Tense, Aspect, and Modality

This topic studies how languages locate situations in time (tense), portray their internal temporal structure (aspect), and express possibility and necessity (modality).

Definition

Tense locates a situation in time relative to the moment of speech; aspect characterizes its internal temporal makeup; modality expresses notions of possibility, necessity, and other ways the world might be.

Scope

The topic covers temporal semantics, including the Reichenbachian analysis of tense in terms of speech, event, and reference times; grammatical aspect (perfective vs. imperfective) and its interaction with lexical aspect; and modality, especially Kratzer's possible-worlds analysis of modals as quantifiers over worlds restricted by a modal base and ordering source. It connects these intensional and temporal phenomena to the broader formal-semantic machinery of possible worlds and times.

Core questions

• How do languages encode the location of events in time?
• What is the difference between grammatical aspect and lexical aspect?
• How can modal expressions be given a uniform possible-worlds semantics?
• How do modal flavour (epistemic, deontic, circumstantial) and modal force (possibility, necessity) arise?

Key concepts

• speech, event, and reference time
• perfective vs. imperfective aspect
• lexical aspect / Aktionsart
• modal base and ordering source
• modal force and modal flavour
• epistemic vs. deontic modality

Key theories

Kratzer's possible-worlds semantics for modals

Modals are quantifiers over possible worlds whose interpretation is fixed by a contextually supplied modal base and ordering source, deriving epistemic, deontic, and other readings from a single core meaning.

Reichenbachian tense and aspect

Tense is analysed using relations among speech time, event time, and reference time, and aspect is distinguished as the grammaticalized viewpoint (perfective vs. imperfective) on a situation's internal structure.

History

Reichenbach's mid-century analysis of tense in terms of three temporal points shaped formal treatments of tense, and Comrie's textbooks systematized the cross-linguistic study of aspect and tense. Kratzer's work from the late 1970s onward provided the standard possible-worlds semantics for modality, unifying its many flavours through context-supplied conversational backgrounds.

Debates

Tense as a pronoun vs. a quantifier over times

Whether tense should be analysed as referential (anaphoric to a contextually given time, like a pronoun) or as an existential quantifier over times, with evidence drawn from anaphora and sequence-of-tense phenomena.

Key figures

• Angelika Kratzer
• Bernard Comrie
• Hans Reichenbach

Seminal works

• kratzer2012
• comrie1976
• comrie1985

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between epistemic and deontic modality?

Epistemic modality concerns what is possible or necessary given what is known ('it must be raining'), whereas deontic modality concerns what is permitted or required given rules or obligations ('you must leave'); in Kratzer's account both arise from the same modal meaning with different conversational backgrounds.