Definition: The assertion (s TEMP t) expresses that the situation s holds within the time interval t (or, if s is an event, that it occurs within t). If the first argument is of sort o, then the second argument specifies the time interval or moment when o exists. It should be emphasized that t may be disconnected.

There are three types of TEMP usage:

• With a situation (the most often):

 John repaired the violin and sold it.

Here every situation is connected by TEMP relation with a node which represents the time when this situation occured. These temporal nodes can further be connected by various temporal relations. A shorthand annotation of the above example is this:

Here the meaning is the same as in the first network, but the time concepts are not explicitely created. Note: We'll use this shorthand method in our annotating since it's simpler.

• With an object TEMP relation can connect the object to the time when this object existed (e.g., “Friday lesson” will look like (lesson TEMP Friday)).

• With time concepts on both ends of the relation. In this case (t1 TEMP t2) means that the time interval t1 lies somewhere within time interval t2.