Time and Tense in LanguageJames Pustejovsky Brandeis UniversityLING 130FALL, 2005Events and RelationsEvent expressions;tensed verbs; has left, was captured, will resign;stative adjectives; sunken, stalled, on board;event nominals; merger, Military Operation, GulfWar;Dependencies between events and times:Anchoring; John left on Monday.Orderings; The party happened after midnight.Embedding; John said Mary left.Tense• Grammatical expression of the time ofthe situation described, relative to someother time (e.g., moment of speech)George admires Adolf.George admired Jesus.PAST PRESENT FUTUREReichenbach• Tensed utterances introduce references to 3 ‘time points’– Speech Time: S– Event Time: E– Reference Time: RSI had [mailed the letter]E [when John came & told me the news]RE < R < S• The concept of ‘time point’ is an abstraction –- it can map to an interval• Three temporal relations are defined on these time points– at, before, after• 13 different relations are possibleE RStimeTense as Anaphor: Reichenbach• Tensed utterances introduce references to 3 ‘time points’– Speech Time: S– Event Time: E– Reference Time: RSI had [mailed the letter]E [when John came & told me the news]RE < R < S• The concept of ‘time point’ is an abstraction –- it can map to aninterval• Three temporal relations are defined on these time points– at, before, after• 13 different relations are possibleE RStimeReichenbachian Tense Analysis• Tense is determined byrelation between R and S– R=S, R<S, R>S• Aspect is determined byrelation between E and R– E=R, E < R, E> R• Relation of E relative to Snot crucial– Represent R<S=E as E>R<S• Only 7 out of 13 relationsare realized in English– 6 different forms, simplefuture being ambiguous– Progressive no differentfrom simple tenses• But I was eating a peach!> I ate a peachRelation Reichenbach’s Tense Name English Tense Name Example E<R<S Anterior past Past perfect I had slept E=R<S Simple past Simple past I slept R<E<S R<S=E Posterior past I would sleep R<S<E E<S= R Anterior present Present perfect I have slept S= R= E Simple present Simple present I sleep S= R<E Posterior present Simple future I will sleep Je vais dormir S<E<R S=E<R Anterior future Future perfect I will have slept E<S<R S<R=E Simple future Simple future I will sleep Je dormirai S<R<E Posterior future I shall be going to sleep Tense as Operator: PriorRelation Reichenbach’s Tense Name PRIOR English Tense Name Example E<R<S Anterior past PP? Past perfect I had slept E=R<S Simple past P? Simple past I slept R<E<S R<S=E Posterior past PF? I would sleep R<S<E E<S= R Anterior present P? Present perfect I have slept S= R= E Simple present ? Simple present I sleep S= R<E Posterior present F? Simple future I will sleep Je vais dormir S<E<R S=E<R Anterior future FP? Future perfect I will have slept E<S<R S<R=E Simple future F? Simple future I will sleep Je dormirai S<R<E Posterior future FF? I shall be going to sleep • Free iterationcaptures manymore tenses,– I would have sleptPFP"• But alsoexpresses manynon-NL tenses– PPPP" [It was thecase]4 John hadsleptAspect• Two Varieties– Grammatical Aspect• Distinguishes viewpoint on event– Lexical Aspect• Distinguishes types of events(situations)(eventualities)• Also called AktionsartenGrammatical Aspect• Perfective – focus on situation as a whole– John built a house• Imperfective – focus on internal phases ofsituation– John was building a housebuilt.a.hwas building.a.hAktionsarten• STATIVES know, sit, be clever, be happy,– can refer to state itself (ingressive) Johnknows , or to entry into a state (inceptive)John realizes– *John is knowing Bill, *Know the answer,*What John did was know the answer• ACTIVITIES walk, run, talk, march, paint– if it occurs in period t, a part of it (also anactivity) must occur for every/most sub-periods of t– X is Ving entails that X has Ved– John ran for an hour,*John ran in an hour Telic Dynamic Durative E.g. Stative - - + know, have Activity - + + walk, paint Accomplishment + + + destroy, build Achievement + + - notice, win • ACCOMPLISHMENTS build, cook,destroy– culminate (telic)– x Vs for an hour does not entail x Vsfor all times in that hour– X is Ving does not entail that X hasVed.– John booked a flight in an hour, Johnstopped building a house• ACHIEVEMENTS notice, win, blink,find, reach– instantaneous accomplishments– *John dies for an hour, *John wins for anhour, *John stopped reaching New YorkDifferent types of tensesystems across languages• Using verbal inflection:– Languages with a two-way contrast:• English: Past (before the moment of speaking) vs. Nonpastpast -ed: She worked hard.nonpast (unmarked): We admire her. I will leave tomorrow.• Dyirbal (Australian language): Future vs. nonfuture:future -ñ: bani-ñ ‘will come’nofuture -ñu: bani-ñu ‘came, is coming’– Languages with a three-way distinction:• Catalan, Lithuanian: Past vs. Present vs. Future(Cat.) past: treball-à. (Lit.) Dirb-au. ‘I worked’present: treball-a. Dirb-u. ‘I work’future: treball-arà. Dirb-siu. ‘I willwork’Different types of tensesystems across languages• A much richer distinction:– ChiBemba (Bantu language):For past:• Remote past (before yesterday) Ba-àlí-bomb-ele ‘they worked’• Removed past (yesterday) Ba-àlíí-bomba ‘they worked’• Near past (earlier today) Ba-àcí-bomba ‘they worked’• Immediate past (just happened) Ba-á-bomba ‘theyworked’For future:• Immediate future (very soon) Ba-áláá-bomba ‘they’ll work’• Near future (later today) Ba-léé-bomba ‘they’ll work’• Removed future (tomorrow) Ba-kà-bomba ‘they’ll work’• Remote future (after tomorrow)Ba-ká-bomba ‘they’ll work’Aspect• Internal temporal organization of the situationdescribed by an event.• Most common:– Perfective: Situation viewed as a bounded whole.– Imperfective: Looking inside the temporal boundaries of thesituation.• Habitual• Progressive• Other related aspectual distinctions:– Iterative: The action is repeated.– Inceptive: The action is began.– Inchoative: Entering into a state.Different types of aspectsystems across languages• Some languages use auxiliaries and particles associatedwith the verb:English:– Perfective: have + Past Participle I have eaten.–