When something happened or will happen, in relation to an explicit or implicit reference time or event.

For a containing time period or event, during can be used and is unambiguously Time—unlike in, at, and on, which can also be locative.1

The preposition since is ambiguous:

  • [‘after’] I bought a new car—that was since the breakup. (Time) 010

  • [‘ever since’] I have loved you since the party where we met. (StartTime) 011

  • [‘because’] I’ll try not to whistle since I know that gets on your nerves. (Explanation) 012

Simple Time is also used if the reference time is implicit and determined from the discourse:

  • We broke up last year, and I haven’t seen her since. [since we broke up] 013

However, TimeInterval is used for adpositions whose complement (object) is the amount of time between two reference points:

The preposition over is also ambiguous:

See discussion under Duration.

If the scene role is Time, the PP can usually be questioned with When?.

Telling time#

Time is also used for special constructions for expressing clock times, e.g. identifying a time via an offset:


  1. See Constraints on Role and Function Combinations regarding the use of locational metaphors for temporal relations. 

  2. In some dialects, this is an alternate way to express the same meaning as #019. It seems that to and of construe the same time interval from opposite directions. 

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Supercategory: Temporal

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