U. 18. Location in time: Temporal relationships. Frequency.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.0. Introduction

• “Time-When” answers the question “WHEN?”, i.e., it explains the different ways in which we express timing of actions and events and it is conveyed through tense, aspect, auxiliaries, and more

• Now… how do explain it? We typically resort to our friends: TEMPORAL ADVERBIALS. Divided into:

  • Types:

    • When (Time-When) (timing)

    • How long (duration)

    • How often (frequency)

  • Forms:

    • Single words → Now I’m going to eat that.

    • Prepositional phrases → John went home on Monday.

    • Noun phrases → Last week, I visited Ahmed

    • Full clauses or subordinate clauses → John went home whenever he felt sick.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.1. Prepositional phrases: at, on, during, and omission of the preposition. 2.1.1. At.

• Refers to:

  • Specific clock times: We need to leave at 6PM.

  • Particular moments: Are you visiting family at Christmas? (Here, for specific holiday dates we use on “On Christmas Day”.

  • Certain situations when it’s conventional: “I usually read at night”

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.1. Prepositional phrases: at, on, during, and omission of the preposition. 2.1.2. On.

• Days and dates: On June 14th, I’ll visit grandma

• Specific days: The party is on Friday

• Parts of the day associated with a particular day or occasion: On a warm summer evening. I got engaged.

**AmE → Omits ‘on’ sometimes: I’ll see you Saturday.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.1. Prepositional phrases: at, on, during, and omission of the preposition. 2.1.3. In

• Parts of the day: In the morning, I visited my friend (at night)

• Larger periods such as months, seasons, years, and centuries: In August… In 2009… In the summer.

• Weeks and other periods: The party is on Friday

• Specific expressions: In the past, in the future…

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.1. Prepositional phrases: at, on, during, and omission of the preposition. 2.1.4. During

• Often overlaps with “in” but focuses on the period in which something happens (THE SPAN)

• Within a period of time: He stayed awake during the night

• In connection with an activity or period: During her studies, she travelled a lot.

• For events occurring at some point within a period: I fell asleep during the film

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.1. Prepositional phrases: at, on, during, and omission of the preposition. 2.1.5. Omission of the preposition

• With NEXT, LAST, THIS, THAT: I’ll see you next week!

• Before tomorrow and yesterday: He left yesterday

• Before certain expressions of time: I’ll see you this evening.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.2. Time relationships. 2.2.1. Before and after.

• They function as:

  • Prepositions → We arrived before sunset

  • Subordinators → She left after the meeting ended.

  • As adverbs → I’ve never seen the film before.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.2. Time relationships. 2.2.2. By

• Used to indicate a deadline → The report must be submitted by tomorrow

• By differs from until “You can stay here until tomorrow” vs “You must leave by tomorrow”.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.2. Time relationships. 2.2.3. Already, still, yet, by now, anymore, no more

• Already → indicates that something has happened before the relevant time: “She already finished cleaning”

• Still → a situation continues to hold at a particular reference time: “She is still with David”

• Yet → usually refers to something expected that hasn’t happened yet: “Have you eaten yet?”

• By now → indicates a time no later than the present moment: “By now, he should’ve somehow realised what he wants to do”.

• Anymore → a situation no longer occurs: “I don’t live here anymore”

• No more → indicates that there is no further occurrence of something: “There’s no more cake for Ana”.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.2. Time relationships. 2.2.4. In and within

• Both used to express a TIMEFRAME (but ≠)

  • In: “I’ll call you in an hour”

  • Within: “I’ll call you within an hour”

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.3. Measuring time.

It serves to accurately measure time involving various structures such as:

• From Present to Past.

• From Present to Future

• Measuring the duration of an activity.

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.4. Adverbs and conjunctions. 2.4.1. Adverbs

• We divide them into:

  • Direct temporal reference (D): Yesterday, last month, today, now…

  • Relative temporal reference (R): Afterwards, later, beforehand, recently…

2. TIME-WHEN. 2.4. Adverbs and conjunctions. 2.4.2. Conjunctions

• When: “Call me when you’re done”

• After: “She left after hearing the news”

• Before: “She left before hearing the news”

• While: “Call me while you’re driving”

• Once: “Call me once you finish eating”

• ASA(P): “Call me as soon as possible”

3. DURATION. 3.0. Introduction

• Answers the question HOW LONG (i.e. provides information about the length of an event)

3. DURATION. 3.1. Common prepositions of duration. 3.1.1. For

• Length of time an action/situation lasted: “She studied piano for a month”, “I studied piano for 5 years”.

• Omitting ‘for’ changes the meaning or is either not normally possible: “[sic] For all my live, I’ve loved music.”

• During v. For.

  • During: The time period when it occurred: “It rained during the night”

  • For: Duration “I trained for three hours”

3. DURATION. 3.1. Common prepositions of duration. 3.1.2. Over

• Sometimes, it has a similar meaning to throughout. Indicates that something takes place throughout or at various points within a particular period.

• Common in: holidays, weekends, longer periods

He stayed over the holidays.

3. DURATION. 3.1. Common prepositions of duration. 3.1.3. From-to

• Specifies both the starting and ending point: The course runs from September to December.

• In AmE → the expression from…through specifies the final point: The course runs from September through December.

• Up to → denotes a LIMIT an action approaches: “He works up to six hours a day”.

3. DURATION. 3.1. Common prepositions of duration. 3.1.4. While, since, until

• While → it introduces a period during which another event or situation occurs. With states, it can describe a situation continuing during that period. With events in indicates that an event occurred during another situation: I visited the USA while Donald Trump was the President.

• Since → indicates a starting point of a period that continues up to a reference time: They’ve lived in Miami since 2010.

• Until → identifies the endpoint, a situation that continues up to that point: I plan to stay until the holidays.

3. DURATION. 3.2. Adverbs and idioms of duration

• ALWAYS, FOREVER, FOR ALL TIME, FOR AGES, LATELY, RECENTLY.

• He has been working for ages (indicates long duration)

• She has been studying recently (opposite)

• Lately and recently can refer to a recent period: She moved here recently (TIME-WHEN) vs She’s been living here recently (DURATION)

3. DURATION. 3.3. Positions of duration expression

• Commonly appears in the final position: She worked here for three months.

• HOWEVER: some adverbs that express duration/temporal manner can occur in ≠ positions: She will temporarily leave him; For three months, she worked here. (EMPHASIS)

4. FREQUENCY. 4.1. Definite (states frequency explicitly).

• 4.1.1. Period frequency.→ Daily, hourly, weekly (both can be adjectives and adverbs)

• 4.1.2. Number frequency → Once, twice, three times, every month..

  • When a number-frequency expression + a period frequency adverb occur together, the number expression usually goes first: He exercises three times daily.

4. FREQUENCY. 4.2. Indefinite (range in frequency)

• 4.2.1. Usual frequency: normally, generally, usually, commonly

• 4.2.2. Continuous/ repeated frequency: always, constantly, continually

• 4.2.3. High: often, frequency, regularly

• 4.2.4. Low or zero: sometimes, seldom, hardly, rarely

• Prepositions like “On occasion, I travel abroad.” Can also be used.

4. FREQUENCY. 4.2. Indefinite (range in frequency). Frequency adverbs

• They commonly occur before the verb: I usually work hard

• With verb ‘to be’, usually after the verb: She is often right

• In some cases, they occur at the beginning: Sometimes, I travel abroad.

5. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 5.1. Relative positions of time adverbs

• When combining ≠ time adverbs (TIME-WHEN + TIME-DURATION, for example), their order is relatively flexible and depends more on emphasis, style, and context: I worked there every summer for a month in 1980s.

5. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 5.2. Coordination

• Time expressions within the same category can be coordinated using conjunctions:

  • TIME-WHEN → Today and tomorrow.

  • TIME-DURATION → For the day or for the night

  • TIME-FREQUENCY → Every day and every week

  • ≠ TYPES→ She’ll meet you tomorrow, at 5:00 or at 6:00.

5. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 5.3. Time expressions and time reference

• Time expressions interact with verb tense and aspect by locating an event in relation to a point in time: “At the moment” = likely a PRESENT situation.

• HOWEVER → time expression doesn’t always determine a verb tense → She is graduating next week.

• When a time expression conflicts with normal temporal meanings of sentence, combination may be incorrect.: *[sic] He travelled to London next summer”.