idea:

Frege’s idea is that the same epistemic state may require different things of us at different times; the changing circumstances force us to change in order to keep hold of a constant reference and a constant thought—we must run to keep still. From this point of view, the acceptance on d2 of ‘Yesterday was fine’, given an acceptance on d1 of ‘Today is fine’ can manifest the persistence of a belief in just the way in which acceptance of difference utterances of the sentence ‘The sun sets in the West’ can. Rödl (2007: 196–7) expresses the point as follows, with an emphasis on the idea that it is really the linguistic expression that is shifting even while the thought or sense stays constant:

We found that, in suitable cases, “Today . . . ” said yesterday and “Yesterday . . . ” said today express the same act of thinking. These cases are fundamental in that, without them, there would be no such thing as an act of thinking expressed by either phrase. And when “ . . . today . . . ” yesterday and “ . . . yesterday . . . ” today express the same act of thinking, then they express the same thought. Therefore, it would be misleading to contrast “yesterday”-thoughts with “today”-thoughts; in the fundamental case, a “yesterday”-thought is a “today”-thought.

8.4 The cognitive dynamics of Fregean accounts of tense In the previous section I sketched an approach to tense that was largely Fregean. In this section I want to develop that picture in more detail. To do this, I want to think Tensism 185 of senses as being displayed by the theorems of a Davidsonian T-theory.8 In doing so, we need to distinguish between: (a) what the truth conditions literally state (b) the way in which the truth conditions are represented (c) the sense displayed by the truth conditions so represented Here is an illustration of the idea from McDowell (1980) and Lepore and Loewer (1987). While theorems (8) and (9) in some sense state the same truth conditions, they do so in different ways, so that they ‘display’ different senses. (8) ‘Cicero is bald’ is true iff Cicero is bald. (9) ‘Cicero is bald’ is true iff Tully is bald. Similarly, we can think of T-theorems that use indexicals on the right-hand side as displaying the senses of the indexical expressions on the left-hand side.9 (10) Val(x, ‘I’) iff x ¼ I (11) Val(T, ‘I walk’) iff I walk (12) Val(x, ‘today’) iff x is true today But isn’t this hopelessly naive? Not necessarily. If it is true that we can express the same sense in different ways, then what we need to do is develop a theory that affords perspective-sensitive axioms. For example, here is how we might handle the example introduced by Frege. (13) if yesterday s left a message m, having the form ‘today is a fine day’, then for s,m ‘today is a fine day’ is true iff it was a fine day yesterday Now let me be clear. A semantic theory would not consist of theorems of this form, but it would be a theory of the capacities that allow us to build theories like this on the fly. In effect, a theorem like (13) is a theorem generated by a ‘passing theory’ in the sense of Davidson (1986). The question is, can this sort of project be made systematic? Branquinho (2006: 3) offers the following way of envisioning the project:

Suppose that on a certain day, say d, Jones says [(14)] Today is fine and believes it. What sentence or sentences should he be disposed to accept on the following day, dþ1, so that one could say that he has then retained his previously manifested belief about the weather on d? Again, a plausible choice would apparently be given in the sentence [(15)] Yesterday was fine.

8 See Davidson (1967b). Note that Davidson didn’t think one could lift indexicals into the metalanguage, presumably for many of the reasons canvassed here. 9 See Rumfitt (1993) for a similar proposal. 186 Peter Ludlow

. . . Let us call the above claim, the claim that sentences such as . . . [(14)], taken with respect to the envisaged contexts of utterance, constitute choices which are appropriate for attitude- retention the Natural Realignment Claim.... Now the Natural Realignment Claim might be given two different readings. Take Jones’s case, for instance. On the one hand, it might be held that Jones might be said to have retained on dþ1 the belief he held on d (by accepting then [(14)]) only if he would be disposed to accept [(15)] on dþ1. That is to say, the claim is that a disposition to accept a token of the sentence in question on the later occasion is necessary for retention of the belief had on the earlier occasion. On the other hand, it might be held that Jones’s disposition to accept [(15)] on dþ1 is sufficient for retention of the belief he held on d (by accepting then [(14)]). I shall refer to those distinct versions of the Natural Realignment Claim as the Necessity Claim and the Sufficiency Claim (respectively). As Branquinho argues, neither the Necessity Claim nor the Sufficiency Claim appears to hold, and here we get to the problem of Rip van Winkle. Rip goes to sleep one day saying to himself ‘today was a fine day’. When he awakes twenty years later, he may want to express what he expressed by the utterance that he made before he fell asleep. He may try to do this by saying ‘yesterday was a fine day’, but in doing so Rip fails to express what he did with his original utterance because he has lost track of the relative temporal position of his original utterance. This appears to blow up any chance of systematizing the theory in the way that Branquinho initially hoped. For Evans (speaking of beliefs rather than utterances here), this is a bullet that we should bite:

I see no more strangeness in the idea that a man who loses track of time cannot retain beliefs than in the idea that a man who loses track of an object cannot retain the beliefs about it with which he began. (Evans 1985: 87n–88n) Branquinho is not ready to give up so easily and he asks that we consider the less extreme case where Rip does not realize that midnight has just passed and would not assent to ‘yesterday was a fine day’.

Thus, if Jones mistracked time in the way described before, then . . . what he would not be in a position to do at 00:01 a.m. on dþ1 is to T-retain the particular belief he held at 11:58 p.m. on d when he accepted [(14)]. In other words, he would not be able to re-express then such a belief by using a temporal indexical such as ‘yesterday’. But it does not follow that it would be impossible for him to retain, or even re-express, tout court that belief . . . Although Jones is ex hypothesi unable on dþ1 to keep track of d, i.e. to think of d as yesterday, he might still be said to have retained on dþ1 his former belief about d in a certain way, namely by means of memory, and not in virtue of the particular position he occupies in time or of his knowledge of such a position. One should therefore regard as Tensism 187 unacceptable the claim that a disposition to accept [(15)] on dþ1 is necessary for a thinker to retain or re-express then a belief she had on d by accepting [(14)]. ...awaybymeans of which a thinker like Jones could re-express on dþ1 the belief held on d (by accepting [(14)] then) would be to accept, or to have a disposition to accept, on dþ1 a token of a sentence such as [(16)] That day was fine. The demonstrative phrase ‘that day’ would be here taken as expressing in the context a memory-based demonstrative mode of presentation of d, i.e. a way of thinking of a certain day anchored upon a memory demonstration of the day in question. Is it really plausible to think that there can be memory-based demonstrative modes of presentation? Perhaps, but I want to step back from this problem for just a little bit and consider it from another perspective. Suppose we don’t want to tie the theory to what a speaker might assent to. Third parties can report beliefs just as well, after all. What would underlie our ability to keep track of senses? Richard Larson and I (1993) developed a theory designed to explain our ability to know when two that-clauses attribute the same belief or count as saying the same thing. The challenge was to show how two distinct belief reports using different linguistic expressions, presented to different hearers, could count as having attributed the same attitude (thought) to an agent. The key idea was that belief reports are not designed to offer expressions that mirror the form of some object in the agent’s head; to the contrary the idea was that a speaker S constructs a report for the benefit of hearer H, given H’s interests with regard to agent A, shared assumptions about modelling A’s beliefs, etc. The components of this theory were as follows: (i) The tacit theory of belief (ii) The tacit theory of the goals of belief ascription (iii) The tacit theory of belief ascription logistics As we envisioned the project, the theory of belief ascription logistics would state which expressions should be used in a given context to achieve specific belief ascription goals. For example, depending upon H’s interests, it was sometimes the referential component of an expression, and sometimes the syntactic component that would be important to the goals of ascription—that is, for constructing a valuable report for H. In cases where prediction or explanation of behaviour is the goal, we envisioned the speaker’s choice of syntactic constituents in a belief report to involve a two-stage process vis-à-vis the hearer H. First, S determined the way in which H models A’s belief structure. Then S collaborates with H on the expressions to be used in speaking of the components of that model. 188 Peter Ludlow

In the second stage of selecting a belief report, the idea was that S and H must agree on expressions used to speak of the components of H’s model of A’s belief structure. Expressions used in attitude ascriptions would be fixed by tacit entrain- ment procedures engaged in by participants in the discourse, following general principles holding of discourses of all kinds (see Ludlow 2006, 2007). In Ludlow (2008) I expanded on this idea and extended it to temporal indexicals as follows: in addition to knowing the hearer’s interests, we also need a theory of the hearer’s spatiotemporal perspective. When reporting what the agent said or thought, we need to know where the hearer is relative to the agent. For example, if on Wednesday the agent says ‘It is fine today’, then when we give reports to a hearer on Thursday we shall want to report the same statement, but relative to the hearer’s temporal position. Thus we get ‘A said that it was fine yesterday’. Roughly, then, we will want the theory to keep track of the following: (i) S’s knowledge of H’s spatiotemporal position (ii) S’s knowledge of H’s and A’s relative positions (iii) H’s knowledge that S knows A’s spatiotemporal position (with standard assumptions about common knowledge) So what counts as having the same thought or remembering the same thought? That isn’t a function of what the speaker assents to, but rather the interests of the attitude reporter and her audience H. Just as there are many ways and languages in which we might truly report Galileo’s belief that the earth moves (and thus many ways we might accurately describe his belief), so to there are many ways we, as third parties, might truly describe Rip van Winkle’s belief on the day he fell asleep. For example, we might issue a report like ‘Rip thinks it was a fine day the day he fell asleep’. And surely, this is a true characterization of Rip’s thought. It doesn’t situate Rip’s thought in our shared egocentric space, however, and here we have a couple of options. One thing we might say is this: ‘Rip thinks it was a fine day when he fell asleep twenty years ago.’ Or alternatively, we may choose to situate Rip’s thought in our egocentric space but without the precision. We might say: ‘Rip thinks it was a fine day when he fell asleep that day back when.’ The key point here is that these last two formulations can, under the right circumstances, attribute the same thought to Rip. It uses different expressions to attribute that thought, but this is really no more bizarre than using yesterday and today to express the same thought on different days or using both English and Italian to express Galileo’s thought that the earth moves. Finally, this gets us back to the case of Rip when he is self-attributing his belief. He may well incorrectly characterize his belief as follows: ‘I believe it was a fine day yesterday.’ But this is not the only way Rip has available to him to express that thought. He might do as we did and simply say this: ‘I believe it was a fine day that day I fell asleep back when.’ Now he will probably not self-attribute the belief in this Tensism 189 way, because given his other beliefs he would consider doing it in this way awkward. But this nevertheless remains a way in which he is capable of expressing his belief and expressing the belief in this way situates it in his egocentric space. He has not lost track of his thought (as Evans feared) nor even the capacity to express his thought. He simply lacks the information needed to consistently express his belief correctly and to characterize it with quantitative precision. There might be more exotic cases that foil this approach, such as time travel cases, but even these don’t clearly create insurmountable problems. Suppose that Rip is teleported back in time so that he wakes up twenty years before he fell asleep. Just as we can talk about him falling asleep before he woke up (along his personal time path), we can, if we wish, characterize his beliefs with respect to his temporal path: ‘Rip believes it was a fine day when he fell asleep’. We needn’t gloss it as ‘Rip believes it will be a fine day when he will fall asleep’, so why should he be forced to? All of this remains programmatic, but I believe there is a clear path towards developing a theory of the cognitive dynamics of index-laden belief attributions—belief attributions that are sensitive to the egocentric position of both the agent and speaker and hearer of the attributions. I want to close by returning to the Perry/Higginbotham alternative, however—the approach in which they opt for something a bit thicker than the referential account, and a bit thinner than the Fregean account I have sketched here. It will be my contention that there is no middle path; their approach either fails to deliver the appropriate cognitive significance, or it collapses into the Fregean story.

8.5 The Perry/Higginbotham alternative: token reflexive content To set up our discussion, let’s follow Perry (2001) and his claim that utterances have at least three kinds of content: The indexical content (sometime he calls this content-M) of an utterance corresponds to the truth conditions of the utterance given the facts that fix the language of the utterance, the words involved, their syntax, and their meaning. He might have called this reflexive content. The referential content (sometimes he calls this content-C and sometimes the official content) of an utterance corresponds to the truth conditions given all of these factors, plus the facts about the context of the utterance that are needed to fix the designation of indexicals. The designational content (sometimes he calls this content-D) of an utterance corresponds to the truth conditions given all of these factors, plus the additional facts that are needed to fix the designation of the terms that remain (definite descriptions in particular, but also possessives, etc.). 190 Peter Ludlow

Indexical content is the level of content that we are going to be interested in here, for that is the content that is supposedly going to provide us with the something extra that we are going to need to give us the relevant cognitive significance. Inserting the reflexive content into our analysis of sentence (2) above, we get the following. (2-X) This utterance u, at three o’clock of ‘I have a meeting with the President now’ is true iff the utterer of u has a meeting with the President at the time u is uttered. A similar analysis extends to (3), Prior’s root canal case. (3-X) The utterer of u is thankful that the event of his root canal is earlier than the time of u. Higginbotham’s(1995, 2009) approach is not significantly different from this. Let’s call it (3-H). (3-H) If e is the event of my affirming to myself with a sense of relief, ‘My root canal is over’ (or: ‘over now’), then the thought that I think is indicated in [(A)]. [(A)] (Es) s is the situation of my root canal’s being over & the time of s includes (the time of) e.

(1995: 228)

The thought that I have when I affirm with a sense of relief that my root canal is over is a thought whose very existence depends upon the existence of a certain episode in my mental life: it contains that episode as a constituent, and could not exist without it. (1995: 229) The problem with all of these formulations is that they simply don’t get the reflexive content into the propositional content. To see this just consider the that-clauses in all of these examples. (2-X’) the utterer of u has a meeting with the President at the time u is uttered. (3-X’) that the event of his root canal is earlier than the time of u. (3-H’) (Es) s is the situation of my root canal’s being over & the time of s includes (the time of) e The problem with all of these is that the relevant indexical information—the information that situates the event in the agent’s egocentric present or past—simply does not make it into the propositional content of the thought. But the propositional content of the thought is what is supposed to be driving our acting the way we do and having the emotions that we do. It seems that we need more than this in the propositional content. Shouldn’t the reflexive content of (3) actually be much closer to (3-XX)? Tensism 191

(3-XX) The utterer of this utterance u is thankful that the event of his root canal is earlier than the time of u—this very utterance! Higginbotham and Perry both feel the pull to put that information into the propositional content—note Higginbotham’s remark that this “is a thought whose very existence depends upon the existence of a certain episode in my mental life: it contains that episode as a constituent, and could not exist without it” (1995: 229). But this gloss is simply used to fix the thought in question, but when it really matters—when we look into the content of the thought itself—we simply get the content in (A) (see (3-H) above). And it doesn’t matter whether we use token reflexive resources to identify a time or a thought; if those resources don’t make it into the thought content it is as though we are quantifying into a propositional attitude context—we only get the referential content. But now let’s suppose that either Higginbotham or Perry or both conceded this point. Suppose they opted to put the reflexive content into the propositional content itself, as along the lines of (3-XX). I’m not saying they would do this, just that they could, so let’s call the advocates of (3-XX) HigginbothamXX and PerryXX. Now the question becomes whether someone who makes this move hasn’t slid all the way over to the Fregean position I advocated above. That is, (3-XX) succeeds simply because it smuggles an indexical into the analysis. Now it is true that it doesn’t appear to be a temporal indexical like now, but on closer inspection matters are not so clear. Exactly what is going on with the demonstrative this? It isn’ta demonstration in perceptual space. It appears to be indicating the utterance happening now. Even if it is not a temporal indexical, it is still an indexical that has been lifted into the metalanguage, and this raises two points. First, if it is legitimate to lift this indexical into the metalanguage, then why not others? If Perry’s objection to Frege isn’t an issue here, why would it be an issue when we get to tense? But second, assuming that this indexical has no tense component, it at least situates the speaker perspectivally within space–time, and that means that tense-like egocentric perspectival properties are being appealed to in the analysis. And the point of this chapter is that you can’t do without such properties. At the beginning of this chapter, I suggested that we would do well to pay attention to the semantics of natural language when discussing tense and time, not because we are trying to derive metaphysics from language, but because (among other things) we want to expose places where metaphysical assumptions have been smuggled in on the sly. This may well be one of those places, for if we examine the semantics of the Higginbotham/Perry proposals closely we see that either they are leaving the critical content out of their analysis of these constructions, or they (or PerryXX and HigginbothamXX) are smuggling in a form of Fregean sense content. The move allows them a kind of philosophical sleight of hand—‘now you see it now you don’t’. Perry and Higginbotham don’t want the Fregean sense in the 192 Peter Ludlow propositional content of the analysis because of the reasons articulated by Perry. But they feel pressure to lean on the Fregean sense content because of the constraint on cognitive significance, so they use it to specify the propositional content. But this does not yield the necessary results. It is not enough for the sense content to specify the propositional content; if it is to satisfy the cognitive constraint on semantics, the sense content must make it into the propositional content.

8.6 Conclusion I’ve suggested that there are good reasons to endorse tensism. In the first place, tense seems to play a crucial role in our explanations of action and emotion. But second, tensism need not commit us to presentism; it works just as well with four-dimensionalism, even on relativistic conceptions of time. On this score I’ve argued that tense can be seen as corresponding to egocentric perspectival properties. But how do we characterize these properties in our semantics of tensed language (in a way that tensed language can be deployed in explanations of action and emotion)? Here I’ve suggested that our best bet is to introduce Fregean sense into our semantics. While Perry has argued that this move leads to problems, I’ve argued that a proper understanding of the Fregean approach to semantics, coupled with a good theory of the cognitive dynamics of sense tracking, can ameliorate those problems. Fur- thermore, approaches such as those advocated by Higginbotham and Perry, which rely on token indexical theories of tense, are not adequate to the demands of a theory of tense. Either the content they advocate is too thin—in which case they cannot account for the cognitive significance of tensed thoughts—or it smuggles Fregean sense content into their analysis. I submit that we are better off being up front about the need for Fregean sense, and then doing our best to work out a more complete theory of the cognitive dynamics of temporal sense. 9

Temporality and epistemic commitment: an unresolved question

KASIA M. JASZCZOLT

9.1 Introduction: the rationale There is no doubt that the topic of how humans conceptualize time is a complex one. It is complex for various interrelated reasons that fall into four broad categories: metaphysical, epistemic, conceptual, and linguistic. In my Representing Time (Jasz- czolt 2009), I drew on all four of these domains to put forward arguments in support of the modal conception of time. In brief, I argued that the human concept of time logically supervenes, that is, is dependent in the sense of its definitional characteristics, on the gradable concept of epistemic commitment. In other words, on the underlying level of basic concepts, temporality is epistemic modality, where our temporal concepts of past, present, and future eventualities alike are founded on the degrees of commitment to the truth of the proposition (or, as I explain below, the proposition-like construct) expressing that eventuality. Put differently, these temporal concepts are underlyingly degrees of detachment from the certainty of an eventuality.1 Now, common-sense judgement would easily allow for the construal on which the past and the future correspond to such non-zero degrees of detachment, where the ‘zero’ degree is to be understood as certainty of the ‘here and now’. However, as linguistic evidence suggests, even the present yields to such a gradation as long as the object of inquiry is the concept of time, that is, internal, psychological time. It is so because just as our memories (the past) and anticipations (the future) can correspond to more, or less, strongly held representations of states of affairs, so the current

1 See also Ludlow (this volume) on linguistic and metaphysical tensism. 194 Kasia M. Jaszczolt states of affairs can give rise to more, or less, strongly endorsed representations. Where this epistemic commitment translates into grammatical differences, we have the following parallel: just as one can opt for (1a) or (1b) as a linguistic representation of a past state of affairs, so one can opt for (2a) or (2b) with respect to the present time. (1) a. Aly went to Kuala Lumpur last summer. b. Aly may have gone to Kuala Lumpur last summer. (2) a. Aly is in Kuala Lumpur now. b. Aly may be in Kuala Lumpur now. This basic linguistic evidence is often overlooked by philosophers who discuss the past and the future as more ‘remote’ than the present. Having presented in Jaszczolt (2009) a range of arguments in favour of this modal construal of temporality, I then proceeded to give a semantic representation of temporal expressions, utilizing for this purpose a radical contextualist theory of Default Semantics.2 The main idea was that the modal epistemic underpinnings of temporality can be formally represented by an operator of acceptability (adapted, with substantial modifications, from Grice 2001), indexed for the degree of epistemic commitment and, where appropriate, for the semantics/pragmatics of the grammatical category it draws on, and operating on a representation of the intended content (in the Gricean sense of ‘intended by some abstract model speaker’) pertaining to the rf eventuality. For example, ACCD ¢ S stands for ‘it is acceptable to the degree pertaining to the regular future that it is the case that S’, where S (called a ‘merger representation’) stands for the proposition-like construct, representing the outcome of processing of the speaker’s intended meaning—a representation that is by definition compositional, but at the same time drawing on a variety of sources of intended meaning in addition to the logical form of the uttered sentence. Although the thesis of the modal supervenience of temporality was well supported by theoretical arguments and by evidence from various languages, and it also easily yielded to a Default-Semantic formal analysis, there remained an important Unresolved Question (henceforth UQ). It concerns the translatability of what intuitively seems to be a qualitative difference between the past, the present, and the future into quantitative differences, that is differences represented as the ‘delta index’ on the acceptability operator (ACCD). In other words, ‘degrees of detachment from certainty’ and equally ‘degrees of commitment to the (truth of the proposition representing an) eventuality’ are quantitative concepts, while the past/present/future

2 Default Semantics (henceforth DS; Jaszczolt e.g. 2005, 2009, 2010) is a radical contextualist theory in the sense that the representation of discourse meaning is composed out of the material that can be attributed to various linguistic and non-linguistic sources and merged in the interaction of various pertinent processes. Readers are referred to the overview of the revised version of the theory in Jaszczolt (2010). Temporality and epistemic commitment 195 distinction intuitively appears to be a qualitative one. If one founds the latter on the former, one has either to provide a way of correlating one with the other, or explain away the intuitive qualitative contrast between the past, the present, and the future. Both have been attempted in the philosophical literature. In what follows, I build on the extant philosophical arguments, as well as on linguistic evidence, in an attempt to answer the UQ of the theory of the modal supervenience of time. The chapter is structured as follows. Section 9.2 presents a brief overview of the thesis of modal supervenience of time and ends with discussing the UQ of the past–future symmetry. Section 9.3 discusses temporality and its quantitative underpinnings in the form of ACCD against the background of some pertinent tensed and tenseless theories of time, with a view to addressing the question of gradability of the underlying concept of epistemic commitment as an explanans for the human concept of time. It goes back to the proposal of logical supervenience and puts together evidence and arguments in favour of the ‘apparent qualitative-to- quantitative’ translation of the concept of time. It also contains two possible answers to the UQ. Section 9.4 addresses the pertinent question as to whether the tensed or tenseless theories of time are more adequate supporters of the thesis of supervenience on modality. Section 9.5 follows with a discussion of the universal building blocks of the concept of time that lie underneath the cross-linguistic diversity of means of expressing temporal reference. Section 9.6 concludes with some observations on the status of the supervenience thesis so revised and strengthened by the two proposed solutions to the UQ.

9.2 Temporality as epistemic modality: supervenience or mere correlation? The relation of supervenience as understood in what follows has the following characteristics:

A set of properties A supervenes upon another set B just in case no two things can differ with respect to A-properties without also differing with respect to their B-properties. In slogan form, “there cannot be an A-difference without a B-difference”. McLaughlin and Bennett (2005: 1) I begin with a brief summary of where the proposal was left out. In Representing Time (Jaszczolt 2009), I put forward a hypothesis of supervenience, understood as logical and conceptual supervenience, of the concept of time on the concept of epistemic detachment. I also entertained there and partly supported the idea of supervenience of the properties of temporality on the properties of space–time. The concept of time was understood there as being founded on the concepts of uncertainty, probability, and therefore epistemic detachment on the one hand, and on probability and relativity of real time on the other. I concluded that both the 196 Kasia M. Jaszczolt construal of reality and reality itself require modality for their explanation. In other words again, the thesis is that internal, psychological time supervenes on modality qua epistemic detachment and also on real time which itself entails various metaphysical possibilities in which world histories and predictions develop—all of them, for this purpose, equally real. Modality was proposed there as an explanans for four related domains: the metaphysical, the epistemic, the conceptual, and the linguistic. I presented some compelling arguments for conceptualizing temporality as degrees of epistemic commitment. Such graded commitment (and, equally, graded detachment from the state of affairs presented in the act of communication) was analysed as determined by what is encoded, grammaticalized, or pragmatically inferable from linguistic expressions in various languages. For reference, Figure 9.1 is an example of the DS-theoretic merger representation (S) pertaining to the reading of (3). It is a partial representation, focusing on the representation of the future time reference. The grammar, lexicon (the WS process), and the inferred future reading of the present-tense verb form (the CPI process)3 interact in producing this content. fp 4 The ‘fp’ index on D in ACCD stands for ‘futurate progressive’. (3) One Direction are giving a concert in Cambridge tomorrow.

x t Σ

[One Direction]CD (x)

tomorrow (t) Σ fp ⏐− [ACCΔ Σ ]WS, CPIpm Σ [x give a concert in Cambridge]WS

FIGURE 9.1 S for the example (3)

3 See footnote 2. 4 See also de Saussure (this volume) on a different account of tense–time mismatches. Temporality and epistemic commitment 197

Speakers can talk about eventualities with a stronger or weaker degree of commitment using various grammatical forms (simple past tense, modal may or might, evidentials, etc.), various lexical constructions (definitely, certainly, possibly, as far as I can tell), and conveying expectations of various inferential processes on the part of the interlocutor (by communicating indirectly, for example). This gradation of commitment pertains not only to talking about the past or future, but also the present. I say more about the status of the present in Section 9.3. Time was approached from two angles. First, it was approached from the phenomenological perspective where, following Husserl (1928), time was seen as, so to speak, ‘coming from within’, being imposed on human experience. It consists of ‘objective’‘immanent’ time which has the property of duration, as well as ‘pre- immanent time’, which has the property of flowing and contains the moving actuality (‘now’), as well as what follows and precedes it. What precedes it for its part consists of memories, knowledge, and ‘fixed’ experiences; what follows consists of anticipated experiences. The second perspective was the ‘real time’, ‘time in the world’. The big question of external vs. internal time was addressed via evidence from linguistic representations of the human concept of time and it was proposed, to repeat, that real time of space–time is founded on (real) possibilities for the universe, while psychological time is founded on an epistemic relation to some ‘stuff from which reality is made’. It is clear at this point that any further discussion of the possible modal underpinnings of time has to be conducted in terms of the arguments for various versions of so-called ‘tensism’ (McTaggart’s 1908 A-theory) and the B-theorists’ rebuttals. For A-theorists, reality is tensed: time flows, and the past, the present, and the future, or at least the past and the present, or just the present (depending on the view), are real. B-theorists, on the other hand, claim that reality is tenseless: there is no past, present, or future out there and time does not flow. Events are real, and so is their ordering, but that is all: they don’t have pastness, futurity, or present actuality. In other words, supporters of the B-theory advocate real, metaphysical time without flow. Internal, psychological time, on the other hand, exhibits the intuitive three-way distinction into what was, is, and will be. Approached in this light, we have an illusion of a perfect quantifiability of time. On the B-series where events are placed according to their relative order of precedence/following, there is nothing to stop us from proposing that if we ‘place’ any conscious agent at a random point on the scale, the agent will be at a certain fixed ‘distance’ from any chosen event and this ‘distance’ can be measured according to some agreed conventions. We are here at liberty to superimpose, for example, ‘mental distance’ or ‘active interest distance’, or any other non-temporal measure, on such a ‘B-series plus an observer’ complex. Equally, on the A-series, quantifiability of time can be achieved when we adopt presentism, that is the view according to which only what is ‘simultaneous with the time of thinking about it’ is real: there is 198 Kasia M. Jaszczolt no real past and no real future. If the ‘here and now’ is real, then we can perhaps envisage that moving away from the reality of the hic and nunc gives us degrees that are measurable by some agreed conventions. I will say more about degrees and presentism in Section 9.3. However, there are loose ends and unresolved questions for both construals. And, likewise, there are unresolved questions for my construal of the graded modality of time where time supervenes on epistemic modality qua graded (and quantifiable) detachment. The unresolved questions would not be there if we assumed that the common-sense view of time, according to which there is past, there is the ‘now’, however extended, and the future, and they are all dynamic, need not be squared with some sort of normative philosopher’s concept of temporality. But it would be unwise to take this route.5 However, if common-sense time and speakers’ intuitions are to play a part, then one has to answer the question as to how exactly, if at all, the value associated with the degree of epistemic commitment (or alternatively the degree of epistemic detachment) identifies the ‘direction’ of detachment, into the past and into the future. But not only temporal direction is in need of an explanation: on the modal supervenience account, thoughts and utterances about the present are also characterized by different degrees of epistemic detachment, as was exemplified in (2a–b) above. In my DS-theoretic merger representations (Ss), I presented this correlation as inheritance from language: the grammar, the lexicon, and pragmatic inference interact in producing the effect of conveying temporal location of an eventuality. Demonstrating that this can be achieved, using the sources of information about meaning and processes indentified in DS, gave additional support to the arguments gathered there in favour of supervenience. But such a proposal did not exclude the possibility that, after all, this is merely a strong correlation between what we can call speaker’s acceptance6 of a proposition pertaining to a certain, real or imagined, state of affairs and the eventuality’s placement in the future, present, or past (henceforth, F, N,7 and P). So, supervenience was strongly supported but not exactly demonstrated. To repeat, supposing the difference between F, N, and P is not qualitative after all, one needs somewhat stronger support than the availability of merger representations or the linguistic evidence and philosophical arguments amassed there to overcome the overwhelming intuition that F, N, and P do indeed exhibit a difference of kind. Accumulated cross- linguistic evidence only demonstrates that there is no clear correlation between

5 Jackson (2011) entertains this possibility of a philosophers’ concept of knowledge in view of the common intuitions in Gettier cases. His arguments against such a move, and in favour of experimental philosophy, are pertinent here. 6 See Grice’s(2001) unfinished attempt at a unified account of modalities (alethic and ‘practical’) under a common operator of acceptability that motivated my adaptation (e.g. 2009) of the operator to epistemic modality, operating on Ss. 7 For ‘now’. Temporality and epistemic commitment 199 temporality and tense, while there are clear correlations between modal and evidential expressions on one hand and temporal reference on the other. It does not demonstrate that there is a P–F symmetry, nor does it demonstrate that there is an analogy between degrees of detachment with respect to P, degrees of detachment with respect to N, and degrees of detachment with respect to F. Swallowing a bitter pill of dissonance between ‘philosophers’ time’, where time is composed of the building blocks of degree of possibility (epistemic and metaphysical likewise) and ‘laymen’s time’, that flows from the future into the past, will not do.8 Alternatively, supposing the difference between F, N, and P is qualitative, we can hypothesize, and defend, different ‘values’ or ‘ranges of values’ for the three types of temporal location. Then we will need a good argument or compelling empirical evidence that F, N, and P always avail different ‘values’ of detachment. We can also take the route of distinguishing types of values but then supervenience on epistemic modality would require a further qualification. Be that as it may, the first steps in addressing the UQ have to be (i) the analysis of the possible P–F symmetry vis-à-vis the tensed/ tenseless reality debates and, consequently, (ii) the analysis of the status of the degrees of modality vis-à-vis the ‘degrees of reality’ proposed within presentism. This is attempted in the following section.

9.3 Quantifying time and ‘degrees of reality’ Out of the three categories of temporality, P, N, and F, there is no question that it is N, the present, that is the best candidate for the status of being real, actual, and existing. The boundaries of the ‘now’ may vary among the different applications of the concept but the actuality of ‘now’, when judged by the linguistic expressions pertaining to current events, is its default characteristic. The truth-makers for statements with present-time reference are relatively unproblematic, while truth-makers for statements with past- and future-time reference are up for grabs: we remember some facts about the past, but are memories the same thing as past events? In other words, is there some objective reality to refer to as far as temporality is concerned, or are there just representations?9 It has been proposed that the past is only as real as its present effects (e.g. Łukasiewicz 1961). The past that does not exist in the present in any form is only a possibility. Equally, arguably, the future exists only in so far as it is to be derived from the present; as Heidegger (1953) says, the future has to be envisaged as the person’s own time, in anticipation of the unavoidable finiteness of life of which one is aware in the expectation of one’s own inevitable death.10

8 See footnote 5. 9 I am grateful to Louis de Saussure for his comments on the metaphysical status of these truth-makers. 10 The literature on this topic is vast. See e.g. Harrison (2003: 142–3) on the role of death and death rituals in human life and civilization. 200 Kasia M. Jaszczolt

This relative status of F and P is well conveyed in natural languages. Languages have hierarchies of epistemic modals and hierarchies of evidentials (Faller 2002b). The speaker’s choice of a construction with a stronger or weaker degree of trust in the truth of the embedded proposition, or an indicator of the kind of evidence (in itself weak or strong) can safely be taken as an indicator of the degree of commitment.11 In possible-worlds semantics, the standard view has it that modality interacts with time. The modal base is a construct that is a function from world–time pairs to sets of possible worlds and represents the epistemic state of the speaker. The function is determined by the context. So, the representation of may and might is as in (4), where MB stands for modal base, and therefore MB(w,t) is the set of worlds compatible with what the speaker knows at time t. P stands for property, and [t,_) for an interval from t to infinity. (4) lPlwlt9w’ [w’2MB(w,t) & AT([t, _), w’P)] (after Condoravdi 2002: 71) In words, in the case of modal statements, there is a world w’ that belongs to the set of worlds of the speaker’s epistemic state such that the given property is instantiated in this world at a certain interval. Graded modality can then be explained as an ordering of the worlds (Kratzer 1981). Considering that the present is represented as in (5), the interaction of modality with time is evident. (5) lPw [AT (now, w, P)] (after Condoravdi 2002: 70) Equally, the perfect interacts with the modals to produce past time reference with t’ restricted to intervals preceding t. This interaction of modality with the present tense and the perfect, founded on the scopal relations between the modal and the present and perfect operators, is, in spite of appearances to the contrary, perfectly compatible with the claim of the decomposition of the concept of time into degrees of modality. Let us consider the examples in (6). (6) John may/might be here tomorrow. John may/might be here now. John may/might have been here yesterday.

11 I shall leave aside the question as to whether the categories of evidentiality and epistemic modality are related and how. See Aikhenvald (2004) for a powerful defence of the dissociation and van der Auwera and Plungian (1998) and Jaszczolt (2009) for arguments in favour of subsuming evidentiality under modality. See also de Saussure (in press) on evidentiality and epistemic modality with modal verbs and the epistemic future in French. He argues that for such constructions, epistemic and evidential effects are entirely pragmatic and disjoint. Temporality and epistemic commitment 201

The degrees of dissociation from the eventuality of John’s being at a deictically specified place at a deictically specified time persist across P, N, and F. They also, arguably, interact with the concept of temporal reference: may in John may be here now differs from may in John may be here tomorrow in that the truth-maker for the first is simple: you, so to speak, ‘go and check’. The truth-maker for the latter either does not exist, as Aristotelian tradition has it, or exists in the present as a prediction, or otherwise exists in the form of some atemporal, B-theoretic entity. In sum, it would in principle be compatible with Kratzer’s(1981) or Condoravdi’s(2002) construal to suggest that temporality be composed of such diversified modal atomic > > ‘>’ concepts as, say, mayn maynþ 1 maynþ2 . . . etc, where stands for the ordering of the strength of expressed commitment. But, to repeat, we can either hypothesize here either different degrees of detachment, and supplement the theory with a story concerning the values for the degrees n, nþ1, nþ2, etc., or, alternatively, we can adopt a hypothesis that there are different types of detachment, as long as we avoid infinite regress: qualitative differences in detachment pertaining to P, N, and F do not affect the thesis of supervenience as long as we can peg the differences on linguistic semantic and conceptual distinctions, while maintaining that the core of graded epistemic commitment is shared. In other words, ‘there is no temporal difference without a modal difference’, but modal differences themselves are more than meets the eye of a grammarian. It takes a contextualist approach to meaning, where the truth-conditional content of the uttered sentence draws on a variety of sources that are available in the situation of discourse (as e.g. in Recanati 2004, 2010; Jaszczolt 2005, 2010), to account for modality as the underlying concept for the representation of time. To sum up: both options, (i) the direct-quantitative view (henceforth DQ), that is the direct reliance on values of n, nþ1, nþ2, . . . , and (ii) shifting the arguably qualitative differences between P, N, and F to the also arguably qualitative differences between modal expressions on their occasions of use (the modal–contextualist view, henceforth MC), are feasible hypotheses and candidates for answers to the UQ. DQ and MC both rely on a well-acknowledged property of modals, namely their malleability in context. Different contextual requirements allow modal constructions to assume different interpretations. Von Fintel and Gillies (2011: 108) dub them “context-dependent quantifiers over a domain of possibilities”. This is precisely the kind of property that contextualist accounts are well equipped to represent in that the truth-evaluable content does not rely strictly on the logical form of the sentence but instead incorporates modifications of it—all the way from logical weakening or strengthening (Recanati 1989) to, on radical accounts such as DS, replacement of the logical form of the uttered sentence with that pertaining to the content intended by the speaker when conveyed indirectly. Moreover, it has to be noted that in view of the perspective adopted here, epistemic modality allows for the scale from full commitment to its lack, and hence we are talking here not merely of ‘modal 202 Kasia M. Jaszczolt constructions’ as they are standardly delimited, but of all those acts of communication that convey an epistemic attitude, including those made in, say, straightforward present or past tense forms.

9.4 In support of supervenience on modality: tensism or tenseless time? The supervenience of time on modality seems to fit well with the B-theory of time: time is not dynamic, it does not pass. Arguably, it would even be difficult to theorize about the common idea of the passage of time in that the question of ‘how quickly it passes’ is impossible to answer in quantitative terms.12 Equally, it would arguably be nonsensical to point out causal links between eventualities if some of them were real and others unreal, as A-theorists have it, for “in order for there to be a temporal relation between two events there must be the two events that stand in that relation” (Oaklander 2002: 74; see also Oaklander and White 2007; Le Poidevin 2007, 2011). If all there is, is duration and precedence, then the DQ explanation fits the bill: events are ordered on the scale of later-than/earlier-than, and they occupy certain metaphysical and conceptual space in a way that allows the thinking agent to form an attitude to them—an attitude that includes the degree of certainty. This graded attachment in turn translates into the graded belief that a certain state of affairs is (tenselessly) real, which in turn produces the illusion (‘time in the mind’)of‘was / is / will be real’.13 Supervenience so construed is in fact perfectly compatible with the B-theoretic idea of supervenience already put forward in the philosophical literature, just taking it one step further. For example, Sattig (2006) points to the supervenience of time on atemporal spatiotemporal location. This pertains to supervenience of psychological time on real space–time. Equally, real space–time gives rise to human attitudes towards it that result in the illusion of time passing. The outcome of this B-theoretic explanation is that we are juxtaposing the metaphysical domain of space–time with the psychological domain and its conception of dynamic reality, and adding to it the middle conceptual level of attitudes and degrees of belief. This shifts P, N, and F even further away from the focus of interest than standard B-theorists would have it. Time is not only ‘in the mind’,itisin the mind as a complex rather than primitive concept. That is to say, at some level of atomic concepts, time passing is not only not real, but P, N, and F are not even in the mind at all. Instead there are degrees to which states of affairs are accepted by the agent. The bonus is that if the evidence for past events (memory, written records, etc.) differs from evidence for present (‘go and check’) and future (planning, fixing,

12 See for example Olson’s(2009) apt argument questioning the sense of the concept of the rate of time’s passage. 13 But see Tallant (2007) on the alleged impossibility to think in terms of B-time and Oaklander and White’s(2007) rebuttal. Temporality and epistemic commitment 203 strong prediction through causal links, etc.) events, this is just a problem with the nature of evidence, not with time itself.14 Time can remain underlyingly modal and quantifiable as modal. But is the thesis of modal foundations of internal time also compatible with the A-theoretic outlook? Intuitively, it should not be compatible in that if reality is tensed, then one would have to reconcile the human arguably underlyingly tenseless conception of reality with the flow of real time. However, the stipulation that reality is tensed comes in various flavours. The most common of them is presentism, according to which only present states of affairs are real. Despite the objections mounted by those who point out that past causes have to be real and so do future effects, presentists claim that P and F are unreal (e.g. Prior 1967, 1968, or, on a linguistic, modal explanation, Ludlow 1999), or have a lower degree of reality than N (Smith 2002). It is the latter, ‘degree presentism’, that presents an attractive analogy to our view of time as degrees of epistemic modality.15 Quentin Smith (2002: 119) aptly captures the intuitions as follows:

It seems intuitively obvious that what I am doing right now is more real than what I did just one second ago, and it seems intuitively obvious that what I did just one second ago is more real than what I did forty years ago. The problem with this intuitive view is that, if we are to accept that the adjective ‘real’ is gradable, we are committed to degrees of existence and therefore to highly contentious Meinongian entities. But perhaps the intuition of graded reality can be preserved when it is properly embedded not in A-theory but instead in B-theory: time is internal, P, N, and F are in the mind, and so is the intuition of the degrees of reality. Let us try to superimpose the following passage from Smith (2002)onto B-theory, indexing it as appropriate. The material in square brackets comes from my attempt at this shift to the B-theoretic perspective. Although it is clearly incompatible with Smith’s intentions, it produces the right result for my view.

The degree to which [a representation of] an item exists [in the agent’s mind] is proportional to its [perceived] temporal distance from the [agent’s] present; the [agent’s] present, which [often] has zero-temporal distance from the [agent’s] present, has the highest (logically) possible degree of existence [in the agent’s mind]. Smith (2002: 120) The transfer from the A- to the B-framework clearly removes Smith’s overall objective. But it preserves the method for the purpose of my theory, and therefore it would not be right not to employ it while proposing a graded account. It is true that degrees are allocated elsewhere (into modality), but otherwise the method relies

14 Ludlow (1999) explains this difference by reducing the past to evidentials and the future to modals. 15 For a discussion of asymmetric views see also Bourne (2006). 204 Kasia M. Jaszczolt substantially on Smith’s. In addition to the shift, there is, however, one alteration in my proposed annotation that makes a qualitative difference even to the method of graded departure itself. That is the addition of the adverbial often, to produce in the above passage: “the [agent’s] present, which [often] has zero-temporal distance from the [agent’s] present.” The alteration is necessary because once we move to the domain of internal time and to the domain of the epistemic, there are also degrees of commitment to eventualities reported as present, as was exemplified in (2a–b) in the use of present-time-referring modals. Clearly, present-time-referring evidential constructions, even in languages without (grammatical) evidentials such as English, also testify to a graded classification: compare (2a–b) repeated below with (2c) that seems to lie in-between on the scale of epistemic commitment of the speaker (see also Faller 2002b for a well-developed linguistic analysis). (2) a. Aly is in Kuala Lumpur now. b. Aly may be in Kuala Lumpur now. c. Aly seems to be in Kuala Lumpur now. Finally, degree presentism, so transposed onto a ‘degree internal time’ view, well supports the DQ solution to our unresolved question as put forward in the previous section: as Smith (2002: 120) says, we have a difference of degree, rather than a difference of kind, between P, N, and F, and these degrees are “immediately given in our phenomenological experience”. But next comes an unexpected bonus: Smith claims that for him, ‘degrees of existence’ mean how an agent experiences existence (p. 122). So, losing a limb does not result in a lower degree of existence, but experiencing an event as past rather than present does. Well, if this is not the shift to B-theory I have just proposed then it is not clear at all how Smith can reconcile this claim with his tenacious holding on to presentism. There are degrees, to be sure, but they are in the conceptualization, not in the world. A fortiori, they are in the language, not in the world; they are only in the world in the sense in which agents that hold propositional attitudes, and thereby these agents’ mental states, are in the world. Smith has to resort here to relational properties: entities exemplify, tenselessly, relational properties (‘being alive over 2000 years earlier than now’), producing tensed facts. This results in a rather weak proposal whereby we have merely a shift from time as the explanandum to relational properties, the latter apparently acquired anew as time passes.16 However, all in all, it is evident from the use I have made of the graded view that the ‘gradation of reality’ is logically independent

16 On Smith’s proposal, shifting from N to F results in the acquisition of a new property that is “the past-time version of the presently possessed property” (2002: 135). With every infinitesimally small unit of time passing, individuals lose present properties and acquire past-time versions of them instead. The unwelcome regress is diaphanous here and the tenacity with which Smith holds on to tensed facts is only the more puzzling. Temporality and epistemic commitment 205 of the tensed/tenseless reality dispute—a fact about which, no doubt, Smith would have no qualms. In sum, it seems that the ‘graded reality’ view would fare better if one didn’t conflate the metaphysical level (reality) with the epistemic one. On B-theory, we can separate them, tame allegedly tensed reality to the position of the conception of reality, intuitive time so conceived to internal time, time in the mind; and the bonus is that we can use linguistic evidence to support the view of the speaker’s graded commitment, be it on the DQ or MC construal. Linguistic evidence for the modal foundations of time is what I provided in Representing Time; the question of the exact mapping between the modal and the temporal is what, without reinventing the wheel, I am trying to resolve now, having demonstrated with the help of Smith’s arguments that DQ is a tenable solution. There is one other version of presentism that needs to be explored in connection with our question of the location of the epistemic modal view vis-à-vis the question of reality of time. Presentism can also be held in an ‘asymmetry’ version, whereby P and N are considered to be real and F unreal.17 ‘Now’ is conceived of as the edge of real time, and the latter simply keeps growing. Needless to say, to hold water, this asymmetry view has to be supported by a good argument from causation (Tooley 1997, 1999) or relational concept (‘x (past) is real as of y (present)’; Button 2006, 2007).18 The asymmetric view is also in accord with common intuitions but in respects different from those supporting the degree view: the past has already happened and therefore is fixed; the present is fixed in the sense of being actual and observable; the future on the other hand, is not fixed. As Tooley (1997, 1999) says, an alleged fact is not a fact if it can still be prevented, so there are no future facts. Deterministic views aside, common intuitions are well captured by this asymmetric view. Moreover, in view of our earlier discussion of Jackson (2011)on the properties of philosophical concepts, intuitions are what should inform the theory. Causes have to be real at the time when their effects take place, so they have to be past or present, but the effects do not: they can be in the future. However, independently of his argument for tensed reality (in that, for Tooley, accepting causation presupposes accepting a tensed world), Tooley also argues that tensed concepts can be broken down into, and analysed in terms of, tenseless ones. He admits that tensed properties cannot be fully explained in tenseless terms, and hence his position on the pertinent supervenience becomes complicated, but it is rescued by relational properties: what facts are actual depends on the time at which they are assessed. Again, analogous to the use we made above of degree presentism, the asymmetric A-theory advocated by Tooley can be broken down, as far as the argumentation is concerned, into two independent parts: his supervenience view and

17 See Gosselin (this volume) for an account of French tenses based on the notion of asymmetry. 18 See also Tallant’s(2011) defeat of the latter. 206 Kasia M. Jaszczolt his stance on real time. It is the first that interests us. And, analogous again, his view on real time is perfectly compatible with the modal picture of the degrees of epistemic detachment thanks to the adoption of the supervenience of the tensed on the tenseless. As Tooley observes, one cannot have direct, non-inferential knowledge of the future, nor can one have direct perception of the past. One has present beliefs about the past and present beliefs about the future, and these, qua propositional, epistemic attitudes, exhibit properties that epistemic attitudes do, such as being more, or less, certain that a state of affairs did happen, will happen, or is happening. Or, to further promote the DQ hypothesis, in the early stages of language acquisition, children believe things “this much (þ a gesture indicating a unit of length)”—a trait that disappears in early childhood but is indicative of the quantitative tendency in approaching knowing and believing that something is the case.19

9.5 The complex concept of time and its foundations Languages employ an enormous variety of means to convey temporality. Some make use of grammatically encoded temporal distinctions; these differ in kinds and numbers. Others do not grammaticalize temporal reference. Some have a rich repertoire of aspectual distinctions, reflecting situation-internal time, repetitions, habits, and perspectives on eventualities. In some, tense and aspect marking is compulsory in a sentence. In others, it is optional as long as temporal information can be assumed or inferentially retrieved. Some rely principally on the lexicon, mostly on temporal adverbials. Some have a rich system of evidential markers that help with the inference of temporality. If one were to attempt to classify these means with the aim of giving linguistic support to the A- or B-theories of ‘real’ time, it would become apparent that both A- and B-theoretic concepts alike are lexicalized, grammaticalized, and assumed in pragmatic inference. English grammaticalizes P and N, but F is tightly interwoven with modality through the various grammaticalization stages of will. Arguably, will originated as a modal, then shifted to a marker of tense, and now conveys tense with modal colouring (see Fleischman 1982 on bidirectional semantic shift). French grammaticalizes all of them, P, N, and F. These are A-theoretic terms, or terms that a B-theorist would place in the category of mental representation of time. Swahili has consecutive tense: the consecutive-tense marker ka signals the order in which events occur, independently of their placement in P, N, or F. It seems then that consecutive tense can be classified as a B-theoretic device. Thai uses modal particles whose default reading conveys II temporality. For example, the modal auxiliary d1ay1 in Thai by default assumes

19 This is well attested among pre-schoolers and in early primary-school children but the observation is in urgent need of a systematic empirical study. Temporality and epistemic commitment 207 past time reference (Srioutai 2006; Jaszczolt and Srioutai 2011). For Srioutai, modality is the conceptual foundation, the explanans in the theory of modal supervenience, while the A-theoretic concept of temporal location is the explanandum. What emerges from this diversity is that the lexicon and the grammar are not reliable guides to the conceptualization of time; one can convey the intentions independently of what is encoded and how. Memories, anticipations, current experiences, as well as their length, ordering, kind of evidence, and certitude are all employed to interrelated ends. As I have argued elsewhere (Jaszczolt 2012), there is compelling evidence in support of the view that beneath the linguistic diversity in conveying temporal reference there is a universal concept. The question is whether this a basic, primitive concept or a complex one. Now, if B-theorists are right and P, N, and F are in the mind, then P, N, and F have to be analysable in terms of tenseless entities. If A-theorists are right, there still can be, or even must be, tenseless analysans, as Smith’s and Tooley’s reliance on relational properties (discussed in Section 9.4) suggests. It seems then that a complex, molecular (as opposed to atomic) concept of time is supported on all fronts. Now, as I argued above, if the concept is underlyingly modal, then the DQ solution applies and we can have different values for different eventualities. For example, remembering V-ing (something) will reflect a stronger degree of epistemic commitment than remembering one’s V-ing, which in turn is stronger than remembering that one V-ed. For example, in DS, (7a) will correspond to a higher value of D in ACCD ¢ S than (7b), and (7b) will have a higher value of D than (7c). (7) a. Tom remembers PRO saying that time doesn’t flow. b. Tom remembers his saying that time doesn’t flow. c. Tom remembers that he said that time didn’t flow.20 As Higginbotham (2003: 504) says, gerundive complements of the verb remember pertain to events of memory rather than remembering propositions. Concerning (7a) and (7b), he also makes an apt observation that it is possible to ‘quasi-remember’ someone else’s experience as one’s own (a fact that is well attested empirically), and therefore (7b) differs in strength from (7a). What Higginbotham calls a distinction between a memory event and remembering facts on the one hand, and remembering and quasi-remembering on the other, easily translates into our scale of epistemic commitment by associating (hypothetical at present) values with D. What remains is to assess what this diversity and the interaction of various means of conveying temporality found in different languages implies for the other possible answer to the UQ, namely the MC view. To repeat, this is a solution in which modal

20 I am ignoring the sequence of tenses phenomenon as it does not bear on this example. 208 Kasia M. Jaszczolt expressions, and also any expressions that convey degrees of epistemic commitment of any degree, acquire their meaning through contextual modifications. The view is clearly supported by cross-linguistic empirical evidence. Lexical, grammatical, and pragmatic means of conveying temporal reference interact, and languages employ different combinations of these means. By the same token, modal expressions can undergo grammaticalization to markers of tense (discussed in the example of English will), can convey temporality as their default sense (discussed in the example II of Thai d1ay1 ), or can convey temporality in context, via pragmatic inference, as in the ambiguous use of may in (8). (8) He may be in London (now/tomorrow). Adopting Gricean or post-Gricean principles of rational conversational behaviour as pragmatic universals (see von Fintel and Matthewson 2008; Jaszczolt 2012), we assume that the speaker would not have uttered (8) if he/she had not been in a position to assume that the utterance would not be ambiguous to the addressee.21 In a normal conversational situation, temporality can be left to pragmatic inference or recovered automatically, by default. In DS-theoretic terms, the processes responsible are either CPI (conscious pragmatic inference), or SCWD (social, cultural, or world-knowledge defaults).22 What matters for the UQ is that on a contextualist construal of meaning, the temporal location in the past, present, or future can be conveyed via this interaction of processes of utterance interpretation and the supervenience on epistemic modality can be left intact.

9.6 Conclusion In this brief sequel to Representing time (Jaszczolt 2009) I addressed the question that was left unresolved there, namely:

UQ: If the concept of time is underlyingly modal and supervenes on the degrees of epistemic commitment to (or detachment from) the narrated eventuality associated with the speech act by the speaker, then what is the exact correlation between the value of D that represents this degree of commitment in DS and the type of temporal reference: P, N, or F? In other words, since the thesis of supervenience makes it necessary that there is no temporal difference without modal difference, how exactly are they correlated? I entertained two possibilities in this chapter: (i) that the differences between P, N, and F are underlyingly quantitative rather than qualitative (which I called the direct- quantitative, or DQ view), and (ii) that the differences are qualitative and the value of D is contextually established (the modal–contextualist, or MC view).

21 Excluding special situations in which ambiguity may be intentional. 22 See Jaszczolt (2010) for details. Temporality and epistemic commitment 209

Next, I focused on the DQ view and assessed its compatibility with the tensed and tenseless theories of time, concluding that both uphold it. Finally, I argued that the MC view was also tenable as an answer to the UQ, and was independently supported by cross-linguistic data when the contextualist approach to meaning was adopted. There is, of course, an independent line of argumentation that comes from the laws of physics. It goes like this. Time may not flow, but events are ordered in a unidirectional sequence. A powerful argument for the asymmetry between the past and the future comes from the second law of thermodynamics, according to which the disorder of a closed system (its entropy) increases with time. In practice, this translates into the fact that physical processes are irreversible: a china cup can break but it cannot reassemble itself back from the pieces to a cup. The arrow of time is unidirectional; the asymmetry is explained through external, physical evidence. But we have to remember that real time does not flow: the past and the future have no objective sense. Put simply:

The labels ‘past’ and ‘future’ may legitimately be applied to temporal directions, just as ‘up’ and ‘down’ may be applied to spatial directions, but talk of the past and the future is as meaningless as referring to the up and the down. (Davies 2012: 11) Moreover, this physical evidence also fuels an argument in support of the asymmetry of psychological time (the human concept of time), which is exactly what we want here. Just as entropy is unidirectional, so is memory: memory of an agent increases and produces the illusion of the flow of time.23 Both the DQ and the MC views proposed here are compatible with this explanation of the essential asymmetry of time. And this convergence of a conceptual, epistemic reduction of time with naturalistic reductionism is precisely the correct way to proceed in order to understand the phenomenon and the concept of time.24

23 There is also a hypothesis, which will not be pursued here, that the illusion of the flow of time can be explained by quantum processes in the brain. 24 Sklar (1981: 126) puts it convincingly as follows. Naturalistic reductionism means “identificatory reductions of substances and properties to those more ‘scientifically’ fundamental”. On the other hand, conceptual reductionism involves an analysis of certain propositions in order to determine a set of those propositions which “could serve as epistemic warrant for them”. As he observes, naturalistic reductionism owes its success precisely to such conceptual reductions: “much of the transition from space and time to relativistic spacetime proceeds by just such an epistemically motivated ‘reductionist’ critique”. To put it crudely, to understand the phenomenon of time one has to ask questions about the concept of time as the latter may reveal more than just facts about language and the mind. 10

An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar

FRANK BRISARD1

10.1 Introduction In this chapter, I will offer an overview of the theoretical prerequisites underlying the semantic analysis of tense and aspect marking in Cognitive Grammar (CG), with a specific focus on the English verb paradigm. In doing so, I will adhere to the ortho- doxies as presented mainly in Foundations of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1991) and a number of subsequent key publications, supplemented with some original comments on the interaction between tense and certain aspectual meanings. I will pay particular attention to the treatment of grammatical aspect in CG, both in terms of the systematic contrast between perfective vs. imperfective aspect and with regard to the uses made in English of the progressive and the perfect construction, respectively. The main thesis defended in this chapter is that tenses, qua ‘grounding predications’, and, though somewhat less conspicuously, aspectual markers combining with them refer essentially to modal concerns on the part of the speaker/conceptualizer, and that the temporal (and modal) meanings conveyed by the resulting constructions should be analysed as instantiations of a common epistemic schema. Consequently, an exhaustive and unified semantic analysis of tense/aspect marking, in any language, should ideally be concerned with establishing such a core schematic meaning for a given construction, to be characterized in modal terms, elaborating on the various meaning types that emerge in interaction with concrete contexts of use in the form of some kind of semantic map or network. In Section 10.2, I will start off with a brief description of the symbolic view of grammar which is adopted in CG, introducing the concepts and terms needed to

1 I thank Astrid De Wit and the editors of this volume for their useful comments and suggestions. Of course, all remaining errors or infelicities are my responsibility. An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 211 discuss processes at the semantic pole of verbs, including such extremely schematic ones as tenses, in terms of ‘complex temporal relations’. In Section 10.3, I sketch the grounding model proposed in CG to deal with various grammatical strategies for establishing reference in the realms of the nominal and the verbal domain. Section 10.4 will then focus on the basic semantics of English present and past tense marking as instances of grounding predications. Next, in Section 10.5 I will discuss the contribution of perfective vs. imperfective grammatical aspect: though these markers are not really part of the English grounding system, their interaction with tense markers is pervasive and systematic and should be included in an account of English tenses. A fuller analysis of present and past time reference in English grammar, considering dedicated markers for the expression of progressive and perfect aspect (and their intrinsic polysemy), will be given in Section 10.6. I will end with some concluding remarks in Section 10.7.

10.2 A symbolic alternative CG adopts a subjectivist or conceptualist view of meaning, in which linguistic semantics is equated with conceptual structure. This is done within the larger effort to present a linguistic theory in which grammatical “description requires nothing more than symbolic elements (i.e. pairings between semantic and phonological structures)” (Langacker 1995: 89; emphasis in the original). Such a reduction of grammar to symbolic relationships, involving structured conceptualizations, provides a radical alternative to theories upholding both the autonomy of grammar in relation to meaning and the objectivist (truth-conditional) basis of semantics, and has some noteworthy implications for those areas of grammar where highly abstract meanings are posited—as opposed to no meaning at all, a view espoused by most standard modern theories. Considering the semantic pole of linguistic expressions, a few initial clarifications are in order with regard to some basic assumptions that are made. First of all, a semantic representation can always be considered at various levels of abstraction or schematization. Thus, a beagle can alternately be described as a dog, mammal, animal, or even thing (with the latter conceivably constituting the most schematic description, of any noun for that matter),2 and verbs like be, do, and have decidedly represent the least specific of verbs in the English lexicon, which makes them all the more eligible for performing certain grammatical functions, like acting as auxiliaries, after due processes of grammaticalization. Similarly, one could say,

2 If properly defined, that is. The definition of a thing as a bounded region in some cognitive domain (prototypically space, but possibly others like time, colour, the visual field, etc.) allows CG to propose this concept as the notional, thus universal, basis for the grammatical category of nouns. This is a contention that many other theories would firmly contest. 212 Frank Brisard a grammatical morpheme like a (periphrastic or inflectional) tense marker can be characterized as a schematic verb: designating, that is, a schematic process whose details are filled in or ‘elaborated’ by the main verb with which the marker combines. Next, we need to define what a process is. A process is a complex relation that saliently involves the basic cognitive domain of time. It presupposes at least one nominal participant (argument) but focuses on the interconnection between that participant and either itself, some configuration in a relevant domain, or some other participant, rather than on the participant(s)/configuration proper. This interconnection is then said to develop through time, showing either a change of state (dynamic predicates) or none (stative predicates). For a verb, both entities and their interconnections are semantically relevant, but it is only the interconnections and their development that are actually attended to, while nouns do the job of specifying the entities participating in them. This—the contrast between nouns and verbs—is explained in CG by referring to the notion of construal: the words explosion and explode, for instance, may refer to the same objective content, but construe that content differently. The noun construes it as a region (the conception of a set of interconnected entities involved in the exploding event), while the verb focuses on these developing interconnections themselves. One important facet of construal is the relative prominence that a conceptualizer attaches to an element in a complex configuration. Again, with verbs, we can say that they designate a series of relations or states and presuppose the associated nominal entities, which are, however, not actually attended to. These presupposed entities as well as the cognitive domain that frames the whole conceptualization belong to the base of a certain expression and are consequently not in focus when that expression is conjured up. What is conceptually designated, or ‘profiled’, receives a special kind of prominence, which at once determines the grammatical category of an expression. With verbs, the profile is a complex temporal relation (a process), and with nouns, it amounts to a thing (i.e. the conception of a bounded region). Profiling is indicated by heavy lines in the CG diagrams that follow. At the level of the clause, then, the profiles of the central nominal participants (receiving the traditional grammatical roles like subject and object, etc.) and that of the finite verb form are integrated into one complex relational representation of the scene evoked by the clause, pitched against some conceptual background. Upon this representation conceptualizers invariably impose a figure/ground3 organization: the figure or nominal entity accorded the most prominent status is called the trajector, and a prominent entity other than the trajector is referred to as a landmark. Thus, in Jude gave the money to me, the

3 The concept is well known from Gestalt psychology and reflects the general inspiration found by CG in psychological studies of cognitive processing, most notably in the domain of (visual) perception. An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 213 subject acts as the trajector and is by definition presented as the scene’s most salient participant. In I was given the money by Judy, in contrast, the same scene is described from the perspective, so to speak, of the recipient, who accordingly gets assigned primary prominence (subject/trajector status), thereby demoting the agent and patient/mover of this transaction to the status of secondary and tertiary landmark. Similar observations hold for sentences like You look like your mother vs. Your mother looks like you, which are truth-conditionally equivalent, but not conceptually synonymous. Finally, we need to consider the grammatical relevance of matters of scope, since this will be important in our discussion of grammatical aspect in particular. If we say that an expression profiles a given entity, this means that this entity constitutes the ‘immediate scope’ of attention upon any particular usage event. Given an encyclopaedic conception of semantics (i.e. of how much of a cognitive domain is evoked), no sharp boundary can be drawn between knowledge that is and that is not linguistically relevant for the use of an expression. Still, certain elements in a semantic configuration will be more directly relevant than others, and these will then be included in different types of scope. For instance, the conception of a finger constitutes the immediate scope for the characterization of nail, while a conception of the human body makes up its ‘maximal scope’ (observe that we do not say *handnail, but rather fingernail). One can also say that the immediate scope contains elements which are put ‘onstage’ as focused objects of conception, while those which remain ‘offstage’ are again included in the maximal scope. Specifically for the following discussion of grounding (the act of relating an entity to the speaker/conceptualizer’s position and thereby identifying it), these notions (immediate/maximal scope, onstage/offstage) also correlate with the contrast between ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ construal: when conceiving of an object, the features of that object are objective while everything associated with the act of conception itself, such as a conceptualizer to do the conceiving, is said to be subjective. By definition, an expression’s profile is construed with a high degree of objectivity, being the focus of attention within its immediate scope. Consequently, if a tense marker is a schematic verb, then it must profile a schematic process instead of the temporal relation which it also expresses but does not designate (i.e. which is construed subjectively, offstage, as part of the maximal scope).

10.3 Grounding The grounding model in CG is primarily meant to capture the conceptual analogies between various grammatical strategies speakers have at their disposal to establish reference to nominal and verbal (clausal) entities (see also Langacker 2002a, 2002b). Thus, ‘grounding predications’ are defined as designating a grounded instance of a 214 Frank Brisard

(a) Grounding Element (b) Grounding Element (Nominal) (Finite Clause)

tr lm

Rg Rg

G G

Figure. 10.1 Nominal and clausal grounding (Langacker 2002a: 13). nominal or clausal type conception, whereby the notion of the ground is used to refer to the speech event, its participants, and its immediate circumstances (including, for clausal grounding, the time of speaking). Importantly, grounding predications do not by themselves indicate the relation between a grounded instance and the ground (G), since their cognitive import lies in identifying (or profiling) the entity that is at issue. Rather, the grounding relation (Rg) figures in the background conception of any true grounding element, as illustrated in Figure 10.1, which represents the semantic pole of nominal and clausal grounding predications. In Figure 10.1, profiling is rendered in bold and establishes the immediate scope of an expression, whereas other semantically relevant elements feature in the background, the expression’s maximal scope. A nominal grounding predication like this turns a noun, which refers to a type of thing, into a nominal, which refers to a particular instance of the type labelled by the noun. In the nominal this pen, the way this reference comes about is due to elements in the relational meaning of this particular demonstrative, namely that the speaker is referring to a pen near the speaker and hearer and known to the speaker. But this meaning, Rg, is not what the nominal actually refers to: the contribution of this in particular gets the nominal to refer to the actual targeted object of conception, indicated in bold as the profile, whereas the way this is done (by characterizing the relation with the ground in a certain way) is subjectively construed, because that is not what a demonstrative like this is ‘about’. With clausal grounding (Figure 10.1b), what speakers attend to when they utter a finite (i.e. tensed) clause is the conception of a specific instance of interaction between a trajector (tr) and a landmark (lm) (the prototype of a verbal conception: say, a girl kissing a boy), which may be identified on the basis of the relation between that conception and the current ground at the time of speaking. For example, in A girl kissed a boy, that relation is presented as one of precedence between the designated event and the time of speaking (the ground). As with the use of this, the use of past tense marking is not motivated by the speaker wanting to talk ‘about’ pastness per se, but rather by the fact that indicating this relation will An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 215

Non-Reality

Unknown Reality

Known reality Immediate Reality

Figure. 10.2 Elaborated Epistemic Model (Langacker 1991: 244). help the hearer identify which particular (if non-specific) instance of two entities kissing the speaker intends to refer to. Clausal grounding predications (in English, tenses and the core modal auxiliaries) implicitly conjure up an ‘epistemic model’ that represents the Conceptualizer’s (C) knowledge about the reality status of certain situations at a given point in time. While modals locate situations in various portions or Irreality (consisting of Non- and Unknown Reality), tenses invariably portray a designated situation as Real. This ‘Elaborated Epistemic Model’ is depicted in Figure 10.2. Within Reality, a further distinction can be made between situations coinciding with the ground/time of speaking and therefore, from an epistemic perspective, directly available to the conceptualizer (constituting Immediate Reality) on the one hand, and, on the other, those situations that are considered real/known yet removed from the ground and thus lacking certain phenomenal qualities. The most salient of these qualities, perceptual access, is closely associated with our folk notion of the Present, which, for all analytical purposes, will be identified with the ground/time of speaking (and consequently has a certain temporal depth, in contrast with many other, including formal, approaches to time in grammar). If we include this reference to the ground, then we can superimpose a ‘Time-Line Model’, as in Figure 10.3, upon the more schematic epistemic model, whereby the squiggly line in the front part of the growing ‘cylinder’ of reality represents the utterance of a clause (and the time it takes to do so). In this model, the Past is the region that does not coincide with the ground. It is still considered part of reality, and the temporal relation to the ground is one of 216 Frank Brisard

Past Present Future

Figure. 10.3 Time-Line Model (Langacker 1991: 244). anteriority/precedence. The Future does, strictly speaking, not belong to reality but should be characterized as possible non-reality.4

10.4 Tense in CG Bearing in mind the concepts introduced above, it is now possible to provide a schematic definition of the meanings of all of the clausal grounding predications that may be distinguished in a language. In English, there is a basic formal opposition between the presence vs. the absence of a modal and, within the latter category, between the presence vs. the absence of the ‘past tense’ morpheme. The first opposition signals the modal contrast between Irreality and Reality, and the second differentiates between regions within reality that are distal (Non-Immediate) vs. proximal (Immediate) to the ground. These regions are typically, but not always, interpreted in temporal terms as representing Past vs. Present. The grounding predications that refer to them are called past and present tenses, and their respect- ive semantic configurations are rendered in Figure 10.4.5 Present tenses situate an objective proposition P within the conceptualizer’s Immediate Reality, i.e. as directly coinciding with it. This (grounding) relation is indicated by the dashed arrow. The focus lies on the designation of P, whose

4 See also Prosser (this volume) and Ludlow (this volume) on the metaphysics of the past and the future. 5 In this and the following figures, MS indicates an expression’s maximal scope of predication (cf. Section 10.2), i.e. all of the conceptual content that is evoked, ‘on-’ or ‘offstage’, in the use of the expression and that has some potential linguistic (semantic or pragmatic) relevance. An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 217

(a) Immediate (‘Present’) (b) Non-Immediate (‘Past’) MS MS

PIS PIS C C

R IR R IR

Figure. 10.4 The English present and past (Langacker 2011: 74). semantic content is provided by the lexical verb, and which constitutes the expression’s profile or immediate scope. Everything else relevant to the characterization of this tense (i.e. an epistemic model of reality and the grounding relation proper) is considered part of its maximal scope and as such construed subjectively. In contrast, with past tenses P is situated outside of Immediate Reality or, in temporal terms, preceding it. It is still, though, accepted as real by the conceptualizer. A matter complicating this rather simple picture of tense meaning in English is the interaction of tense with lexical aspect. In particular, in the English present tense paradigm it should be noted that not all verbs may take simple present marking to refer to an ongoing situation in the present. In order to explain this, a basic opposition is assumed in CG between two verb types, those denoting dynamic processes and those denoting stative processes.6 A dynamic predicate like kick the ball indicates a change of state and is thus internally heterogeneous, and it has a bounded temporal profile, as can be seen in Figure 10.5a. Boundedness is indicated by the full inclusion of the verb profile inside the immediate scope. Notice that Figure 10.5 contains representations of the meanings of non-grounded verb types, which explains the absence of any reference to the ground.7

6 The labels in Figure 10.5 below reflect the standard CG terminology for talking about lexical verb classes. This terminology presupposes a unidimensional approach to lexical and grammatical aspect. However, to avoid confusion with the more general tradition of restricting the use of the terms ‘perfective’ and ‘imperfective’ to grammatical aspect only, I will use the terms ‘dynamic’ and ‘stative’ to refer to lexically perfective and imperfective verb types, respectively. 7 Strictly speaking, for a language like English it is impossible to talk about a verb’s lexical aspect in isolation, i.e. as divorced from considerations of grammatical aspect. This would only work for languages with a relatively poor system of grammatical aspect, like German (where the interpretation of a sentence as, e.g., telic or not depends on the verb’s lexical aspect). Most other languages distribute aspect over the lexicon and grammar, such that verb types systematically interact with aspectual markers and vice versa. The diagrams in Figure 10.5 should be read accordingly: for instance, Figure 10.5a shows that dynamic verbs are conceived in their entirety and as bounded in interaction with perfective aspect, while stative verbs (Figure 10.5b) are unbounded, again in interaction with perfective aspect. Of course, boundedness, telicity, and stativity in a way count as intrinsic qualities of a given process type and are as such given in the lexicon, but typically the only way to find out which lexical aspect they give rise to is by looking at what happens with a verb in interaction with grammatical aspect. For instance, in Pichi the verb tinap ‘stand 218 Frank Brisard

(a) Perfective Verb (b) Imperfective Verb MS MS IS IS

t t

Figure. 10.5 Verb classes (Langacker 2001: 257).

A stative verb like love (Figure 10.5b) indicates a state that is unbounded within some imposed immediate scope, extending beyond the actual profile in both temporal directions, and internally homogeneous (i.e. any instance of loving over the relevant time period will be considered part of the same state). In example (1), we notice that a verb denoting a dynamic process cannot take the simple present to refer to an ongoing instance of that process (the utterance may be used in certain marked contexts, such as play-by-play reporting in sportscasts, to refer to present events, but these are rather marginal), while this is not a problem with verbs denoting stative processes, as in (2): (1) ? She kicks the ball. (2)Heloves her. CG offers an explanation for this in terms of the conflict between a verb’s dynamicity/boundedness and CG’s definition of the (English) present tense: “PRES indicates the occurrence of a full instantiation of the profiled process that precisely coincides with the time of speaking” (Langacker 1991: 250; emphases mine). Canonically, the second requirement of precise coincidence poses a temporal problem with dynamic verbs in that the events denoted can rarely be made to align exactly with the time it takes to describe them. The first requirement of full instantiation causes an additional epistemic problem, since a conceptualizer, given the typical heterogeneity of dynamic processes,8 needs to have access to at least part of an event before she can start to

(up)’ can be used both in an inchoative–stative and in a dynamic (‘begin to stand (of a toddler)’) way, depending on the aspectual construction it combines with and other contextual factors like temporal adverbials: verbs like these “appear to vacillate in their lexical aspect between an inchoative-stative and a dynamic sense” (Yakpo 2009: 189). Samoan (Sasse 1991) represents the most extreme case in this respect, not displaying any type of lexical aspect and only working with vague concepts whose verbal status is even underspecified. 8 There are also dynamic processes which may be internally homogeneous, such as the homogeneous activities or ‘episodes’ noted in Michaelis (2005: 63): “Verification of a homogeneous activity, e.g., holding a broom, standing in a corner or sleeping, requires access to points of inception and termination, as well as several contiguous frames between those endpoints. Sleeping is distinct both from being comatose and from nodding off for a second, and staying at one’s sister’s house is distinct both from popping in on one’s sister and living with her.” These differ from states, which endure in the same way but which do not have to end before they can be identified: any subinterval of a state counts as an instance of that same state. This property is referred to in CG as the ‘contractibility’ of states. An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 219

(a)Past Perfective (b) Present Perfective MS MS IS IS

t t

Figure. 10.6 Combinations of tense and lexical aspect (Langacker 2001: 262). describe it. This is obviously not a problem with states in the present: they have a stable character and are thus highly predictable, and an arbitrary instance of them can easily be made to co-align with the time of speaking. As a result, when describing the English simple tenses, one should allow for four distinct possibilities, each time detailing the interaction between lexical aspect and tense, as in Figure 10.6. In the past tense paradigm, no problems of alignment with the time of speaking occur, and thus both dynamic and stative verbs can take simple past marking to refer to a past instance of an event or state. The difficulty, diagrammed in Figure 10.6b, of having a perfective process coincide with the ground, and especially its modal origin, raises questions about whether a purely temporal account (e.g. of the present tense as indicating present time) will suffice to explain the intricacies of when this tense may and may not be used, and what it means when it is used in a large variety of contexts. Moreover, it also forces us to address the issue of grammatical (next to lexical) aspect, because a definition of the present tense like the one given above certainly makes it sound as if more could be said about how strict or tolerant a language can be in allowing less than precise coincidence between a process and the ground—languages might, for instance, define the immediate scope imposed by the present tense less rigidly and consequently allow simple present forms of dynamic verbs to refer to ongoing events, unlike in English. This suggests a basic dichotomy between languages with a simple present that is grammatically perfective and those whose simple present is ambiguous between a grammatically perfective and imperfective reading, and the test for finding out which type a particular language belongs to is exactly the behaviour of the simple present with dynamic verbs. All of this will be the topic of the next sections. 220 Frank Brisard

10.5 Grammatical aspect in CG Predications of grammatical aspect are not considered true grounding elements, and understandably so: markers of grammatical aspect like the progressive or the perfect construction may combine with past and present tenses and therefore do not constitute the final, criterial step in the assembly of a fully referential representation of a finite clause. Instead, they provide information about the perspective or viewpoint that is adopted on a given process. However, in combination with the English tenses, such markers of grammatical aspect may be said to form constructions whose semantics essentially relates to grounding concerns, that is, to indicating the reality status of a proposition. In other words, viewpoint may be inextricably bound with every use of a tense form, whether or not that viewpoint will be formally marked. More particularly, I will say that a tense form is always grammatically perfective and/or9 imperfective in itself (whereby progressive marking is considered a subcategory of imperfectivity), regardless of whether this is explicitly signalled; in some languages it may be, in others it may not. But even with those lacking certain explicit markings, conceptual differences may still be detected between uses of the simple present form to refer to an ongoing event in the present and those where the internal structure of the event is simply not attended to: thus, in Dutch the same sentence in the simple present may, given the appropriate context, be interpreted as indicating an imperfective or a perfective construal (cf. below). Let us now see where this leads us in analysing the main uses of simple tenses in the domain of the present and that of the past. In De Wit & Brisard (to appear a), it is suggested, in line with standard CG practice, that a present imperfective construction (like the English present progressive) should be rendered in terms of two separate immediate scopes that are imposed. The first, IS1, symbolizes the contribution of the aspectual marker, whereas the second, IS2, does the actual grounding work in relating a process to the ground. This is represented in Figure 10.7; the figure is neutral in terms of the lexical aspect of the process type. A present progressive zooms in on a designated situation and relegates its boundaries, if any, to the maximal scope, while attending exclusively to an inner portion of the process that is conceptually homogenized (i.e. turned into something state-like) and co-aligned with the ground. Diagrammatically, this is rendered by positing two immediate scopes which take care of two different jobs. But what if we posited the relevance of both these scopes in all tense forms, also the simple ones? In that case, we would have to say that a ‘perfective’ (simple) present tense as in English comprises two immediate scopes that coincide (with the ground). IS1, the ‘aspectual’

9 The ‘and’ here captures cases whereby a tense marker is ambiguous between the two readings, such as the simple present in Dutch and French. An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 221

MS IS1 IS2

Figure. 10.7 Present imperfective. scope, offers a complete, non-internal view of a process, and the problem in English is to reconcile the perfective nature of the simple present with dynamic, i.e. non- contractible (see footnote 8) verbs. Other languages, however, might be more lenient and could therefore be described in terms of having an ambiguous present tense: one which requires full and exact coincidence with the ground for stative verbs, and another (grammatically imperfective) which imperfectivizes dynamic verbs and makes them alignable with the ground, just like the progressive does in English. Here, IS2, the tense scope, is included in IS1, the aspectual scope, without coinciding with it. However, in a language like Dutch this imperfectivization is not made visible and needs to be assumed in cases like (3): (3)Ze stampt tegen de bal. she kicks against the ball. ‘She’s kicking the ball.’ A correlate of this property of Dutch grammar is that there is no heavily grammaticalized progressive construction as in English (where it is virtually obligatory with dynamic verbs in the present): the one serious candidate, the aan het V-inf construction (ze is aan het spelen ‘she’s playing’), is significantly less frequent than its English counterpart and optional rather than necessary to convey ongoingness in the present. On the basis of these (partly semantic, partly formal) considerations, then, we can posit the existence of present perfective markers of the type represented in Figure 10.8. In English, this is the only possible interpretation that can be ascribed to the simple present, whereas in Dutch the simple present form is in principle ambiguous between a perfective and an imperfective reading.

MS IS1=IS2

Figure. 10.8 Present perfective (two scopes). 222 Frank Brisard

(a) IS =IS (b) 1 2 MS IS MS IS2 1

Figure. 10.9 Simple past in English.

Similar observations can be made with respect to the past tense, though of course the grammatical repercussions will differ due to the absence of alignment problems in the past. A language generally has both an imperfective and a perfective past tense, although the two are not always formally distinct: they are in Romance languages like French and Spanish, which feature separate inflectional paradigms for marking grammatical aspect in the past (traditionally referred to as ‘imperfect(ive)’ vs. ‘simple’ or ‘indefinite’ past tenses), but in languages which only have periphrastic means to mark past imperfectivity explicitly, like most Germanic ones, those constructions generally occur significantly less frequently and are certainly not obligatory for the expression of imperfective aspect. As in the present tense paradigm, the degree of grammaticalization of a corresponding past imperfective construction may serve as an indication of how ambiguous a simple past form is in this respect. Thus, the English progressive construction is far less central to the description of the past tense paradigm than it is in the present tense paradigm, and, unlike with the simple present, English simple past forms may get imperfective readings on certain occasions (e.g. with achievement verbs; cf. the example Thick smoke filled the corridor [In a matter of minutes, we could no longer see the exit signs.] from Michaelis 2004: 53,wherefill has an inchoative interpretation in which smoke diffuses through the corridor; see also Boogaart 1999: 190, 193). In these contexts, the past progressive may serve as an acceptable paraphrase for explicating the meaning of the simple past.10 We can therefore assume, on analogy with our analysis of the present tense paradigm, that there are two possible configurations corresponding to the use of the English simple past, both of which are given in Figure 10.9. The usability of a diagram like Figure 10.9b becomes apparent when tackling the semantics of formally marked imperfective past tenses in Romance languages, such as the French imparfait or the Spanish pretérito imperfecto (Doiz Bienzobas 2002). The specific range of contexts in which these are used (invariably definite pasts) suggests that there is something about non-present imperfective aspect that makes it

10 I’m not suggesting here that the French imparfait, as an example of a dedicated marker of past imperfectivity, and a form like the English past progressive are semantically identical. For one, Molendijk (2005) has shown that, unlike with the imparfait, the English past progressive cannot be used to suggest past ongoingness if the event referred to is an instant: quand Pierre entra, 1 heure sonnait vs. ?when Peter came in, the clock was striking 1 (vs. when Peter came in, the clock was striking 9). An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 223

Event IS1 Virtual t G =IS2

Actual T IS2 IS1 G

Figure. 10.10 Imperfective past tense (shifted ground; adapted from Brisard 2010: 516).

evoke some type of shifted reference point (other than the actual ground): indeed, adopting an internal viewpoint on a process that is not actually present seems to necessitate a mental operation of displacement, so that the conceptualizer finds herself virtually ‘inside’ the designated past situation (or, conversely, that the past situation is virtually represented as if it were coinciding with the actual ground). Both takes on the same configuration are represented in Figure 10.10. The imperfectivizing work of IS1, when situated in a non-present context, seems to suggest the presence of an alternative viewpoint to the present one (the ground), internal to the non-present situation and virtually represented in the conceptualizer’s present as G’. Often, such imperfective past tenses are used to evoke a feeling of vividness in the description of non-present situations, which is one of the effects of the virtual construal that sets this tense apart from the more detached narrative mode typically associated with the perfective past tense. Moreover, imperfective past tenses also serve in many different modal contexts, expressing hypothetical and other non-real states of affairs. In those cases, what is missing is a correspondence link between the virtual representation conjured up in the conceptualizer’s present and some real past situation, leaving us with something like Figure 10.11. What these uses express is that a situation is considered real, as with all other uses of a past tense, but this time not in actual reality (e.g. hypothetically real, as in the protasis of a conditional). It is no surprise that such modal readings never come about with perfective past tenses in the languages that have them, since there is no element of virtuality to be detected in these tenses’ semantic make-up: all they indicate is that a past situation is viewed, as a whole, from the perspective of the present, without intimating any process of displacement on the part of the conceptualizer. This is the configuration represented in Figures 10.6a and 10.9a. 224 Frank Brisard

Event IS 1 Virtual t G’= IS2

Actual T G

Figure. 10.11 Modal uses of an imperfective past tense.

10.6 Progressive and perfect marking Having established that all tense forms, including simple ones, have an aspectual (perfective vs. imperfective) signature, two things remain to be done. One is to demonstrate how each tense–aspect combination yields various (temporal and other) meaning types that ultimately go back to a single underlying modal schema, in line with CG’s basic characterization of grounding predications as epistemic in nature. Just as temporal and modal uses of imperfective past tenses share a notion of displaced reality that perfective ones lack, the region of Immediate Reality can be cut up into different domains. These domains do not differ so much as to the presence vs. the absence of virtual meaning elements, as to the degree to which a proposition’s status as real is considered consolidated at the time of speaking. Simple vs. progressive marking in the paradigm of the present in English addresses exactly this issue, which is the topic of Section 10.6.1. The other goal, discussed in Section 10.6.2, is to illustrate how relations of scope within an expression’s semantic configuration are not stable and are subject to diachronic evolution and synchronic variation. The case of the have perfects in English and other Germanic languages exemplifies how the same construction can go from expressing perfect/anterior aspect to indicating past tense, but above all, how this is a gradual process that depends entirely on altering the relative prominence of one immediate scope over another.

10.6.1 Structural vs. contingent reality in English A verb’s ability to take the progressive in the present is widely acknowledged as a diagnostic for its lexically dynamic (i.e. non-stative) nature in English. Thus, example (4) is perfectly acceptable as a description of a dynamic process that is going on at the time of speaking, while (5), involving a lexically stative verb, comes across as a marked way of describing a state holding at the time of speaking, perhaps An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 225 suggesting something like an extraordinary effort that goes into maintaining the state at issue: (4) She’s kicking the ball. (5)He’s hating her. These observations, together with the range of special contexts in which English perfective verbs can take the simple present, have led Brisard (2002) and Langacker (2011) to reconsider the ‘naive’ characterization of the English present tense in purely temporal terms (of full and exact coincidence with the ground; cf. above) and add a modal component to this definition covering all of the meaning types that can be distinguished for the simple and progressive present forms in English. So let us start with the simple present: given the absence of an imperfective reading for the English simple present (in contrast with, say, Dutch or French), the form always indicates a situation that is fully predictable (i.e. treated as given knowledge) at the time of speaking. This is not a problem with states, since these are stable and are generally already holding before the time of speaking. But with dynamic events, the simple present can only be used if the event in question is in one way or another accepted by the conceptualizer as a structural or necessary, and thus predictable, part of reality. And in any case, the simple present can never be used with dynamic verbs to refer to an actually ongoing event, except in performative contexts (example (6)), represented in Figure 10.12, where the speech event and the profiled process are one and the same, as a matter of definition. Here, no epistemic problem arises, since the conceptualizer has prior knowledge about what is going to happen at the time of speaking: “Because the speaker is not merely reporting on what happens but is rather in control of the event described, he does not have to observe the event in order to identify and describe it” (Langacker 2001: 263): (6)Ipromise I’ll come. In all other cases, the use of the simple present with dynamic verbs implies a virtual representation of the designated event, which is mentally made to coincide with the ground even though in reality the overlap with the ground is, in the best of cases, less than complete. This holds true, for instance, for the play-by-play reporting mentioned in Section 10.4, a convenient illusion used to create the impression of

Performative MS IS

Figure. 10.12 Performative (Langacker 2001: 264). 226 Frank Brisard complete simultaneity, as well as in similar situations where the conceptualizer is in control of an event and its duration is approximately that of the ground—these include the concurrent, script-like description of bodily actions, step-by-step demonstrations, and so on. What these uses share with more radical departures from the description of an ongoing event (including in recipes, manuals, stage and other directions, photo captions, futurate uses of the simple present, and historical presents) is that they all represent the designated event as virtually coinciding with the ground; in other words, it is the conceptualizer who locates the event in a virtual plane, knowing very well that the actual event does not coincide with the present (cf. Langacker 2011: 59–64). This is depicted in Figure 10.13, representing the meaning of a futurate use as in (7): (7) Your train leaves in five minutes. The virtual plane evoked may contain representations of events which the speaker expects will happen, knows to have happened, or otherwise has some form of epistemic control over. To the speaker, in other words, these events are necessarily part of reality, and at any time she can choose to evoke them as if they were the case

Event1 Event2 Event3 Virtual Schedule t

Actual Events t

Figure. 10.13 Scheduled future (Langacker 2001: 268).

MS IS

structural mw generalizations

...... mw mw mw mw

Figure. 10.14 Habitual (Langacker 2011: 65). An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 227 at that moment; in this sense, their construal corresponds to what Goldsmith and Woisetschlaeger (1982) have called “structural knowledge types”.Someusesofthe simple present may even go further and conjure up a virtual representation that does not stand for one, but for many instances of the same event type. In those cases (habitual and generic uses of the simple present, as in example (8)), the virtual plane is to be interpreted as representing structural aspects of reality, and as purely mental entities they can be manipulated at will by the conceptualizer and thus are not subject to the alignment problems that occur with representations of actually ongoing events. This situation is illustrated in Figure 10.14, which profiles a virtual instance of a relation (of straight drinking) between mother (m) and whisky (w) at a structural level: (8) My mother drinks her whisky straight. We can conclude that the English simple present is always used to express a structural aspect of reality: with states, their very stability ensures their categorization as structural (at least within the scope of Immediate Reality), and with dynamic events, only those events are referred to that are felt by the speaker at the time of speaking to be an accepted part of her reality, and not just an incidental description of it. This is the result of the strictly perfective character of this tense in English. If the meaning of the English simple present may be rendered in terms of structural necessity, then we might expect the present progressive to express the opposite, namely contingency or the absence of necessity. Remember that the present progressive is still part of the present tense paradigm and refers to situations located in Immediate Reality. But this epistemic status has not been consolidated at the time of speaking; it remains “phenomenal” rather than structural, in the words of Goldsmith and Woisetschlaeger (1982). Once again, this modal characterization results from the temporal (i.e. imperfective) profile that the progressive construction imposes (see Figure 10.7); we might add that, in contrast with other possible imperfective construals, the progressive specifically imposes boundaries on the designated event in MS, as given in Figure 10.15. This could explain, for instance, the effect this construction has on lexically stative verbs, which are coerced into a more dynamic reading and imply the temporary (extraordinary, etc.) nature of the designated situation (cf. example (5), He’s hating her).

Present Progressive MS IS1 IS2

Figure. 10.15 Present progressive (Langacker 2001: 261). 228 Frank Brisard

At the same time, a modal description of the semantics of the present progressive is (more) basic (than a temporal one) in that it is relevant for all of the many meaning types that can be distinguished for this construction in English. De Wit and Brisard (to appear a) therefore introduce a semantic network that starts from a common schema of “Contingency in Immediate Reality” to develop into a number of more or less connected temporal and modal meaning types, the latter including uses of the present progressive to express surprise, atypicality, and so on. Some of these uses also involve virtual constructs, but above all the network shows how the basic semantic configuration for expressing current ongoingness (the least marked or default use of the present progressive) may be exploited to produce other meaning types differing only in the slightest detail, such as the relative salience of one or more of the configuration’s components. For instance, from Figure 10.15 it is easy to go to Figure 10.16, representing the meaning of temporary validity for which the present progressive can sometimes be used. An example is given in (9): (9)He’s having a hell of a time. With these uses, the fact that the designated event has boundaries (located in MS) is being emphasized, rather than downplayed as with other usage types. This results in a higher degree of salience ascribed to the process’s boundaries, without these boundaries actually becoming part of the expression’s profile; let’s just say that their salience is higher than what would be expected from elements in an expression’s maximal scope. In cases where the element of duration, not boundedness, is exploited, the opposite happens. Starting from the same Figure 10.15, we now end up with a configuration in which the boundaries of the process are (even more) downplayed, symbolizing the speaker’s judgement in such cases that these boundaries are semantically irrelevant. This is what happens for utterances like (10), diagrammed in Figure 10.17: (10)He’s still making noises with the paper. Many other modifications are possible, of course, including virtualizing uses (for habitual imperfectives; a modification of Figure 10.14) as well as manipulations of the

MS IS1 IS2

Figure. 10.16 Temporary-validity reading of present progressive. An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 229

MS IS1 IS2

Figure. 10.17 Durational/‘continuative’ reading of present progressive. temporal position, rather than the salience, of (one of) the temporal boundaries: in inchoative uses, for instance, the left boundary is explicitly made to coincide with IS1. The major advantage of the network description referred to here is that it unifies all the different usage types, including ones that have pretty much escaped previous attention and that would in any case be hard to characterize in purely temporal terms, since their use does not seem temporally motivated (in other words, the reason for using a progressive rather than a simple form here does not primarily seem to involve the expression of ongoingness or duration). That is why, in De Wit and Brisard (to appear a), they are called modal usage types. Here are some examples: (11) Well, I’m telling you, withholding goodies works. (12)I’m not dancing with guys! (13)He’s smart, he talks about minorities. But he’s really talking about African Americans. None of the observations made in this section may simply be transferred to (i) other uses of simple vs. progressive forms in non-present paradigms (e.g. the past) or (ii) uses of simple and progressive present tenses in other languages. Modal usage types do occur in other languages as well, such as Dutch and French, even though the progressive is not so grammaticalized in these languages (see De Wit and Patard, in press). In fact, they were already present in earlier stages of English, too (notably, from Middle English onwards). This shows that the rise of modal usage types does not entirely go hand in hand with increased grammaticalization.11 Still, the peculiar properties of the English present tense paradigm are deemed to be a consequence of the strictly perfective character of the simple present and the highly

11 Modal interpretations of the progressive construction appear to be part and parcel of its semantics. Though progressives represent a type of imperfectivizing construction, this does not mean that these modal meanings are necessarily shared by other imperfective constructions. What is special about progressives in contrast with other imperfectives is the former’s systematic association with dynamic verbs, suggesting the presence of boundaries in the maximal scope (cf. Figure 10.15), and it is this property which may be deemed responsible for the modal usage types. 230 Frank Brisard grammaticalized status of the present progressive construction. On the other hand, the description of the English present tense paradigm proposed here does make use of principles of cognitive semantics that are universal, and, as a model, it can easily be applied to tense paradigms in languages with fairly diverging semantic properties (see, e.g., Brisard and Meeuwis 2009; De Wit and Brisard, to appear b).

10.6.2 From perfect aspect to past tense To end this section, let us now consider how the current framework facilitates the description of semantic variation (in time, or over different varieties of a language) for the same construction. Given that semantic configurations in CG are made up of some essentially gradient notions (scope, salience), the use of a particular construction may evolve to exploit one or the other meaning element, so that it gradually develops various related meaning types and may eventually even move from one grammatical category to another. To describe this evolution, and some of the in- between configurations that result from it, we will have a look at the perfect construction formed with auxiliary have, which is prevalent in many European languages but may differ significantly in individual languages in terms of the contexts in which it can be used. I will base this discussion, which is necessarily brief, partly on the semantic classification of have perfects proposed by McCawley (1971). We begin by considering the use that is closest to the original construction in Old English, where it denoted a present state that is the result of a prior action. In example (14), a resultative use, the present perfect also serves to focus on the result of a previous event: (14) Don’t come near me, I’ve caught the flu. Having the flu is the result of a previous event of catching it, but this event is relegated to the background, just like the boundaries of a dynamic process marked by the progressive. The reference of the past participle is to the state resulting from

MS IS1=IS2

t G

Figure. 10.18 Present perfect: resultative use. An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 231 the past event situated in MS. In line with our previous characterization of the English simple present (Figure 10.8), which is the tense of the auxiliary, IS1 and IS2 coincide, reflecting the idea that a perfective perspective is adopted on a present state. (The scope of the participle per se, which would be IS3, is not indicated in the diagram, but it would coincide with the entire state resulting from a completed process.) However, one might argue that this configuration is already one step removed from its Old English ancestor, in that there is no literal state of ‘having’ in the sense of possession that is actually profiled. Moreover, the profile, in subsequent uses of the perfect, seems to shift gradually away from the present end-state to the prior event itself. Several factors are involved here. Prototypical resultative uses—and other uses, for example in Irish English, that are retentions of the older syntactic pattern, as in she’s nearly her course finished (Harris 1984: 307)—involve a present state that can still be seen as profiled against the background of an immediately prior, typically dynamic and transitive event. It usually denotes an objective transfer of energy between two participants, trajector and landmark, resulting in a salient end-state that one of the participants (the landmark) finds itself in. The focus lies on that end-state, which holds in the present and thus justifies the present tense form of have. Changes in this original configuration will be situated at the level of the subjective construal of objective temporal configurations involving a past event, and they will be shown to relate primarily to two cognitive parameters, namely perspective and scope (or the relative prominence of one situation over another in a complex scene). What seems to happen in general is that the perfectivity of the original construction forces the tense to shift so that the construction as a whole behaves as a perfective past tense (rather than a perfective present tense þ perfect aspect), even though formally of course the tense of the auxiliary remains present. Thus, in subsequent diagrams IS1, the perfective aspectual scope, becomes dominant, while IS2, the present tense scope, is the recessive one and will ultimately disappear to make room for a past IS2 that is associated with the same 12 perfective IS1. The following three usage types (examples (15)–(17)) manifest a weakening of the objective features just described for the resultative uses or, in other words, an increasing subjectification of the configuration. Historically, they illustrate the progressive loss of objective factors motivating the association between a past event and a resultant state in the present: (15) Osama Bin Laden has just been assassinated. (hot news) (16)I’ve known Max since 1969. (universal) (17)I’ve read ‘Principia Mathematica’ five times. (existential (‘indefinite anterior’))

12 The terms ‘dominant’ and ‘recessive’ are borrowed from Malchukov (2009), though he talks about grammemes rather than constructions. 232 Frank Brisard

MS IS1=IS2

t G

Figure. 10.19 Present perfect: extended now.

If we want to move away from the configuration in Figure 10.18, then we must first relax the condition of temporal contiguity between the past event and the present state. This creates a type of ‘extended now’ that will remain relevant for the characterization of most uses of the perfect in English. In Figure 10.19, the conceptualizer’s attention is distributed between, on the one hand, an end-state that one participant is in and that is simultaneous with the position at the time of speaking of the other participant (i.e. the original configuration: an agent that ‘has’ or, more abstractly, relates to something in a state as the result of the agent’s action), and on the other the actual past action itself, which becomes more profiled in the entire expression and loses the requirement of direct contact with the present (i.e. can be located in a more distant past and thus acquires some conceptual autonomy of its own, independently of the end-state that it leads to). One could also say that the tense profile, defined by IS2, recedes or loses in salience and that the prominence of the aspectual IS1 gradually grows in dominance, creating a more balanced distribution of prominence over both ISs (a formalization of the feeling of an extended now) and thereby increasingly problematizing the categorization of the construction as a mere aspectual variant of the present tense. In other words, one could say that the construction becomes more and more perfective, and less and less present. In more evolved cases, the requirement that the preceding situation needs to be a dynamic/ transitive event is lost altogether (generalization), as seen in Figure 10.20. At the same time, the ‘presentness’ of the resultant state, which is still part of the background conception (in its maximal scope), is more and more a matter of the speaker’s subjective appreciation, rather than of a participant’s objective condition, until we reach the point where the mere “current relevance” (Comrie 1976) of a past situation is left as the sole relic of the construction’s initial end- state focus. This might be captured by the idea of a present perspective, already immanent in the conception of a participant’s current end-state (e.g. in resultative uses), being gradually more attributable to the speaker. That is to say that the speaker, in using perfects that do not strictly speaking refer to a present state, portrays a past situation from her own temporal viewpoint, and that the An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 233

IS1=IS2

t G

Figure. 10.20 Present perfect: current relevance. role of the non-subject participant, if any, is restricted to the (profiled) past action proper; this fits the reanalysis responsible for the auxiliary status of have and the promotion of the participial form to ‘head of VP’ in the grammaticalization process of the perfect construction. Figure 10.20 is, obviously, the same configuration as in Figure 10.9a, representing a ‘perfective past’ tense. In its most extreme form, as in existential or indefinite anterior uses, the perfect might best be described as having the value of a perfective past, ending up as a marker of tense rather than aspect (cf. the passé simple and pretérito indefinido/perfecto in Romance languages). The motivation for keeping the perspective in the present even in such perfective past tense contexts is the obligatory use of what I would call ‘ground-including’ time adverbials (like ever or already) or constructions (like since and for constructions) with the present perfect, rather than real past-time adverbials. More conservative dialects, such as Hiberno-English, Standard American English, and Black English Vernacular, represent intermediate stages of this evolution and have not (yet) gone all the way. For instance, they usually do not feature the present perfect in these indefinite contexts, for which the simple past is used. Other Germanic languages, finally, have moved beyond this point and have started to use the have construction in contexts where, at least from the perspective of English, one would expect a true past tense. This is generally referred to as ‘preterite loss’, and it occurs in contexts where a definite point in the past is explicitly or implicitly given. In such languages as Dutch, German, and Afrikaans, an utterance like (18) is entirely grammatical: (18)Ikheb gisteren spaghetti gegeten. (Dutch) I have yesterday spaghetti eaten. ‘Yesterday I ate spaghetti.’ In French, too, this is possible; the difference with an utterance containing an imparfait form would be that the latter implied more of a feeling of ongoingness, typical of narrative background uses of this tense: 234 Frank Brisard

(19) Hier j’ai mangé des spaghettis. yesterday I-have eaten spaghettis ‘Yesterday I ate spaghetti.’ (20) Hier je mangeais (quand Pierre est entré/entra). yesterday I was-eating when Peter has entered/entered ‘Yesterday I was eating when Peter came in.’ The configuration for these uses is given in Figure 10.10. Here, the have construction has moved away entirely from its aspectual origins and has come to cover (both perfective and) imperfective readings in the past traditionally associated with real past tense forms. In Afrikaans, for instance, the het ge-V construction can even be used to express modal meanings (e.g. in optative contexts) which, in English, Dutch, or German still call for the morphological past tense.

10.7 Conclusion The tools of CG, including the grounding model and universal cognitive-semantic principles such as predicational scope (as a function of prominence of attention on the part of a conceptualizer), allow the systematic description of tense–aspect constructions in a language’s verbal paradigm, stressing the common modal meaning elements in individual constructions’ usage types and thus unifying the analysis in a domain well known for its considerable constructional polysemy. The assumption of temporal depth assigned to the time of speaking has a number of important grammatical consequences in the paradigm of the present, which English deals with differently from other related languages. The durational and epistemic problems arising from this feature have prompted the postulation of virtual entities that are relevant to the characterization of certain configurations (i.e. those in which no reference is being made to an actually ongoing event). I have also described the peculiar properties of present tense marking on lexically dynamic verbs as a consequence of the strictly (grammatically) perfective nature of the simple present in English, on the further assumption that all tense forms, including simple ones, are semantically specified for grammatical (im)perfectivity; simple tense forms can then be considered ambiguous or not in this respect, depending on the language one is looking at. The combination of tense and aspect in a single verb form necessitates positing two immediate scopes in all instances, even if these may coincide (as with the English simple present or a perfective past tense). The present progressive in English, as an imperfectivizing construction involving two clearly distinct scopes, is a good illustration of how a basic semantic configuration can be tweaked to produce various usage types sometimes only subtly differing in meaning. The cognitive mechanisms implicated relate to notions like boundedness and its relative prominence, or to the exploitation of a configuration’s modal An account of English tense and aspect in Cognitive Grammar 235 signature (to the detriment of temporal motivations for using a progressive form). The case of the English present perfect, finally, has been presented to exemplify the possible evolution of an originally aspectual construction in the direction of a pure tense marker. Crucial in this evolution is the rising prominence of one immediate scope over another, coupled with an increasingly subjectified construal of the original configuration (involving a past event and a present end-state). 11

Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time: present and future

PAUL CHILTON

11.1 Introduction: times, tenses, and frames of reference Reference frames are fundamental to our understanding of time and space, whether in the domain of physics or of ordinary human communication. In physics, the principle of relativity is built on the theoretical notion of frames of reference: space–time is relative to the observer’s frame of reference. In ordinary human linguistic communication, which draws on the non-linguistic human cognition of space–time, phenomena that are variously called frames of reference, viewpoint, and perspective are ubiquitous. The relationship between the physicist’s frame of reference and frames of reference in the human mind–brain is a matter for speculation. It is possible that we can speak of a supervenience relation (as Jaszczolt 2009: 14 does in relation to other aspects of the problem of the representation of time; see also Jaszczolt, this volume). It is possible that the kinds of cognition that are recruited by languages for communication ultimately depend on physical space–time, but are not reducible to it. However, it may well be that we can use a similar or related theoretical framework for understanding both realms. That is why this chapter approaches the linguistic conceptualization of time—the kind of conceptualization connected with tense markers in languages—by drawing on elementary geometrical notions, the most general of which is frames of reference or coordinate systems. Of course, to describe linguistic conceptualizations, the geometrical models have to be of a relevant special kind. The starting point is to treat tense marking as essentially deictic and then to model deixis geometrically. Deixis is understood not only as spatial and temporal but also as modal (cf. Frawley 1992; Chilton 2005). This approach is not incompatible with Reichenbach’s foundational approach, which remains influential Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 237 in some of the recent advanced models of time and tense (e.g. de Saussure 2003, and this volume; Evans 2004; Jaszczolt 2009). The problem for linguists in accounting for tense has been to explain, or to model, how it is possible to speak of, for example, a present tense marker when such forms frequently appear to have interpretations that are not to do with the present time of the speaker. There is no doubt that there is interplay between conventionalized ‘schematic’ or ‘default’ conceptualizations associated with tense markers. In this chapter I will attempt to show how we can firstly model what I shall refer to as ‘schematic’ tense conceptualizations in terms of relative positioning in frames of reference, and secondly, crucially, model the variation in time interpretations of tenses in terms of operations on the basic schematic meanings—specifically, embedding of frames of reference one inside another and the transformation of frames of reference. A further kind of conceptual interplay that has been of great interest to seman- ticists is that between time and modality (cf. Kaufmann, Condoravdi, and Harizanov. 2006: 90–102). It has been noted many times that while the past is ‘settled’, the future is not, given some point in time at which such judgements are made. In addition, times, whether past or future, can seem closer or more distant in time, and distance has a cognitive connection with epistemic certainty. The framework of Deictic Space Theory (DST), which I summarize in Section 11.2 below, inherently reflects this idea. This chapter will thus focus on two classic areas of concern: how linguistically marked tense is related to conceptual time and whether linguistically marked tense relates to modality. The following analyses, like those of a number of other scholars, build on Reichenbach’s(1947: 287–98) framework and uses insights from Langacker (1991, 2011). Description of English tenses requires time points: the point of speech, event point, and reference point (Reichenbach 1947: 287–8), with reference point often being defined in the discourse or pragmatically rather than explicitly in the sentence. The English tenses appear to correspond to different alignments of the three points. In DST the speech point is intrinsic in the deictic space. It follows Reichenbach in treating the three points in terms of relationships and ordering on the timeline. However, because the deictic space includes direction as well as distance, DST says more about the nature of the relationships, and in particular it is able to incorporate ‘viewpoint’ (cf. Langacker 1995;Michaelis1998, 2006; amongst others). The most important feature of DST is indeed the notion of ‘frames of reference’, treated as copies of the base coordinate system that can be nested within that base system, which is termed R,the‘reality’ conceptualized by the speaker (self, subject) S. These copies are ‘virtual realities’ that can be anchored at different deictic points in S’s R.Itwillbeargued that this approach provides a new and adequate way of modelling the complexities of conceptualizations that are associated with the English present tense.1

1 The tenses of other languages are equally complex, of course. But each language varies in respect of tense semantics and deserves individual treatment, as well as cross-linguistic typological treatment. 238 Paul Chilton

There are thus two conceptual operations that will be explained below: (i) operations linked to the conceptualizations induced by English simple present and progressive, and (ii) temporal frame-shifting. These require no ad hoc machinery if the fundamental geometrical architecture is adopted: they are given in very simple spatial geometry and may indeed have their origins in spatial cognition. The emphasis is thus placed on conceptual operations, which we may call ‘perspectivis- ing’. Thus, it is not that the English present tense constructions are polysemous: rather, they are associated with core schemas that can be cognitively manipulated in combination with the conceptual structures associated with the multiplicity of event types that the lexicon conventionalizes.2

11.2 DST in brief 11.2.1 Three dimensions and an integrated abstract space The deictic space theory postulates a conceptual space consisting of three dimensions that are taken to be specific to the kinds of conceptualization drawn on and induced by linguistic forms. While the morphological and syntactic means of languages vary, the hypothesis is that all languages will use the same conceptual space. This is a deictic space in the sense that its three dimensions are relative to S (for speaker, subject, or self ) and it has the configuration shown in Figure 11.1. The particular geometry of this space is explained and justified in more detail in Chilton (2005, 2007, 2009) and the following is a necessarily curtailed summary. The three dimensions of Figure 11.1 are not to be confused with the three spatial dimensions of perceived physical space. Rather, the idea is to represent a conceptual space representing an integration of discourse referents (the d-axis), conceived time (t-axis), and epistemic modality (m-axis). The basic conceptual components are relative distance and direction. The three axes are not the usual ‘x, y, z’ axes of spatial geometry but abstract dimensions: d is attentional distance of discourse referents from S (fore- grounding, middle ground, background), t is deictic time, and m is epistemic distance from S. ‘Distance’ here is relative cognitive distance, not a metric. Linguistic constructions give rise to conceptual representations, the fundamental structure of which is the deictic space. Diagrams like Figure 11.1 are intended to sketch a conceptual space, centred on S, whose zero point is the conscious now-here-real, which can be located at any point in real space–time, and perhaps in any possible world, should we wish to do so from a universal vantage point. This is not to say there is no connection between real space–time and the cognitive deictic space, but it is not the concern of this chapter to explore that deep issue. Figure 11.1 is the template that will be used for particular discourse space models (DSMs) of tense and time in the remainder of this chapter.

2 For a Cognitive Grammar account of the present in English see also Brisard (this volume). Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 239

distal

medial

m –t proximal

pluperfect peripersonal had been simple region past pres was perf S has now periph- been rastic future future will be +t is future going perfect to be will have been Figure 11.1 The fundamental deictic space.

The relative distances on each axis are motivated by the kind of relative conceptual ‘distancing’ communicated in demonstrative expressions (cf. Fillmore 1982; Diessel 1999, 2006). There are three relative positions: proximal, medial, and distal, in addition to the zero point (i.e. deictic and geometric origin of the three dimensions). However, the linguistic and psychological evidence suggests that proximal is not simply a point but a region, and a region of a special kind, rather unfamiliar in the linguistics literature, known as peripersonal space. This is the psychological space that is defined in part by the reach of an organism’s limbs and which includes personal space, the space occupied by the body.3 We shall speculate, for the purpose of investigating tense conceptualizations, that peripersonal space is transposed on to the time axis: peripersonal time. It is important to note that psychological periper-

3 Peripersonal space is widely studied in psychology and cognitive science. Of particular relevance for present purposes are: Gallese (2003); Weiss et al.(2000); Berti and Rizzolatti (2002); and on their relevance for spatial language, Kemmerer (1999, 2010) and Coventry and Garrod (2004). 240 Paul Chilton sonal space can be extended (e.g. by the use of tools, which extend personal reach), and I speculate that in linguistic communication this effect may also arise by way of linguistic and pragmatic cues. If it is reasonable to speak of peripersonal time, I suggest an analogous effect may help understand some of the conceptual effects of tense semantics. What would a peripersonal temporal space be like? A reasonable guess is that it consists of memory of the recent past and anticipation and planning for the immediate future: memories of actions just performed and experienced simultaneously with intentions for one’s next actions. Just as DST proposes that peripersonal space projects on to the time axis, so it also proposes that it projects on to the m-axis. What is within our peripersonal space is not only spatially close, it is epistemically ‘close’—it is what we can ‘grasp’ in both senses of the term, and what we can grasp is epistemically most certain. The spatial foundation of the three dimensions of DST thus gives us an integrated correlation of the attentional, the temporal, and the epistemic. Jaszczolt (2009) argues that tense forms in languages are in effect modal. It seems intuitively plausible to think that future events are, to the human mind, inherently less certain than present ones. However, DST does not attempt to build this idea directly into its architecture. If we were to revise the DST geometry in the light of the claim that time equals modality, one axis would disappear. Another possibility would be to design a geometry that would make the t-axis not orthogonal but a curve such that tþ curved asymptotically towards distal counterfactuality on m. And since it might well be argued that the past too becomes epistemically less certain the more distant it is, the same could be the case for t. Such a geometry might capture the conceptual structure of the human mind but for present purposes it would immensely complicate the theory. I shall simply assume that the relative distances on tþ and t may indeed correspond to possible degrees of epistemic certainty. Another reason for not revising the fundamental geometry in this way is the following. We are concerned with conceptual representations brought on by linguistic constructions, and the fact remains that languages generally combine the indication of time location relative to ‘now’ with modal representation of degrees of certainty. Thus we can say, referring to a future event, Mary will write the report next week, Mary might write the report next week, it is probable Mary will write the report next week, etc. We need to be able to model such combinations and this can be done in the three-dimensional deictic space of DST, even if we were to make the t-axis curved. In Jaszczolt’s model (Jaszczolt 2009: 140–54) there is a cline of epistemic certainty from most to least certain tense forms: tenseless future (Peter goes to London tomorrow), futurative progressive (Peter is going to London tomorrow), periphrastic future (Peter is going to go to London tomorrow), regular future (Peter will go to London tomorrow), epistemic necessity future (Peter must be going to London tomorrow), epistemic possibility future (Peter might be going to London tomorrow). Apart from the fact that the intuitive semantic judgements involved here Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 241 are debatable, it seems to me that placing all these expressions on a single scale loses distinctions with regard to the futurative use of epistemic modals. The intersection of the axes, the origin, defines the viewpoint of the speaker S. On each of the three axes we postulate components corresponding to peripersonal space, and define them as unit vectors. The coordinate system described in this way corresponds to the speaker’s self, in the sense that it corresponds to the speaker’s cognizance of what is here (the graspable in primary peripersonal space defined physically), what is now (what is temporally within reach, that is, peripersonal space projected onto time), and what is real (what can be ‘grasped’ cognitively and in some possibly non-linear fashion correlating with spatial and temporal distance). What this definition of a proximal spatiotemporal–modal space encapsulates is the intuition, reflected in language and discourse structure, that things are more likely to be real for the speaker in the here and now. What is distal, either perceptually or temporally, is less actual.

11.2.2 Frames of reference and geometrical transformations The abstract meaning space that has just been outlined is the frame of reference R, the assumed ‘reality’ of the self–speaker–subject S, as already noted. DST aims to make explicit some fundamental elements of linguistic meaning by using this space to describe the conceptual effects of lexical and grammatical structures. The discourse referents that constitute arguments in predications are represented by ‘labels’ that have coordinates on the d-axis and relations between them— predicates—are represented as unit vectors. It is unnecessary to go into further detail on this particular aspect (see Chilton 2007) but what is important is a further piece of standard apparatus from simple geometry—transformations. Geometric- ally, transformations move the base axis system around, invert it, reflect it, and so on. In DST we use this geometrical idea of transformation to deal with linguistic conceptualizations, specifically temporal ones, that are equivalent to shifts of reference frame. This is important cognitively. We can think of these reference frames as virtual realities (a similar notion has been found necessary by Langacker 1999, 2001, Brisard 2002, and other cognitive grammarians, who speak of ‘virtual planes’), generally under the inspiration of Fauconnier’s ‘mental spaces’ (Fauconnier 1994). These virtual reference frames are ubiquitous in the conceptualizations involved in language and can be located at different points in the basic R space. They are of great relevance in helping to understand the complexities of the meanings that are associated with present-tense forms. They are not invented ad hoc, just to explain tense meanings, but are already implicit in the geometry of DST. 242 Paul Chilton

It might be objected that this type of model implies the following problem. It may appear that the three-dimensional space is conceptually prior to the insertion of discourse referents and the relations between them—that the human mind has a conceptual space of the kind shown in Figure 11.1, a kind of tabula rasa on which referents and events are drawn. This may be the way we have to proceed in theoretical exposition but it is not intended to claim that the three-dimensional space represents something innate. Whatever hard-wired systems may be involved in our conceptualization of time, it is likely that such conceptualization also involves the experience of events in their varying duration and also the communicative conceptualization of events as referents of different types and varying ‘distances’ from the utterance moment. I am suggesting there is a hard-wired component and also a culturally developed one that integrates the needs of communication—thus that t in the basic DST coordinate system represents a conceptualization of something that has emerged from cognitive–communicative evolution in which events of varying duration are reported to conspecifics. As for the cognitive systems involved, memory provides evidence for, and is the basis of our conceptualization of, the past. Future conceptualizations presumably emerge from the ability of humans to plan ahead, an adaptive cooperative social mechanism. What I am putting forward is not rule-based (DRT, SDRT) or procedural (Jasz- czolt 2009; de Saussure 2003). DST does not aim to model mental processing of linguistic input with or without pragmatic contextual input. The aim is (i) to propose models of the schematic default semantics associated with tense marking and (ii) to model the cognitive operations that can switch the default time interpretations, given pragmatic input. How the pragmatic input is processed in detail is not my concern here. The former (i.e. (i) ) are models of cognitive material held in long- term memory and resulting from conventional meaning–form pairings that develop in and are acquired in a socio-cultural setting. The latter (i.e. (ii) ) arise in the same way and are learned in the same way but are not involved in communicative cognition unless pragmatic considerations require them in order to make sense of the default semantic schemas. Such pragmatic material and the principles governing them may be of the kind outlined by Jaszczolt (2009) or by de Saussure (2003) and plausibly involve the cognitive relevance principle (Sperber and Wilson 1995).

11.2.3 Now A conceptualization of now emerges from the three-dimensional abstract deictic space, which I have described above. Geometrically the point (0,0,0), the origin, defines now for S. What does this mean in conceptual terms? For the moment I will not consider the notion of speech time, which is important for Cognitive Grammar accounts of the present, and will focus on conceptualization as distinct from the physical act of speaking. Thus (0,0,0) is a point in consciousness, but not only a Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 243 temporal one. It integrates consciousness of the present, maximal epistemic certainty, and maximal attention. This is perhaps equivalent to what is called ‘immediacy’ by cognitive grammarians. In using the deictic space to model a given sentence, the DSM will place labels for discourse entities at points on d greater than 0, and the vector relating them may appear at various points on m, depending on how the sentence modalizes the verb. Wherever such a vector is placed on m, we are concerned here with the case where its t coordinate is t ¼ 0. This would be the case for the DSM of a sentence such as Carbon emissions cause climate change. The crucial point is that in the DST model, this type of expression has no dimension on the t-axis, i.e. no temporal duration. This is a useful feature and corresponds to what Dummett, following Frege, calls the “tense of timelessness” (Dummett 2006: 108). Frege in fact thought of the simple present tense in terms of timelessness and time-setting:

The present tense is used in two ways: first, in order to give a date, second, in order to eliminate any temporal restriction where timelessness or eternity is part of the thought. (Frege 1956 [1915–1919]: 296) What Frege means by ‘giving a date’ is the use of the present to point to the time of utterance. In DST terms this amounts to locating R on the objective arrow of time, or perhaps rather the calendric timeline in a relevant cultural context. This is not our concern here. The important point is that treating the present tense as expressing temporal presentness (as opposed to temporal distance) is integral with epistemic certainty. And epistemic certainty adheres both in perceptual (therefore temporal) immediacy and in the conceptual transcendence of temporal boundedness. This characterization emerges naturally from DST’s geometric approach; it also seems phenomenologically natural. This way of understanding the meaning of what it is that the simple present tense corresponds to is essentially similar to revised ideas about the English present tense found in Cognitive Grammar (Brisard 2002: 262ff. and this volume; Langacker 1995, 2001). The zero-point concept of time does not, however, correspond to all the conceptualizations that are set off in the mind when the English present tenses (whether simple present or progressive) are used. As has been seen, the DST space includes a temporal peripersonal region, which ‘surrounds’ the point (0,0,0). Like peripersonal space, I take peripersonal time to have a basis in neurological and physical processes, and to have a basic minimal span. However, both spatial and temporal spheres around the self can be extended depending on context and activity. The peripersonal time span consists of points, of which one is the origin, the zero point; the peripersonal time span contains the now instant located at the origin. These two notions of now are thus not separate and it is not surprising that both are needed to give an account of the conceptualizations prompted by the present tense forms. 244 Paul Chilton

11.3 Aktionsart schemas, tense forms, and cognitive operators The linguistics literature has for a long time been concerned with the differences between stative and non-stative verbs. The existence of two different grammatical forms in English, simple present and progressive present, has been predominantly treated as a way of detecting a verb’s membership of the stative or the non-stative category. More recently, in Cognitive Grammar, the tendency has been to treat the two tense forms as also having semantic, or rather conceptual, content. And this is the perspective adopted here. Simple present and progressive forms are conceptual phenomena: they are linguistic phenomena that reveal underlying cognitive phenomena. The two linguistic forms (simple present and progressive) have evolved, by cultural convention, to communicate two ways of conceptualizing events. Events are conceptual constructs arising in human minds from the point of view of human inexperience of the physical world. Languages select and stabilize conventional conceptualizations in conceptual frames associated with particular lexical predicates. So we have a set of lexicalized conceptualizations of event types (Aktion- sarten) on the one hand, and on the other, two key cognitive operations that can be applied to them. To some of these event types the conceptualization associated with present tense applies more readily than that associated with the progressive. This is what gives rise to the categorization by analysts into stative (Langacker’s imperfective) and non-stative (or dynamic, or Langacker’s perfective) categories. But as is well known, there are exceptional uses: for example Mary believes in ghosts, Mary is believing in ghosts at the moment. It is therefore preferable to speak of a particular verb as being prototypically stative or non-stative and to allow for either simple present or progressive forms to potentially operate on all event types. Many attempts have been made to characterize the conceptualizations associated by linguistic convention with simple present and progressive forms in English (and other languages, although there are important differences cross-linguistically). Such characterizations have been attempted in the tradition of truth-conditional semantics, but I shall not consider them here. They have also been carried out in Cognitive Grammar in much descriptive detail, partly by means of pictorial diagrams and partly through meta-description in ordinary English (Langacker, e.g. 1987, 1991, and Brisard 2002 are important examples). The approach I am putting forward is different and doubtless controversial. As we have seen, the DST model is stated in terms of conventional elementary geometry. I want to see whether and how much this geometric modelling can tell us about, and make more precise, the semantics of the English simple present and the English progressive forms. In the next sections, I adopt an approach that combines geometric modelling with a cognitive interpretation. In Chilton (2007) I outlined a geometric way of modelling the conceptual schemas that accompany different eventuality types (Aktionsarten), statives and Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 245 processes (including their subtypes activities, accomplishments, and achievements). The cognitive operators, instancing (induced by simple present) and windowing (induced by the progressive), act on these schemas and are induced by the linguistic tense forms. The geometric frame for stative event types provides a basis for setting up a model of instancing operators. In outline, DST models stative predicates as sets of parallel vectors filling a space, any one of which is linearly dependent on the others. This corresponds to the widely held view of state predicates, namely that they are homogeneous over time and that any subpart of a state is equivalent to any other. The instancing operator is a cognitive operation that picks one vector as an instance, or one instant, from the set at S’s now, i.e. 0 in terms of the geometry of Figure 11.1. The important implication of this kind of modelling is that such an instancing vector has no time dimension, considered geometrically. Such representations occur when certain grammatical constructions view events as completed timeless wholes, when properties are treated as timeless and essential (Earth revolves around the sun), and also when activities are represented as permanent properties of individuals, as in habituals. Non-stative Aktionsart schema predicates are modelled in DST as predicates that progress over time. The tail of the vector has coordinates in the deictic space: the tail of the vector arrow has a coordinate on the d-axis for (say) the agent of a predicate, and a coordinate ti on the t-axis for the start of the action; the tip of the vector has a more distal coordinate on the d-axis for (say) the patient, and a coordinate tj on the t-axis, such that tj is later than ti (see Chilton 2007 for detail). The English progressive tense forms, which normally only apply to non-statives, give rise to a cognitive effect that I call ‘windowing’. In effect the peripersonal temporal region occludes the beginning and end of an action and simultaneously moves the viewpoint ‘closer’ to a virtual viewpoint. These features correspond with many informal descriptions of the progressive or imperfective.

11.4 Present and future Jaszczolt (2009: 38–45, 50–5, 140–1) argues strongly for a modal view of the expression of deictic future times and proposes a scale of future time markers corresponding to a scale expressing “a certain degree of detachment from the certainty of now”. Following Jaszczolt’s scheme, but excluding be to, be about to, and be on the point of, we might arrange the following sentences in the following order: Henry visits Calais this Thursday Henry is visiting Calais this Thursday Henry is going to visit Calais this Thursday Henry will visit Calais this Thursday 246 Paul Chilton

According to Jaszczolt, these are graded from highest certainty (least detachment) to least certainty (highest detachment). While this scale (cf. Jaszczolt 2009: 140) seems intuitively satisfactory, it is not completely clear how these particular tense forms encode graded modal meanings. Jaszczolt outlines in some detail how Default Semantics, including its revised version, explains meaning as an emergent phenomenon arising from societal, cultural, and other pragmatic information (p. 132) but the tense form must have core meaning, and what is not clear is whether and how these core meanings encode modal gradations. I shall therefore leave aside the question of whether the semantic structure of the different tense forms has inherent modal meaning that enables us to place them on a modal scale, and instead focus on the semantic structure itself. By semantic structure here I mean the most abstract conceptualizations that can be postulated for context-less meanings of the different constructions that are used to communicate about deictically future events and states. We shall consider the following examples: (1) a. Henry visits Calais this Thursday b. *Henry visits Calais [future time reference, no pragmatic or lexical indicator] (2) a. Henry is visiting Calais this Thursday. b. *Henry is visiting Calais [future time reference, no pragmatic or lexical indicator] These examples suggest that present-tense forms cannot refer to a subjectively future time without further cognitive input. This means either some explicit lexical indicator such as this Thursday, next year, in a few days’ time. Note that a vague indication such as in the future is probably not enough: (3) a. ??Henry visits Calais in the future b. ?Henry is visiting Calais in the future It seems that some more precise time-indicating expression is required. This is not necessarily a lexical time expression in the clause, however. It may be a mutually shared piece of knowledge in the conversational context.4 These considerations will lead us to a detailed model of present-for-future expressions that is somewhat more detailed than the conventional accounts, and which is primarily temporal rather than modal. I turn now to simple present and progressive present forms used to conceptualize times that are in the future relative to the speaker and hearer.

11.4.1 Simple present and deictic future In order to account for the ‘scheduling’ use of the simple present in (1), Langacker (2001) makes use of a notion of ‘virtual entities’, understood by him in terms of a

4 Default Semantics also takes account of such information in explaining semantic representations (merger representations) of utterances. Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 247

“non-canonical viewing arrangement”. Brisard deals with the problem primarily by emphasizing a modal meaning of the simple present that he calls “immediate givenness” (2002: 263–8). Brisard retains Langacker’s idea that the simple present has a double meaning (immediate phenomenal experience and general structural knowledge of the world), but offers a different description, in which the processual verb is “projected” (by use of the simple present) on to a “virtual plane” equated with representation of “structural aspects of the world” (p. 274). The DST approach, however, provides a way of dealing with such matters within the overall theory of frames of reference. This is not simply a question of a convenient ad hoc formalization for describing the conceptual effects of language structure but one that has ramifications into the wider philosophical arena. Bernard Lonergan (1957) proposes three kinds of reference frames: the personal, the public, and the special. The third of these is mathematical and physical and need not concern us here. The first corresponds to personal cognition of three-dimensional physical space:

. . . everyone has his [and her] personal reference frame. It moves when he moves, turns when he turns, and keeps its ‘now’ synchronized with his psychological present . . . (1957: 144) It is the case that DST does not work with the physical space but with a personal conceptual space of a kind that specifically underlies language. To that extent DST seeks to advance beyond Lonergan’s idea of reference frames. Nonetheless, Loner- gan’s general point and the link he makes with temporal as well as spatial deictic expressions is consistent with DST’s deictic space. What is of special concern in the present context is his second class of reference frame, ‘public reference frames’. These are both spatial and temporal. In the following, Lonergan is primarily describing temporal reference frames:

[People] are familiar with alternations of night and day, with the succession of weeks and months, with the uses of clocks and calendars. Now such relational schemes knit together extensions and durations. But they are not personal reference frames that shift about with an individual’s movements. On the contrary, they are public, common to many individuals, and employed to represent the here and now of the personal reference frame into generally intelligible locations and dates... (1957: 144) Cognitive linguistics, coming from a different angle, has a complementary point to make concerning the nature of this publicly shared knowledge of times, drawing on Fillmore’s work on cognitive frames (e.g. 1985). Lakoff describes what English calls a week as an “idealized cognitive model”—we could equally call it an idealized public reference frame—that contrasts with, for example, Geertz’s description of the Bali- nese calendar (Geertz 1973: 392–3, cited by Lakoff 1987: 68). Names of days, such as Tuesday, can only be defined relative to a reference frame, and this is clearly a conceptual construct: 248 Paul Chilton

Tuesday can be defined only relative to an idealized model that includes the natural cycle defined by the movement of the sun, the standard means of characterizing the end of one day and the beginning of the next, and a larger seven-day calendric cycle—the week. In the idealized model, the week is a whole with seven parts organized in a linear sequence . . . (Lakoff 1987: 67) Such frames (or ‘models’) do not exist in nature but are conceptualizations that are agreed upon by long processes of cultural coordination. Some formal semantic accounts of scheduling present take it that such cases arise because they have the ‘connotation’ that they are predetermined with respect to the present (Kaufmann et al. 2006: 90). I suggest that this ‘connotation’ arises because of the insertion of a cognitive frame such as the week frame, where the days of the week and the cyclic recurrence of weeks is in a sense ‘predetermined’. I am proposing that the notion of idealized frames can be usefully thought of in terms of reference frames. Fillmore’s frames and Lakoff’s models, at least those that concern time, can usefully be understood as reference frames that enter into relations with personal reference frames of the kind that DST models in its particular geometry. The crucial point is that now is a personal cognitive experience, not a socially agreed-upon time in a public frame of reference The personal and the public frames of reference have to be ‘coordinated’—their separate coordinate systems have to be brought into some sort of alignment, the one relative to the other. We shall make use of this idea in looking at the meanings of English present tense morphology. In DST we already have the apparatus to model time-related frames. The first step in considering how to use them to model the ‘scheduling’ use of the simple present tense form is to note that its use suggests a secondary set of axes R’ whose origin is located at some time t in the future relative to S. Further, we may say that the origin of the scheduling axes R’ is not at S’, but some other referent such as a timetable or some pragmatically given ‘public reference frame’ (PRF), which might include a shared mental representation of a written or verbal agreement, or shared cognitive frame representing a time cycle such as the calendar or the seasons, in the encyclopaedic memory of the interlocutors. In my use of the term ‘schedule’ here, one should not be misled into importing contemporary associations, since modern scheduling is merely a kind of cooperative planning for the future that is characteristic of all human societies from early beginnings that may very well be closely tied to the emergence of human language. More needs to be said about how DST can geometrically model PRFs, but consider first the diagram in Figure 11.2. In this and subsequent figures, the peripersonal temporal region is shown as a shaded plane. Because the PRF is public there is no S defining a subjective now, so there is also no m-axis representing the modal component of S’s conceptualization, and no d-axis on which S ‘locates’ discourse referents at subjectively relative ‘distances’. It is simply Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 249

peripersonal time region

Calais

Henry Sun Tue S S PRF Thu

Figure 11.2 (1) Henry visits Calais this Thursday. an ordered set of seven arbitrarily named time periods, each of which corresponds to the diurnal cycle. These intervals lie on a finite directed timeline that defines a one- dimensional plane. Though inherently it is not deictically centred, it is directed in the direction of ontological time. In common with other individuals in the culture, S holds PRF in long-term memory but also aligns it, in virtue of socially shared knowledge about ‘which day it is’, with his subjective conceptualization of peripersonal now. Consider Figure 11.2. First the base axes R are aligned with the public reference frame PRF so that S’s now is aligned with ‘Tuesday’ in the week frame. Next set up R’, a copy of S’s base R, a virtual frame of reference in which S’s now is aligned with Thursday in the PRF. It is in R’ that Henry’s sailing to Calais is located, a reference frame located at a specific future that has both subjective and public reality for S, as the diagram shows. Now this future event is expressed by the simple present, and the implications of this tense as distinct from the progressive have to be explained. The vector ‘visits’ is located at 0 in PRF. Either this means the event of leaving on Thursday is a timeless property, or it means that it is viewed as a timeless instant—the relevance here is that the event is viewed instantaneously as a whole, in contrast with the windowing conceptualization cued by the progressive form, which excludes beginning and end. 250 Paul Chilton

11.4.2 Present progressive and deictic future: window on the future Neither simple present nor present progressive can refer to the future without extra lexical or pragmatic specification and presumably therefore additional cognitive structure. Consider the following: (4) Henry is visiting Calais (2) Henry is visiting Calais this Thursday In (4) the default understanding is that Henry is visiting Calais now, at the time of speaking. In (2) the speaker sets up a mental space R’. But this future is located in a PRF, as shown in Figure 11.3. The deictic space model for the conceptualization induced by this use of the progressive combined with a lexical (or pragmatic) time indicator proceeds as for the case of the simple present (Figure 11.2) above. In this new space, represented by the dashed axes in Figure 11.3, S (and the hearer) have a present now located at a deictically future time, indicated by a temporal deictic this Thursday, defined relative both to the PRF and to base R. Future now and present this Thursday are conceptually co-located. Within the embedded frame, i.e. relative to it, we have the windowing operation due to the progressive form is visiting. The ‘up close right now’ element is represented by the conceptual windowing operation within that frame. Sentence (2) seems to bring us ‘close’ to the action, to ‘put us in the picture’. It does not seem necessary to consider this effect ‘modal’. Moreover, it is often noted that the intuited sense of such examples is that the future event is somehow viewed as rooted in the speaker’s present—according to the present model, this is accounted for within the shifted reality frame R’. How should we characterize the difference between the simple present and the progressive present referring to a future time? The elements of a description are made explicit in the notions of coordinate geometry, vectors, and shifts of reference frame. The temporal component is the same for both tense forms (see Figures 11.2 and 11.3). The difference is the structure of the instancing operator and the windowing operator (induced by the simple present form and progressive form, respectively). In the former, the whole event is viewed as a completed instant, but since the simple present also serves to conceptualize timeless generic properties, it carries a potential implication of high subjective certitude. These elements are not all necessarily present in the case of the progressive form (windowing operator), which has the of close-up viewing and incompleteness (as the ‘ends’ of the action are not ‘in view’). This effect may or may not result in a sense of greater or lesser certitude compared with the simple present. It is thus not clear to me that these forms should be viewed as primordially ‘modal’, though modal effects may arise by implication under the influence of various contextual factors. Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 251

Calais

S PRF Sun S Tue Henry Thu Sat Figure 11.3 Frame shift for (2) Henry is visiting Calais this Thursday.

11.4.3 Moving into the future We are concerned here with the ‘periphrastic future’ tense forms be going to/gonna, as in (5): (5) Henry is going to/gonna visit Calais this Thursday Such forms are discussed in terms of grammaticalization by Hopper and Traugott (2003). In the case of gonna, which is only possible with a following verb (not an NP), the fact that going assimilates to indicates that we are dealing with a coalesced concept of directed motion; that is, we are not dealing with an infinitive form ‘to þ verb’, e.g. to visit. In terms of cognitive metaphor theory, the underlying metaphor, as is well known, is purpose is directed movement (cf. Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Hopper and Traugott’s explanation of the grammaticalization of going to as an auxiliary expressing future time rests on a pragmatic inference of futurity from purposive action as expressed in the lexical verb go. However, this fails to generalize over the symmetrical pair found in a language like French: venir de V (literally ‘to come from V’, ‘to have just done’) and aller V(‘go V’). While Hopper and Traugott’s account is not irrelevant, the French example suggests that this kind of temporal auxiliary basically results from a direct conceptual transfer from space to time, preserving deictic relations. The DST account makes this assumption and the coordinate and vector components of that theory are well placed to model what is 252 Paul Chilton

Calais

Henry

PRF S

this Thursday

Figure 11.4 (5) Henry is going to/gonna visit Calais this Thursday.

at issue. Spatial translation to/from a location is directly mapped onto temporal translation to/from a time point. As suggested by the grammatical construction in question, the model in Figure 11.4 shows two vectors: a component for be going follows the modelling already discussed for progressive forms (windowing operations); this corresponds to the reported sense that be going to futures are closely connected to the present, to some process already in train at S’s now. The main verb (here the visit component vector) appears as a > timeless event vector at some point ti t0 that might be specified pragmatically, or lexically by a PP (here this Thursday). Windowing operations usually leave the culmination of activities ‘out of view’, but in the case of the periphrastic future construction that uses them the preposition to specifies the endpoint, namely the eventuality expressed in the main verb (here visit). Nonetheless, the model also captures the fact that from S’s present viewpoint, the culmination is ‘outside’ her peripersonal space. And as for all progressive forms, the windowing operator also leaves ‘out of view’ the beginning point of the activity, which equally seems to be appropriate for the conceptual effects of the periphrastic future that are often described. Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 253

These features seem to correspond well with the sense that periphrastic futures are used for future situations that are predictable from the present moment and that the speaker has a close experiential contact with evidence of in the present of action in the future. Another way of putting this (Jaszczolt 2009: 65, reporting Eckardt 2006), is to say, in Reichenbachian terms, that event point E is in the future and reference point R is in the present and that be going to sentences are about the present time and what is imminent in it, and perhaps immanent. Note that there can be a subtle conceptual difference in Henry is going to visit Calais next week. The speaker S may be imagining Henry’s intention, or S may be communicating her/his own prediction. DST modelling handles this. In Figure 11.4 we have the case where S projects her own world R’ in which Henry visits Calais at a future time. To model the meaning in which S is communicating Henry’s intention, the origin of R’ has Henry’s coordinate on the d-axis.5

11.4.4 The putative future: a reference frame solution Across languages it is not uncommon to find that a future tense form occurs in contexts that yield a cognitive effect generally described as modal, or epistemic, or as we shall prefer here, ‘putative’. I am not concerned with the precise pragmatic factors that allow such understandings, merely with their conceptual structure when they do occur. As Jaszczolt argues, the fact that the conventional future form will þ Vcan express present probability may be evidence of the close cognitive connection between future time reference and the inherent cognitive (or even metaphysical) uncertainty of the future, but this is not necessarily a reason to conflate modality and temporality when there is a good case, for the purpose of semantic modelling, for thinking that they are, or can be, separate in linguistically expressed cognition. The English putative future meaning of will þ V is not just a conventionalized expression of high probability. The meaning of Mary is probably writing the report is not the same as Mary will be writing the report (now) and is unlikely to be used in the same pragmatic contexts, i.e. have the same pragmatic potential effects. Furthermore, the meaning of will þ V seems to have a different internal conceptual structure from must, may, and might þ V. Linguists working on French have noted that the equivalent French form, futur putatif, presupposes a future point of view at which the present eventuality is predicted to be verified (cf. Damourette and Pichon 1911–1940; Sthioul 1998b; de Saussure and Morency 2012; de Saussure, this volume). This is an insight that I adopt here. The conceptualizations we have to consider arise in the context of certain kinds of prompts for deictic times:

5 A DSM for venir de constructions can be built along similar spatiotemporal lines, allowing for the fact that this French construction does not involve the progressive. 254 Paul Chilton

(6) Henry will visit Calais this Thursday (7) Henry will be visiting Calais this Thursday (8) Henry will be visiting Calais (now) A simple present version of (8), Henry will visit Calais now, in the putative sense is not valid because of the regularities governing of non-statives. Sentence (6) is the ‘regular future’ and (7)isa‘regular future’ use of will combined with the progressive form (windowing) that is represented by the insertion of a new viewpoint in a new R’ located at some time in the future relative to S—this is shown in Figure 11.5. What do we have for (8), where we have a future progressive form understood as referring to the present now? We can simply put the visit verb vector at high probability on the m-axis. But this is not explanatory. We want to see if the frame-shift model of DST can account for this use of the future form with auxiliary will. The approach adopted here (Damourette and Pichon 1911–1940; Sthioul 1998b; de Saussure and Morency 2012) is based on the idea of a represented verification of a current eventuality (current, that is, for S in base R). The authors of this approach speak of an ‘imaginary’ future ‘perspective’ or ‘viewpoint’. They also insist that this viewpoint is allocentric, in the sense that it is distinct from the current speaker in the actual world, a claim that DST frames in a slightly different way.

Calais S S PRF Henry

this Thursday

Figure 11.5 (7) Henry will be visiting Calais this Thursday [non-putative]. Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 255

Figures 11.5 and 11.6 show the different conceptual structures, in DST terms, of the different potential meanings of the sentence Henry will be visiting Calais; Figure 11.5 modelling the non-putative ‘regular future’ meaning, and Figure 11.6 modelling the putative use of regular future to refer to a present eventuality. Unlike the future tense form will þ V, the progressive form introduces the viewing frame (windowing operator), which involves an embedded set of coordinates, transposing a represented or ‘imaginary’ S to the future time point in the base coordinates indicated pragmatically by will at the deictic time t represented by this Thursday. The cognitive effect seems to be one in which the utterer of this sentence is ‘closer’ to the projected future event than in the sentence Henry will visit Calais next week. Next we have to consider whether this modelling approach can handle the conceptual effects triggered when the adverbial this Thursday is replaced by, for example, now, at this moment, etc. or by some equivalent but unexpressed pragmatic indicator, as in (8). The frame-shifting principles of DST seem to be able to accommodate this putative future use of the future. The putative future is the reverse of (2). Whereas in the latter we have a present tense form referring to a future time, in (8) we have a future tense referring to present time, always relative of course to the speaker’s now.

Calais

S Henry t0 now S ti

Figure 11.6 (8) Henry will be visiting Calais (now) [putative]. 256 Paul Chilton

Broadly following the proposals of Sthioul (1998b) and de Saussure and Morency > (2012), we have in Figure 11.6 a meta-represented point of view at some ti t0. This additionally represented point of view does not have to be an unspecified allocentric other in the sense of a different individual Si. Rather, this other point of view is that of a cognitive avatar of S, S’, and can still be regarded as ‘allocentric’ in that sense. This is also consistent with examples from contexts in which it is pragmatically manifest that the speaker herself will be in a position to verify, in the future, a current situation. In Figure 11.6, from the viewpoint of S’ the vector for ‘visiting’ is in the past and it is true (located in the plane m¼0); from the viewpoint of S ‘visiting’ is in the present. The use of coordinate systems as reference frames makes it possible to model this property of the putative future construction. Just as ‘regular future’ tense forms can, in the putative construction, refer to S’s present time, so ‘regular future perfect’ tense forms can refer to eventualities in S’s past time. Such a reading is available for (9): (9) Henry will have visited/will have been visiting Calais In the account proposed by Sthioul and de Saussure and Morency, sentence (9)maybe said to take a view of a past event from a future vantage point at which it will be verified. The sentence is of course ambiguous, since it can also be read in a simply temporal sense as referring to a time ti in S’s future but before some future vantage point (i.e. tj > ti). One may indeed say that it is doubly ambiguous, since for some speakers this temporal reading of (9) may be either simply temporal or putative, again in the sense of Sthioul and de Saussure and Morency. If this is so, the ambiguity indicates not that future time is inherently modal but that there are two possible conceptualizations of the future, one predictive and the other something short of predictive. The geometric DST model for these sentences will have the same structure as in Figure 11.6, except that the vector representing visit will be located at some time prior to S’s now, as in Figure 11.7, which illustrates a model for the non-progressive in order to simplify, and for a reading that is putative. In this model for the putative reading of (9) the embedded axes are still in the future relative to S, since, in the account of the putative meaning that we are adopting, verification is still in the future relative to S. What is different between (9) and (8) is the location of the eventuality in the past relative to S, i.e. at some ti < t0. The diagram can show how the have been component of the construction, referring to the past relative to S, is conceptually represented simultaneously with the will component associated with future reference relative to S.6

6 A similar basic structure models the progressive tense version of (9), but with some additional complexities that we shall not attempt to deal with here. Frames of reference and the linguistic conceptualization of time 257

Calais

tj S Henry t0 S ti

Figure 11.7 (9) Henry will have visited Calais [putative reading].

11.5 Concluding remarks In this chapter I have paid attention only to a small number of temporal expressions, in particular those that refer to the future, that is, the deictic future relative to some speaker S: simple present for future, progressive present for future, periphrastic present going to, with brief mention of the ‘regular’ will future. The overall aim has been to demonstrate how a geometrical approach formulated in DST can, perhaps surprisingly, elucidate temporal relations and in particular bring out the role of shifting reference frames. This approach separates the conceptual dimensions of modality and time and one of the ancillary aims has been to characterize the distinctions between the different constructional means of referring to the future in terms of shifting point of view rather than modal scales. This is not to deny that modal effects may arise, but the present model does not treat them as inherently conflated with time. If and when they arise, they arise through contextual factors interacting with the conceptual structures built from reference frames. Finally it should be noted that the geometrical structures I have proposed are primarily heuristic. They are a hypothesis about what I suspect is the fundamentally perspectival and deictic scaffolding of core linguistic structures. Of course the coordinate-and-vector models do not, and are not intended to, capture all the semantic content of lexical elements. In attempting to shed light on the nature of the linguistic 258 Paul Chilton conceptualization of temporal relations, the borrowing of geometrical notions may seem perverse. However, if language uses spatial representations to communicate about time, as is widely claimed by cognitive linguists, then geometry is appropriate. Moreover, if perspectival alternation is a crucial feature of linguistic conceptualization, then the essentially geometrical notion of reference frames may also provide a fruitful means of description and analysis. Reference frames are indeed essential to any account of space–time and may also be essential for human cognition. References

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Ahern, A. van Bogaert, J. and Escandell-Vidal, L. M. 6 and Dendale, P. 62 n8 Aikhenvald, A. Y. 63, 135, 200 n11 Bonomi, A. 129 van Aken, H. 80 Boogaart, R. 222 Alexander of Aphrodisias 103 Borillo, A. 114, 115 n38 Apel, K-O. 103 n18 Bourne, C. 203 n15 Aristotle 103, 128 Branquinho, J. 183–6 Asher, N. 6, 8, 16, 17 n1, 19 n4, 22–3, 25 n8, Bras, M. 27, 29–30, 35, 41 n6 and Asher, N. 108 n28 and Bras, M. 108 n28 Bres, J. 100 n5 and Lascarides, A. 3, 6 Brisard, F. 5, 10, 223, 225, 228–9, 238 n2, 241, and Pustejovsky, J. 27 n10 243–4, 247 van der Auwera, J. and Meeuwis, M. 230 and Plungian, V. A. 8, 200 n11 and De Mulder, W. 101 n9 and De Wit, A. 220, 228–30 Barker, C. Broad, C. D. 158 n1, 170 n13 and Jacobson, P. 110 Browne, E. J. P. 141 n17 Barone-Adesi, G. 137 Brunot, F. 100 n8 Barwise, J. Bühler, K. 68 and Perry, J. 39 n1 Button, T. 205 Bazzanella, C. Byloo, P. and Miecznikowski, J. 138 and Diepeveen, J. and Nuyts, J. 76–7, Beaver, D. 79 n6 and Condoravdi, C. 104 n20 Bellahsène, L. 64 Callender, C. 7 Bennett, K. Caplan, B. and McLaughlin, B. 195 and Sanson, D. 159 n2 Berthonneau, A.-M. Carruthers, P. 2 and Kleiber, G. 100 n6 Casati, R. van Benthem, J. and Varzi, A. 114 n35 and ter Meulen, A. G. B. 39 n1 Caudal, P. 61, 64 n10–n11 Berthonneau, A.-M. and Vetters, C. 115 n39 and Kleiber, G. 100 n6 and Roussarie, L., and Vetters, C. Berti, A. 100 n7 and Rizzolatti, G. 239 n3 Celle, A. 64 Blakemore, D. 6 Chafe, W. 103 Bloor, T. Chen, L. 41 n6 and Pindi, M. 137 Chierchia, G. 2 280 Index of Names

Chilton, P. 5, 11, 47, 64 n11, 236, 238, 241, Donohue, J. P. 137 244–5 Dowty, D. R. 5, 29–30, 38, 48, 57, 110 n29 Chomsky, N. 2 Dummett, M. 243 Church, A. 22, 23 n6 Dyke, H. 163 n8 Cinque, G. 78 n4 and Maclaurin, J. 173 n15 Coates, J. 139 Col, G. Ebeling, M. and Victorri, B. 115 n39 and Cooper, G. 137 Comrie, B. 232 Eckardt, R. 253 Condoravdi, C. 78 n4, 102 n15, 200–1 Enç, M. 5, 8 and Beaver, D. 104 n20 Escandell-Vidal, L. M. and Harizanov, V. and Kaufmann, S. and Ahern, A. 6 78 n4, 129, 137, 237, 248 Evans, G. 183–6, 189 Cooper, G. Evans, V. 237 and Ebeling, M. 137 Copley, B. 104 n19 Faller, M. T. 132, 135, 146 n23, 200, 204 Coppola, M. 6 Fauconnier, G. 112, 241 Corkin, S. 6 Filipović,L. Coventry, K. R. and Jaszczolt, K. M. 4 and Garrod, S. C. 239 n3 Fillmore, C. 239, 247–8 Croft, W. 75, 114 n34 Fine, K. 7 Culioli, A. 103 Fink, G. R. 239 n3 von Fintel, K. Dainton, B. 170 n13 and Gillies, A. S. 78 n4, 146 n23, 201 Damourette, J. and Iatridou, S. 147 and Pichon, E. 61, 118, 253–4 and Matthewson, L. 208 Davidson, D. 5–6, 8, 29–32, 36, 185 Fleischman, S. 206 Davies, P. 161 n5, 209 Fløttum, K. De Mulder, W. 111 n30 and Nølke, H. and Norén, C. 153 n26 and Brisard, F. 101 n9 Fodor, J. 2 De Wit, A. 210 n1 François, J. 115–16 and Brisard, F. 220, 228–30 Frank, A. 132 n6, 144 n22 and Patard, A. 229 Frawley, W. 236 Demirdache, H. Freeman, J. B. 134–6 and Uribe-Etxebarria, M. 115 n39 Frege, G. 10, 176–8, 181–5, 189, 191–2, 243 Dendale, P. Freund, H.-J. 239 n3 and van Bogaert, J. 62 n8 Frisson, S. 41 n6 Desclés, J.-P. 103 Fuchs, C. Deygers, K. 80 and Victorri, B. 110 Diepeveen, J. and Byloo, P. and Nuyts, J. 76–7, 79 n6 Gaizauskas, R. Diessel, H. 239 and Mani, I. and Pustejovsky, J. 5 Dik, S. 99, 113 n33 Galileo 188 Doiz Bienzobas, A. 222 Gallagher, S. 170 n13 Index of Names 281

Gallese, V. 239 n3 Hopper, P. J. Garrod, S. C. and Traugott, E. C. 251 and Coventry, K. R. 239 n3 Horn, L. R. 45 n8, 141 van Geenhoven, V. 109 Hornstein, N. 5 Geertz, C. 247 Hume, D. 7 Gillies, A. S. Husserl, E. 7, 197 and von Fintel, K. 78 n4, 146 n23, 201 Givón, T. 4 Iatridou, S. Goldsmith, J. and von Fintel, K. 147 and Woisetschlaeger, E. 227 Inwagen, P. van 161 n5 Gosselin, L. 7, 9, 47, 100 n5, 101 n9, 102 n11, 102 n14, 103 n16, 104, 110, 113 n32, Jackson, F. 198 n5, 205 114 n34, 114 n36, 115, 120–1, 205 n17 Jacobson, P. Gougenheim, G. 120 and Barker, C. 110 Grice, P. 6, 48, 152, 194, 198 n6, 208 James, W. 7, 170 n13 Groenendijk, J. Jaszczolt, K. M. 7–8, 10, 47, 103 n17, 172 n14, and Stokhof, M. 17 173 n17, 177 n4, 193–5, 200 n11, 201, Grondelaers, S. et al. 207–8, 236–7, 240, 242, 245–6, 253 de Groote, P. 24 and Filipović,L. 4 Gross, M. 115 n40 Jespersen, B. 5 Growdon, J. H. 6 Johnson, M. Guillaume, G. 115 n39 and Lakoff, G. 247–8 and Srioutai, J. 8, 207 de Haan, F. 4, 128 Hacquard, V. 133 n7 Kamp, H. 5, 24, 126 Haeseryn, W. et al. and van Lambalgen, M. 5 Halligan, P. W. 239 n3 and Reyle, U. 17, 114 n34 Hamdani Kadri, D. 104 n21 and Rossdeutscher, A. 126 Hamm, F. 88 and Rohrer, C. 49, 108 n28 and van Lambalgen, M. 5–6, 8, 38 Kamp, J. A. W. 179 Harizanov, V. Kant, I. 7, 101, 167 n11 and Condoravdi, C. and Kaufmann, S. Kaplan, D. 179 78 n4, 129, 137, 237, 248 Kaufmann, S. Harris, J. 231 and Condoravdi, C., and Harizanov, V. Harrison, R. P. 199 n10 78 n4, 129, 137, 237, 248 Havu, J. 117 n43, 120 n48 Kelly, S. D. 7, 170 n13 Heck, R. G. 182–3 Kemmerer, D. 239 n3 van den Heede, V. 80 Kim, J. 5–6 Heidegger, M. 7, 199 Kleiber, G. 109, 142 Higginbotham, J. 176, 182, 189–92, 207 and Berthonneau, A.-M. 100 n6 and Pianesi, F. and Varzi, A. C. 5 Klein, W. 54, 105 n22–n23, 115 n39, 126 Hickok, G. 6 Koroshetz, W. J. 6 Hobbs, J. R. 152 Kratzer, A. 130, 131 n6, 200–1 282 Index of Names

Kronning, H. 101 n10, 115 n37, 117–18, Mani, I. 131 n3, 145, 147 and Pustejovsky, J., and Gaizauskas, R. 5 Kuhn, S. T. Mari, A. 60 n6 and Portner, P. 5 Marshall, J. C. 239 n3 Martin, R. 100 n5, 115 n38 Laca, B. 115 n39, 116 Matthewson, L. 4, 208 Lagerqvist, H. 102 n14 and von Fintel, K. 208 Lakoff, G. 247–8 McCawley, J. D. 230 and Johnson, M. 251 McDowell, J. 185 van Lambalgen, M. McLaren-Hankin, Y. 137 and Hamm, F. 5–6, 8, 38 McLaughlin, B. and Kamp, H. 88 and Bennett, K. 195 McTaggart, J. M. E. 7, 157–8, 197 Lamiroy, B. 115 n40 Mellor, D. H. 7 Landman, F. 5–6 Merlini, L. 137 Langacker, R. W. 5, 75, 103, 115 n39, Merricks, T. 167 n11 210–11, 213–19, 225–7, 237, 241, Michaelis, L. A. 218 n8, 222, 237 243–4, 246–7 Miecznikowski, J. 133 n8 Larson, R. K. and Bazzanella, C. 138 and Ludlow, P. 187 and Rocci, A., and Zlatkova, G. 137 Lascarides, A. Moens, M. and Asher, N. 3, 6 and Steedman, M. 109, 114 n34 Le Poidevin, R. 7, 161 n5, 170 n13, 202 Moeschler, J. 6, 46 n1 and MacBeath, M. 7 Molendijk, A. 48, 106 n25, 126 n49, 222 n10 Lepore, E. and Vet, C. 126 n49 and Loewer, B. 185 Levinson, S. C. 6 Nicolle, S. 6, 46 n1 Lewis, D. 171 Nølke, H. 117 Locke, J. 7 and Fløttum, K., and Norén, C. 153 n26 Loewer, B. Norén, C. and Lepore, E. 185 and Fløttum, K. and Nølke, H. 153 n26 Lonergan, B. 247 Nunberg, G. 20 n5 Ludlow, P. 7–8, 10, 133 n8, 159 n3, 163 n7, Nuyts, J. 73–9, 83, 97 179–80, 183–4, 188, 193 n1, 203, 216 n4 and Byloo, P., and Diepeveen, J. 76–7, 79 n6 and Larson, R. K. 187 Luo, Z. 27 n10 O’Donnell, M. 137 n13 Łukasiewicz, J. 199 Oaklander, L. N. 202 and White, V. A. 202 MacBeath, M. Olson, E. T. 202 n12 and Le Poidevin, R. 7, 161 n5, 170 n13, 202 Øhrstrøm, P. and Hasle, P. F. V. 5 Maclaurin, J. and Dyke, H. 173 n15 McElree, B. 41 n6 Maienborn, C. 6 Meeuwis, M. Malchukov, A. 231 n12 and Brisard, F. 230 Index of Names 283

Miecznikowski, J. 133 n8 Recanati, F. 46, 48 n2, 52 n3, 66, 110, 201 Montague, R. 5 Reichenbach, H.-G. 5, 9, 46, 49, 67, 98, Morasso, S. G. 104–5, 236–7, 253 and Rigotti, E. 142 n18, 152 Reinhart, T. 108 n28 Morency, P. Reyle, U. and de Saussure, L. 61, 64, 253–4, 256 and Kamp, H. 17, 114 n34 Moss, L. S. and Rossdeutscher, A., and Kamp, H. 126 and Seligman, J. 39 n1 Richardt, S. 151 n25 Riegel, M. Pancheva, R. and Pellat, J-C., and Rioul, R. 99 n3, and von Stechow, A. 54 112 n31 Papafragou, A. 132 n6 Rigotti, E. Parsons, J. 7, 159 n3, 167 n11 and Morasso, S. G. 142 n18, 152 Parsons, T. 5–6 Rioul, R. Partee, B. H. 5, 46 and Pellat, J-C. and Riegel, M. 99 n3, and ter Meulen, A. G. B. and Wall, 112 n31 R. E. 41 n5 Rizzolatti, G. Patard, A. 100 n5, 229 and Berti, A. 239 n3 and de Wit, A. 229 Roberts, C. 150 Paul, L. A. 167 n11 Rocci, A. 8, 9, 47, 64, 132–3, 135 n10–n11, Perry, J. 39 n1, 173 n17, 176–7, 181–4, 189–92 139, 147 and Barwise, J. 39 n1 and Miecznikowski, J. and Zlatkova, Phillips, I. 170 n13 G. 137 Pianesi, F. and Zlatkova, G. 139 and Higginbotham, J. and Varzi, A. C. 5 Rödl, S. 184 Pichon, E. Rohrer, C. and Damourette, J. 61, 118, 253–4 and Kamp, H. 49, 108 n28 Pickering, M. J. et al. 41 n6 Romijn, K. 88 Pietrandrea, P. 147 de Rooij, J. 88 Pindi, M. Rossdeutscher, A. and Bloor, T. 137 and Reyle, U. and Kamp, H. 126 Pinker, S. 6 Rothstein, S. 5–6 Plato 103 Roussarie, L. Plungian, V. A. and Caudal, P. and Vetters, C. 100 n7 and van der Auwera, J. 8, 200 n11 Roy, G.-R. 115 n37 Portner, P. 110 n29, 131 n3–n4, 132 n6, 142 Rumfitt, I. 185 n9 and Kuhn, S. T. 5 Prior, A. N. 5, 171, 173, 177–8, 180, 190, 203 van der Sandt, R. 18 Prosser, S. 7, 10, 159, 160 n4, 165 n9, 167 n10, Sanson, D. 170 n12, 171, 173 n16–n17, 177 n4, 216 n4 and Caplan, B. 159 n2 Pustejovsky, J. 5, 19, 27 n10 Sasse, H. J. 218 n7 and Asher, N. 27 n10 Sattig, T. 202 and Gaizauskas, R. and Mani, I. 5 Sauerland, U. 48 n2 284 Index of Names de Saussure, L. 2, 6, 9, 46 n1, 53, 56, 58, Taylor, B. 6 62 n8, 66, 68, 77, 98 n1, 101 n9, 127, ter Meulen, A. G. B. 5, 8, 38–9 176 n3, 181 n7, 196 n4, 199 n9, and van Benthem, J. 39 n1 200 n11, 237, 242, 253 and Partee, B. H.and Wall. R. E. 41 n5 and Morency, P. 61, 64, 253–4, 256 and Smessaert, H. 39, 42 n7 and Sthioul, B. 50–2, 66 Tellman, L. 239 n3 Schein, B. 6 Thomason, R. H. 8, 102 n13 Schlesinger, G. N. 161 n5 Thornton, A. 4 Searle, J. R. 134–5, 140 n16 Tonhauser, J. 33, 35 and Vanderveken, D. 129 Tooley, M. 158 n1, 205–7 Seligman, J. van den Toorn, M. C. 88 and Moss, L. S. 39 n1 Toulmin, S. E. 134 Sider, T. 176, 178 Touratier, C. 100 n7, 112 n31 Sklar, L. 179 n5, 180 n6, 209 n24 Tournadre, N. 113 n33 Skow, B. 158 n1 Traugott, E. C. Skibinska, E. and Hopper, P. J. 251 and Vetters, C. 99 n2 Traxler, M. 41 n6 Smart, J. J. C. 173 n16 Tye, M. 170 n13 Smessaert, H. and ter Meulen, A. G. B. 39, 42 n7 Ullman, M. T. et al. 6 Smith, C. 29, 105 n24, 115 n39 Uribe-Etxebarria, M. Smith, Q. 7, 163 n8, 203–5, 207 and Demirdache, H. 115 n39 Socrates 159 Speelman, D. 80 Vanderveken, D. Sperber, D. and Searle, J. R. 129 and Wilson, D. 3, 6, 52, 54, 60, 101 n9, Varzi, A. 131 n2, 242 and Casati, R. 114 n35 Squartini, M. 135, 145, 147 and Higginbotham, J. and Pianesi, F. Srioutai, J. 2, 207 Velleman, J. D. 167 n11 and Jaszczolt, K. M. 8, 207 Vendler, Z. 30 von Stechow, A. Verkuyl, H. 29 and Pancheva, R. 54 Vet, C. 57, 104, 109–10, 113 n33, 120 Steedman, M. 5, 8 and Molendijk, A. 126 n49 and Moens, M. 109, 114 n34 Vetters, C. 120 n48, 124 Sthioul, B. 51–3, 55, 63, 253–4, 256 and Caudal, P. 115 n39 and de Saussure, L. 50–2, 66 and Caudal, P. and Roussarie, L. 100 n7 Stokhof, M. and Skibinska, E. 99 n2 and Groenendijk, J. 17 Victorri, B. Sundell, L.-G. 120 and Col, G. 115 n39 and Fuchs, C. 110 Tallant, J. 202 n13, 205 n18 Vlach, F. 109 Tasmowski-de Ryck, L. 50 Vuillemin, J. 102 n12 Index of Names 285

Wall, R. E. Woisetschlaeger, E. and Partee, B. H. and ter Meulen, and Goldsmith, J. 227 A. G. B. 41 n5 von Wright, G. H. 102 n12 Walsh, P. 137 Wunderlich, G. 239 n3 White, V. A. and Oaklander, L. N. 202 Yakpo, K. 218 n7 Weinrich, H. 49, 108 n28 Weiss, P. H. et al. 239 n3 Willet, T. L. 135 Zilles, K. 239 n3 Wilmet, M. 99 n2, 115 n37, 119 n47 Zlatkova, G. Wilson, D. and Miecznikowski, J. and and Sperber, D. 3–4, 6, 52, 54, 60, 101 n9, Rocci, A. 137 130 n2, 131 n2, 242 and Rocci, A. 139 Index of Subjects absolute time 105 A-theoretic properties in thought and accommodation 47 language 163–5 accomplishment 15, 31, 37, 48–9, 64 n11, thought, language and A-theory 171–3 114, 245 evaluation of 174 achievement 4, 15, 31–2, 48–9, 64, 67, 114, 124, experience and illusion of passage 222, 245 165–71 activity 218 n8 perceptual relation 161 actual 223–4, 226 phenomenal character 161–2 adjectives 23, 25 presentism 157–60 Afrikaans 233–4 auxiliaries, see modal auxiliaries agent’s goals, see Italian Aktionsart schemas 52 Belgian 80 see also frames of reference belief ascription theory 187 alethic conversational backgrounds, see biology 140 n16 conversational backgrounds; Italian Black English Vernacular 233 allocentrism 256 see also English allocentric projection 60, 63, 65, 67 bounded region 211 n2 allocentric usage 53–4 boundedness 217, 228, 234 see also perspectival interpretations of tenses branching time theory 102 ambiguity 208 n21 British Colombia, see St’àt’imcets anaphora (Lillooet Salish) temporal 5–6, 132, 180 B-theory, see A-theory anterior future (AF) 56, 59, 61, 64 n11 calendars anthropology 1 Balinese 247–8 argumentation theory 134, 142 n18 category theory 23 aspect, see English Central Pomo 4 aspectual adverbs, see temporal reasoning chemistry 140 n16 aspectual periphrases, see French: time and coercion, see temporal modification modality in cognition 10, 236 aspectual viewpoint 105 cognitive dynamics, see tensism assertoric modality 101 Cognitive Grammar (CG), see English asymmetry 203 n15 205 n17–n18, 209 cognitive linguistics 5, 74, 247 of psychological time 209 ‘cognitive constraint on semantics’ 177 see also French: time and modality in cognitive metaphor theory 251 A-theory 7, 157–74, 197, 205–7 see also metaphor ‘A-properties’ 157 cognitive operators, see frames of reference A-theoretic passage of time, perceptions cognitive science of 160–3 peripersonal space, study of 239 n3 Index of Subjects 287 cognitive–functional approach, see modal corpus linguistics auxiliaries corpora: Common Ground (CG) 43–4 ConDiv Corpus of newspaper compatibility restricted union 132 n6 language 80 compositionality 5, 109–10 Corpus Gesproken Nederlands 80–1 computational linguistics Italian financial news 136–9 language modelling 1 corpus techniques: see also corpus linguistics keyness 138 computational semantics 115 n39 corpus tools: conceptual reduction 209 n24 UAM Corpus Tool 137 n13, 138 n14 conceptual systems 74–5 see also computational linguistics conceptualization 204, 207, 211–12 counterfactuality 86–92, 129 see also frames of reference Cuzco Quechua 132 conditional mood, see Italian conditional restrictions, see Italian Davidsonian semantics conjunction 2–3, 6 event semantics 30, 32 conscious pragmatic inference T-theory 185 (CPI) 208 death 199 consecutive tense 4, 206 Default Semantics (DS) 194, 196, 246 content DS-theoretic merger representation designational 189 196, 198 referential 189, 191 degrees of reality, see temporality reflexive 189–92 deictic future, see frames of reference contingent reality deictic space theory (DST) 11, 237–43 Contingency in Immediate Reality 228 3D and integrated abstract space 238–41 see English frame shifting principles 251, 255 conversational backgrounds frames of reference and geometrical alethic 131, 139–46 transformations 241–2 conditional restrictions for the alethic fundamental deictic space 239 B 151 non-putative future 254 economic causality 148–9 now 242–3, 255 circumstantial 131, 139–40 peripersonal region 243, 249 combining 131 n6 peripersonal space 239 conditional restriction and 147–8 peripersonal time 239–40, 243 deontic 131, 139–46, 149–50 putative future 253–7 conditional restrictions for the windowing 245, 250–2 deontic B 152 see also frames of reference epistemic 131, 139 deixis 236 evidential bases of predictions and see also deictic space theory (DST) 152–3 deontic modality, see modal auxiliaries reportative 146 deontic readings, see Italian teleological 131, 142 deontic-practical modality, see perspectival see also Italian interpretations of tenses 288 Index of Subjects depth, principle of 74–5 grounding 213–16 determinism 102, 205 habitual 226 directivity, see modal auxiliaries imperfective past tense 223 Direct-Quantitative View (DQ) 10, 201, imperfective past tense: modal uses 203–6, 208–9 of 224 Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) modal usage types 229 5–6, 39, 242 perfect aspect and past tense 230–4 Segmented (SDRT) 6, 242 performative 225 discourse space models (DSMs) 238 present and past tenses 217, 239 n2, 243–4 downwards entailing context 42 present imperfective 221 Dutch 45, 233–4 present perfect: current relevance 233 cognitive-functional analysis of 9 present perfect: extended now 232 ConDiv Corpus 80 present perfect: resultative use 230 Corpus Gesproken Nederlands 80–1 present perfective 221 imperfectivization 221 present progressive 227 modal auxiliaries and tense 73–97 present tense 218 modal usage types 229 present tense morphology 248 simple present 220, 225 progressive and perfect marking 224–34 see also modal auxiliaries scheduled future 226 Dynamic Aspect Trees (DAT) 38 simple past 222 dynamic modality, see modal auxiliaries stativity 244 dynamic semantics 17–18 structural knowledge types 227 dynamism, principle of 74–5 structural vs contingent reality in English 224–30 economic causality 151 symbolism 211–13 see also Italian temporary-validity reading of present economic circumstances, see Italian progressive 228 economic rationality 142, 149 tense in CG 216–19 economics 137, 140 n16 theory 210–11 see also corpus linguistics; Italian verb classes 218 egocentric properties 177, 180–1, 188–91 conditionals 51 eikòs 153 epistemic future 67 emotion 176 n2, 179, 190, 192 future ‘will’ 99 n2 endoxon 153 grammaticalization of temporal English reference 206 Cognitive Grammar (CG), tense and PPs and adverbials 54–5 aspect in 8–11, 210–35 present perfect puzzle 47, 106 n26 combinations of tense and lexical progressives 106 n25 aspect 219 tense-time mismatches 2, 196 n4 durational/‘continuative’ reading of see also Black English Vernacular; Irish present progressive 229 English; Middle English; Old English; evaluation of toolkit 234–5 Standard American English; grammatical aspect in CG 220–4 temporal modification Index of Subjects 289 epistemic commitment, see temporality with perfective viewpoint 110 epistemic detachment 195, 246 with prospective viewpoint 111 epistemic distance 238 composed past 47 epistemic futures (EF), see French contextual shift 3–4 epistemic modality 4, 10, 146 n23, 193 epistemic futures (EF) 9, 200 n11 evidentiality and 200 n11 grammaticalization of temporal temporality as 195–9 reference 206 see also modal auxiliaries have-construction 233–4 epistemology of time 10, 137 imperfective past: 222 events 6, 244 narrative and non-background use evidential bases, see Italian of 9, 48–54 evidentiality, see modal auxiliaries imperfective pasts 4 experience, see A-theory modal usage types 229 experimental philosophy 198 n5 present perfect with future reference 176 n3 focus, see temporal reasoning present perfect: folk psychology 68–9 future reference with 9, 54–60 formal semantics 115 n39 simple present 220 n9, 225 four-dimensionalism, see tensism time and modality in 9, 98–127 frames of reference 9, 236–58 aspectual periphrases, classification and Aktionsart schemas 244–5 representation of 118–23 cognitive operators 244–5 aspectual support verbs’ 115 n38 evaluation of 257–8 aspectual viewpoint auxiliaries (aux-AV), geometrical transformations and 241–2 classification of 119 present and future: 245–57 evaluation of 127 ‘moving into’ the future 251–3 general preliminaries 99–102 present progressive and deictic intervals 98–9 future 250 interval-semantic model 104–10 putative future as reference frame markers and temporal, aspectual, and solution 253–7 modal meanings 101 simple present and deictic future modal asymmetries in pragmatic and 246–51 semantic times 102–4 tense forms 244–5 modal values (temporal/aspectual), times, tenses and 236–8 relations between 111–13 see also deictic space theory (DST) modal values of aspectual free indirect discourse 133 n7 viewpoints 110–11 Fregean perspective, see tensism monstration 116 French phasal aspect 113–18 aspectual modal values 110–11 phasal aspect: modal interpretation temporal modal values, relations of 123–7 with 111–13 phasal aspect: phasal structure of with imperfective viewpoint 111 eventualities 114 with perfect viewpoint 110 semi-auxiliaries 115 n40 290 Index of Subjects

French (cont.) imperfective paradox 38, 110, 124–5 simple future 112 imperfective past, see French tenses and modality, classical view on 100 indexical inference, see temporal reasoning V-MAPs 115–22, 124 indexical predicates, see temporal reasoning V-MAPs: semantic classification of 119 indicative mood 132 n7 variants of ON 153 n26 see also Italian functional linguistics 74 Indo-European languages 8 see also cognitive-functional approach; inference rule 37–8 modal auxiliaries information structure, see temporal reasoning geometry 236, 238, 240 insider/outsider status 137 geometrical transformations 241–2 institutional states of affairs 134–5 see also deictic space theory (DST); frames instructions 6, 40, 108 of reference intentionalism 166 German 45, 233–4 internal aspect 114, 119, 121 lexical aspect 217 n7 interpretation process 42 Germanic languages 45 interpretive reading 60 have-perfects 224 interval-based account, see French: time and imperfectivity 222 modality in Gestalt psychology 212 n3 intervals, see French: time and Gettier cases 198 n5 modality in grammatical aspect, see English interval-semantic model 104–10 Gricean pragmatics 6, 48, 194 absolute time 105 account of modalities 198 n6 aspectual viewpoint 105 rational conversational behaviour 208 compositionality 109–10 grounding 213–16 conflict resolution 108–9 Elaborated Epistemic Model 215 imperfective background 108 nominal and clausal grounding 214 imperfective viewpoint 106 profiling 214, 217 past tense with imperfective Time-Line Model 215–16 viewpoint 107 see also English past tense with perfect viewpoint growing block theory 158 n1 107–8 past tense with perfective Hering illusion 166 viewpoint 107 heuristics 3, 257 perfect viewpoint 106 Hiberno-English, see Irish English perfective viewpoint 106 historic necessity 8, 98–9, 102 prospective viewpoint 106 Hopi 7 see also French: time and modality in intuitions on inference 43 Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM) 247 Irish English 231, 233 idiom 81 see also English illocutionary acts 135 irony 68 ‘imparfait’ 99, 122–3, 126, 222, 233 ‘irrevocable’ 9, 98, 102–4, 110, 112–14, see also French 124, 126–7 Index of Subjects 291

Italian 55 lexical meaning, see temporal modification epistemic futures (EF) 60, 64 linguistic communication 236 verification hypothesis 64 future-oriented alethic and deontic Maori 4 modals 139–46 mathematical sentences 31 deontic readings of dovere 9–10, 130–1, maximal scope 213, 216 n5, 229 n11 135, 145–6 memory 207 deontic readings of potere 144–5 mental states 3 economic causality: necessity and mereotopology 114 n35 impossibility 140–2 metaphor 151 n25, 160, 251 economic circumstances and agent’s see also cognitive metaphor theory goals 143–4 metaphysics possibility modal, quantificational of time 7, 10, 102, 165, 216 n4 readings of 142–3 metarepresentation 9, 54, 60, 68–9 inferential evidentiality 129, 133 n8 Middle English 229 modals 128–53 see also English conversational backgrounds and mitigation 88–93 evidential bases 128–33, 152–3 modal asymmetry, see French: time and evidence for predictions 133–6 modality in financial news corpus 136–9 modal auxiliaries predictions 9 analysis 82–94 TAME categories 128 deontic modality 76, 90–2 modals and the conditional mood in directivity 92–4 predictions: dovrebbe 147–53 dynamic modality 76, 81, 88–90 alethic conversational backgrounds: epistemic modality 76, 92 economic causality 148–9 evidentiality 92 conditional restrictions, nature of functions of tenses 85–8 150–2 modal meanings 88–94 deontic conversational modals and complex tenses 83–94 backgrounds 149–50 modals and ‘simple’ tenses 82–3 semantics of dovrebbe: conversational possible combinations 83–5 background and conditional basic concepts and notions 74–9 restriction 147–8 cognitive–functional approach 74–5 speech acts of prediction: hierarchy of qualifications of SoAs most frequent modals 138 78–9 linguistic dimension 77–8 knowledge semantic dimension 75–7 concept of 198 n5 cognitive–functional approach 73, 97 combinations of modal and tense lambda abstraction 43–4 meanings 94–6 language acquisition 1 evaluation of 96–7 language processing 3, 10, 61–2, 194, method and data 79–82 212 n3, 242 meanings of modals 81 292 Index of Subjects modal auxiliaries (cont.) perspectival interpretations of modal and tense meanings: tenses 46–69 possible combinations of 94 allocentrism 53, 60, 67–9 qualificational hierarchy 73–4 contextual understanding 46–8 tense and 73–96 deontic-practical modality: see also Dutch; French: time and with epistemic futures 60–7 modality in epistemic futures (EF) 60–7 Modal-Contextualist View (MC) 10, 201, French imperfective past: 203–6, 208–9 narrative and non-background use modality, see Dutch; French; modal of 48–54 auxiliaries; perspectival French present perfect: interpretations of tenses: deontic- future reference with 54–60 practical modality phasal aspect, see French: time and modulation 47 modality in monotonicity 41 phenomenology 169 Montague Grammar (MG) 22, 26, 30 philosophy 1, 202 moving spotlight theory 158 physics 140 n16, 180, 209, 236 thermodynamics 209 narration 3 Pichi 217 n7 see also French polarity natural language 39, 45, 191 polarity particle 44 Natural Realignment Claim 186 polarity transition 40 natural science 140 n16 see also negative polarity; temporal naturalistic reductionism 209 reasoning Necessity Claim 186 possibility readings, see Italian negative polarity 42 possible worlds semantics 132 n6, 200 see also polarity pragmatic inference 5 newspaper discourse, see corpus linguistics predictions nominal modification 30 evidence for, see Italian see also temporal modification present perfect, see French now, see frames of reference present progressive, see frames of reference numerical determiners 8, 43–4 presentism 7, 158–9, 163, 192, 199, 204–5 degree 203 Old English 230–1 see also tensism see also English presupposition justification, see temporal ontology of time 137 modification origo 68 132 n7 presuppositions 17–18, 126–7 temporal 126 n49 past tense, see English see also type presuppositions perceptual systems 168–9 preterite loss 233 visual 168, 212 n3 priority modals 131 n4 perfect aspect, see English probability 195 perfect marking, see English ‘problem of temporary intrinsics’ 170 n12 Perry/Higginbotham alternative, see tensism procedural expressions 6 Index of Subjects 293 processes 212 space-time 179–80 progressive marking, see English Minkowski space–time diagram 180 projection problem 17 n2 Spanish proprioception 68 imperfective past tenses 222 prosody 42 n7, 45 specious present 7, 170 n13 psychology 1 speech acts 8–9, 135, 137 human 149 most frequent modals (Italian) 138 peripersonal space, study of 239 n3 St’àt’imcets (Lillooet Salish) 4 see also folk psychology Standard American English 233 public reference frame (PRF) 248 see also English putative future, see frames of reference state of affairs (SoA) 76–7 hierarchy of qualifications of 78–9 qualificational hierarchy, see modal see also modal auxiliaries auxiliaries states 218 n8 quantification of time, see temporality statistics, see corpus linguistics quantificational readings, see Italian stativity 217 n7, 218, 244 status causae doctrine 134 radical contextualism, see Default Semantics structural reality, see English rate of time 202 n12 subjectification 231 reductionism 10 Sufficiency Claim 186 reference, see frames of reference supervenience 10, 194, 205–6, 236 referentialism 182–3 support for 202–6 Relative Modality (RM) theory 130–2 temporality as epistemic modality relativity 195, 236 195–9 universalism, debate with 1 see also temporality relevance theory 6, 62 n7, 242 Swahili reported speech 68 consecutive tense 206 representing time 205 symbolism, see English Romance languages 55, 222 symmetry problem 172 see also asymmetry Samoan 218 n7 Saxon genitive 35 TAME categories, see Italian scalar inferences, see temporal reasoning telicity 217 n7 schedules 248 temporal adverbials, see temporal SCWD (social, cultural, or world-knowledge modification defaults) 208 temporal modification 8, 15–36 semantic modalities 99 b coercions 24 sense coercion and presupposition indexical 176, 180 justification 19–22 tracking 192 evaluation of 36 see also tensism lexical meaning, formal theory of 22–9 simple present, see frames of reference type presuppositions 23–9 sociology 1 types 22–3 294 Index of Subjects temporal modification (cont.) tensism 7, 175–92 temporal adverbials 15–16 definition 175–6 type composition logic 16–19 evaluation of 192 verbal complex, modifications of 29–36 four-dimensionalism and 159 n3, modifications 29–33 178–81 temporal nominal modification 33–6 Fregean accounts of tense: temporal parts 173 cognitive dynamics of 184–9 temporal reasoning Fregean senses 181–4 as indexical inference 8, 37–45 initial case for 176–8 aspectual adverbs 39–40 metaphysical vs linguistic 10 basic 40 Perry/Higginbotham alternative: evaluation of 44–5 designational content 189 focus and information structure of 42–4 indexical content 189–90 prosodically marked 42 n7 referential content 189 scalar inferences and polarity in 41–2 token reflexive content 189–92 indexical predicates 39–40 tenseless time vs 202–6 past progressive 37–8 testimony 130, 134, 136 present perfect progressive 37–8 Thai simple past 37–8 modal auxiliaries 206–7 situated reasoning 37–9 pragmatic means 2 temporality ‘thank goodness’ argument 171–2 epistemic commitment and 193–209 Theory of Mind 9, 69 quantifying time and ‘degrees of thought, see A-theory reality’ 199–202 time rationale 193–5 complex concept of 193, 206–9 temporality as epistemic modality and: modality 195–9 in French 98–127 evaluation of 208–9 temporality, tense and 1–10 time, tense and 1–10 tenseless 202–6 see also supervenience; time see also temporality tense token reflexive content, see tensism in Cognitive Grammar (CG), see English truth-conditional semantics 244 modal auxiliaries and 73–97 type composition logic, see temporal philosophical debates 46 n1 modification as procedural (vs. conceptual) Type Composition Logic (TCL) expressions 46 n1 24, 31–2 time, temporality and 1–10 type presuppositions 18, 23–9 see also English; modal auxiliaries; nuclear scope 27 perspectival interpretations polymorphic type functor 28 of tenses Simple Accommodation 24 tense forms, see frames of reference standard typing context 24 tensed theory, see A-theory type parameter 24 tensers 175 type system axioms 28–9 Index of Subjects 295

see also presuppositions; temporal vector 243–56 modification verbal complex, see temporal types, see temporal modification modification veridicality 43 173 17 unarticulated constituents n ‘view from nowhere’ 180 195 uncertainty virtual realities 241 universalism relativity, debate with 1 wrong candidate objection 176, 181 unresolved question (UQ) 10, 193–209 temporality and epistemic commitment see also temporality update 40, 42–3 zero-point concept 243