University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

An event restriction interval theory of tense

Beamer, Brandon

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/34339

Description

Title
An event restriction interval theory of tense
Author(s)
Beamer, Brandon
Issue Date
2012-09-18T21:12:06Z
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Lasersohn, Peter N.
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Lasersohn, Peter N.
Committee Member(s)
  • McCarthy, Timothy G.
  • Girju, Roxana
  • Ionin, Tania
Department of Study
Linguistics
Discipline
Linguistics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Linguistics
  • Semantics
  • Tense
  • Aspect
  • Philosophy of Language
Abstract
This dissertation presents a novel theory of tense and tense-like constructions. It is named after a key theoretical component of the theory, the event restriction interval. In Event Restriction Interval (ERI) Theory, sentences are semantically evaluated relative to an index which contains two key intervals, the evaluation interval and the event restriction interval. The evaluation interval marks the present relative to context, and the event restriction interval defines temporal boundaries on events. Various constituents, called R-modifiers, operate on these two intervals compositionally, such that each verb is evaluated relative to values which yield correct temporal restrictions. This dissertation develops ERI Theory to present an analysis of independent clauses as well as embedded clauses of various types. One of the positive aspects of ERI Theory is that it offers a purely semantic analysis of the sequence of tense phenomena which occur in the latter. Also, a pragmatic component is presented which accounts for a number of intuitions regarding the usage of tense, while simultaneously providing a solution to some problems related to tense and quantification over times.
Graduation Semester
2012-08
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/34339
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2012 Brandon Beamer

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