Wikifunctions:Type proposals/Simple temporal entity
Summary
This type represents the simple concepts of past, present and future. Note: this type doesn't represent the grammatical tenses, but the actual temporal concepts.
Uses
- As the output of the comparison between two times.
- In NLG functions, in order to choose the tense. (Note: this type should be used as the language-indepentent input that identifies the real time frame, and not as the actual tenses, that can vary from language to language due to the peculiarities of their grammars)
Elements of the enumeration
Alternatives
- The current name of this type is awful, but I don't know how to call it. Dv103 (talk) 13:47, 10 December 2025 (UTC)
- "Relative time class"? YoshiRulz (talk) 20:36, 10 December 2025 (UTC)
Comments
For general comments, please reply to the proposer.
Support as proposer. Dv103 (talk) 13:47, 10 December 2025 (UTC)
- Could you give more detailed examples of where this Type would be used? For your first example, I would use Sign (Z16659), and for NLG you admit that separate Type(s) would be needed. YoshiRulz (talk) 20:38, 10 December 2025 (UTC)
- The main usecase I thought was actually NLG. Take for example Sunset sentence for location on date (Z30000): it takes in input also the current date to decide the verbal time. I think that it could be useful, insteas of bringing along two dates directly to the language-specific functions, to instead convert this information to a simple past-present-future information. Dv103 (talk) 07:44, 11 December 2025 (UTC)
- Another existing function that could use the proposed Type: simple tense of verb (Z19514)
- (Forgive me for not replying, but I am still of the opinion that this proposal is functionally equivalent to Sign (Z16659); and so
Neutral.) YoshiRulz (talk) 00:52, 18 January 2026 (UTC)
- The main difference with Sign (Z16659) would be that the semantics is completely different. Sign (Z16659) indicates the sign of a number, while this type would indicate a time. (It's even not completely obvious if negative (Z16662) should indicate the past or the future) Dv103 (talk) 12:47, 18 January 2026 (UTC)
- The main usecase I thought was actually NLG. Take for example Sunset sentence for location on date (Z30000): it takes in input also the current date to decide the verbal time. I think that it could be useful, insteas of bringing along two dates directly to the language-specific functions, to instead convert this information to a simple past-present-future information. Dv103 (talk) 07:44, 11 December 2025 (UTC)
