Algorithms for Analysing the Temporal Structure of Discourse

We describe a method for analysing the temporal structure of a discourse which takes into account the effects of tense, aspect, temporal adverbials and rhetorical structure and which minimises unnecessary ambiguity in the temporal structure. It is part of a discourse grammar implemented in Carpenter's ALE formalism. The method for building up the temporal structure of the discourse combines constraints and preferences: we use constraints to reduce the number of possible structures, exploiting the HPSG type hierarchy and unification for this purpose; and we apply preferences to choose between the remaining options using a temporal centering mechanism. We end by recommending that an underspecified representation of the structure using these techniques be used to avoid generating the temporal/rhetorical structure until higher-level information can be used to disambiguate.Comment: EACL '95, 8 pages, 1 eps picture, tar-ed, compressed, uuencoded, uses eaclap.sty, a4wide.sty, epsf.te

Temporal connectives in a discourse context

We examine the role of temporal connectives in multi-sentence discourse. In certain contexts, sentences containing temporal connectives that are equivalent in termporal structure can fail to be equivalent in terms of discourse coherence. We account for this by offering a novel, formal mechanism for accommodating the presuppositions in temporal subordinate clauses. This mechanism encompasses both accommodation by discourse attachment and accommodation by temporal addition. As such, it offers a precise and systematic model of interactions between presupposed material, discourse context, and the reader's background knowledge. We show how the resuits of accommodation help to determine a discourse's coherence

Reflexões sobre o tempo e o aspecto em diferentes tipos sequenciais e em diferentes géneros discursivos

O artigo apresenta resultados comparativos resultantes de uma investigação sobre propriedades temporais e aspectuais em textos que atualizam diferentes protótipos sequenciais (Adam 1992) e, simultaneamente, em textos de diferentes géneros. A análise evidencia que as classes aspectuais (Moens 1987) e as relações temporais entre as eventualidades denotadas dependem do tipo sequencial: as sequências narrativas integram sobretudo eventos e observa-se predominantemente a relação temporal de sequencialidade; as sequências descritivas integram estados e observa-se a relação temporal sobreposição entre essas eventualidades. A análise de duas sequências narrativas inseridas em textos de géneros distintos demonstra, de igual modo, que o género desempenha um papel decisivo na selecção do tempo verbal dominante.This article presents some comparative results of an investigation project about temporal and aspectual properties in texts of different sequence types (namely narrative and descriptive; cf. Adam (2001)) and, simultaneously, in texts of different discourse genres. It is argued that aspectual classes (cf. Moens (1987)) and temporal relations among eventualities depend upon the choice of the sequence type: narrative sequences include mainly events and the temporal relation of precedence; descriptive sequences include mainly states and the temporal relation of overlapping. It is also pointed out that narrative sequences present a more complex temporal and aspectual structure than descriptive sequences. Furthermore, the results of the analysis of two narrative sequences which belong to two different discourse genres suggest that some discourse genres also play an important role on determining the temporal and aspectual properties of a textual sequence

De l'espace-temps dans l'analyse du discours

International audienceThis paper describes a dynamic approach to discourse interpretation that focusses on computing the spatio-temporal structure of texts. The theoretical framework is Segmented Discourse Representation Theory, an extension of DRT which accounts for both discourse semantics and pragmatics. It is shown that several components are necessary in the interpretation process. These components model information about: discourse (rhetorical) structure, grammatical semantics, lexical semantics, space-time ontology, and extra-linguistic background knowledge. To illustrate the approach, texts describing trajectories in French are analyzed and their Segmented Discourse Representation Structures are built.Cet article décrit une approche dynamique de l'interprétation du discours qui s'intéresse plus particulièrement au calcul de la structure spatio-temporelle des textes. Le cadre théorique choisi est la Théorie des Représentations Discursives Structurées, une extension de la DRT qui rend compte à la fois de la sémantique et de la pragmatique du discours. On montre que plusieurs composants sont nécessaires au processus d'interprétation. Ces composants modélisent des informations sur : la structure (rhétorique) des discours, la sémantique grammaticale, la sémantique lexicale, l'ontologie de l'espace-temps et la connaissance extra-linguistique sur le monde. Afin d'illustrer cette approche, des textes décrivant des trajectoires en français sont analysés et leurs représentations (dénommées SDRS, pour structures de représentation du discours segmentées, en anglais) sont construites

Modality, presupposition and discourse

This paper provides a semantic analysis of the particles afinal (European Portuguese) and alla fine (Italian) in terms of the notion of truth unpersistence, which can be situated at the intersection of epistemic modality and discourse structure. In the analysis proposed, the particles are propositional operators and require that the truth of a proposition p* fail to persist through a temporal succession of epistemic states, this proposition being incompatible with the prejacent, and that the interlocutors share knowledge of a previous epistemic attitude toward p*. We analyze two main cases (plan-related and non plan-related propositions) and also show that these particles are indexical to one (or more) epistemic agent(s) and allow for shifts in perspective

Chronoscopes: A theory of underspecified temporal representations

Representation and reasoning about time and events is a fundamental aspect of our cognitive abilities and intrinsic to our construal of the structure of our personal and historical lives and recall of past experiences. This talk describes an abstract device called a Chronoscope, that allows a temporal representation (a set of events and their temporal relations) to be viewed based on temporal abstractions. The temporal representation is augmented with abstract events called episodes that stand for discourse segments. The temporal abstractions allow one to collapse temporal relations, or view the representation at different time granularities (hour, day, month, year, etc.), with corresponding changes in event characterization and temporal relations at those granularities. A temporal representation can also be filtered to specify temporal trajectories of particular participants. Trajectories, in turn, can be intersected at various levels of granularity. Chronoscopes can be used to compare temporal representations (e.g., for aggregation, summarization, or evaluation purposes), as well as help in the visualization of temporal narrative

Agency, structure, institutions, discourse (ASID) in urban and regional development

This paper presents the relations among agency (A), structure (S), institutions (I), and discourse (D) and their analytical relevance for socio-economic development. It argues that an adequate account of these relations must recognize their inherent spatio-temporality and, hence, their space–time dynamics. This is not an optional extra but a definite descriptive and explanatory requirement. Moreover, while structure is recognized as a product of path-dependent institutionalization and path-shaping (collective) agency, agency is seen in turn as discursively and materially reproduced and transformed. This approach treats structure in terms of a differential spatio-temporal configuration of constraints and opportunities, reference to which informs the empirical analysis of strategic agency within the overall agency, structure, institutions, discourse (ASID) heuristic. The paper concludes with an eightfold typology of particular combinations of ASID features to guide analyses of socio-economic development in all its (dis-)junctural complexity

The Ring and the book : texts, and the texture of experience : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

The following discussion of The Ring and the Book suggests that the primary concern of the poem is with language. Chapter One of the discussion attempts to lay a broad base for the relation of language to the poem. It takes the form of a prelude intro­ducing the later chapters and suggests that the overriding concern with language includes the poem, itself, as a linguistic construct. A dis­tinction is drawn between the language of ordinary discourse, which is the immediate subject of the poem, and the language of artistic dis­course, which is the medium of the poem, but which in turn becomes the subject of consideration. The interpenetration of subject and medium, it is suggested, res­ults from Browning's recognition that language is a temporal and ongoing process, and that, therefore, a prior, static truth cannot be conclus ively expressed in language. Rather, art may embrace the processional nature of ordinary discourse within the context of artistic discourse, in order to provide a structure of "the experience of experience". Chapter Two suggests that Browning's method of foregrounding the relationship between language and experience is one of a disruptive juxtaposition of texts. Such a method demonstrates how the style of representation conditions, and supplants, experience: how the medium supplants the subject. Book I, it is argued, becomes an implicit and explicit education in how to read The Ring and the Book, functioning as a paradigm for the later monologues. The discussion of Book I is central to this study; the method of the poem, and the concerns that method foregrounds, are established in Book I (a section of the poem that is rarely discussed in any detail). Primarily, the disruptive texts of Book I dramatise the author fragmen­ting the "whole" story into stylistically conflicting representations; the fragmentation disrupts the conclusiveness implicit in any represen­tation. The "story", or narrative, becomes displaced, and the poem becomes, rather, a cumulative ongoing texture of linguistic representations. Chapter Three considers the problem of climax in a disruptive play of texts. In Book X and Book XI, the language of ordinary discourse in the poem reaches what I would term a plateau of linguistic intensities: the Pope and Guido become the disruptively juxtaposed poles between which the other characters inhabit the world through language. Chapter Three provides a link between the discussion of Book I and the discussion of Book XII which concludes this study. Chapter Four argues that the plateau of linguistic intensities reached in Book X and Book XI is maintained in Book XII. Browning, firstly, includes in his poem the truth of the negative intensity of language: that it is the temporal medium by which experience dis­sipates, even as that experience unfolds in language. The completing intensity of language in the poem, however, is the presence of the implied author in Book XII. The language of artistic discourse counters the limitations and fallibilities of the language of ordinary discourse, not by escaping, or being conclusively above, those limitations, but by embodying them in a true way. The artistic discourse therefore becomes a processional embodiment of truth, from which a conclusive truth may not be separated

The communicative status of topic recontextualization

The article presents the study of the communicative status of topic recontextualization in the discourse. The study of context is realized in its organic connection with an object of the speaker’s thought or a topic which makes it possible to reveal the cognitive structure of context and to analyze deeply the communicative status of recontextualization. Recontextualization is defined as a linguo-cognitive operation aimed at functional topic reorientation in the discourse caused by the change of interlocutors’ perspective on the topic. The communicative status of topic recontextualization includes various communicative factors: spatio-temporal inhomogeneity, redistribution of communicative roles, side-participant presence and polytopicality of communication. Special attention is focused on the study of the lingual means that contribute greatly to topic recontextualization in the discourse

A cognitive analysis of event structure

Events occupy a central place in natural language. Accordingly, an understanding of them is crucial if one is to have any kind of a theoretically well-motivated account of natural language understanding and generation. It is proposed here that speakers create a cognitive structure for each discourse and process it as they introduce sentences into the discourse. The structure for each sentence depends systematically on its tense, aspect and the situation type; its effect on the discourse also depends on the structures of the sentences that precede it. It is also argued that the perfective aspect introduces the structure of the given event in its entirety. The progressive, by contrast, introduces only the core of the structure of the given event excluding, in particular, its preparatory processes and resultant state. Similarly, the perfect and the perfective can be distinguished on the basis of the temporal schemata they introduce. While the perfective presents the event as complete, the perfect presents it as complete and closed; i.e., the perfect prevents succeeding discourse from being interpreted as falling during the given event. This is surprising since the perfect is otherwise simply the combination of the perfective and a tense. This paper also provides a key motivation for distinguishing between the preparatory processes and the preliminary stages of an event. This observation, which is crucial in distinguishing between the perfective and the progressive has not been made in the literature