An event restriction interval theory of tense

Beamer, Brandon

Permalink

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

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

Permalink

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

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2012 Brandon Beamer

Owning Collections