Three types of expression which combine the marker of relation with a temporal interval are not easy to classify either as tools of temporal localising or durative temporalisation.
The former include temporal frames within which the situation took or will have taken place (in two hours,during last two months,within the next hour):
(11) Look at your dad, he died in three days.(BNC 2007: KBB 6994)
Such expressions may be calledFRAME ADVERBIALS (in Stawnicka 2007:
129durative frame adverbials) as they provide an interval within which theTR
to whichTSITis assigned is included but it does not necessarily fill this interval
entirely. In other words, theTRto whichTSITis assigned in (11) is not equal to the whole interval ofthree days. I elaborate on this in Sections 3.8.3 and 4.5.3).
The other two types do not apply toTSITreferred to by the main verb but to some time posterior toTSIT:
(12) Further talks are scheduledfor 16 October.(BNC 2007: A30 666) (13) But Moon still hopes to be fit for the Wales squad that leavesfor a week
of warm-weather training in Lanzaroteon Tuesday. (BNC 2007: CBG 3455)
Both types can be characterised asprospective, but, as mentioned above, they do not refer toTSITofS presented in the sentence. In (12),for 16 Octoberis a marker ofTRwhenfurther talksshould take place. In (13),for a weekmeans ‘in order to spend somewhere as much time as’. Therefore, it should be treated as a marker of degree.
Date does not need to fulfil a temporal function:
(14) Mutually agree ona suitable time.7
a suitable timecan be considered as topic or content, as in the phraseagree on meeting.
2.5 Pluractionality
2.5.1 Parameters of pluractionality
The termPLURACTIONALITYwas introduced by Newman (1980). In the present work, I understand pluractionality in the narrow sense, as the capacity of assigning
TSITto distinctTRs.
As explained below pluractionality has three parameters:
• temporal quantification (specificity of assignment toTR)
• quantification over referents (individual-level versus stage-level or kind-referring versus non-kind-kind-referring)
• type specifying the frequency of repetition I will explain those parameters below.
7https://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Handover-in-an-Office
2.5.2 Temporal quantifiers
There are two main types of temporal quantifier: existential and universal. In the first type, occurrences of situations are described, and TSITis assignable toTR, but the degree of certainty aboutTRof individual occurrences varies:
(15) a. specific
Yesterday, I ate lobster for dinner.
b. non-specific
I have been to Warsaw.
Specific and non-specific sentences represent occurrences of situations. They refer to situations anchored to at least one unit belonging to some timespace. In the case of a specific occurrence, it is possible to logically evaluate the following expression: ‘There exist(s) a particular moment(s) X when S happens’ as true or false. In non-specific cases, the expression must be transformed as follows:
‘There exist(s) somemoment(s) X when S happens.’ Thus, in specific temporal quantification, the TRto whichTSITis assigned is known and probably relevant for the utterance, while in non-specific temporal quantification, the speaker does not knowTR, or does not consider it relevant for the utterance.
In universal quantification,TSITcannot be assigned to any particularTR: (16) a. The lion has a bushy tail.(in the sense: ‘Each lion’s tail is bushy.’)
b. Four is an even number. (in the sense: ‘Being an even number is a property of number four.’)
(17) a. Maria dances nicely. (in the sense: ‘If it happens that Maria is danc-ing, she is doing it nicely.’)
b. The diplodocus ate leaves. (in the sense: ‘If animals representing the species diplodocus ate something, those were leaves.’)
Sentences quantified universally are continuously valid, but they do not de-scribe occurrences of situations. Nevertheless, the sentences in (16) differ from those in (17). The former areSTATEMENTSused to formulate some general, omni-temporal laws; the latter reflectPATTERNSof situations.
2.5.3 Quantification over referents
The possibility of assigningTSIT toTR depends on the type of referents, which may be either:8
• individual or generic9
• real or abstract
The difference between individual and generic types of reference has much in common with existentially and universally quantified situations, that is, between occurrences and patterns of occurrences. In this case, the distinction is between an individual and the class to which the individual belongs. As shown in (17), universally quantified sentences may apply to both individual (17a) and generic referents (17b).
Some referents are seemingly existentially quantified as below:
(18) Pohjolan North
asukkaatkin inhabitant.PL.too
tutustuivat
acquaint.SPST.3PL
1800-luvulta
‘The inhabitants of the Northalso became familiar with the city life-stylestarting from the nineteenth century.’ (S63)
(19) Tavallinen
push.way.SPST.3PL
sen it.GEN
keskuuteen.
among.ILL
‘The ordinary peoplestarted to cope withconscious shynessprobably only whenschool and other modern society’s institutions and customs pushed in in the nineteenth century.’ (S77)
8The number of referents should also be accounted for: this usually influences the situation-internal pluractionality.
9Or: individual or stage level Shluinsky (2009); non-kind-referring or kind-referring (Krifka et al. 1995).
Nevertheless, it is hard to assign theTSITof situations to any specificTRs even though a temporal localising expression (1800-luvulla) ‘in the nineteenth century’
or durative temporalisation (1800-luvulta alkaen) ‘starting from the nineteenth century’ are given.
The reason for that is the abstract character of the bolded referents in the sen-tences, which support the case against the existential temporal quantification of the sentence. The more abstract the referent, the more probable it is that theTSIT
cannot be assigned to any particularTR.
Nonetheless, abstract entities can also appear in specific situations:
(20) The European Parliament voted today on Mr Casaca’s report on dis-charge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Parliament for the 2007 budgetary year.10
2.5.4 Specifying type of frequency
The way frequency is specified in the sentence complements the distinction be-tween universal and existentially quantified situations and fills in the continuum betweenTSITs of existentially quantified situations assigned to oneTRs andTSITs of universal situations assignable to an infinite or unknown number ofTRs. There-fore, it makes sense to distinguish between at least three basic types of frequency marking:
• summaric (e.g.seven times,twice)
• specific cycle type (e.g.daily, every two hours)
• unspecific cycle type (e.g.often,rarely,continuously,usually,always) Not only adverbial expressions may be used to specify the frequency, but lan-guages use particular grammatical forms or constructions to express, for example, events of specific (21) or unspecific cycle (22) type, such as Englishused to:
(21) Hanna used to eat cake in this pastry shop every Friday.
(22) Hanna used to wear blue shoes.
10 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20090423+ITEMS+DOC+XML+V0//EN\&language=EN\
#creitem7