This paper examines the temporal location of predication times in St'at'imcets Salish (henceforth, ST). I establish that the predication time of a noun (in subject or object position) in ST temporally locates the predication time of the matrix predicate of its clause. I derive this generalization from the proposal that DP-denotations in ST introduce stage-level entities.
This proposal explains 1) why DPs in ST always have existential force; 2) why DPs are scope independent; 3) the absence of a Definiteness Effect; 4) the absence of anaphoric definites; 5) the absence of abstract nouns and, 6) the absence of temporally independent DPs.
The parametric difference between ST and English is not an inherent difference in the semantics of nouns. It is not that English nouns can denote individual-level properties whereas ST nouns only denote stage-level properties, or alternatively that Salish lacks a noun-verb distinction (as in Jelinek 1988 or Partee 1991). The locus of parametric variation resides in the determiner system (determiners in ST encode a 3-way distinction in space/time relative to the speaker) and the absence of morphological tense in ST. In particular, whereas in English, discourse context can fix the predication time of a noun (Enc 1981), in ST, determiners can fix the predication time (and/or predication place) of a noun.
