The work abounds in cross-references to other sections and contains ^n extensive index which should enable the readers who wish to look something up (for example, a term, definition, rule or principle) to find quickly what they are looking for. Needless to say, the cross-references and the index, as well as the extensive glossary, are also meant to realize our second goal, viz. | The present perfect vs the preterite in when-questions 329 In the previous section we have seen that if the speaker of a when-question is asking about the time of actualization of a bygone situation the fact of actualization of the situation is taken for granted and it is the past tense that is used When did you mislay I have you mislaid all the butter that I bought yesterday However there are cases in which a when-question asks the addressee to supply an occasion or occasions on which a situation has actualized rather than asking for the temporal location of the actualization of a situation which is thus presupposed to have actualized . In these cases the present perfect with number-quantifying constitution interpretation can be used. Typically such when-questions are rhetorical and are used to imply that no occasion of actualization of the situation referred to exists. For example Sixty-seven minutes hell s bells. When have I ever spent more than an hour in front of one picture in a gallery You wouldn t think it was so much to ask after all this time would you Alfred When have I asked anything from him www Batman has everything known to man inside his utility belt. When has he ever been in a situation where his utility belt was not able to save him www Such when-questions in the present perfect can be used to challenge an explicit or implicit assumption on the part of the addressee or someone else including the speaker . Thus the speakers of the following challenge the implicit assumption that they would possibly lie Ask me a question and I ll answer it it s as simple as that. But I won t know if you re telling the truth. And when have I lied to you www You snapped up the cutest guy in school before the rest of us even saw him Jean blushed. Really Ororo rolled her eyes. When have I ever lied to you Never. There then. www The message is Your suspicion implies that it s possible that I would lie to you but that belief is unreasonable since you have no .
