Temporal Logic and Tense/Aspect

James Pustejovsky

Brandeis University

October 17, 2008

CS 112
 Tense
• Grammatical expression of the time of the situation
described, relative to some other time (e.g.,
moment of speech)

PAST PRESENT FUTURE

George admires Mary.
George admired Kennedy.
 Reichenbach
• Tensed utterances introduce references to 3 ‘time points’
– Speech Time: S
– Event Time: E
– Reference Time: R

SI had [mailed the letter]E [when John came & told me the news]R

E<R<S E R S

time
• 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 possible
 Reichenbachian Tense Analysis
• Tense is determined by
Relation Reichenbach’s English Tense Example relation between R and S
Tense Name Name – R=S, R<S, R>S
E<R<S Anterior past Past perfect I had slept
E=R<S Simple past Simple past I slept • Aspect is determined by
R<E<S relation between E and R
R<S=E Posterior past I would – E=R, E < R, E> R
E>R<S sleep • Relation of E relative to S
R<S<E not crucial
E<S= R Anterior present Present perfect I have slept
S= R= E Simple present Simple present I sleep – Represent R<S=E as
S= R<E Posterior present Simple future I will sleep E>R<S
Je vais • Only 7 out of 13 relations
dormir are realized in English
S<E<R – 6 different forms, simple
S=E<R Anterior future Future perfect I will have future being ambiguous
E<R>S slept – Progressive no different
E<S<R from simple tenses
S<R=E Simple future Simple future I will sleep
• But I was eating a peach
Je dormirai ≠> I ate a peach
S<R<E Posterior future I shall be
going to
sleep
 Tense as Operator: Prior
Relation Reichenbach’s PRIOR English Tense Example • Free iteration
E<R<S
Tense Name
Anterior past PPp
Name
Past perfect I had slept
captures many more
E=R<S Simple past Pp Simple past I slept tenses,
R<E<S
R<S=E Posterior past PFp I would – I would have slept
sleep PFPφ
R<S<E
E<S= R Anterior present Pp Present perfect I have slept • But also expresses
S= R= E Simple present p Simple present I sleep
S= R<E Posterior present Fp Simple future I will sleep many non-NL tenses
Je vais – PPPPφ [It was the
dormir
S<E<R case]4 John had
S=E<R Anterior future FPp Future perfect I will have
slept
slept
E<S<R
S<R=E Simple future Fp Simple future I will sleep
Je dormirai
S<R<E Posterior future FFp I shall be
going to
sleep
 Aspect
• Two Varieties
– Grammatical Aspect
• Distinguishes viewpoint on event
– Lexical Aspect
• Distinguishes types of events (situations)(eventualities)
• Also called Aktionsarten
 Grammatical Aspect
• Perfective – focus on situation as a whole
– John built a house
built.a.h

• Imperfective – focus on internal phases of situation

– John was building a house

was building.a.h
 Aktionsarten
• ACCOMPLISHMENTS build, cook, destroy
• STATIVES know, sit, be clever, be happy, killing,
– culminate (telic)
accident
– x Vs for an hour does not entail x Vs for all
– can refer to state itself (ingressive) John knows , or to
times in that hour
entry into a state (inceptive) John realizes
– X is Ving does not entail that X has Ved.
– *John is knowing Bill, *Know the answer, *What John
did was know the answer – John booked a flight in an hour, John stopped
building a house
• ACTIVITIES walk, run, talk, march, paint
– if it occurs in period t, a part of it (also an activity)
• ACHIEVEMENTS notice, win, blink, find,
must occur for every/most sub-periods of t
reach
– X is Ving entails that X has Ved
– instantaneous accomplishments
– John ran for an hour,*John ran in an hour
– *John dies for an hour, *John wins for an
hour, *John stopped reaching New York

Telic Dynamic Durative E.g.

Stative - - + know,
have
Activity - + + walk,
paint
Accomplish + + + destroy,
ment build
Achieveme + + - notice,
nt win
 Different types of tense systems
across languages

• Using verbal inflection:

– Languages with a two-way contrast:
• English: Past (before the moment of speaking) vs. Nonpast
past -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 will work’
 Different types of tense systems
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 ‘they worked’
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 situation described by
an event.
• Most common:
– Perfective: Situation viewed as a bounded whole.
– Imperfective: Looking inside the temporal boundaries of the
situation.
• Habitual
• Progressive
• Other related aspectual distinctions:
– Iterative: The action is repeated.
– Inceptive: The action is began.
– Inchoative: Entering into a state.
 Different types of aspect systems
across languages

• Some languages use auxiliaries and particles associated with

the verb:
English:
– Perfective: have + Past Participle I have eaten.
– Progressive: be + Present Participle I am eating.
– Habitual: use to + Base form I used to sing.
Catalan:
– Habitual: soler + Infinitive
Sol parlar. ‘She generally talks.’
Solia cantar. ‘She used to talk’
– Iterative: anar(past) (‘to go’)+ Present Part
Va tornant ‘She keeps coming back’
gopast coming_back
 Different types of aspect systems
across languages

• Other languages use a derivational component:

Russian: by means of a system of verbal prefixes
– Imperfective: simple verbs Ja ˇcitál ‘I was reading’
– Perfective: prefixed verbs Ja proˇcitál ‘I (did) read’

Finnish: by means of the case of the object

– Perfective: Hän luki kirjan(acc.) ‘He read the book’
– Imperfective: Hän luki kirjaa(part.) ‘He was reading the book’.
Basic meaning: only part of the object being referred to is affected by
the situation.
 Tense and Aspect
• Aspect and Tense generally cross-classify:
– Russian:
• Present:
– Only imperfective: ˇcitáju ‘I read’
• Past:
– Imperfective: Ja ˇcitál ‘I was reading’
– Perfective: Ja proˇcitál ‘I (did) read’
• Future:
– Imperfective: ??
– Perfective: Ja proˇcitáju ‘I shall read’
 Tense and Aspect

– Basque:
• Present:
– Imperfect (Gerund + Present tense auxiliary) ekartzen du ‘he is bringing it’
– Perfect (Past Participle + Present tense aux.) ekarri du ‘he has brought
it’
• Past:
– Imperfect (Gerund + Past tense aux.) ekartzen zuen ‘he brought, used to
bring’
– Perfect (Past Participle + Past tense aux.) ekarri zuen ‘he brought, had brought’
• Future:
– Simple (Future Participle + Pres. tense aux.) ekarriko du ‘he will bring it’
– Past Future (Future Participle + Past tense aux.) ekarriko zuen ‘he would bring’
 An interesting case
• Tense and Aspect in 2 different creoles, evolved
independently from each other:
Hawaiian Creole Haitian Creole
Base Form He walk Li maché
(he walks, he walked)
Progressive He stay walk L’ap maché
he is walking, he was walking (Li ap maché)
Perfective He bin walk Li té maché
he has walked, he had walked
Perfective Progressive He bin stay walk Li t’ap maché
(he has/had been walking) (Li té ap maché)
Irreal He go walk L’av maché
(he would walk, he will walk)
Irreal Progressive He go stay walk L’av ap maché
(he would/will be walking) (Li av ap maché)
Irreal Perfective He bin go walk Li t’av maché
(he would/will have walked) (Li té av maché)
Irreal perfective Progressive He bin go stay walk Li t’av ap maché
he would/will have been (Li té av maché)
walking