Sur la syntaxe du temps

Abstract

J. Guéron We base tense interpretation on relations between the syntactic nodes Complementizer, Tense and Verb within a « Tense-Chain ». Our analysis exploits meca- nisms of Generative Grammar, in particular the theories of Quantification, Movement and Binding ; e.g., we construe Present as an Anaphor, Past as a Pronominal, and Future as a Name. We examine differences between English and French in the interpretation of the Present, the Present Perfect, the Progressive, and the « Imparfait » . We suggest that all these differences follow from a single parameter, presence vs absence of a morphological person feature in the verb.