Abstract
Topic of this paper is the way in which the structure of events features in discourse. We focus on the structure as introduced by verbs that express some sense of progress. First it is shown by means of examples that this structure is anaphorically available in discourse. Then we go on to discuss the different ways in which the same event may be structured within one discourse situation. We give formal representations of the crucial examples in many-sorted dynamic logic.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blackburn, P., C. Gardent, and M. de Rijke: 1993, ‘Back and Forth through Time and Events’, in P. Dekker and M. Stokhof (eds),Proceedings of the 9th Amsterdam Colloquium.
Gamut, L. T. F.: 1991,Logic, Language, and Meaning. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. Volume 1: Introduction to Logic; Volume II: Intensional Logic and Logical Grammar.
Groenendijk, Jeroen A. G. and Martin J. B. Stokhof: 1991, ‘Dynamic Predicate Logic’,Linguistics and Philosophy 14, 39–100.
Grosz, B. and C. Sidner: 1986, ‘Attention, Intention and the Structure of Discourse’,Computational Linguistics 12, 175–204.
Gruber, Jeffrey S.: 1976,Lexical Structures in Syntax and Semantics. North-Holland Linguistic Series. Vol. 25. Amsterdam, etc.: North-Holland. Part I. Studies in Lexical Relations (1964); Part II. Functions of the Lexicon in Formal Descriptive Grammars (1967)
Jackendoff, Ray S.: 1990, Semantic Structures. Current Studies in Linguistics Series, Vol. 18, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Kamp, Hans and Uwe Reyle: 1993,From Discourse to Logic. Introduction to Modeltheoretic Semantics of Natural Language, Formal Logic and Discourse Representation Theory. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, Vol. 42, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Link, Godehard: 1991, ‘Plural’, in Dieter Wunderlich and Arnim von Stechow (eds),Semantics. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research, De Gruyter, Berlin and New York. Better known as: Link 1984.
Oversteegen, Leonoor: 1989,Tracking Time. A Proposal for the Representation of Temporal Expressions in Dutch, Doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University, Utrecht.
Scha, Remko: 1981, ‘Distributive, Collective and Cumulative Quantification’, in Jeroen A. G. Groenendijk, Theo M. V. Janssen, and Martin J. B. Stokhof (eds),Formal Methods in the Study of Language, Vol. 136, Mathematical Center Tracts, Amsterdam, pp. 483–512.
Ter Meulen, Alice and J. Seligman: 1995. ‘Dynamic Aspect Trees’, in Masuch Polos (ed.),Applied Logic: How, what and Why?, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Verkuyl, Henk J.: 1978, ‘Thematic Relations and the Semantic Representation of Verbs Expressing Change’,Studies in Language 2, 199–233.
Verkuyl, Henk J.: 1988, ‘Aspectual Asymmetry and Quantification’, in Veronika Ehrich and Heinz Vater (eds),Temporalsemantik. Beiträge zur Linguistik der Zeitreferenz, Niemey Verlag, Tuebingen, pp. 220–259.
Verkuyl, Henk J.: 1993,A Theory of Aspectuality. The Interaction between Temporal and Atemporal Structure, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Vol. 64, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Verkuyl, Henk J. and Jaap M. van der Does: 1991, ‘The Semantics of Plural Noun Phrases’, in Jaap M. van der Does and Jan van Eijck (eds),Generalized Quantifier Theory and Applications, Dutch Network for Language, Logic and Information, Amsterdam, pp. 403–441. A revised version to appear in CSLI Publications.
Vermeulen, C. F. M.: 1993, ‘Incremental Semantics for Propositional Texts’, O.T.S. working paper CL-93-001. Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands: Research Institute for Language and Speech (O.T.S). Utrecht University, January (will appear in Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic).
Webber, B.: 1988, ‘Discourse Deixis: Reference to Discourse Segments’, inProceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of ACL, pp. 113–121.
Additional information
We thank Patrick Blackburn, Jaap van der Does, Martin Stokhof and anonymous referees for their comments.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Verkuyl, H.J., Vermeulen, C.F.M. Shifting perspectives in discourse. Linguist Philos 19, 503–526 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00632779
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00632779