Saeed: Chapter 5.2.4-5.2.6,
5.3.1-5.3.2
Grammatical Categories:
Semantics
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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Tense
• Location of a situation (E) relative to some
reference point in time, most likely the time of
speaking (S).
________[x|x]_______
S,E
____[xx]__|__________
E
S
_________|____[xx]_
S
E
S=E
Simple present
‘I am speaking now.’
E < S Simple past
‘I spoke yesterday.’
S<E
Simple future
‘I will speak tomorrow.’
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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_[xx]___|____|__________ E < R < S Past perfect
E
R
S
‘She had spoken to me
by midnight last night.’
___[xx]_____|__________ E < R=S
Present perfect
E
S,R
‘She has spoken to me
by now.’
___________|__[xx]__|__ S < E < R Future perfect
S E R
‘She will have spoken
to me by next Monday.’
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Aspect
• Perfect aspect
– Saeed: “The perfect aspect is a relative aspect:
it allows a speaker to emphasize the relevance
to an anchoring point (R) of an event (E) in its
past.”
– (1)a.
b.
– (2)a.
b.
Don’t run. The train has left.
?Don’t run. The train left.
George Washington has slept in this bed.
?George Washington has visited this city.
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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• Progressive aspect
• I am speaking.
• I was speaking.
• I will be speaking.
Present progressive
Past progressive
Future progressive
– Saeed: ‘The progressives describe action as ongoing or continuing.”
– Progressives signal incompleteness (in telic
VPs):
• She was crossing the street, and she got hit by a car.
• She crossed the street, and she got hit by a car.
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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– Progressives signal background information,
and don’t advance the stream of the narrative:
•
Last Tuesday a man armed with just a hot hamburger in a
bag stole $1000 from a bank in Danville, California.
Police Detective Bill McGuiniss said that the robber, who
was wearing a mask, entered the Mount Diablo National
Bank at about 1.30 p.m. and gave the teller a note demanding
$1000. He claimed that he had a bomb in the bag. The teller
said she could smell a distinct odour of hamburger coming
from the bag. Even so, she handed the money to the man. As
he was running out of the bank, he dropped the bag with the
hamburger. He escaped in a car that was waiting for him
outside.
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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– In English, progressives have connotations of
activity/dynamism/wilfullness (volitionality).
• (1)a. She blinked her eyes.
b. She was blinking her eyes.
• Thus, can’t be used with stative verbs in English,
but imparfait can be used in French:
– (2)a. She understood the problem.
b. ?She was understanding the problem.
– (3)a. Elle comprenait
le problème.
She understood.IMPERF the problem
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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Modality
• Saeed: “devices which allow speakers to
express varying degrees of commitment to,
or belief in, a proposition.”
• Modal adjectives:
– It is certain/probable/likely/possible that S.
• Verbs of propositional attitude:
– I know/believe/think/don’t know/doubt that S.
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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• Modal auxiliaries:
–
–
–
–
–
–
She has left by now.
She must have left by now.
She might have left by now.
She could have left by now.
She needn’t have left by now.
She couldn’t have left by now.
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• Epistemic modals:
– Signal degrees of knowledge.
– Signal speaker’s judgment about the way the world is.
• Deontic modals:
– Signal speaker’s attitude to social factors of obligation,
responsibility and permission.
– Signal speaker’s judgment about how people should
behave in the world.
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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–
–
–
–
You must take these books back.
You should take these books back.
You need to take these books back.
You ought to take these books back.
– You can leave them here.
– You could leave them here.
– You might leave them here.
Ling 222 - Chapter 2d
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• Possible worlds approach to modality:
– Epistemic modality:
• Speaker sets up a hypothetical situation and
expresses different strengths of prediction of its
match with the real world.
– Deontic modality:
• Speaker proposes a degree of match between an
ideal moral or legal situation and the real world of
behavior.
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– Relates to conditional sentences:
• If I were rich, I would be living somewhere
else.
– Relates to realis/irrealis modality:
• Ngiyambaa:
– yuruŋ-gu nidja-ɽa
rain-ERG rain-PRES
‘It is raining.’ (realis)
– yuruŋ-gu nidja-l-aga
rain-ERG rain-CM-IRREALIS
‘It might rain.’ (irrealis)
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Mood
• Modal distinctions made by inflections on verbs.
• Subjunctive versus indicative mood in European
languages
• Typically appears in subordinate clauses, often
following verbs of wishing, preference, for events
in the future, or reported in indirect speech.
– French:
• Je pense qu’il viendra
I think that-he come.INDIC.FUT.
• Je doute qu’il vienne.
I dout that-he come-SUBJUN.PRES
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• ‘Mood’ is sometimes used to describe
changes in verbal morphology associated
with different speech acts that a speaker
may intend:
–
–
–
–
–
Statement, question, command, wish
Declarative mood: He is on time.
Interrogative mood: Is he on time?
Imperative mood: Be on time!
Optative mood in Nahuatl:
• ma: choca
‘If only he would weep.’
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