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In:Footprints of Phrase Structure: Studies in syntax in honour of Tim Stowell
Edited by María J. Arche, Jan-Wouter Zwart, Hamida Demirdache and Hagit Borer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 288] 2025
► pp. 327–358

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The phrase structure of temporal interpretation

A note about the past

 | University of Greenwich | Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
Published online: 2 October 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.288.15arc
Abstract
This work presents a unified account for instances of past tense which, contrary to expectations, do not shift the evaluation to an anterior time but to one that is either simultaneous with another one (sequence of tense) or to one that is posterior to another moment, even posterior to the speech time (futurates). It capitalizes on the idea that temporal and modal categories introduce time-denoting arguments which are subject to grammar general principles (Stowell 1993, 2007; Demirdache & Uribe-Etxebarria 2000, 2014) and this suffices to derive the temporal calculus of clauses. The paper takes the conceptual drive to eliminate restructuring rules launched by Stowell (1981) to its ultimate consequences for temporal interpretation by exploiting the functioning of temporal predicates alone.
Article outline
  • 1.The Phrase structure of temporal interpretation
  • 2.The meaning of the past I: Simultaneous pasts
  • 3.The meaning of the past II: Forward shifting pasts
    • 3.1The independent temporal construal of relative clauses
    • 3.2Futurates
  • 4.Summary and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (66)
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