temporal shift & time words – English Grammar Profiler

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 16 in the category of REPORTED SPEECH is defined as:

events in the past with backshifts for tenses and words relating to time

Automatic searches for this are impossible but we can look in corpora for combinations of told * previous|following * _nnt since these all exist in the EGP examples.

previous|following * _nnt

1 FOLLOWING YEAR 62819

  The Guardian Isis bomber Jamal al-Harith: from Manchester to Iraq via Guantánamo His wife, Shukee Begum, told Channel 4 News the following year that she and her children had followed him there in a failed bid to persuade …

2 PREVIOUS YEAR 56792 3 FOLLOWING DAY 46320 4 PREVIOUS YEARS 38751 5 FOLLOWING WEEK 16156 6 PREVIOUS DAY 13506 7 FOLLOWING MORNING 13479 8 PREVIOUS MONTH 9945 9 FOLLOWING MONTH 9878 10 PREVIOUS WEEK 9661 11 FOLLOWING YEARS 8661 12 FOLLOWING SEASON 7688 13 PREVIOUS SEASON 7113 14 PREVIOUS NIGHT 6305 15 PREVIOUS SEASONS 4885 16 FOLLOWING DAYS 4780 17 FOLLOWING MONTHS 3809 18 FOLLOWING NIGHT 3645 19 PREVIOUS DAYS 3181 20 FOLLOWING WEEKS 3145 21 FOLLOWING WEEKEND 2944 22 PREVIOUS MONTHS 2827 23 FOLLOWING SUMMER 2789 24 PREVIOUS TIME 2479 25 PREVIOUS DECADE 2404 26 PREVIOUS WEEKS 2371 27 PREVIOUS EVENING 2344 28 PREVIOUS SESSION 2033 29 FOLLOWING TIMES 1912 30 FOLLOWING DECADES 1757 31 PREVIOUS DECADES 1737 32 PREVIOUS SUMMER 1601 33 PREVIOUS CENTURY 1520 34 PREVIOUS WEEKEND 1495 35 FOLLOWING EVENING 1479 36 PREVIOUS TIMES 1441 37 FOLLOWING DECADE 1428 38 FOLLOWING TIME 1046 39 FOLLOWING WINTER 950 40 PREVIOUS CENTURIES 893 41 FOLLOWING AFTERNOON 851 42 PREVIOUS NIGHTS 758 43 FOLLOWING HOURS 748 44 FOLLOWING CENTURIES 747 45 PREVIOUS SESSIONS 713 46 PREVIOUS WINTER 651 47 FOLLOWING CENTURY 635 48 FOLLOWING CHRISTMAS 424 49 FOLLOWING SESSIONS 401

50 FOLLOWING SESSION 371

Here, an advanced PELIC text from a grammar class really showcases a great variety of reported speech:

Korean,Female,5,g

She told me that her plans for the following vacation were [a] trip to California. She explained that she had wanted to go there for a long time. Also she reported that the weather of California is usually wonderful. Additionally, she admitted that her biggest pet peeve was winter and snow. When I asked the reason, she reminded me that she was from the country that doesn’t have winter. Finally she pointed out that she used to ride a bike when she was younger, but she didn’t’ do it anymore. She commented that she became timid as she grew up.

Another possible search, based on an example in the EGP is for:

1 YEARS NOW 136987 2 TIME NOW 47877 3 TIME AGAIN 42892 4 WHILE NOW 40508 5 MONTHS NOW 39204 6 NIGHT BEFORE 31411

9 WEEKS NOW 20689 10 YEAR BEFORE 19503 11 TIMES BEFORE 17696 12 YEARS PAST 17494 13 YEARS BEFORE 16930 14 TIMES NOW 14134 15 DAYS NOW 12214 16 TIME THEN 11065 17 YEAR AGAIN 10011 18 MONTH NOW 9771 19 WEEK NOW 8971 20 DAY NOW 8734 21 TIME TODAY 8619 22 MINUTES THEN 8272 23 DAY TODAY 7762 24 DAYS BEFORE 7601 25 WEEK BEFORE 7241 26 DAY THEN 5724 27 DECADES NOW 5307 28 DAYS THEN 5305 29 DECADE NOW 4484 30 SECONDS THEN 4190 31 MONTHS BEFORE 4164 32 YEARS THEN 4134 33 YEAR THEN 4091 34 WEEKS BEFORE 3542 35 TIMES THEN 3346 36 DAY YESTERDAY 3294 37 TIME BEFORE 3259 38 HOURS THEN 3239 39 WEEK THEN 3200 40 WEEKS THEN 3060 41 MONTHS THEN 3051 42 HOURS NOW 2953 43 HOURS BEFORE 2928 44 YEAR THEREAFTER 2758 45 TIMES TODAY 2743 46 WHILE THEN 2616 47 YEARS AFTERWARDS 2587 48 DAYS AFTERWARDS 2473 49 TIME YESTERDAY 2339 50 MINUTES BEFORE 2298 51 DAY TOMORROW 2290 52 MONTH BEFORE 2283 53 YEARS THEREAFTER 2260 54 SEASON NOW 2169 55 DAY AGAIN 2145 56 TIME AFTERWARDS 1933 57 MONTH THEN 1791 58 TIME TONIGHT 1760 59 NIGHT THEN 1739 60 TIME TOMORROW 1607 61 MORNING THEN 1602 62 MINUTE THEN 1579 63 HOUR THEN 1548 64 TIME THEREAFTER 1534 65 HOURS TODAY 1512 66 DAYS THEREAFTER 1484 67 SEASONS NOW 1484 68 SEASON THEN 1433 69 WEEK TONIGHT 1372 70 EVENING BEFORE 1359 71 SECOND THEN 1308 72 MIDNIGHT TONIGHT 1277 73 MONTHS AFTERWARDS 1274 74 NOON TODAY 1268 75 HOUR BEFORE 1259 76 MINUTES NOW 1224 77 HOURS AFTERWARDS 1210 78 SEASON AGAIN 1202 79 NIGHT NOW 1092 80 MINUTE NOW 1034 81 MONTHS THEREAFTER 1012 82 WEEKS AFTERWARDS 973 83 TIMES AGAIN 960 84 MONTH THEREAFTER 948 85 SESSION TODAY 946 86 SEASON BEFORE 940 87 HOURS YESTERDAY 923 88 WEEK AGAIN 916 89 HOUR NOW 910 90 NIGHT AGAIN 878 91 DAY SOMETIMES 874 92 CENTURY NOW 865 93 DECADES BEFORE 836 94 TIMES YESTERDAY 832 95 MINS THEN 831 96 MINUTES TODAY 755 97 CENTURIES BEFORE 738 98 DAY THEREAFTER 704 99 TIME SOMETIMES 698