Tense and Aspect: The Contextual Processing of Semantic Indeterminacy (review)

Based on the 1998 conference of the Linguistic Society of Belgium, this collection of eleven papers addresses topics having to do with the grammatical categories of tense and aspect. A common thread of most of the papers, however, is an emphasis on the nonverbal complements of the context such as adverbials and connectives. As the editors state, ‘the different articles in this volume confirm in various ways the idea that tense and aspect are but one element in the final interpretation of the verb and the predicate’ (ix).

Following the introduction, which is a mechanical overview of the volume’s contents, the first several papers are concerned with adverbial expressions complementing tense and aspect. Two of these papers deal with the progressive: Seiko Ayano’s ‘The progressive in Japanese and temporal advancement in narrative’ (1–19) and Anna Espunya’s ‘On the semantics of the Spanish progressive sequence ir + gerund’ (21–42). The latter paper, which argues that ir + gerund is a linear progressive with subdivided stages in the development of an event, as opposed to estar + gerund (a stative progressive) might now take advantage of Rena Torres Cacoullos’ Grammaticization, synchronic variation, and language contact: A study of Spanish progressive -ndo constructions (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2000) for a diachronic and synchronic view of the ir + gerund as compared to the other -ndo constructions.

Another paper of note, that of Guido vanden Wyngaerd, ‘Aspects of (un)boundedness’ (77–102), examines resultative secondary predicates (especially adjectival predicates) and shows that they have a boundedness requirement because they are measures for the event rather than an end point to the activity of a verb.

Two interesting papers deal with connectives—that of Sophie Aslanides, ‘The linguistic expression of a semantic relation’ (175–88), and Rosalind Dilys, ‘Reference values in present-tense when-clauses’ (189–208). The first elaborates on a taxonomy of connectives of simultaneity in French while the second demonstrates that the English when acts as an aspectualizer, imparting a perfective format to a when-clause situation.

The paper by Jean-Christophe Pitavy, ‘Tell me, Socrates…’ (149–73), also has to do with connective particles and adverbials, this time with regard to the aspectual opposition between aorist and present in the invitation to speak formulas in the Greek of Plato’s dialogues. Pitavy argues that the aorist is used to mark a new agent or a change in process while the present is used to emphasize continuity.

The final paper, ‘The referentiality of tenses’ by Theo A. J. M. Janssen (209–26), is a fitting conclusion to the volume in that it brings the importance of context to a non-time based interpretation of tenses. Janssen argues that tenses in English and Dutch do not convey temporal information by nature, but they ‘locate a situation within a frame of reference in relation to a vantage point’ (211); for example, present and past tense morphemes signal ‘verb-in-THIS-context-of-situation’, and ‘verb-in-THAT-context-of-situation’, respectively.

As is the usual practice for this annual publication, each paper is preceded by an abstract and concluded with notes and references, but there is no general bibliography or index.