Tense Beyond the Verb: Encoding Clausal Tense/Aspect/Mood on Nominal Dependents

It is generally held that clausal temporal, aspectual and modal features, when encoded morphologically, are expressed by or on clausal heads. However nominals and modifiers within NP can also be inflected for tense, aspect and modal features interpreted with respect to the clausal predication rather than with respect to the nominal argument itself. Such nominals (and dependents within NP) therefore contribute syntactic tense, aspect and mood features to the clause, but do not themselves have syntactically active TAM features. Building on previous work we show how a simple account of this phenomenon can be given in the lexicalist, constraint-based theory of LFG. In particular, the use of inside-out function application in LFG permits us to capture directly the role of nominal morphology in defining clausal TAM properties without recourse to derivational or feature passing mechanisms.