+

Daniel Altshuler Heinrich-Heine-Universität

Düsseldorf

Aspectual and

adverbial meaning

as constrain

ts on discours

e structure

.

+Kamp et al (2013) on the Kamp et al (2013) on the perfectperfect

Tense and adverbs describe distinct temporal coordinates

All perfects link an event’s consequent state to the temporal coordinate specified by the tense

Crosslinguistically, perfects differ in linking distinct event parts to the temporal coordinate specified by a temporal locating adverb.

Perfects differ from all other aspectual operators in linking distinct event parts to coordinates specified by tenses and temporal locating adverbs

+Goals of todayGoals of today

Altshuler 2012 (Journal of Semantics)The Russian imperfective links an event’s consequent state to the temporal coordinate specified by the tense The Russian imperfective links an event to the temporal coordinate specified by a temporal locating adverb.

Punch-lines The Russian imperfective is like the perfect in linking distinct event parts to coordinates specified by tenses and temporal locating adverbsLinking a consequent state to the temporal coordinate provided by the tense is not a defining criteria of the perfect

+New Research Program

All aspectual operators make reference to an event eand its consequent state s. Aspectual operators differ in:

whether they relate e or s to the temporal coordinates described by tenses and temporal locating adverbs

the type of relation that holds between the given eventualities and the temporal coordinates

+Occasion relation

(1) At five o'clock, Harry walked in, sat down, and took off his boots. (Moens & Steedman 1988).

(2) Max pushed John. He fell (Asher & Lascarides 1993).

(3) Occasion(S1, S2): Hobbs 1990, Kehler 2002 the event described by S2 is contingent on an event

described by S1 An event e is understood to be contingent on an event

e’ iff e is contained within the consequent state of e’ (see Moens & Steedman 1988; Webber 1988)

+Purely temporal relation?

(4) He took out his wallet to pay for the food. “That will be 72 cents”, the grocer said. “AAAAAAAAAAAA!” Jack screamed, looking down to see a bee busy stinging him on the little finger (after Richard Brautigan, Revenge of the Lawn, Sam Cumming, p.c. ).

(5) A wave crashed down on Bob, ruining his new suit. “I'll sue you for that,’” said Bob. Another wave

crashed down on him, carrying off his bowler hat. (Sam Cumming, p.c.).

+Narration

(6) Narration(S1, S2) the event described by S2 follows an

event described by S1 (after Asher & Lascarides 1993, 2003, 2008)

Common topicality constraintS1 and S2 share a common topic “that

summarises what went on in the story” (Asher & Lascarides 2008:13).

+Motivation for constraint

(7) Christ was born no later than 4 B.C. #Today Fortuna won the match.

+On deck…

Case Study: Imperfective aspect in Russianits semantics rules out Occasionit is nevertheless found in some narrative contexts, often involving temporal adverbs

o leads to a study of interaction between aspectual and adverbial meaning

+Russian imperfective

+Russian imperfective

+Russian imperfective

BACKGROUND but not OCCASIONa. Odna storona s utra zajavili, One side from morning PFV.announced chto peredacha uzhe sostojalas’ that exchange already PFV.took.place ‘One side said that the <spy> exchange had already taken place.’

b. Drugaja storona eto {oproverg-la/ oprovergala} Other side this PFV.denied denied.IPF ‘The other side had denied this.’

+

(13) a. Musčina vo-še-l v <<White Hart>>

Man PFV-go-PAST to White Hart ‘A man entered the White Hart.’

b. On byl v černom pidžake He be.IPF-PST in black jacket ‘He wore a black jacket.’

c. #Bill dava-l emu bakal pivo. Bill PFV.give-PST him mug beer ‘Bill gave him a mug of beer.’

Occasion rules out Russian imperfective

13

+Occasion rules out Russian imperfective

+Question

What is the semantics of the Russian imperfective like such that it rules out Occasion?

Naïve answerOccasion is defined in terms of a change of

state, e.g. as involving an event’s consequent state

the imperfective describes an event as if it hasn't yet been completed.

+

K nam priezža-l otec domoj To us arrive.IPF-PST.3S father house

(#no on ne smog najti naš dom). but he not able find house

‘Father came/had come to our house, (#but was unable to found our house).’

However…16

+Moreover…

+PuzzleOn the one hand, the Russian imperfective can be used to describe an event to provide an

elaboration or background• “The progressive” usage

On the other hand, the Russian imperfective can be used to describe a consequent state to provide

an explanation or background• “The perfect” usage

It is never is used for Occasion

+

(1) Fritz hat seine Arbeit eingereicht. Fritz has his paper submitted ‘Fritz has submitted his paper’ (Kamp et al. 2013)

(2) Peter hat gerade gespült, als ich heimkam. Peter has in-the-moment done-the-dishes when I home-came ‘Peter was doing the dishes when I got home’ (Rothstein 2008)

“As the eventuality denoted by such a present perfect is viewed as ongoing, there can be no perfect or resultant state meaning” (Rothstein 2008: 49).

Related puzzle19

+

Narration within an elaboration(3) John built a house last year. First he got an architect to draw up a plan. Next he hired a contractor. At the end he was very pleased (Bittner 2008, pg. 21).

Perfect progressive(4) From this lodge I turned into the field opposite to Ingress Park, where Mr. Alderman Harmer has been building a splendid mansion: it is entirely of stone, and is in the Gothic style.

Consequent states of event parts

20

+Analysis of Russian imperfective

Russian has an imperfective operator, IPF, which combines with a VP denotation—a set of events—and introduces a VP-event part e into the discourse context with the following constraint:

The reference time must be contained within the run time of the consequent state of e

+Key idea

IPF relates two times—the time of the consequent state that it describes and a time which is anaphorically retrieved from the discourse context

+Explanation & Background

+ Background

+Counterexample?

(19) Osen’ju 1888 godu Ul’janovu bylo razrešeno vernut’sja v Kazan'. Fall 1888 year Ul’janov was.IPF allowed return to Kazan Zdes' on vposledstvii vstupil v odin iz maprkcistskix kružkov… Here he subsequently joined.PFV in one from Marxist circles ‘In the fall of 1988, Ul’yanov was allowed to return to Kazan. Here he subsequently joined one of the Marxist circles…’

(20) V 1924 godu N.K. Krupskaja pisala v “Pravde”: In 1924 year N.K. Krupskaja wrote.IPF in “Truth” “Plexanova, Vladimir Il’ič ljubil strastno…” Plexanov Vladimir Ilich loved.IPF passionatly ‘In 1924, N.K. Krupskaja wrote in “Truth”: “Vladimir Ilich loved Plexanov passionatly”

+Current research

Study the interaction between adverbial and aspectual meaning.

(26) Osen’ju 1888 godu Ul’janovu bylo razrešeno vernut’sja v Kazan'. Fall 1888 year Ul’janov was.IPF allowed return to Kazan Zdes' on vposledstvii vstupil v odin iz maprkcistskix kružkov… Here he subsequently joined.PFV in one from Marxist circles ‘In the fall of 1988, Ul’yanov was allowed to return to Kazan. Here he subsequently joined one of the Marxist circles…’

(27) V 1924 godu N.K. Krupskaja pisala v “Pravde”: In 1924 year N.K. Krupskaja wrote.IPF in “Truth” “Plexanova, Vladimir Il’ič ljubil strastno…” Plexanov Vladimir Ilich loved.IPF passionatly ‘In 1924, N.K. Krupskaja wrote in “Truth”: “Vladimir Ilich loved Plexanov passionatly”

+Contrasts with French imparfait

(1) Après que Marie est arrivée, Paul est parti.(2) #Après que Marie est arrivée, Paul partait. 'After Mary came, Paul left.’

(3) #Maigret reprit la petite auto noire et il pénétrait dans la brasserie de la place de la République. 'Maigret once more took the little black car and he entered the café at the Republic square.’

(4) Maigret reprit la petite auto noire et, quelques minutes plus tard, il pénétrait dans la brasserie de la place de la République. 'Maigret once more took the little black car and, a few mitues later, he entered the café at the Republic square.’

+Tasmowski 1985

“le développement de l'IR dépend crucialement d'un adverbe de temps en début de phrase, adverbe qui a pour effet d'introduire un nouveau moment temporel dans le texte.”

"the development of the IR (="imparfait de rupture") crucially depends on a temporal adverb at the beginning of the sentence, this adverb being in charge of introducing a new temporal moment in the text".

+Analysis extendedIPF relates the time of the consequent state that it describes to a time that is:

anaphorically retrieved from the discourse context or ‘bound off’ by temporal locating adverbs (if there are any), which describe a time that is related to an event rather than a consequent state

+

[[VP N.K. Krupskajaun write auk report] w

λe.[un, uk | un = N.K. Krupskajao, report{ukj }, write{e, un,uk }] =:

λeλiλj. i[un, uk]j ∧ unj = N.K. Krupskaja ∧ report(ukj), write(ej, unj, ukj)

[[Asp IPFen] w

λPλt’λt.[en | PART{en}⊆t, t’ ⊆ CONS{en}] ; P(PART{en}) =:

λPλt’λtλiλj.∃k(i[en]k ∧ PART(enk)⊆tk ∧ ∧ t’k ⊆ CONS(enk) ∧ P(PART(en)kj)

[[Adv on May 12, 1924sn] w

λRλt.[t’n | t = may.12.1924o] ; R(t’n) =:

λRλtλiλj.∃k(i[t’n]k ∧ tk = may.12.1984 ∧ R(t’n)kj)

[[Asp PSTtn] w

λR.[ tn | tn < t*] ; R(tn) =:

λRλiλj.∃k(i[tn]k ∧ tnk < t*k ∧ R(tn)kj)

Toy analysis in CDRT Toy analysis in CDRT 30

+

[[Asp IPFen] w λPλt’λt.[en | PART{en}⊆t, t’ ⊆ CONS{PART{en}}] ; P(PART{en})

[[Asp PROGen] w

λPλt’λt.[en | PART*{en}⊆t, t’ = CONS{PART*{en}] ; P(PART*{en})

[[Asp ENG.PERFETen] w

λPλt’λt.[en | ecm⊆t, t’ ⊂CONS{en}, ecm = en ⊕ CONS{en} ] ; P(en)

[[Asp GERM.PERFETen] w

λPλt’λt.[en | PART{en}⊆t, t’ ⊂ CONS{PART{en}}] ; P(PART{en})

Other aspectual operators…Other aspectual operators… 31

+

[[Adv on May 12, 1924sn] w

λRλt.[t’n | t = may.12.1924o] ; R(t’n)

λRλtλiλj.∃k(i[t’n]k ∧ tk = may.12.1984 ∧ R(t’n)kj)

Potential problemTo saturate a time argument, we introduce a drefThe introduced dref should be available for anaphoric pick-

upDoes not capture the idea that the semantic function of

temporal locating adverbs is to ‘bind off’ the time argument of an aspectual phrase, i.e. does not capture anaphoric closure

Closer look at meaning of Closer look at meaning of temporal adverbialstemporal adverbials

32

+

[[Adv on May 12, 1924] w

λRλtλiλj. (i =j ∧ tj = may.12.1984 ∧ ∃k(j[t’]k ∧ R(t’)jk)

j is a good output environment only if it could be further updated to an environment k in which there is some unspecified time t’.

This time cannot serve as an antecedent because the output environment that is passed on for the interpretation of subsequent discourse is j and not k

RevisionRevision33

+

[[Adv on May 12, 1924] w

λRλtλiλj. (i =j ∧ tj = may.12.1984 ∧ ∃k(j[t’]k ∧ R(t’)jk)

How to represent anaphoric closure in DRT?

Possibility explored by Brasoveanu (2007): o use of double negation

Anaphoric closure in DRT?Anaphoric closure in DRT?34

+Let’s get to work…

“…Whether the semantic contributions made by…temporal adverbials are in the first instance temporal or rhetorical, and how their rhetorical or temporal contributions can then be accounted for as secondary effects produced by pragmatic mechanisms, is a matter for further investigation”(Kamp 1999/2013).