Defining temporal perspective points
in non-sentential (propositional) structures with temporal adjuncts
Telmo Moia
FL / Universidade de Lisboa
Temporal (e.g. locative or durational) adjuncts may occur in propositional verbless structures
– cf. (1) – or in combination with non-finite verb forms ("particípio", "gerúndio", "infinitivo")
– cf. (2), as witnessed by the following excerpts from the corpus CETEMPúblico 1.7 v. 4.0:
(1) «Deputado há 18 anos, (...) apresentou cerca de 450 projectos na sua trajectória
parlamentar (...).» (ext129824-pol-93a-2); «Independente desde 1965, (...) a Gâmbia é
um dos mais pequenos países africanos.» (ext865923-pol-93b-1); «sem estradas
transitáveis até à década de 60, as três aldeias viviam quase cortadas do mundo quando
chegou o 25 de Abril .» (ext355565-soc-94b-1)
(2) «Construído há cerca de 1700 anos, o Templo Romano de Évora (...) teve, ao longo dos
séculos, diversas funções (...).» (ext130337-soc-97a-2)
Some temporal expressions are referentially dependent, inasmuch as their interpretation
requires an association with a temporal perspective point, be it the utterance time (deictic
dependence), or a contextually defined moment (anaphoric dependence) – cf. e.g. Alves
(2003). Among these dependent expressions, a few stand out, such as the phrases with desde
and with haver. In fact, depending on the context, a sequence like desde 1980 may be
tantamount to "from 1980 until the utterance time" (cf. (3a)) or "from 1980 until a given
contextually defined moment" (cf. (3b)). Likewise, a phrase such as há quase vinte anos may
mean "with a duration of almost twenty years at the utterance time" (cf. (4a)) or "with a
duration of almost twenty years at a contextually defined moment" (cf. (4b)).
(3) a. O Paulo mora em Lisboa desde 1980.
b. O Paulo foi viver para Paris em 2005. Morava em Lisboa desde 1980.
(4) a. O Paulo mora em Lisboa há quase vinte anos.
b. O Paulo foi viver para Paris em 2005. Morava em Lisboa há quase vinte anos.
In the literature, temporal perspective points (TPpt's) are classically defined through the tense
of the (main) clause containing the temporal adjunct (cf. e.g., among many others, Kamp &
Reyle 1993). Therefore, it is only natural that sentences like (3a) and (4a) (with a present
tense: mora) involve a deictic dependence and sentences like (3b) and (4b) (with an
imperfective past: morava) involve an anaphoric dependence. The definition of TPpt's in nonsentential structures like those in (1)-(2) in more complex, in that it requires taking into
consideration elements outside the constituent containing the description of the relevant
eventuality (i.e. outside the bolded constituents in those excerpts). The rules affecting the
selection of TPpt's in these particular structures is the focus of this presentation.
This work takes centrally into account temporal expressions with haver, which have a
notable characteristic: they may present the form havia (an imperfective past) in structures
with past TPpt's (though the verb form is often "reduced" to há – a morphological present – in
these contexts; cf. the grammaticality of replacing havia with há in (5)-(6) below).
(5) «Conspirava-se (...) apenas com um fito: derrubar o Partido Democrático, havia anos
senhor e dono do poder (...).» (ext245383-soc-96a-1); «Na parte setentrional do
México, havia pouco tempo independente de Espanha (...), havia 30 mil colonos
sedentos de mercadorias manufacturadas.» (ext545688-nd-91b-2); «Bem gostava de
conhecer aquela funcionária particularmente prestável que acabava de perguntar (...) a
uma cabo-verdiana de lenço colorido na cabeça (e provavelmente à espera havia mais
de três horas) se ela estava cansada.» (ext126388-pol-93a-2).
[VERBLESS STRUCTURES – NP / AP / PP – WITH PROPOSITIONAL VALUE]
(6) «Documentos procurados havia muito tempo e estranhamente encontrados nos últimos
dias voltaram a colocar a Primeira Dama Hillary (...) Clinton numa posição embaraçosa
(...).» (ext403043-pol-96a-2); «Em primeiro lugar, relembrou o Alberto, (...) o divórcio
estava na fase de julgamento, estando Joana e Alberto separados de facto havia cerca de
dois anos.» (ext620401-soc-98a-2); «Admirado pelo Papa e pelo Imperador, protegido
por reis, nobres e cardeais, é1 acusado pelo Núncio em Veneza de, sacerdote, não dizer
missa havia 30 anos, de viver e viajar na companhia de mulheres, de ser amante da
prima-dona Anna Giraud (...).» (ext1168902-nd-91b-1)
[SENTENTIAL STRUCTURES WITH "PARTICÍPIO", "GERÚNDIO" AND "INFINITIVO"]
Ambiguity (involving directly the selection of temporal perspective points) is one feature
worth exploring, in connection with structures of the above-mentioned type. In fact, the
"reduction" of havia to há often results in different interpretations, in accordance with
grammatical restrictions that I will try to outline here. Consider the following examples:
(i) simple deictic vs. anaphoric ambiguity,
in participial structures (associated with telic eventualities)
(7) Discutiu-se o futuro do edifício, comprado há trinta anos.
1: "The future of the building, which was purchased thirty years ago, was discussed."
[LOCATION DEPENDING ON THE UTTERANCE TIME]
2: "At a contextually given past moment, the future of the building, which had been
purchased thirty years before, was discussed."
[LOCATION DEPENDING ON A PAST TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE POINT]
(ii) deictic vs. anaphoric ambiguity + (time-anchored) duration vs. temporal location
ambiguity (cf. Móia 1999, 2006), in participial or adjectival structures (associated with
events or states, respectively)
(8) Discutiu-se o futuro do território, ocupado há trinta anos. [4 readings]
"The future of the building, which {1: was occupied thirty years ago / 2: had been
occupied thirty years before / 3: has been occupied for thirty years (now) / 4: had
been occupied for thirty years (then)}, was discussed."
The analyses presented in this paper are based, as far as possible, in data from corpora.
Contrasts between European and Brazilian Portuguese, or between Portuguese and other
Romance languages, may be mentioned. The language of Discourse Representation Theory
(defined in Kamp & Reyle 1993, and later updates) is used for semantic representations.
References
Alves, Ana Teresa: 2003, Sobre a Localização Temporal Adverbial Anafórica em Português,
diss. de doutoramento, Universidade dos Açores, Ponta Delgada.
Kamp, Hans e Uwe Reyle (1993) From Discourse to Logic. Introduction to Modeltheoretic
Semantics of Natural Language, Formal Logic and Discourse Representation Theory.
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Móia, Telmo (1999), “Semântica das Expressões Temporais com Haver”, Actas do XIV
Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística (Aveiro, 28-30 de
Setembro de 1998), Vol. II, Braga: APL, pp. 219-238.
Móia, Telmo (2006) Portuguese Expressions of Duration and their English Counterparts.
Journal of Portuguese Linguistics 5(1), pp. 37-73.
1
Lack of temporal agreement results in a certain feeling of anomaly (cf. the result of replacing é with era here).