Tense in Adjuncts Part 2: Temporal Adverbial Clauses

Abstract

Part 1 of this article treats tense in relative clauses in English, Russian and Japanese. The temporal center in relative clauses can always be anaphoric, and sometimes it has to be the anaphoric Tpro. In Part 2, we investigate tense in temporal adverbial clauses (TACs) headed by ‘after’, ‘before’ and ‘when’. We argue for the following points: 1. English TAC Tense is bound in Present adjuncts under matrix ‘will’, in other constructions the TAC Tense is deictic. Tense licensing is non‐local in bound constructions, while in deictic constructions it is local. 2. Russian TAC Tense is deictic, and the tense licensing is local. 3. Japanese TAC Tense is bound. We have a ‘tenseless’ construction in the adjunct, and tense licensing is local.