TOPIC 18: LOCATION IN TIME: TIME RELATIONS.

FREQUENCY
1. INTRODUCTION
2. TEMPORAL RELATIONS
3. FREQUENCY
4. CONCLUSION
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION
Time is a universal concept. It is a measurable continuum that lacks spatial dimensions (according to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica). All languages have the notion of time and ways of distinguishing actions or ideas in the
frames of present, past and future, although not all cultures understand these concepts in the same way. Some
linguists see the origins of the time universals like past, present and future in the developmental sequence of the first
language as it seems that children begin their speech careers by talking solely about the here and now, before
relating the past to what happened before or the future to what can happen next.
To locate something in time means to establish a time reference for an event or an action we refer to in an utterance.
The related semantic notions respond to questions like “When?” and “How often?”. Answers to such questions can
be coded in English in different ways, for example by means of:
• Adverbs: The boy visited us yesterday
• Prepositional Phrase: The boy visited us on Saturday
• Noun Phrase: The boy visited us last week
• Adverbial clause: The boy visited us whenever he needed money.

Users of English understand such expressions not only thanks to their knowledge of linguistic structures and
vocabulary but also, and, principally, thanks to their understanding of the spatio-temporal framework in which
communication takes place. Therefore, any study of location in time has to start by defining how this concept is
understood in English before describing different forms to express it.

2. TEMPORAL RELATIONS

From the semantic point of view, time expressions can be divided into three main classes: time-when or time
position , time frequency and time duration. Time-when expressions establish the time or moment when the
proposition of the utterance is true or, in other words, the time of the event.
Most time position expressions can serve as a response to a “When?” question. They can be divided into two
semantic categories according to their meaning:

1. Those denoting a point of time: e.g. adverbials: now or adjectives present: I am now living in Baltimore.
 2. Those denoting a boundary of time: the point from which time is measured: e.g. adverbials (then = after
that); prepositions (before); adjectives (former): The former victory was very important.
A variety of syntactic functions are used to express time-position. The most common are adverbials and one can
enumerate their realizations in the following way:

a) Adverbs: already, yet, late, recently presently, initially (They haven’t finished yet)

b) Prepositional Phrases: on Monday, after tomorrow (She came to visit us on Monday)

c) Nouns: the last Sunday, in July, Monday (You can come Monday)

d) Clauses (adverbial clauses of time): when you are ready, before it happens, (finite) or travelling on the
Continent (non-finite): We will talk to him when he comes.

On the other hand, time position adverbials can belong to one of the following groups described by Quirk et al.:
1. Adjuncts: most of the examples above belong to this group: already, on Monday, when you’re ready. It is
part of the basic structure of the clause or sentence in which it occurs and modifies the verb (They stayed
in Spain for ten years).
2. Subjuncts include the closed list yet, still, already, anymore, any longer just and ever. They are part of the
basic structure of the clause in which they occur but unlike adjuncts they cannot be the focus of a cleft
sentence, they do not allow for alternative interrogation or negation and they cannot be elicited by question
forms: They answered fairly. (adjunct) / They fairly knew what to say. (subjunct)
3. Conjuncts of the transitional type and within it the temporal subtype: in the meantime, meanwhile,
originally, subsequently, eventually. It is not part of the basic structure of the clause or sentence. They
connect what is said in sentences (However, the weather was not good).
Prepositional phrases and subjuncts require special attention due to the complexity of their uses. Prepositional
phrases are the most common expressions used to specify time position. The three prepositions which can be used
for this are:

1. In. It is used before periods of time, like parts of the day: in the morning, months: in July, seasons: in (the)
summer, years: in 1997,, etc. In can mean 'during or within a period of time', too: He made the flight in two
hours. In can also mean 'at the end of a period of time': We expect to land in one hour.

2. On before days/dates: on Mondays, dates of one day’s duration: on May 25th, on Christmas Day; the phrase
‘on time’ means 'at exactly the right time': He left exactly on time.

3. At before exact times: with clock times: at six o 'clock, with single words meaning a time of day: at dawn,
with beginning, start, end: with the words time, moment: At that time he was great, whereas at the moment
he is not so much so, with public holidays and festivals of more than one day’s duration: at Christmas, at the
weekend
Finally, there are differences in the use of prepositions in time expressions between, for example, British English
and American English:

British at the weekend – American on the weekend

The adverbs yet, still, already, anymore, any longer just and ever represent time subjuncts. The uses of still, yet and
already depend on the type of sentence in which they appear. Still means the same in declarative, interrogative
sentences of both affirmative and negative types. It can be substituted by yet in negative declaratives and yet can
also express the meaning of already in interrogatives, in which already cannot be used in a neutral meaning:

a) in negative clauses, the meaning of yet is “up to now, so far”

I still haven't received a letter from him.

I haven't received a letter from him yet.

b) in interrogative sentences, the meaning of yet is “at this or that time, as soon as now”:

Have you seen them yet?

Yes, I have already seen them.

The position of time-when expressions in a clause varies. The position of subjuncts has been discussed above. The
position of conjuncts is completely free, although most frequently we find them at the beginning of a clause:
Meanwhile, I was thinking about what to do next.

Finally, time-position adjuncts can be placed in a hierarchical relationship. Their usual position is at the end of a
clause but more than one adjunct can coincide there. The order of final adjuncts depends in part on information
focus, but the tendency is for the superordinate adjunct, the one denoting the more extended period, to come last,
unless the other adjunct is considerably longer in form: I'll see you at nine on Monday. / I was in New York last year
before the first snow fell.
There are three mayor divisions of time relations which can be established between different time positions:
1. Position previous to another position, given as the time-reference. It can be expressed by adjectives:
earlier, former, preceding, previous, adverbials: already, as yet, including timeclauses with after (the past
perfect tense is used in the subordinate after- clause to reinforce the meaning of sequence): I shall
explain to you what happened, but first I must give you a cup of tea. We checked in after we had bought
some presents.
2. Position simultaneous with another position, given as the time-reference. It can be expressed by
adjectives: contemporary, simultaneous: adverbials: at present, at this point, or time clauses with while
(the past continuous tense carries the meaning of simultaneous timeposition, too): She entered while I
was watching the film.
3. Position consequent to another position, given as the time-reference. It can be expressed by adjectives:
following, later, next; adverbials: later, next, since, then; and time clauses with before (the past perfect
 tense in the main clause carries the meaning of a previous timeposition, too): We had bought some
presents before we checked in.
3. FREQUENCY
Time frequency is another time concept which can be distinguished within the more ample and universal time
relations. It refers to the number of times some event or actions are repeated. Frequency adjuncts are the most
common frequency expressions and they can be divided semantically into two mayor subclasses, which can, in turn,
be subdivided as follows:
1. Definite frequency adjuncts: those naming explicitly the times by which the frequency is measured; they can be
subdivided into two more concepts:
 Period frequency: weekly, per week, annually, per year, etc.
 Number frequency: once (only), again, twice, on three occasions, etc.
2. Indefinite frequency adjuncts: those which do not explicitly name the times measuring the frequency; they can
be subdivided into four more concepts:
 Usual occurrence: as usual, generally, invariably, normally, usually.
 Continuous/continual frequency: always, constantly.
 High frequency: frequently, many times, often, regularly, repeatedly.
 Low or zero frequency: infrequently, occasionally, rarely, seldom
Adverbials and, within this group, adjuncts, are the main syntactic function which serves to express frequency. One
can classify different forms of frequency adjuncts in the following way according to their syntactic function:

a) Multipliers or noun phrases which include them: twice, twice a day. He played the song twice.

b) Noun phrases with quantifiers: every day, some days, any time. We watch television every day.

c) Adverbs: daily, hourly, sometimes, often, repeatedly: They often forget about their obligations.

d) Prepositional phrases: on several occasions, from time to time: She comes to visit us from time to time.

e) Nouns referring to days of the week: Mondays (on can be dropped in conversation): They do not open (on)
Mondays.

f) Clauses: as many times as you want (an element of comparison being present but the clause is elicited with
the question “How many times?” so it is a time clause and functions as an adjunct.: You can ask me as many times
as you want.

Adjuncts of indefinite frequency usually appear in mid-position, and those of definite frequency can be expected to
be found in the final position:
He sometimes drinks coffee.

He does jogging daily.

If placed in initial position, adjuncts with non-assertive meaning oblige us to invert subject and operator:
Never have I experienced such rudeness.

When time adjuncts (of time position and frequency) co-occur in the same sentence at the end, time frequency goes
before time-position as in the following example: I was there every day or so [frequency] last year [position].

Apart from adverbials, one can find reference to frequency expressed in the subject, object or complements as well
as in some verbs:

1. Adjectives can modify nouns and in this way express frequency of some event: The annual meeting was a
success again.

2. Some verbs imply some frequency, too, although it requires further specification by means of an adverbial:
We repeated the exercise.

4. CONCLUSION

Any ESL teacher should be aware of as many circumstances as possible related to the structures and uses of time
position, duration, and frequency, so as to be able to foresee any problem of comprehension or any difficulty of
production on the part of the students, and, especially, any kind of interference from the mother tongue, such as: the
overuse of the preposition in, due to the fact that Spanish "en" verbalizes concepts lexicalized by in, on, at; the use
of articles instead of prepositions, influenced by, for example, "los lunes”, the abuse of during due to its
phonological similarity to Spanish "durante," etc. Time-related notions are relatively easy to be built into a syllabus
as they are related to themes which are close to students’ interests and experiences like routines, plans etc.

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. 1975. A Communicative Grammar of English. Longman.

Thompson, A. & Martinet, A. (1986). A Practical English Grammar. Oxford University Press

Swan, Michael. (1986). Practical English Usage. Oxford University Press

Collins COBUILD English Grammar. 1990. Collins

Carter, R. & M. McCarthy (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press

Quirk, R. Et al. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman

Bauer, L. (1983). English Word Formation. Cambridge University Press.

Huddleston, R. (1988). English Grammar. An Outline. Cambridge University Press

Jacobs, R.A. (1995). English Syntax: A grammar for english language professionals. Oxford univeristy press

Richards, J. Et al. (1992) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Longman