In order to unravel the meaning of the term temporal nexus, it is necessary, first of all, to discover the etymological origin of the two words that give it shape:
-Nexus emanates from Latin, specifically from “nexum” or “nexus”, which can be translated as “bind” or “bind”.
-Temporal, on the other hand, comes from the Latin “temporalis”, which is the result of the sum of these two lexical components: the noun “tempus”, which is synonymous with “time” or “period”, and the suffix “- alis”, which is used to indicate “relative to”.
A nexus is something that unites or establishes a link . In the field of grammar, it refers to the term that creates a link between sentences, phrases or words. Temporal , on the other hand, is that linked to time .
Temporal links , in this framework, link propositions or ideas through a time reference. This kind of nexus gives rise to the answer about the “when” of the action.
“When” , in fact, is the most used temporal link. Let's look at an example : “He woke up when it was getting dark.” As you can see, the expression consists of two parts ( “He woke up” and “it was evening” ), joined by the link “when” .
In this way, the second part of the sentence offers temporal information about the action mentioned in the first section. The person in question “woke up” only “when it was getting dark.”
What the temporal link does is join a main sentence to a secondary sentence. “He left the stadium when the concert had already ended” , to cite one case , has as its main proposition “He left the stadium” ; The temporal link “when” joins it to “the concert had already ended.”
Other sentences that can serve as examples to understand what the temporal link is are the following:
-While you do the laundry, I'm going to wash the dishes.
-After having a drink, we went for a walk around the city.
-Whenever he gets up before eight, he stays at home taking a nap in the afternoon.
-Until Eva returns home, her mother will not be calm.
It should be noted that temporal links can be prior (they refer to something that occurred before the main action), simultaneity (the two events took place at the same moment) or posterior (they refer to events subsequent to the main action). .
The temporal link of priority usually uses adverbs or phrases such as “before”, “prior to” or “first”. In the case of the temporal nexus of simultaneity, “while” or “at the same time” are used, for example. In the case of the temporal link of posteriority, “afterwards”, “below” or “subsequently” are used, for example.
Thus, adverbs and phrases such as “before” , “while” or “below” are used as temporal links: “Before entering the playing field he crossed himself” , “The man was talking on the phone while reading the newspaper” , “ After turning off the television, he got out of bed.”
In the same way, other phrases and adverbs such as "then", "after", "once", "first", "last", "whenever", "finally", “while” or “then”, among others.