obl:tmod: temporal oblique argument
This semantical subrelation is used to single out those oblique arguments that express a temporal reference, usually by means of nominal elements with meanings related to temporal entities, or implying some duration or time point.
Latin temporal oblique arguments make use of various strategies, mainly involving either the ablative or the accusative case and sometimes adpositions (overwhelmingly prepositions), depending on duration, definiteness, and other factors. These strategies largely correspond to (and in many cases originate from) those used for locative arguments and are based on a rough conceptual division between ablative-punctual and accusative-durative. For this reason, it is not always easy to distinguish between a temporal or a locative value, and a slight preference is given to the latter.
The tmod subrelation is also used for adverbial modifiers: since, in Latin, this appears to be a purely formal distinction with regard to oblique temporal (but also locative) arguments, the use of tmod aims to capture the fundamental unitarity of such constructions.
Imber continens per noctem totam usque ad horam tertiam diei insequentis tenuit . \n Rain continuing for night all until to hour third of-day following has-held .
obl:tmod(tenuit,noctem)
det(noctem,totam)
case(noctem,per)
obl:tmod(tenuit,horam)
amod(horam,tertiam)
case(horam,ad)
case(horam,usque)
nmod(horam,diei)
acl(diei,insequentis)
obl:tmod(has-held,night)
det(night,all)
case(night,for)
obl:tmod(has-held,hour)
amod(hour,third)
case(hour,to)
case(hour,until)
nmod(hour,of-day)
acl(of-day,following)
‘The rain continued without intermission through the whole night, until the third hour of the following day.’ (Livy, XXIII 44)
- accusative (together with prepositions) expressing continuous time and duration until a given point.
tertio quoque verbo orationis suae me appellabat \n third each with-word of-speech his me was-calling
obl:tmod(appellabat,verbo)
amod(verbo,tertio)
det(verbo,quoque)
obl:tmod(was-calling,with-word)
amod(with-word,third)
det(with-word,each)
‘[…] he called me [by name] every third word of his speech’ (Cicero, Fam. 5.2.8)
- ablative expressing punctual (even if repeated: the verb shows an imperfective aspect) temporal reference for an event (the utterance of a name).
obl:tmod in other languages: [en] [ga] [he] [id] [it] [jv] [la] [qpm] [tr] [u] [ug] [yue] [zh]