Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ups and downs in the theory of temporal reference

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Linguistics and Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for computing the temporal aspects of the interpretations of a variety of Germa sentences. The method is strictly modular in the sense that it allows each meaning-bearing sentence constituent to make its own, separate, contribution to the semantic representation of any sentence containing it. The semantic representation of a sentence is reached in several stages. First, an ‘initial semantic representation’ is constructed, using a syntactic analysis of the sentence as input. This initial representation is then transformed into the definitive representation by a series of transformations which reflect the ways in which the contributions from different constituents of the sentence interact. Since the different constituents which make their respective contributions to the meaning of the sentence are in most instances ambiguous, the initial representations are typically of a high degree of underspecification.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexiadou A., Rathert M. and von Stechow A. (2003). Perfect explorations. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaver D. and Clark B. (2003). Always and only. Why not all focus sensitive operators are alike. Natural Language Semantics 14: 323–362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bittner M. (1994). Case, scope and binding. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Borillo, A., Bras, M., Le Draoulec, A., De Swart, H., Verkuyl, H., Vet, C., & Vie, L. (2004). Tense and aspect. In Handbook of French semantics. CSLI-LN, University of Chicago Press.

  • Cimiano, P., & Reyle, U. (2005). Talking about trees, scope and concepts. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Computational Semantics IWCS-6. Tilburg.

  • Comrie B. (1976). Aspect. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Comrie B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper R. (1983). Quantification and syntactic theory. Reidel, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • de Swart H. (1988). Aspect shift and coercion. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16: 347–385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Swart, H. (1993). Adverbs of quantification: A generalized quantifier approach. PhD thesis, Groningen.

  • de Swart H. (1999). Position and meaning: Time adverbials in context. In: Bosch, P. van der Sandt R. (eds) Focus: Linguistic, cognitive and computational perspectives, pp 336–361. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • de Swart H. and Molendijk A. (1999). Negation and the temporal structure of narrative discourse. Journal of Semantics 16(1): 1–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Swart, H., & Verkuyl, H. (1999). Tense and aspect in sentence and discourse. ESSLLI Lecture Notes.

  • Dowty D.R. (1979). Word meaning and Montague grammar. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Eberle, K. (1992). Ereignisse. Ihre Logik und Ontologie aus textsemantischer Sicht. PhD thesis, Universität Stuttgart.

  • Eberle, K. (2004). Flat underspecified representation and its meaning for a fragment of German. PhD thesis, Universität Stuttgart.

  • Ehrich V. (1992). Hier und Jetzt. Studien zur lokalen und temporalen Deixis im Deutschen. Tübingen, Niemeyer

    Google Scholar 

  • Geurts, B., & van der Sandt, R. (1999). Presuppositions and backgrounds. In Proceedings of the 11th Amsterdam Colloquium. University of Amsterdam.

  • Hamburger K. (1968). Die Logik der Dichtung. Klett, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Heim, I. (1982). The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases. PhD thesis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

  • Heim I. (1983). On the projection problem for presuppositions. In: Barlow, M., Flickinger, D.P. and Wescoat, M.T. (eds) Proceedings of WCCFL 2, pp 114–125. Stanford Linguistics Association, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Heim, I. (1991). Artikel und Definitheit. In Handbuch der Semantik. Berlin: de Gruyter.

  • Iatridou, S., Anagnostopoulou, E., & Izvorsky, R. (2003). Some observations about the form and meaning of the perfect. In M. Rathert, A. Alexiadou, & A. von Stechow (Eds.), Perfect explorations. Mouton de Gruyter.

  • Kamp, H. (1993). Disambiguation in discourse. In M. Aurnague, A. Borillo, & M. Bras (Eds.), Semantics of time, space and movement.

  • Kamp H. (2001a). The importance of presupposition. In: Rohrer, C., Rossdeutscher, A. and Kamp, H. (eds) Linguistic form and its computation. CSLI-Publications, Standord

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, H. (2001b). Presupposition computation and presupposition justification. In M. Bras & L. Vieu (Eds.), Pragmatic and semantic issues in discourse and dialogue. Elsevier.

  • Kamp H. and Reyle U. (1993). From discourse to logic. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, H., Reyle, U., & Rossdeutscher, A. (1995). Diskursreprä sentation, lexikonbasiert, unterspezifiziert. In J. Kilbury, & R. Wiese (Eds.), Integrative Ansätze in der Computerlinguistik.

  • Kamp, H., Reyle, U., & Rossdeutscher, A. (2009). Ups and downs in the theory of information structure. IMS, University of Stuttgart.

  • Kamp, H., & Rohrer, C. Temporal reference in French. To appear at CSLI.

  • Kamp H. and Rossdeutscher A. (1994). Remarks on lexical structure and DRS construction. Theoretical Linguistics 20: 97–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein W. (1994). Time in language. Routledge, London, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein W. (2000). An analysis of the German Perfekt. Language 74(2): 358–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kratzer, A. (2000). Building statives. In Proceedings of the Berkley Linguistic Society 26, February 2000.

  • Krifka M. (1998). Nominalreferenz und Zeitkonstitution. München, Fink

    Google Scholar 

  • McCawley J.D. (1971). Tense and time reference in English. In: Fillmore, C. and Langendoen, D.T. (eds) Studies in linguistic semantics. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • McCord R. (1978). The English perfect: Tense-choice and pragmatic inferences. North-Holland, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Móia, T. (1999). Identifying and computing temporal locating adverbials. PhD thesis, Universidade de Lisboa.

  • Montague, R. (1974). Formal philosophy. Selected papers of Richard Montague. Yale University Press.

  • Musan R. (2002). The German perfect. Its semantic composition and its interaction with temporal adverbial. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogihara T. (1995). Double-access sentences and reference to states. Natural Language Semantics 3: 177–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogihara, T. (1998). Adverbial quantifiers, maximal situations, and weak e-type pronouns. In Proceedings of the Western Conference on Linguistics (WECOL 96) (Vol. 9, pp. 200–213). Cambridge: Fresno: Department of Linguistics, California State University.

  • Parsons T. (1990). Events in the semantics of English. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Partee, B. (1988). ‘Many’ Quantifiers. In Proceedings of ESCOL.

  • Pinkal M. (1996). Radical underspecification. In: Dekker, P. and Stokhof, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Tenth Amsterdam Colloquium. University of Amsterdam, ILLC

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt I. and Francez N. (2001). Temporal generalized quantifiers. Linguistics and Philosophy 24(2): 187–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyle U. (1993). Dealing with ambiguities by underspecification: Construction, representation and deduction. Journal of Semantics 10(2): 123–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyle U. (1996). Co-indexing labelled DRSs to represent and reason with ambiguities. In: van Deemter Stanley Peters K. (eds) Semantic ambiguity and underspecification. CSLI Publications, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Rooth, M. (1985). Association with focus. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts.

  • Rooth M. (1992). A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics 1(1): 75–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothstein, B. (2006). The preterit and the perfect in German and Swedish. PhD thesis, Institute of Linguistics, University of Stuttgart.

  • Schiehlen, M. (1999). Semantikkonstruktion. Doctoral thesis, IMS, University of Stuttgart, AIMS (Vol. 5, No. 3).

  • Smith C. (1991). The parameter of aspect. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Steedman M. (1997). Temporality. In: van Benthem J., ter Meulen, A. (eds) Handbook of logic and language, pp 895–935. Elsevier, North Holland

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • van Deemter, K. (1991). On the composition of meaning. PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam.

  • van Genabith J., Kamp H., Reyle U. (2008). Discourse representation theory An updated survey. In: Gabbey D. (eds). Handbook of philosophical logic. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Press, 2008

  • von Stechow, A. (1991). Intensionale Semantik – eingeführt anhand der Temporalität. Fachgruppe Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz.

  • von Stechow A. (1999). Eine erweiterte Extended Now-Theorie für Perfekt und Futur. Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 29(113): 86–118

    Google Scholar 

  • von Stechow A. (2002). Temporal prepositional phrases with quantifiers: Some additions to Pratt and Francez. Linguistics and Philosophy 25(5–6): 755–800

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computational Linguistics, University of Stuttgart, Azenbergstr. 12, 70174, Stuttgart, Germany

    Uwe Reyle, Antje Rossdeutscher & Hans Kamp

Authors
  1. Uwe Reyle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Antje Rossdeutscher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hans Kamp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uwe Reyle.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Reyle, U., Rossdeutscher, A. & Kamp, H. Ups and downs in the theory of temporal reference. Linguist and Philos 30, 565–635 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-008-9027-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-008-9027-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation