wife/girlfriend...advance/further

My conclusion is "I married my wife" is not correct unless there is more context. The same applies to 'I married my current wife'.

Grammar Geek

Dawn, I'm sorry, but I can't follow you. What do you mean, a "nonsensical direct-object relation"?

 Hm, my post was quite confusing, wasn't it? Common problem with me.

 First, I agree with Nona and you about "wife" being perfectly acceptable. I also think the "Mum" example is a good one, but it doesn't go all the way. Nona said:

Nona the Brit

if I talk about my mum when she was a little girl, I still call her my mum, even though she clearly wasn't a mother then.  If I am talking about someone's wife or husband, I still call them that, even when we are discussing a time when they weren't.

That's very true. But in the case of "married his wife", there is an additional factor, one that the time-tense structure Nona was talking about overrides. And this is the problem, I think, that Yoong Liat and Feebs might have (though, of course, I can't know for sure).

 It's the act of marrying results in the status wife. It's not, I think, that she wasn't the wife then; I doubt Yoong Liat would have problems with sentences like "My wife was born in 1971." The problem is one of logical relation, rather than time. If the current reference ("I'm talking about my wife.") does not override the verb-object relation (verb causes status implied by object-noun), the effect of "I married my wife," can be akin of looking at one of Escher's paintings.

Actually, now that I thought about it, it's the other way round: the "verb-object-relation" doesn't override the reference system, even though analysis might suggest to some (as is demonstrated in this thread) that it should. The question, "Why doesn't it?" is interesting (probably something to ask cognitive linguists, rather than grammarians, but interesting, nevertheless.)

 That probably doesn't make any more sense than my other post.

Let's assume you contract out a service every four years.

    The contract was awarded to the current contractor last year.  -->  OK

    The contract was awarded to the bidder last year. --> Not OK. Which bidder? There were 10 bidders!

Marriage 

    Paul married his wife in 2005.  --> OK

    Paul married his girlfriend in 2005.  --> Not OK.  Which girlfriend?  He had 5 girlfriends at that time!

Employment

    All employees of this company were recruited through an agent.  --> OK

    All applicants(???) of this company were recruited through an agent. ---> Not OK 

The reference is from the present point of view, otherwise, it would introduce all sorts of weird situations.

I only say "I married my wife in ....".  This is exactly the same as in my own language. 

What I want to say is that the present point of view is necessary to make sure we know whom we are talking about.  We are talking about "his wife" (as of today), the current contractor, the employees that are working in that company at this moment.  These are the people we intend to talk about in such sentences.

optilang

Which girlfriend?  He had 5 girlfriends at that time!

The one he married in 2005.

I read a book yesterday.  Which book?  You can't tell from the sentence.  You can't say it's the book I read yesterday!