Tense, Aspect, and Indexicality (Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics)

275 Pages·2009·1.39 MB·English

by  James Higginbotham

Tense, Aspect, and Indexicality
OXFORD STUDIES IN THEORETICAL LINGUISTICS
generaleditors:DavidAdger,QueenMaryCollegeLondon;HagitBorer,Universityof
SouthernCalifornia
advisory editors: Stephen Anderson, Yale University; Daniel Bu¨ring, University of
California, Los Angeles; Nomi Erteschik-Shir, Ben-Gurion University; Donka Farkas,
University of California, Santa Cruz; Angelika Kratzer, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst;AndrewNevins,HarvardUniversity;ChristopherPotts,UniversityofMassachusetts,
Amherst;BarrySchein,UniversityofSouthernCalifornia;PeterSvenonius,Universityof
Tromsø;MoiraYip,UniversityCollegeLondon
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Tense, Aspect, and
Indexicality
JAMES HIGGINBOTHAM
1
3
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To my teachers
and particularly to the memory of George Boolos
and Sidney Morgenbesser
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface x
GeneralPreface xii
ProvenanceoftheChapters xiii
1 Tense,Indexicality,andConsequence 1
1.1 Tense,quantification,andtemporalcross-reference 3
1.2 Interpretationsofconsequence 8
1.3 Someelaborationsoftense 12
2 OnEventsinLinguisticSemantics 18
2.1 Generalconsiderations 18
2.2 ThevisibilityofE 27
2.3 Telicity 36
2.4 Caneventsbenegative? 48
2.5 Concludingremarks 51
3 TensedThoughts 53
3.1 Tensesandcontents 53
3.2 Tensesandtruth 58
3.3 Reflexivestates 62
3.4 Discards 67
4 TensedSecondThoughts:CommentsonRichard 76
5 Why isSequenceofTenseObligatory? 83
5.1 Introduction:Relationsbetweentenses 83
5.2 Theinterpretation oftense 85
5.3 Tenseanaphora 87
5.4 Areanalysis 93
6 AnaphoricTense 102
6.1 Introduction 102
6.2 Generaloutline 104
6.3 Somegeneralquestions 106
6.4 Addingtheperfect 110
6.5 Rigidityandindexicalmismatch 111
6.6 Subjectivetime 114
viii Contents
7 Accomplishments 116
7.1 Introduction 116
7.2 Telicpairs 117
7.3 Applicationstocausativesandlocation-locatumconstructions 120
8 TheEnglishProgressive 126
8.1 Preliminary remarks 126
8.2 Semanticelements 127
8.3 BackgroundtotheEnglishprogressive 129
8.4 Counterfactuals:Dowty(1977) 130
8.5 Anextensionalview:Parsons(1990) 133
8.6 Counterfactualsagain:Landman(1992) 138
8.7 RevisionI:Makingtelicityexplicit 139
8.8 RevisionII:Telicsandstages 143
8.9 RevisionIII:Defining‘Prog’withcounterfactuals 146
8.10 RevisionIV:Someinfluencesofcontext 147
8.11 Cross-linguisticquestions 154
9 TheEnglishPerfectandtheMetaphysicsofEvents 157
9.1 Introduction 157
9.2 Metaphysicalissues 160
9.3 Interactionswithsequenceoftense 165
9.4 Shiftedperfects 169
9.5 Conclusion 178
10 CompetencewithDemonstratives 179
10.1 Introduction 179
10.2 Normalformsfordemonstrativereferenceandtruth 182
10.3 Complementclauses 185
10.4 Coordinatetransformations 187
10.5 Puzzlesofperspective 188
10.6 Perspectiveandtruth 192
10.7 Concludingremarks 193
11 APleaforImplicitAnaphora 195
11.1 Introduction 195
11.2 Implicitargumentsandcontrol 198
11.3 Incorporatedanaphora 204
11.4 Else 208
11.5 Concludingremarks 211
Contents ix
12 Remembering, Imagining, andtheFirstPerson 212
12.1 Introduction 212
12.2 Gerundivecomplements 215
12.3 Theinterpretationof(certain)gerundivecomplements 217
12.4 Immunity toerrorthroughmisidentification:
AcharacteristicofPRO 221
12.5 Waysofrememberingandimagining 224
12.6 ThesemanticcontributionofPRO 226
12.7 Alternativesexplored 234
12.8 Linkstoformalization 238
12.9 Concludingexamplesandextensions 239
References 246
Index 255