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Linglib.Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions

English Temporal Expressions Fragment #

@cite{alstott-aravind-2026} @cite{heinamaki-1974} @cite{rett-2020} @cite{karttunen-1974} @cite{ogihara-steinert-threlkeld-2024} @cite{iatridou-anagnostopoulou-izvorski-2001} @cite{vendler-1957}

Lexical entries for English temporal expressions, organised into two sibling structures (mathlib pattern, mirroring QuantifierEntry + NumericalDetEntry in Determiners.lean):

Temporal ordering relation encoded by a connective or modifier.

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      Available readings for a temporal clause or modified VP. "Start" = initial point of embedded eventuality; "finish" = final point.

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          Syntactic complement type: clausal (before she arrived) vs nominal (by 3pm, within an hour).

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              Lexical entry for any temporal expression — subordinating connective or adverbial modifier. Unifies the semantic fields (ordering direction, NPI licensing, veridicality) that @cite{heinamaki-1974} shows are shared across both syntactic categories.

              The complementType field records the syntactic distinction (clausal vs nominal complement) without splitting the semantic properties into separate types.

              • form : String

                Surface form

              • complementType : ComplementType

                Syntactic complement type

              • Temporal ordering direction

              • licensesNPI : Bool

                Does this expression license NPIs in its complement?

              • defaultReading : Reading

                Reading obtained without coercion (Rett's strong default)

              • coercedReading : Option Reading

                Reading requiring aspectual coercion (INCHOAT or COMPLET)

              • embeddedTelicityEffect : Bool

                Does telicity of the embedded clause affect interpretation?

              • crossLinguisticBasic : Bool

                Attested in all 17 languages of @cite{rett-2020}'s typological survey

              • complementVeridical : Bool

                Does the expression entail the truth of its complement? after is veridical: "He left after she arrived" entails she arrived. before is non-veridical: "He left before she arrived" is compatible with her not arriving.

              • forcesPunctual : Bool

                Does this expression force a punctual (point-like) reading?

              • triggeredCoercion : Option String

                Which coercion operator is mandatorily triggered (if any). some "INCHOAT" or some "COMPLET" for modifiers that force coercion (e.g. within, at). none for connectives like before/after where coercion is optional — those use coercedReading to record the alternative reading available through voluntary coercion.

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                    before: licenses NPIs; default = before-start; coerced = before-finish (requires COMPLET to extract telos of telic EE).

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                      after: no NPIs; default = after-finish; coerced = after-start (requires INCHOAT to extract onset of atelic EE).

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                        while: durative overlap, no coercion, no telicity sensitivity.

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                          until: durative persistence up to complement time. Has two uses:

                          • Durative: "John slept until 3pm" — main clause is stative, until marks minimum extent. Truth-conditionally = temporal overlap.
                          • Punctual (with negation): "He didn't wake up until 3pm" — logical form = NOT(A BEFORE T). Licenses NPIs in this use.

                          We encode the durative reading as default, with the punctual reading arising compositionally via negation + the before semantics.

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                            when: temporal coincidence, no coercion. Veridical complement. "John arrived when Mary left" — the two events overlap in time. Symmetric: "A when B" ↔ "B when A".

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                              since: starting-point connective. Veridical complement. "He's been happy since she arrived" entails she arrived. Requires durative (stative/activity) main clause, like until. Does not license NPIs.

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                                till: dialectal variant of until. Identical semantic properties to until. Dialectally restricted: not universal across English varieties.

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                                  within + duration: relevant to INCHOAT debate. Alstott & Aravind Exps 1a, 3: "within an hour" + activity verb. Alstott & Aravind found no INCHOAT cost here.

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                                    at + time point: relevant to COMPLET debate. Alstott & Aravind Exp 1b: "at 7 o'clock" + accomplishment. Forces punctual reading → COMPLET required for telic events.

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                                      by + time point: deadline semantics. "He arrived by 3pm" = at or before 3pm. Weaker than before (allows coincidence). Does not force punctual reading: "He had finished the book by Tuesday" is fine with an accomplishment.

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                                        as long as: temporal containment, synonymous with while. "I'll stay as long as you need me." Same ∀-containment semantics as while. Carries an additional conditional flavor in many uses ("As long as it rains, we stay inside"), but truth-conditionally equivalent to while.

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                                          whenever: universally quantified temporal overlap. "Whenever it rains, I carry an umbrella." Every occasion of B has a corresponding occurrence of A. Truth-conditionally ∀t∈B, t∈A (= while with arguments swapped). Implies habitual/generic interpretation. Veridical for both clauses (given nonempty B).

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                                            as soon as: strengthened after with temporal proximity implicature. "He left as soon as she arrived." Truth-conditionally equivalent to after (∃∃ ordering), but pragmatically implies minimal temporal gap between the two events. Veridical complement.

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                                                Connective entries only (clausal complement).

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                                                  Modifier entries only (nominal complement).

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                                                    Veridicality pattern: before is the only non-veridical expression. This holds across both connectives and modifiers.

                                                    NPI licensing pattern: only before, until, and till license NPIs. For before, this follows from downward entailment of the complement. For until/till, this arises in the punctual (not...until) construction, which is truth-conditionally ¬before. No modifiers license NPIs.

                                                    Sub-class discriminator for duration adverbials.

                                                    The four English duration adverbials carve out distinct semantic profiles even though they share the same schema:

                                                    • telicCompletion (in three hours): measures the runtime of a telic event from onset to telos.
                                                    • atelicDurative (for three hours): measures the runtime of an atelic event.
                                                    • pastOffset (three days ago): postposed deictic offset from the utterance time into the past.
                                                    • npiGap (in years under negation+perfect): measures the gap between the right boundary of the perfect time span and the most recent witnessing event. Strong NPI.
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                                                        Lexical entry for a duration / measure adverbial.

                                                        Schema is consensus typological metadata only. Theory-specific machinery (PTS classification, Rouillard's E-TIA / G-TIA labels, Iatridou-Zeijlstra 2021's domain-widening profile) lives as partial projections from this structure in the relevant Theory or Studies file (mathlib-style pattern: same discipline as QuantifierEntry → gqDenotation/ptMeaning/gqtMeaning in Determiners.lean).

                                                        Cross-references for in years (the NPI-gap entry):

                                                        • Theories/Semantics/Tense/PTS.lean :: inYears — Iatridou-Zeijlstra 2021 boundary-adverbial projection (PTS-tradition apparatus).
                                                        • Fragments/English/PolarityItems.lean :: inYears — polarity-theoretic projection (Israel 1996 / 2001 scalar model). Consolidating the three views into a single canonical entry plus derived projections is a follow-up refactor.
                                                        • form : String

                                                          Surface form (e.g., "in", "for", "ago")

                                                        • Sub-class of duration adverbial

                                                        • isPostposition : Prop

                                                          True for postpositions (ago); most duration adverbials are prepositions.

                                                        • vendlerSelection : Option Features.Telicity

                                                          Aspectual class the adverbial selects for at the VP it modifies (Vendler-level consensus; @cite{vendler-1957}). none = no restriction; some .telic = requires accomplishment/achievement; some .atelic = requires state/activity.

                                                        • Iatridou-Anagnostopoulou-Izvorski 2001 typological classification. durative = pins the left boundary of the perfect time span; inclusive = leaves the LB free. none for entries that don't participate in the perfect-time-span typology.

                                                        • polaritySensitive : Prop

                                                          Is this entry itself a polarity-sensitive item?

                                                        • Polarity-item type if polaritySensitive (Zwarts 1998 strong/weak). Strong NPIs (in years) require anti-additive licensors; weak NPIs require any DE licensor.

                                                        • requiresPerfect : Prop

                                                          Distributional licensing flags (theory-neutral surface facts).

                                                        • requiresNegation : Prop
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                                                            in three days (telic-completion): "Mary wrote a paper in three days". Selects telic VPs (accomplishment / achievement). Not an NPI. IAI 2001 classification: inclusive (leaves PTS LB free).

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                                                              in years / in days / in months (NPI-gap reading): "Mary hasn't been sick in years". Strong NPI. Requires the perfect and negative polarity. IAI 2001 classification: durative (pins PTS LB).

                                                              Same surface preposition as inTelic; the two readings are distinguished by syntactic position and licensing environment.

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                                                                for three hours (atelic-durative): "Mary was sick for three hours". Selects atelic VPs (state / activity). IAI 2001 classification: durative when combined with the perfect (pins PTS LB by specifying duration).

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                                                                  three days ago: postposed deictic past offset. The lone English postposition. Combines with a measure phrase to locate an event a specified duration prior to the utterance time. Not an NPI; does not require the perfect.

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                                                                    All duration adverbial entries.

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                                                                      Both in-readings share the surface preposition.

                                                                      Surface form of telic in agrees with the canonical preposition entry.

                                                                      Surface form of NPI-gap in agrees with the canonical preposition entry.

                                                                      Telicity-selection pattern: telic in selects telic VPs; atelic for selects atelic VPs; the gap reading and ago have no Vendler restriction.

                                                                      IAI 2001 durative-vs-inclusive classification: for and the NPI-gap in pin the PTS left boundary (durative); telic in leaves it free (inclusive); ago is outside the PTS typology entirely.