Infinitival before and after-clauses in European Portuguese: temporal and aspectual properties

Infinitival before and after-clauses in European Portuguese: temporal and aspectual properties Purificação Silvano [email protected] Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto Centro de Linguística da Universidade do Porto Luís Filipe Cunha1 [email protected] Centro de Linguística da Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto ABSTRACT. The main goal of this paper is to discuss temporal and aspectual features of sentences with clauses introduced by the connectives antes de + Infinitivo (‘before’ + Infinitive) and depois de + Infinitivo (‘after’ + Infinitive) combined with situations in the Pretérito Perfeito in European Portuguese. Our discussion is based on the widespread view that these clauses are locating adverbials (cf. Kamp and Reyle (1993)) with temporal information of anteriority, in the case of antes de, and posteriority, in the case of depois de. However, this analysis is not as straightforward as one would expect, because, while before-clauses consistently render the same temporal relation (of anteriority), after-clauses may convey a temporal relation of inclusion, in addition to the standard posteriority relation. We put forward the hypothesis that aspectual characteristics play an important role in these differences, insofar as allowing a temporal reading that at first sight is not predicted from the semantic nature of the connective. In order to maintain a uniform treatment of before and after-clauses with respect to their temporal features, accounting simultaneously for the differences that emerge in their linguistic behaviour, we claim, along with Beaver & Condoravdi (2003) and Condoravdi (2010), that the locating time interval provided by these clauses is bounded to the left, but not to the right, that is, what is focused is the initial frontier of the situation that provides the time interval, leaving the final one undetermined. Furthermore, we show that, although the temporal mechanisms are parallel, the interference of aspectual properties leads to interesting differences in the final interpretation of before and after-sentences. KEY-WORDS. semantics; before and after-clauses; temporal and aspectual features; European Portuguese We would like to thank Fátima Oliveira, António Leal, Fátima Silva and Idalina Ferreira for their support, as well as CLUP and FCT. We would also like to express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their thorough and valuable comments. 1 Paper financed by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, QREN – POPH – Tipologia 4.1. – Formação avançada, comparticipado pelo Fundo Social Europeu e por fundos nacionais do MEC. 132 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 1. Introduction One of the most common and widespread views about subordinate sentences introduced by antes de (‘before’) and depois de (‘after’) is that they act as temporal locating adverbials (cf. Partee (1984); Hinrichs (1986); Kamp & Reyle (1993); García Fernandez (1999); Lopes & Morais (1999); Declerck (2006), among others), establishing the Location Time (Lt) for the main clause with which they are combined. The main goal of this paper is to discuss the temporal2 and aspectual features of sentences with clauses introduced by the connectives antes de + Infinitivo (‘before’ + Infinitive) and depois de + Infinitivo (‘after’ + Infinitive) combined with main clauses in the Pretérito Perfeito3 in European Portuguese4, aiming at obtaining a unified treatment of these constructions that, nonetheless, is able to deal with some problematic data that earlier proposals did not take into account or did not develop to a full extent (cf. Partee (1984); Beaver & Condoravdi (2003), and, specifically for European Portuguese, Móia (2000); Lobo (2014); Silvano (2010), a.o.). In order to achieve this goal, we will follow Beaver & Condoravdi’s (2003) analysis regarding the choice of the relevant intervals for the eventualities of before and after-clauses. However, we will develop their proposal by focusing on the consequences of such an analysis with respect to the aspectual treatment of the eventualities represented in the subordinate clauses under discussion. Typically, before-clauses locate the situation presented in the main clause at an interval prior to the time at which the eventuality they describe takes place; conversely, after-clauses impose a relation of posteriority to the situation in the main clause with respect to the interval they identify. However, as we will discuss shortly, there are empirical data that conflict with this analysis, asking for a more elaborate explanation. In particular, 2 In this paper, we are mainly concerned with the influence of the eventualities’ aspectual features in the final temporal interpretation of the sentences. However, we will not explore the role played by tenses in these sentences. For a detailed discussion, see Declerck (2006) and Silvano (2010). 3 Notice that, in European Portuguese, there are two tenses that correspond to the English Simple Past, the Pretérito Perfeito, with a terminative value, and the Pretérito Imperfeito, with an imperfective value (Cf. Oliveira & Lopes (1995), Oliveira (2003; 2013) for a characterization of tenses in European Portuguese). 4 In European Portuguese, besides the structures that select the Infinitive, antes (‘before’) can also combine with inflected sentences introduced by que (‘that’) and selecting the Subjunctive. However, as pointed out by Marques & Alves (2014), these two constructions differ in many respects. In particular, some sentences with antes que + Conjuntivo (‘before that + Subjunctive’) behave much like purpose clauses in so far as they involve some kind of intentionality associated to the attainment of a particular goal – that of avoiding the situation described in the subordinate clause or its consequences. We will not deal with these structures here, referring the interested reader to Marques & Alves’ work. 133 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 regarding the relationship between the eventualities, although all beforeclauses combined with Pretérito Perfeito in the main clause impose a precedence relation, not all after-clauses in the same context determine a relation of succession, because, given the appropriate circumstances, they can have readings in which some kind of inclusion emerges. We argue that this asymmetry calls for an analysis in which temporal properties closely interact with aspectual characteristics, in order to preserve a unified treatment of before and after-clauses. 2. The puzzle Commonly, before and after-clauses are treated as entirely symmetric temporal adverbials that supply the location time 5 for the main clauses with which they co-occur. 6 Before-clauses locate the main situation in an interval preceding the location time they establish; conversely, after-clauses locate the main situation in an interval following the location time they define.7 Examples (1) and (2) illustrate: (1) Antes de ir ao cinema, o João jantou. (e2 < e1) ‘Before of go (INF.) to-the cinema, the João dine (S.PAST PERF)’8 ‘Before going to the cinema, João had dinner’ (2) Depois de ir ao cinema, o João jantou. (e1 < e2) ‘After of go (INF.) to-the cinema, the João dine (S.PAST PERF)’’ ‘After going to the cinema, João had dinner’ 5 As far as the Temporal Perspective Point of the situation represented by the main clause is concerned, since we are dealing with data with the Pretérito Perfeito, the interval that acts as TPpt is the utterance time. For the analysis of the TPpt in data with other tenses, see Silvano 2010. 6 Another aspect in which before and after-clauses differ considerably – and, thus, are not symmetric – concerns the veridicality of the relevant situations (cf. Krifka 2010). While after-clauses are always veridical, the sentences represented in before-clauses may convey non-veridical eventualities. It is the case, for instance, of the event in the before-clause of a sentence like “before composing his requiem, Mozart died” (i.e., actually, Mozart did not compose his requiem). Since a discussion involving modality is called for properly explain these readings, and it goes beyond the goal of the present research, we will not address further the problem in this paper. 7 It is interesting to note, with Krifka (2010, section 4), that after and before-clauses can include measuring temporal phrases in their structure, as illustrated by examples like “O João tomou o pequeno-almoço meia hora antes de sair” (‘João had his breakfast half an hour before leaving’). The fact that the measure phrases are directly associated to the before or after-clause can be invoked as an additional argument in favour of the idea that it is the subordinate sentence – and not the main one – that establishes the relevant locating interval. 8 S.PAST PERF stands for the tense Simple Past with the aspectual value terminative. 134 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 As expected, the main situation in (1) – “João had dinner” – is located in an interval that precedes the eventuality that establishes the location time – “João going to the cinema”. The substitution of the connective antes (‘before’) for depois (‘after’), however, produces the opposite result: in (2) the main situation – “João had dinner” – follows obligatorily the eventuality that establishes its location time, namely “João going to the cinema”, as expected by the lexical meaning of the connectives. However, if we consider now the presence of stative situations in the subordinate clause, we find that an exact parallelism between configurations involving the connectives before and after is not observed. Consider the following sentences: (3) Antes de estar grávida, a Maria comprou roupas novas. ‘Before of be (INF.) pregnant, the Maria buy (S.PAST PERF) clothes new’ ‘Before being pregnant, Maria bought new clothes’ (4) Depois de estar grávida, a Maria comprou roupas novas. ‘After of be (INF.) pregnant, the Maria buy (S.PAST PERF) clothes new’ ‘After being pregnant, Maria bought new clothes’ Like (1), (3) has only one possible reading, in which Maria bought new clothes in an interval that obligatorily precedes her pregnancy. However, contrary to (2), (4) is ambiguous, conveying two distinct interpretations: in one of them, parallel to (2), Maria bought new clothes in an interval that is completely posterior to her pregnancy (that is, in a period of time in which she is no longer pregnant); in the other one, however, Maria bought new clothes in an interval that is included in her pregnancy state (that is, in a period of time in which she is still pregnant). The question we are faced with is whether these data mean that we have to treat differently the semantics of before and after-clauses. That is, we wonder whether the data adduced above validate a hypothesis of analysis in which the semantic mechanisms of temporal location of after and before differ significantly. Nevertheless, such an option would, in our view, bear undesirable consequences. First, a completely separate temporal analysis for before and afterclauses would obscure the intuitive parallelism that nevertheless seems to 135 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 exist between these two configurations. We would lose a desirable uniform treatment for these structures. Second, it would be necessary to postulate two distinct temporal analyses for the different temporal readings associated to after-clauses: a posterior and an inclusive one. It is, though, not clear that this ambiguity can be directly ascribed to the lexical features of the connective after. A third shortcoming of this kind of analysis has to do with the fact that it would not properly take the central role played by aspectual restrictions into account. As we will demonstrate shortly, the aspectual class of the predication of the subordinate clause is decisive regarding the interpretative possibilities observed in these sentences. So, we will pursue in this paper the hypothesis that after and beforeclauses show symmetric temporal features that lead to symmetric mechanisms of temporal location. The interpretative divergences that we have noticed earlier can be explained by the interaction of these constant mechanisms of temporal location with some relevant aspectual characteristics of the predications at issue. Before presenting our proposal, we will look more closely at the interaction between the aspectual classes occurring in before and afterclauses and the different temporal interpretations. 3. Aspect and temporal interpretation in before and after-clauses Before-clauses with Pretérito Perfeito in the main clause exhibit an invariable temporal interpretation, regardless of the aspectual class of the predication in the subordinate clause. They consistently locate the situation of the main clause in an interval that entirely precedes the occurrence of the eventuality in the subordinate clause. The following examples illustrate this:9 (5) Antes de fechar a loja, a Teresa arrumou os livros. (culmination) ‘Before of close (INF.) the shop, the Teresa arrange (S.PAST PERF) the books’ ‘Before closing the shop, Teresa arranged the books’ 9 We will follow here the aspectual classification proposed in Moens (1987) and Moens & Steedman (1988). Notice also that we will only concentrate on the aspectual class of the predication in the subordinate clause, since it establishes the relevant Lt, ignoring that of the main clause. 136 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 (6) Antes de escrever o artigo, o Luís comeu um chocolate. (culminated process) ‘Before of write (INF.) the paper, the Luís eat (S.PAST PERF) a chocolate’ ‘Before writing the paper, Luís ate a chocolate’ (7) Antes de viajar, o João encontrou-se com a Maria. (process) ‘Before of travel (INF.), the João meet (S.PAST PERF) with the Maria’ ‘Before travelling, João met with Maria’ (8) Antes de viver em Londres, o Pedro trabalhou na IBM. (state) ‘Before of live (INF.) in London, the Pedro work (S.PAST PERF) in-the IBM’ ‘Before living in London, Pedro worked for IBM’ (9) Antes de ser futebolista, o Rui estudou filosofia. (state) ‘Before of be (INF.) football-player, the Rui study (S.PAST PERF) philosophy’ ‘Before being a football player, Rui studied philosophy’ In all of these sentences, regardless of the aspectual class of the predication that occurs in the before-clause, we observe that the two situations establish a relation of succession: the end of the situation in the main clause must have taken place in an interval that necessarily comes before the beginning of the eventuality in the subordinate clause. In other words, the two situations never overlap. Consider now similar examples with after-clauses: (10) Depois de fechar a loja, a Teresa arrumou os livros. (culmination) ‘After of close (INF.) the shop, the Teresa arrange (S.PAST PERF) the books’ ‘After closing the shop, Teresa arranged the books’ (11) Depois de escrever o artigo, o Luís comeu um chocolate. (culminated process) ‘After of write (INF.) the paper, the Luís eat (S.PAST PERF) a chocolate’ ‘After writing the paper, Luís ate a chocolate’ (12) Depois de trabalhar, o João encontrou-se com a Maria. (process) ‘After of work (INF.), the João meet (S.PAST PERF) with the Maria’ ‘After working, João met with Maria’ (13) Depois de viver em Londres, o Pedro trabalhou na IBM. (state) ‘After of live (INF.) in London, the Pedro work (S.PAST PERF) in-the IBM’ ‘After living in London, Pedro worked for IBM’ (14) Depois de ser futebolista, o Rui estudou filosofia. (state) ‘After of be (INF.) football-player, the Rui study (S.PAST PERF) philosophy’ ‘After being a football player, Rui studied philosophy’ 137 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 The temporal analysis of these sentences is not as straightforward as the one ascribed to the previous group of examples. Sentences (10)-(12), integrating events in the subordinate clause, are entirely symmetric with respect to their counterparts in (5)-(7). So, the eventualities represented in the main clause begin in an interval that obligatorily follows the end of the situation in the subordinate clause; overlap of the two eventualities is never possible. Examples (13) and (14), however, pose an interesting problem. Surprisingly, as noted in Cunha (2004), they seem to be ambiguous between a complete successive reading and an inclusive reading. For instance, in sentence (13), it is equally possible that Pedro worked for IBM in a period of time in which he is no longer in London – he could have moved to Paris –, corresponding to the interpretation (e1 < e2) or that Pedro worked for IBM while he was still living in London, corresponding to the interpretation (e1 includes e2). In this latter reading, partial overlap between the eventualities is admitted. Contextual factors, as well as our world knowledge, can favour one of these two possibilities, as the contrast between (15) and (16) demonstrates: (15) Depois de ser futebolista, o Rui treinou o FC Porto. ‘After of be (INF.) football-player, the Rui coach (S.PAST PERF) the FC Porto’ ‘After being a football player, Rui coached FC Porto’ (16) Depois de ser futebolista, o Rui jogou em grandes estádios. ‘After of be (INF.) football-player, the Rui play (S.PAST PERF) in great stadiums’ ‘After being a football player, Rui played in great stadiums’ While the most likely reading for (15) points to the complete posteriority of the Rui’s coaching event regarding his being-a-football-player state, the preferred interpretation for (16) involves the inclusion of playing-in-greatstadiums situation into the being-a-football-player state.10 10 In spite of the fact that some native speakers may find the inclusion reading in these contexts marginal, there are several examples produced in real comunicative contexts that strongly point to this interpretation (cf. (i) e (ii)). (i) Pouco tempo depois de estar no Governo, Mariano Gago suspendeu a última fatia do Praxis destinada ao Taguspark (…). (Cetempúblico par=ext337967-clt-96a-1) (ii) Mas há mais alguns sentidos que só descobri depois de ser médico. (http://www.portaldasaude.pt/portal/ conteudos/a+saude+em+portugal/ministerio/comunicacao/discursos+e+intervencoes/nova+medicina.htm) 138 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 Finally, it should be noted that the possibility of having an inclusive reading is highly restricted to the presence of a stative predication in the after-clause11; if we have events in this context, only an interpretation of posteriority is licensed (cf. examples (10)-(12)). 4. Towards a uniform treatment of before and after-clauses Taking the examples discussed so far into account, we might wonder whether it is indeed possible to maintain a symmetric and unified analysis for before and after-clauses that, nevertheless, is also able to explain the observed interpretative divergences between these structures. We will argue in favour of this possibility. Thus, the hypothesis we will develop here, based on the interaction between temporal and aspectual properties, follows such a strategy. First of all, we will assume, as we have already mentioned, along with Partee (1984), Hinrichs (1986), Kamp & Reyle (1993), Lopes & Morais (1999), Móia (2000), Beaver & Condoravdi (2003), among many others, that both before and after-clauses help to establish the location time for the interval of the main clause. In the case of before, the main clause is located in an interval prior to its location time; conversely, in the case of after, the main clause is located in a time interval following its location time. However, we have to look into the exact nature of that location time. If we consider that the location time interval corresponds to the whole situation represented in the subordinate clause, we would obtain wrong predictions. In particular, sentences like (13), (14) and (16), in their inclusive readings, would be immediately ruled out, since, under that analysis, we could only obtain a successive relation between the two eventualities. In other words, overlap would never be possible, contrary to facts. Following Beaver & Condoravdi (2003) and Condoravdi (2010), we will assume that the relevant location time is provided, not by the eventuality as a whole, but, instead, by a salient part of the phase structure associated to the situation in the subordinate clause, as proposed by Heinämäki (1974), among other authors, for similar structures. By default, this will be the initial 11 Partee (1984: 262) claims that before and after-clauses cannot occur with states and processes arguing that apparent states or processes must be interpreted as events inchoatively or, especially with after-clauses, terminatively. Nevertheless, such a stipulation does not explain the inclusive temporal interpretation that arises in sentences like (16). 139 Silvano, Purificação; Cunha, Luís Filipe - Infinitival before and after-clauses... Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto - Vol. 10 - 2015 - 131-145 boundary of the eventuality. The truth conditions are presented in (17): (17) a. A Before B iff (∃t ∈ A) t < earliest.B b. A After B iff (∃t ∈ A) t > earliest.B (Condoravdi (2010: 887)) Taking into account that, in European Portuguese, after and beforeclauses select infinitive forms, for statives and processes their initial frontier is the only available boundary, since these aspectual classes do not convey, by themselves, an intrinsic endpoint.12 On this assumption, the relevant data concerning before-clauses are easily explained: since the situation represented in the main clause must be (completely) located in an interval prior to the initial boundary of the eventuality in the subordinate clause, a relation of anteriority is always required. Overlap is immediately ruled out, at least as far as situations combined with the Pretérito Perfeito13 are concerned, since they must be completely located in an interval that precedes the beginning of the eventuality presented in the before-clause. The case of after-clauses is more complex. Beaver & Condoravdi (2003) and Condoravdi (2010) assume, as we have already pointed out, the same analysis for before and after-clauses in English, the only difference being the temporal ordering relation (cf. (17)). However, such an analysis does not fully explain the data. That is why Krifka (2010) proposes that the relation between the two relevant time intervals must be of precedence and overlap and not only precedence. This temporal characterisation properly describes examples such as (18): (18) The lights went off after she tripped the switch. (Krifka (2010: 921)) Nonetheless, neither author explores the role of aspect in these temporal interpretations. Heinämäki (1974) and Móia (2000) put forward a proposal that tries 12 For those few Portuguese native speakers that find some ambiguity with culminated processes, the relevant boundary may be either the initial one or the culmination itself (cf. Lopes & Morais (2000) for a detailed discussion of this issue). 13 Cf. note 3.