tailieunhanh - Báo cáo khoa học: "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 temporai 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 aftachme,f 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 results of accommodation help to determine a discou~e's coherence. . | Temporal Connectives in a Discourse Context Alex Lascarides and Jon Oberlander Centre for Cognitive Science and Human Communication Research Centre University of Edinburgh 2 Buccleuch Place Edinburgh EH8 9LW Scotland UK alex j Abstract We examine the role of temporal connectives in multi-sentence discourse. In certain contexts sentences containing temporal connectives that are equivalent in temporal 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 results of accommodation help to determine a discourse s coherence. 1 Introduction We focus on aspects of the discourse behaviour of the temporal connectives before after and when. In particular we note that discourse context can cause sentences which are equivalent in temporal structure to fail to be equivalent in terms of discourse coherence. We attempt to explain why context can have this effect. The explanation hinges on the differing presuppositions posted by the differing connectives and on the novel mechanism whereby background knowledge determines how they are accommodated into the discourse structure during interpretation. The support of the Science and Engineering Research Council through project number GR G22077 is gratefully acknowledged. HCRC is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council. 2 Temporal Equivalence and Discourse Incoherence First then consider the following actual sequence of states and events in the UK in November 1992 some right-wing Tory backbench MPs were objecting to government policy over the treaty of Maastricht and threatened to vote against