A French puzzle: Future reference with the composed past

A French puzzle: Future reference
with the composed past
Louis de Saussure
University of Neuchatel
6e journées, Société suisse de linguistique
NEUCHATEL, 9 DECEMBRE 2011
The puzzle (s)
J’aurai fini dans deux minutes
I finish-Ant.Fut. in two minutes
J’ai fini dans deux minutes
I finish-CP in two minutes
Both the AF and the CP represent here:
an event E represented past from a future R-point.
an implied state e represented true at R.
Future CP not always available
There is (almost) no future uses of English present perfects
What's the proper meaning of Future CP (FCP)?
Typical and (apparently?) odd
FCP utterances
Le président est bientôt sorti de sa réunion
The president soon exit-PC from the meeting.
Dans un an, j'ai fini ma thèse.
In one year, I finish-PC my thesis.
? Demain il a plu (vs. Demain il aura plu)
Tomorrow it rain-PC (vs. Ant.Fut.
? Dans dix jours j'ai acheté des cigarettes
In ten years I buy-PC cigarettes
? Dans dix ou quinze ans, un tremblement de terre a eu lieu sur la faille de San
Andreas
In ten or fifteen years, an earthquake take-PC place on the San Adreas rift.
* Demain Paul a dû aller à la piscine / Demain il a pu pleuvoir.
Tomorrow Paul must-PC go to the pool / Tomorrow it may-PC rain.
* Demain, Pierre a été heureux.
Tomorrow, Pierre be-PC happy.
* Demain, le concierge est sorti, il a fermé la porte à clé et il est parti.
* Demain, Max est arrivé à cinq heures.
A 'future' resultative present
Vet (1992, 1994): FCP is a resultative variant of futures uses of
the present.
Future denotation is possible only with resultative CP (not with
temporal CP)
This explains why FCP is blocked with narrative sequences
* Demain, le concierge est sorti, il a fermé la porte à clé et il est
parti.
and when the event itself is focussed.
* Demain, Max est arrivé à cinq heures
NB:.Demain à cinq heures, Max est arrivé is a natural utterance (à cinq
heure specifies demain, not E).
FCP-utterances imply a "projected course of
actions"
Vet: similarly as with the present, a future detonation with the
CP requires pragmatically that the speaker (and the hearer)
projects a course of actions that needs or should be
conducted in the future.
Entails that Future CP is only possible with agentive
predicates.
? Demain il a plu (vs. Demain il aura plu)
Tomorrow it rain-PC (vs. Ant.Fut
? Dans dix ou quinze ans, un tremblement de terre a eu lieu sur la faille
de San Andreas
In ten or fifteen years, an earthquake take-PC place on the San Adreas rift.
Vet's assumption: not enough
Agentive predicates may also seem odd
?Dans dix jours j'ai acheté des cigarettes.
In ten days I buy-CP cigarettes.
Possible without agentivity under certain conditions
In hypotheticals:
In main clauses
Si demain il a neigé, tu seras contente / lugeras…
Demain il a plu et tes salades sont sauvées.
Difference in naturaleness with the futurate present
? Demain il a plu.
Demain il pleut.
Non-agentive predicates are also possible:
If there is a consequence IN THE PRESENT about the course of
actions to be undertaken / attitude to be adopted
Demain il a plu et tes salades sont sauvées.
Tomorrow it rain-CP and your salads are saved.
Implying NO NEED TO WET THE SALADS NOW
A pragmatic hypothesis
Assumption
Not only the CP with future denotation implies a projected
course of events (rather than 'actions') but also there is a.
practical-deontic attitude or action or behaviour to be adopted
in the very deictic present
about what has to be done / what attitude has to be adopted NOW
Le président est bientôt sorti
Dans un an j'ai fini ma thèse
It's worthwile waiting NOW without being nervous…
It's worth an effort NOW / reassuring NOW
Demain il a plu… > no need to wet the salads NOW.
Dans dix jours j'ai acheté des cigarettes
is actually possible if one imagines a consequence in the
deictic present about what to do in this perspective. It's
only the (relative) difficulty to figure out a proper context
that provides a feeling of oddness.
Dans dix jours, c'est sûr, j'ai acheté des cigarettes et
tout est à recommencer!
Also explains the deontic-practical flavour of siUtterances with future CP:
S'il a neigé demain tu pourras luger (hence get in the mood
for it)
Future CP-utterances are interpretiveallocentric
Future CP are deictically shifted in the future:
an imaginary S' is projected in the future and plays the role of an
allocentric S
E-R,S' & S-S'
S
e
S'
-
hence the metalinguistic effect:
E
'at S' it will be possible to say the utterance truthfully
The speakers pretend they are at the future stage and they represent some
past, achieved, event (which is in fact future).
The link with the actual S is pragmatically infered in terms of
a course of actions or attitude that needs to take place at S.
Absent from the Ant. Fut.
Types of verbs
Not only aspectual verbs (like finir), as sometimes
assumed (Desclés & Guentcheva):
L'avion a bientôt atterri (rassure-toi)
The airplane soon land-CP
Dans une heure les touristes ont bu leur verre et nous
pouvons repartir.
An event-type situation has to be accessed (explicitly
or infered) because only events / telic predicates
trigger a resulting state)
hence no pure stative verb
* Dans un an Pierre a été heureux.
But possibly activities:
Dans une heure Pierre a dormi (et nous pouvons repartir) has
slept till relief is fit to go.
hence most typical cases are with aspectual verbs
since they make explicit a situation change
but this is no semantic requirement
Other strange cases
Negation:
* Demain, Paul n'est pas arrivé.
Heureusement que tu n'as pas voyagé demain! (Vuillaume
2009)
Negative sentences are stative, but there are negative events,
which however still look bizarre with the future CP:
* Demain, Pierre n'a pas payé ses impôts
But as soon as some metalinguistic flavour is available as well
as consequences in the present, negative utterances seem
possible:
Tu vas voir: d'ici quelques minutes, Paul n'a pas fermé le gaz et nous
devons rentrer.
forgot to turn off the gas
Conclusions
Allocentricity / Interpretive – metarepresentational uses
have the effect of generating modal interpretations
If the FUTURE tense is not modal in itself, the future uses
of the CP in French are, and are associated to typical
inferences relative to their relevance at the real (not the
shifted) deictic present.
A similar case can be made (Saussure & Morency in
press) about epistemic uses of the future in French
Ce sera le facteur / That'll be the mailman
Thank you for your attention.