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):
TemporalExprEntry— ordering expressions: subordinating connectives (before, after, while, when, until, since, till) and ordering modifiers (within, at, by). ThecomplementTypefield captures the clausal-vs-nominal distinction; semantic fields (order,licensesNPI,complementVeridical) are shared so generalizations like @cite{rett-2020}'s veridicality typology apply uniformly.DurationExprEntry— duration / measure adverbials: for, in (telic and NPI-gap readings), ago. These take a measure phrase and yield a modifier whose semantics involves measuring an interval rather than ordering two time points. The schema is consensus-only: surface form, IAI 2001 typological classification, NPI status and strength, perfect / negation requirements, Vendler-class selection. Paper-specific apparatus (Rouillard 2026's E-TIA / G-TIA labels, M = τ vs M = id parameterization, IAI's PTS apparatus) lives in the relevant Theory or Studies file as partial projections fromDurationExprEntry, not as fields on it.
Temporal ordering relation encoded by a connective or modifier.
- before : TemporalOrder
- after : TemporalOrder
- while_ : TemporalOrder
- when_ : TemporalOrder
- until_ : TemporalOrder
- since_ : TemporalOrder
- by_ : TemporalOrder
- whenever : TemporalOrder
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- Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions.instDecidableEqTemporalOrder x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions.instDecidableEqReading x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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Syntactic complement type: clausal (before she arrived) vs nominal (by 3pm, within an hour).
- clausal : ComplementType
- nominal : ComplementType
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- Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions.instDecidableEqComplementType x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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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
- order : TemporalOrder
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"orsome "COMPLET"for modifiers that force coercion (e.g. within, at).nonefor connectives like before/after where coercion is optional — those usecoercedReadingto record the alternative reading available through voluntary coercion.
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- Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions.instBEqTemporalExprEntry.beq x✝¹ x✝ = false
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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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All eight temporal orders in the enum have corresponding entries.
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.
Till and until agree on all semantic properties.
The complement-type field correctly classifies all entries.
As long as agrees with while on all semantic properties.
As soon as agrees with after on ordering and veridicality.
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.
- telicCompletion : DurationKind
- atelicDurative : DurationKind
- pastOffset : DurationKind
- npiGap : DurationKind
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- Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions.instDecidableEqDurationKind x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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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") - kind : DurationKind
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. - iaiClassification : Option Semantics.Tense.TemporalAdverbials.AdverbialType
Iatridou-Anagnostopoulou-Izvorski 2001 typological classification.
durative= pins the left boundary of the perfect time span;inclusive= leaves the LB free.nonefor entries that don't participate in the perfect-time-span typology. - polaritySensitive : Prop
Is this entry itself a polarity-sensitive item?
- polarityType : Option Typology.PolarityItem.PolarityType
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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- Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions.ago = { form := "ago", kind := Fragments.English.TemporalExpressions.DurationKind.pastOffset, isPostposition := True }
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All duration adverbial entries.
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Surface form of telic in agrees with the canonical preposition entry.
Surface form of NPI-gap in agrees with the canonical preposition entry.
Ago is the only postposition among duration adverbials.
Only the NPI-gap reading is polarity-sensitive.
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.