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Generic passages

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Abstract

This paper examines a type of discourse structure we here call ‘generic passages’. We argue that generic passages should be analyzed as sequences of generic sentences, each sentence containing its own GEN operator (Krifka et al. 1995). The GEN operators produce tripartite matrix/restrictor structures; the main discourse connection among the sentences is that the restrictor produced by each sentence in the sequence has as its contents the information in the matrix produced by the previous sentence in the discourse. We also argue that an identity of reference times is required for this process to occur. In the end generic passages are a natural product of the interaction of generic operators in sentences with independently- established principles structuring ordinary extensional narrative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of Rochester, 514 Lattimore Hall, Rochester, NY, 14627, U.S.A.

    Greg N. Carlson

  2. Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, 200 S. 33rd St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, U.S.A.

    Beverly Spejewski

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  1. Greg N. Carlson
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  2. Beverly Spejewski
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Carlson, G.N., Spejewski, B. Generic passages. Natural Language Semantics 5, 101–165 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008264518504

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