Description
Book SynopsisTemporality surveys the ways in which languages of different types refer to past, present, and future events, through an in-depth examination of four major language types: tense-based English, tense-aspect-based Polish, aspect-based Chinese, and mood-based Kalaallisut.
- Cutting-edge research on directly compositional dynamic semantics of languages with and without grammatical tense
- New in-depth analysis of temporal, aspectual, modal, as well as nominal discourse reference
- Presents a novel logical language for representing linguistic meaning (Update with Centering)
- Develops a unified theory of tense, aspect, mood, and person as different types of grammatical centering systems'
Table of ContentsList of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Glosses xv
Introduction 1
Part I Semantic Universals 13
1 Direct Semantic Composition 15
1.1 Simple Type Logic (TL0) 16
1.2 A CG.TL0 Fragment of English 17
1.3 Dynamic Type Logic (DL0) 23
1.4 A CG.DL0 Fragment of English 27
1.5 Centering: A Blind Spot of English-Based Logics 34
2 Nominal Reference with Centering 41
2.1 Center v. Periphery: Anaphora to Structured Lists 42
2.2 Kalaallisut Third Person Inflections as Top-Level Anaphora 48
2.3 Mandarin Third Person Features as Top-Level Anaphora 53
2.4 English Third Person Pronouns as Shallow Anaphora 57
2.5 Simple Update with Centering (UC0) 61
3 Tense as Temporal Centering 67
3.1 Polish Third Person Inflections as Top-Level Anaphora 68
3.2 Polish Tenses as Top-Level Temporal Reference 69
3.3 English Tenses as Temporal (In)definites 73
3.4 English Tenses as Top-Level Temporal Reference 78
3.5 UC0 with Temporal Centering (UCτ) 85
4 Aspect as Eventuality Centering 93
4.1 Polish Aspect Features v. Inflections 94
4.2 Mandarin Aspect Features v. Particles 101
4.3 English Aspectual Auxiliaries 108
4.4 UCτ with Mereology (UCτ+) 112
5 Quantification as Reference to Sets 118
5.1 Nominal Quantification and Anaphora 119
5.2 Nominal Quantification and Temporal Reference 127
5.3 Temporal Quantification and Anaphora 130
5.4 UCτ+ with Discourse Referents for Sets (UCτ?a) 134
6 Mood as Illocutionary Centering 142
6.1 Illocutionary Moods with(out) Reportative Recentering 143
6.2 (Not-)at-Issue Content as Modal Discourse Reference 146
6.3 (Not-)at-Issue with Start-Up Illocutionary Referents 150
6.4 Dependent Moods as Perspectival (Re)centering 157
6.5 UCδ?a with Illocutionary Referents (UCε!?a) 160
7 (In)direct Speech and Attitude Reports 166
7.1 Mood with(out) Reportative Recentering Revisited 167
7.2 At-Issue Reports with Finite Complements 174
7.3 At-Issue Reports with Non-Finite Complements 179
7.4 UC: Combining UCτ?a and UCε!?a 185
Part II Temporal Variation 191
8 Tense-Based Temporality in English 193
8.1 Indexical Past with(out) Recentering Aspect 194
8.2 Indexical Non-Past with(out) Recentering Aspect 200
8.3 Reports: Speaker’s View of Subject’s (Non-)Past 203
8.4 Quantification: Tenses in Distributive Contexts 206
8.5 A CG.UC Fragment of English 209
9 Tense-Aspect-Based Temporality in Polish 219
9.1 Relative Past (Im)perfective 220
9.2 Relative Non-Past (Im)perfective 226
9.3 Reports: Subject’s (Non-)Past 230
9.4 Quantification: Distributed (Im)perfectives 233
9.5 A CG.UC Fragment of Polish 237
10 Aspect-Based Temporality in Mandarin 246
10.1 Non-Future: Verifiable Topic State 247
10.2 Future: Prospective Topic State or Comment 253
10.3 Reports: Attitudinal Topic State or Comment 257
10.4 Quantification: Topical Habit or Distributive Comment 260
10.5 A CG.UC Fragment of Mandarin 262
11 Mood-Based Temporality in Kalaallisut 272
11.1 Non-Future: Verifiable Eventualities 273
11.2 Future: Verifiable Eventualities with Future c-Points 278
11.3 Reports: Verifiability from Agent's Perspective 282
11.4 Quantification: Verifiable Habits 287
11.5 A CG.UC Fragment of Kalaallisut 290
Conclusion 298
Bibliography 308
Author Index 319
Subject Index 323
