When-Clauses and Temporal Structure

Tense is one of the central issues of linguistics, and has been the focus of much attention in recent years. In this book, Declerck offers a detailed discussion of the temporal structures that are expressed by the combination of tense forms with the conjunctionwhen.He is able to develop and test his earlier model and in doing so reveals the close relation between the semantics ofwhenand the English tense system. Included are a detailed functional typology of Englishwhen-clauses, a model of the English tense system, an analysis of the possible tense combination--both normal and special--in head clauses andwhen-clauses, a discussion of the many different temporal interpretations ofwhen-clauses, and a treatment of the special class of "narrativewhen-clauses". The specific focus is on how situations are located in time sentences involving both a headclause and a when-clause.

Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: A typology of when-clauses Chapter 3: The 'temporal conjunction' when Chapter 4: A model of the English tense system Chapter 5: WCs and temporal structure Chapter 6: Canonical WCs and the expression of temporal relations Chapter 7: Special relative tense uses in canonical WCs Chapter 8: Canonical WCs establishing a temporal domain Chapter 9: The interpretation of canonical WCs Chapter 10: Narrative WCs Chapter 11: WCs other than canonical or narrative WCs Chapter 12: Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index