Time: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:18, 23 June 2010

Time is a semantic category that indicates when a given event occurs. It may be expressed by attributes or by relations.

The values for the attribute time are the following: {{#tree:id=time|openlevels=0|root=Time|

absolute time
- @past: at a time before the moment of utterance
- @present: at the moment of utterance
- @future: at a time after the moment of utterance
- @recent: close to the moment of utterance
- @remote: remote from the moment of utterance
relative time
- @anterior: before some other time other than the time of utterance
- @posterior: after some other time other than the time of utterance

}}

The UNL representation indicates the time rather than the grammatical tense of a form.: There is no simple one-to-one relationship between tense forms and time. In English, for instance, the present (grammatical tense) may be used to represent the future (time); I’m going home tomorrow = go.@future.@recent (and not go.@present)
@present is used to indicate an action at the present, and not habits, routines and statements: I'm in Frankfurt. = @present; I always come to school by cycle. = no time information; The sun sets in the Occident. = no time information
Time values may be combined.: I'm going home tomorrow = go.@future.@recent; I had been there = @past.@anterior

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 ;@present is used to indicate an action at the present, and not habits, routines and statements:
 :I'm in Frankfurt. = @present
-:I always come to school by cycle. = no tense information
+:I always come to school by cycle. = no time information
-:The sun sets in the Occident. = no tense information
+:The sun sets in the Occident. = no time information
-;Tense values may be combined.
+;Time values may be combined.
 :I'm going home tomorrow = go.@future.@recent
 :I had been there = @past.@anterior