Dr. Jila Ghomeshi

Temporal relations and the syntax of adverbial clauses in Persian

This talk starts with a puzzle surrounding the syntax of when-clauses in Persian. Specifically, when-clauses exhibit internal scrambling while other temporal adverbial clauses do not. By carefully considering the types of temporal relations that hold between main and adverbial clauses, as well as the morphological properties of the elements that can introduce subordinate clauses in Persian, I show that scrambling is induced by the absence of overt material and that this absence is construed as temporal coincidence. This talk supports ideas developed by Demirdache & Uribe-Etxebarria on tense and aspect as predicates that take times as arguments.