Monday 30 March 2020

Time Reference Of Verbal Group Complexes: Expansion vs Projection

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 584):
… a hypotactic verbal group complex of the ‘expansion’ type represented a single happening. Thus, there is only one time reference; if the reference is to tomorrow, then the tense of the primary group will be future:
(i) phase: he’ll start to do it tomorrow (not: he starts)
(ii) conation: he’ll try to do it tomorrow (not: he tries)
(iii) modulation: he’ll help to do it tomorrow (not: he helps)
An expression such as want to do looks at first sight very similar to these; but whereas we can say he’ll want to do it tomorrow, it is also quite normal to say he wants to do it tomorrow. The wanting and the doing have distinct time references. We can even say yesterday I wanted to do it tomorrow – but not yesterday I started to do it tomorrow.
The relation between want and to do is one of projection. A projection of do it, as in wants to do it, is a meaning, and thus does not imply ‘does it’ – whereas an expansion, such as tries to do it or starts to do it, does imply ‘does it’, even though the doing may be partial or unsuccessful.