Typological studies have tended to take for granted the default interpretation for English and imposed ‘simultaneity’ as the basic meaning of when -clauses for all languages. This in opposition to the approach taken in reference grammars, which generally report temporal linkage markers like when as encoding one or several meanings. Data from languages other than English show that comparative studies should also be open to the possibility that when -clauses do not always, or only, denote simultaneity. To support this claim and argue against the default interpretation of simultaneity, in this study I explore the range of temporal meanings of when -clauses across languages and provide evidence from Spanish and Yaqui corpora. Unlike English, corpus-based studies show that Spanish equivalent cuando -clauses equally introduce simultaneous and sequential readings, while Yaqui o-/kai -clauses predominantly express sequential meanings. Furthermore, a convenience sample of 28 unrelated languages reveals that, if there is a when -clause in a language, it can locate the event of the adverbial clause earlier, later, or around the same time as the main clause. The analysis of the semantic side of when -clauses demonstrates that there are language-specific tendencies regarding their temporal meanings. On these grounds, I propose that a better understanding of when -clauses can be arrived at by classifying them as ‘unspecific’ temporal clauses. This categorization would motivate a richer analysis of new data and a systematic comparison between unspecific, simultaneous and sequential clauses. Finally, I advance a four-way classification regarding general versus specific markers, and the temporal relations they encode, two of which account for most languages analyzed.

中文翻译：

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跨语言的时间从句和时间意义

类型学研究倾向于理所当然地为英语提供默认解释，并将“同时性”作为所有语言从句的基本含义。这与参考语法中采用的方法相反，参考语法通常报告时间链接标记，例如在编码一种或几种含义时。来自除英语以外的其他语言的数据表明，比较研究还应可能出现以下情况：子句不一定总是或仅表示同时性。为了支持这一主张并反对默认的对同时性的解释，在本研究中，我探讨了跨语言何时从句的时间意义范围，并提供了西班牙语和Yaqui语料库的证据。与英语不同，基于语料库的研究表明，西班牙语等效的cuando-子句同样引入同时和顺序阅读，而Yaqui o- / kai-子句主要表达顺序含义。此外，从28种不相关语言的便利性样本中可以发现，如果某语言中有一个-时子句，则它可以在主语段的前面，后面或大约同一时间找到状语从句的事件。对when-子句的语义方面的分析表明，存在关于其时间意义的特定于语言的趋势。基于这些理由，我建议通过将子句归类为“非特定的”时间子句来更好地理解何时出现子句。这种分类将激励对新数据进行更丰富的分析，并促使对非特定，同时和顺序条款进行系统的比较。