Docs / Studies / Studies.VonStechow2009
von Stechow, A. (2009). In The Expression of Time (pp. 129–166). Mouton de Gruyter
Von Stechow gives English tense a compositional semantics. The Present denotes the speech time; the Past is indefinite, an existential quantifier over the times before its local evaluation time, and so is the auxiliary have; will is its mirror image and be passes its time on. Against Partee's referential Past, the indefinite Past restricted to the times the speaker has in mind gives the truth conditions of her stove sentence and, unlike the referential one, lets negation and quantifiers scope over tense. Relative-clause tenses are bound pronouns, attitude complements are properties of times, and before and after take the earliest time of their clause. Along the way he argues that achievements need moments but not discrete time.
A time is a moment, a point of a linear order, or an interval of moments, mathlib's
NonemptyInterval, whose ≤ is the subinterval relation. A tense is possibility ◇ along its
cell read as a relation (Semantics/Tense/Quantificational.lean), so ◇[toSetRel ⟦past⟧] P s
says that P held at some time before s.
The tense entries, relative clauses, attitudes and adjunct clauses are stated on moments, the
arguments about the perfective, frame adverbials and the extended now on intervals, where
before is NonemptyInterval.Precedes; on and in are ≤, at is equality. The
referential Past (47), which von Stechow takes from Heim, is the presupposition
Perspective.Presup Allen.precedes; the Perfective (50) and the extended-now perfect (28) are
Aspect.PRFV and Aspect.PERF, and quantization (12) is Krifka's Mereology.QUA. The printed
restricted Past (53) compares the quantified time with the speech time where its λ-bound
argument is meant, as (57) shows; the printed EARLIEST (91) requires the earliest time to
precede every time of the clause, itself included, and is read as IsLeast. Doxastic
alternatives are relations on worlds indexed by times, or on world–time pairs. Feature
transmission, PRO movement, the deletion of tenses under tenses, the progressive and the
operators THR, ST and EV are not formalized. The examples are the rows of
Data.Examples.VonStechow2009.
Dowty's semantics for an achievement such as find (10) holds of an interval at whose left
bound φ fails and at whose right bound it holds, no proper subinterval being such a change.
Used by dowtyAchievement_iff, not_dowtyAchievement
Built from
In dense time no interval satisfies Dowty's semantics (footnote 7).
Built from
Von Stechow's semantics for an achievement (11) holds at a moment where φ holds, approached
from the left by a stretch where it fails.
Used by achievement_rat
Von Stechow's semantics is satisfiable in the rationals.
Built from
In John has called yesterday (42, Examples.ex_42) yesterday modifies the extended-now
interval, which ends at the speech time, so the sentence is contradictory unless the speech time
is on yesterday.
A Sunday is the day starting at a multiple of seven.
Used by every_sunday
If John works every Sunday, John worked on every Sunday said on day ten is true on reading (45) and false on (44a) and (44b).
Built from
The contextually restricted Past (53) holds of a predicate at σ when some interval of the
domain K before σ satisfies it.
Used by restrictedPast_Iic_iff_prfv, not_restrictedPast_of_not_past, exists_not_restrictedPast_past
Restricted to subintervals of a time the referential Past (47) admits, the indefinite Past is the Perfective (50), so (52) and (54) agree.
Built from
Built from
Built from
The referential analysis (59) is too weak, since a short reference time leaves room for rain elsewhere in today.
In the simultaneous reading (66) of Mary will buy a fish that is alive the relative-clause pronoun is bound by will, so the fish is alive at the buying.
Used by exists_simultaneous_not_deictic, exists_deictic_not_simultaneous
In the deictic reading (67) the pronoun is bound by the matrix Present, so the fish is alive now.
Used by exists_simultaneous_not_deictic, exists_deictic_not_simultaneous
Built from ,
Built from ,
On the anaphoric analysis (77), At five o'clock Mary thought it was six o'clock holds exactly when Mary's beliefs at five are inconsistent.
When the clause has an earliest time, before the earliest time is the before ever of Anscombe 1964, the universal before that von Stechow attributes to her.
And after the earliest time is the existential after of Anscombe 1964.