Tense and Aspect in Discourse Representation Theory

Tense And Aspect ◽

Discourse Relations ◽

Discourse Interpretation ◽

Aspectual Meaning

This chapter is about the treatment of tense and aspect in Discourse Representation Theory. The focus is on the role that different tense forms and other sentence constituents with temporal and/or aspectual meaning components have on the interpretation of sentence sequences: how the occurrence of such a constituent in a sentence links its interpretation temporally or aspectually to that of the sentence of sentences preceding it. The concern on the discourse linking role of tenses and other sentence constituents led to DRT in the first place, with its architecture that is geared to deal with the systematic properties of incremental discourse interpretation. Novel about the chapter is its discussion of the distinction between temporal cross-sentential discourse links that are fully determined by the choice of tense forms alone and those which also rely on world knowledge and discourse relations. DRT work on sentence- and word-internal structure is not discussed.

Locating adverbials in discourse

Journal of French Language Studies ◽

10.1017/s0959269505002073 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 173-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

LAURE VIEU ◽

MYRIAM BRAS ◽

NICHOLAS ASHER ◽

MICHEL AURNAGUE

Keyword(s):

Representation Theory ◽

Descriptive Analysis ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Discourse Connectives

This article analyses Locating Adverbials (LAs) such as un peu plus tard, ce matin, deux kilomètres plus loin (‘a little later’, ‘this morning’, ‘two kilometers further’) when they are dislocated to the left of the sentence (IP Adjuncts cases). Although not discourse connectives, in such a position, they seem to play an important part in structuring discourse. It is this contribution of LAs to discourse that we tackle, providing a descriptive analysis and a formal account grounded on Segmented Discourse Representation Theory. In particular, we deal with the frame introducer role of the LAs and with spatio-temporal interpretations of these markers occurring in trajectory descriptions.

Discourse relations across genres and contexts

Languages in Contrast ◽

10.1075/lic.17006.fet ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 205-231

Author(s):

Anita Fetzer ◽

Augustin Speyer

Keyword(s):

Representation Theory ◽

Word Order ◽

Personal Narrative ◽

Methodological Framework ◽

Functional Grammar ◽

Systemic Functional Grammar ◽

Discourse Relations ◽

Discourse Units

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the linguistic realization of discourse relations across and within English and German discourse, comparing the genres of newspaper editorial and personal narrative. It concentrates on Continuation, Narration and Contrast, and Elaboration, Explanation and Comment. Particular attention is given to (1) their overt realization with textual themes and pragmatic word order, and (2) the (non)adjacent positioning of discourse units realizing the relations. The methodological framework is an integrated one, supplementing Systemic Functional Grammar with Segmented Discourse Representation Theory. In the English and German narratives, there is a strong tendency to realize discourse relations overtly. The overall overt realization is significantly higher for narratives in both languages with editorials being significantly less overt. There are also significant differences in the overt realization of non-adjacently positioned units realizing discourse relations with significant distributions in all cases, although the distribution in the narratives is less significant.

Satztopik und Diskurstopik in Elaboration-Kontexten

ZAS Papers in Linguistics ◽

10.21248/zaspil.20.2000.83 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 173-207

Author(s):

Michael Grabski

Keyword(s):

Representation Theory ◽

The Other ◽

Main Body ◽

Specific Relation ◽

Explicit Discourse ◽

Semantic Differentiation ◽

Discourse Topic

The paper starts with a semantic differentiation between the notions of sentence topic and discourse topic. Sentence topic is conceived of as part of a semantic predication in the sense of Y. Kim's work. Discourse topic is defined, as in N. Asher's Segmented Discourse Representation Theory, as a discourse constituent that comprises the content of (part of) the larger discourse. The main body of the paper serves to investigate the intricate connection between the two types of topic. For restricting the context of investigation, a specific relation between discourse constituents, Elaboration, is chosen. If Elaboration holds between two discourse constituents, one of them can be identified as the explicit discourse topic with respect to the other one. Whereas an elaborating sentence - with or without a sentence topic - is used to infer a 'dimension' for extending the discourse topic, the role of the sentence topic if it occurs is to mark an 'index' for predication along that dimension. The interaction of elaborating sentences and their topics is modelled by means of channel theoretic devices.'

The negotiation of discourse relations in context: Co-constructing degrees of overtness

Intercultural Pragmatics ◽

10.1515/ip-2016-0003 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Robert M. Maier ◽

Carolin Hofmockel ◽

Anita Fetzer

Keyword(s):

Representation Theory ◽

Discourse Processing ◽

Methodological Framework ◽

Source Text ◽

Functional Grammar ◽

Cognitive Economy ◽

Discourse Relations

AbstractThis paper examines the linguistic realization of discourse relations in the discourse genre of commentary. Based on a “bare” source text from which all extraclausal constituents had been removed, the linguistic realization of discourse relations is compared across three dyadically co-constructed experimental texts. The methodological framework integrates Segmented Discourse Representation Theory with functional grammar and psycholinguistic models of discourse processing, and describes discourse relations (DRs) that tend to be indexed implicitly only, that is, via intraclausal cues, and others that tend to be indexed with a mix of intra- and extraclausal cues. Continuation and Result; Continuation and Elaboration; and Elaboration, Explanation, and Background show some overlap in their definitions, and that is why their realizations may remain vague unless they are supplemented with extraclausal cues. Salience can account for the overspecifications observed, while underspecifications may be accounted for in terms of cognitive economy.