These attributes express the event-time in relation to the speaker. They are used to attach the main UW of a predicate.
|
@past |
In
the past In English, the past tense is normally expressed by @past gHe went there yesterdayh {unl} agt(go.@entry.@past, he) c {/unl} |
|
In Japanese, an auxiliary verb g~tah can
express the past. gkinou ha yuki ga futtah (It was snowing yesterday) {unl} tim ( snow.@entry.@past, yesterday ) {/unl} |
|
|
@present |
In
the present gItfs raining hardh {unl} man ( rain.@entry.@present.@progress, hard ) {/unl} |
|
@future |
In
the future gHe will arrive ch {unl} agt ( arrive.@entry.@future, he ) {/unl} |
Although in
many languages this information is signalled by tense markings on verbs, the
concept is not tense but gtime with respect to the speakerh. For instance, @present
is not attached to gThe earth is roundh and gFive plus three is [equals]
eighth; they are not interpreted as being in the present even though the tenses
are in the gpresenth.
@past, @present and @future can be used in both ways: to modify the UW to which they are attached directly, or to be used in combination with other attributes of aspects, for instance the evaluations of the speaker. If any attributes of aspects or evaluations of the speaker are attached to an UW together, @past, @present or @future is treated as modifying such attributes, otherwise it modifies the UW directly. For instance, gsing.@begin.@pasth means gbegan to singh, gsing.@begin.@soon.@pasth means gwas/were about to singh, and gsing.@pasth means gsangh, and so on.
With respect to time related to other events, or the so-called reference-time proposed by Reichenbach[1], it is expressed by using a kind of Relative UW such as gafter(icl>time)h or gbefore(icl>time)h. For example, the UNL for the sentences gHe had already left when she came thereh and gShe came there when he had already lefth will be the following:
a) He had
already left when she came there.
{unl}
agt(leave.@past.@complete.@entry,
he)
tim(leave.@past.@complete.@entry,
before(icl>time))
obj(before(icl>time), come.@past)
agt(come.@past, she)
gol(come.@past, there)
{/unl}
b) She came there when he had already left.
{unl}
agt(leave.@past.@complete, he)
obj(after(icl>time), leave.@past.@complete)
tim(come.@past.@entry, after(icl>time))
agt(come.@past,@entry, she)
gol(come.@past.@entry, there)
{/unl}