Tense and the Logic of Change

In this paper it is shown how the DRT (Discourse Representation Theory) treatment of temporal anaphora can be formalized within a version of Montague Semantics that is based on classical type logic

Temporal Relations: Reference or Discourse Coherence?

The temporal relations that hold between events described by successive utterances are often left implicit or underspecified. We address the role of two phenomena with respect to the recovery of these relations: (1) the referential properties of tense, and (2) the role of temporal constraints imposed by coherence relations. We account for several facets of the identification of temporal relations through an integration of these.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of ACL-94, Student Session. 5 pages, LaTeX source, requires lingmacros. Comments are welcom

The grammatical category of time as a means of the expression of temporal deixis in Belarusian and English in the comparative aspect

The article analyzes the grammatical category of time as a means of actualizing temporal deixis in Belarusian and English in the typological aspect. Traditionally, the reference point of temporal deixis is the moment of speech. Nevertheless, it is important to take into account both the speaker and the observer. The purpose of the research is to carry out the comparative analysis of the grammatical category of time in Belarusian and English in terms of the speaker and the observer, as well as to reveal universal characteristics and national and specific features. The research is based on the contexts selected from Belarusian and English parallel corpuses of Russian National Corpus and Internet resources

Binding domains in second language acquisition : implications for textbook presentations.

This study investigates the acquisition of pronominal reference in adult second language acquisition within the framework of the Government-Binding Theory of grammar. The analysis will draw conclusions regarding how grammatical explanations might be presented in Spanish language textbooks. Unlike English, Spanish does not seem to be consistent with the principle that a pronoun should be free in reference. Since some Spanish structures with subjunctive complements are obligatorily disjoint in reference, it will be argued that verbs of volition in those structures contain certain features which call for disjoint reference. Interpretation picture tests are used to assess second language learners\u27 understanding of pronominal reference. Adult native speakers of English are tested at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of university Spanish language study. Results show that in simple sentences students have no difficulty interpreting pronouns. When complex sentences are used, results show that regardless of complement type (indicative, subjunctive), students initially define the complement sentence as the binding domain for its subject, and allow the subject to (co)refer freely. The acquisition of the requirement for disjoint reference develops through the interaction of lexical/semantic properties of main verbs with the structural principles

Deixis In Jakarta Post Article

The design of this research was descriptive qualitative research that aimed at describing, interpreting and explaining deixis in the newspaper article. The main instrument in this study the researcher himself in doing his analysis supported by using the documentary technique. The data that had been collected were analyzed by the researcher himself. After analyzing the data, then the researcher drew the conclusion about the types and the function of deixis in the sentences of the newspaper articles. Based on the discussion findings,  there were four types of deixis found in The Jakarta Post article, namely 19 person deixis, 29 spatial deixes , 59 time deixis, 55 discourse deixis. From the analysis, the most types of deixis found in Jakarta Post articles time deixis. Thus, it can be said that The Jakarta Post tends to use time deixis as the dominant type compound than another

The Anaphoric Parallel between Modality and Tense

In modal subordination, a modal sentence is interpreted relative to a hypothetical scenario introduced in an earlier sentence. In this paper, I argue that this phenomenon reflects the fact that the interpretation of modals is an ANAPHORIC process, precisely analogous to the anaphoric interpretation of tense. Modal morphemes introduce alternative scenarios as entities into the discourse model; their interpretation depends on evoking scenarios for described, reference and speech points, and relating them to one another. Although this account formalizes anaphoric connections using dynamic semantics, it invokes a novel and direct encoding of scenarios as ordinary, static objects (competing analyses take modal referents to be inherently dynamic objects, unlike the referents of pronouns and tenses). The result is a simpler proposal with better empirical coverage