1. The Semantics of VP - understanding talk about situations English Grammar BA – 2nd semester Lecture 9 Torben Thrane

2. We are in an utterance situation

3. An utterance situation is a real situation

4. I am talking to you here and now

5. You mean that an utternance situation is defined by some- one saying something?

6. Precisely - and it always serves as a reference point for understanding talk about other situations

7. How do you mean?

8. Think of it as a system of coordinates. We are in the utterance situation where the two lines cross...

9. … and every situation we want to talk about is iden- tified relative to that. We are at the Deictic Centre.

10. What does “deictic” mean?

11. It comes from Greek, and it means “pointing”. Pronouns like I, you, she, it may be deictic...

12. … because they point to something in a situation, and although their meaning is al- ways the same, their reference changes all the time.

13. Yes that’s right. When you say ‘I’, it refers to you, but when I say ‘I’ it refers to me

14. But that was pronouns. What does it have to do with verbs? Are there deicitic verbs?

15. No, not verbs as such - but some of the secondary verbal categories have deictic functions, like Tense.

16. So Tense is a secondary verbal category? Are there any others?

17. Yes, there is Aspect, Voice and Mood, which is also some- times called Modality.

18. But what do they do? What do they mean?

19. They help you as a listener to understand what situation is being talked about.

20. Take an example: If I say “I am crumbling this piece of paper”, then you know that I am talking about this situation we are in right here.

22. You know that because: ‘I’ refers to me ‘am crumbling’ refers to a factual situation which overlaps in time with the utterance situation...

23. … and ‘this piece of paper’ refers to an object with me at the deic- tic centre.

24. Now, if I say, “I also crumbled a piece of paper yesterday”, you know that I am not talking about this situation, but about a similar one, only occurring yesterday.

26. Now, I am going to shrink us, because I want to show you how the coordinate system may be used. Remember, we are still inside US. Ready...

27. US Situations that we want to talk about may be either factual or potential. I’ll indicate that in this way:

28. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL

29. FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL - or they may be hypothetical or necessary. I’ll indicate that like this...

30. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL HYPOTHETICAL NECESSARY

31. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL HYPOTHETICAL NECESSARY Facts and potential siuations differ from hypothetical and nec- essary situations in that they are inside TIME….

32. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL HYPOTHETICAL NECESSARY Time

33. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL HYPOTHETICAL NECESSARY Now, this is a ‘grid’ that we use in interpreting sentences with respect to where the described situa- tion is ‘located’. Let us look at some examples.

34. US a. John arrived in New York on Monday The situation of John arriving in New York b. John has arrived in New York FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL HYPOTHETICAL NECESSARY

35. The situation of John arriving in New York is here being presented for interpretation as a factual situation of the past. Nevertheless, they present it in slightly different ways: a.focusses on the temporality of the situation at some specific point in the past (cf. on Monday); b.focusses on the sequentiality of the situation relative to other situations, particularly US. Since it is factual it must necessarily be prior to US, and hence in the past.

36. John was (just) arriv- ing in New York when his plane returned The situation of John arriving in New York The situation of John’s plane returning. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL HYPOTHETICAL NECESSARY

37. The situation of John arriving in New York The situation of John’s plane returning. John had (just) arrived in New York when his plane returned. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL HYPOTHETICAL NECESSARY

38. The Sequentiality of Situations... Situations have a beginning, a middle and an end. Seen from the ‘outside’, a situation may be regarded as ‘closed’, and as existing or occurring, relative to some other situation. With the Present Perfect, the ‘Reference Situation’ is US With the Past Perfect, the ‘Reference Situations’ must be identified from the context. If the DS is presented as factual, it follows that it must also be in the past, for only situations in the past (up to and including ‘now’) can be truly factual.

39. ‘John had eaten dinner when his wife came home’ DS = ‘John’s eating dinner’ RS = ‘The coming home of John’s wife’ 1. = ‘John had proceeded to eat dinner when his wife came home’ = ‘When his wife came home, John had proceeded to eat dinner’ FactualPotential RS DS US 2. = ‘John had already eaten dinner when his wife came home’ = ‘When his wife came home, John had already eaten dinner’ FactualPotential

40. Kinds of situation situation static dynamic ‘state’ agent-controlnot agent-controlled ‘action’ extended punctual ‘activity’ ‘act’ ‘process’ ‘event’ (there are many other proposals)

41. Open and closed dynamic situations Situations are either static or dynamic Static situations simply exist (or not), whereas dynamic situations occur (or not). Now - if a dynamic situation is seen as being in progress, it is said to be open. There is no focus on either its beginning or end, only on its middle. This is the true dynamic view of a dynamic situation. The grammatical term is progressive. If on the other hand a dynamic situation is seen as a whole, with focus either on its beginning or - especially - end or both, it is said to be closed. This is the static view of a dynamic situation. The grammatical term is perfect, or perfective.

42. Described Situation = Reference Situation = Utterance Situation = ‘Closed’ ‘Open’

43. Aspect in English The ‘progressive’: be +ing (sometimes also called the ‘expanded tenses’) Ex. John is smiling - present progressive John was smiling- past progressive John has been smiling- present perfect progr. John had been smiling- past perfect progr. John will be smiling- ‘future’ progressive John may be smiling- ‘epistemic’ progressive The votes are being counted- present passive progr. The votes were being counted- past passive progr. ….

44. Aspect in English: Simple vs. expanded tenses...

45. The simple tenses invite you to interpret a described dynamic situation as closed - as a situation with a beginning and an end relative to some other situation The expanded tenses invite you to interpret a described dynamic situation as open - as ‘being in progress’ relative to some other situation (this is clearest in the past)

46. ‘He drove carefully’ The situation of him driving carefully The sentence does not establish a Reference Situation but there is one implicitly: ‘on that occasion’ US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL

47. FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL ‘He was driving carefully’ The situation of him driving carefully The sentence does not establish a Reference Situation but there is one implicitly: ‘on that occasion’

48. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL ‘He drove carefully when the children appeared’ DS = The situation of the children appearing RS = The situation of him driving carefully

49. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL ‘He was driving care- fully when the child- ren appeared’ DS = The situation of him driving carefully RS = The situation of the children appearing

50. Aspect in English The perfect: have +en (also sometimes called the ‘perfect tenses’) Ex. John has broken the windows- present perfect John had broken the windows- past perfect John has been breaking the windows- pres. prf. progr. John had been breaking the windows - past prf. progr. John will have broken the windows- ‘future’ perfect John may have broken the windows- ‘epistemic’ perfect The windows have been broken- present prf. passive The windows had been broken- past prf. passsive...

51. Aspect in English: the Perfect vs. simple present... Returning officer: ‘Lucy empties the ballot boxes and John counts the votes’ Returning officer: ‘Lucy has emptied the ballot boxes and John has counted the votes’

52. Aspect in English: the Perfect vs. simple present... Both ‘tenses’ present the described situation as closed…. The simple present focusses on the beginning - and is therefore sometimes said to be ‘future’ (and it only occurs - like here - as descriptions of a ‘list’ of dynamic situations) The perfect focusses on the end - and is therefore often said to be ‘past’ (but in fact it only presents a dynamic situation as a factual ‘whole’, as we have seen)

53. Aspect in English: the ‘habitual’ The simple present is understood as describing individual dynamic situations in a ‘list’ of situations. What, then, about - - I smoke (<> I am smoking) - she plays handball (<> she is playing handball) The simple verb forms are understood as describing a list of individual dynamic situations of the same type, occurring at different times: therefore the simple present is often said to express habitual aspect.

54. US FACTUALFACTUAL POTENTIALPOTENTIAL ‘I smoke’ The situation of me smoking