Docs / Studies / Studies.AnandToosarvandani2019
Now and then: Perspectives on positional variance in temporal demonstratives
Anand, P. & Toosarvandani, M. (2019). In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 23 (pp. 19–36)
now and then are temporal demonstratives indexical to an assessment time a rather than to
the utterance time u: now refers to a time within a, then to a time disjoint from it,
(12). A demonstrative restricts the reference of its sentence's tense through a silent IN, (13).
now needs R-PAST, whose reference lies within an assessment time before the utterance, (17);
then needs PAST, whose reference precedes the assessment time, (15). The assessment time is the
utterance time or starts with the most recent eventuality, CATS (31). In initial position a
demonstrative is a contrastive topic whose alternatives are disjoint, (28), so it cannot overlap
a preceding sentence that answers a sister subquestion; with CATS, a now sentence cannot
precede the preceding sentence. These give the positional generalization (45).
Implementation notes
The contexts enter only through their times; τ₀ is the time of the preceding sentence, the top
of the eventuality stack, and the account is evaluated on ℤ. The examples record the strategy
of inquiry: whether the preceding sentence answers a sister subquestion, and whether an earlier
time is retrievable. A final demonstrative is anaphoric to τ₀. The clash of an overlapping state
in (7) and (36b) is the aspectual constraint of Partee's (6), outside the account.
References
- Anand & Toosarvandani 2019, Now and then: Perspectives on positional variance in temporal demonstratives
- Partee 1984, Nominal and Temporal Anaphora
Tenses and demonstratives (section 3)
The cell of a past tense's reference relative to the assessment time.
Built from
The temporal demonstratives.
- now : Demonstrative
- then : Demonstrative
Derives DecidableEq.
Used by Demonstrative.cell, Admits, Predicted, instDecidablePredicted, admits_iff
The cell of a demonstrative's interval relative to the assessment time: within it for now, (12a), and disjoint from it for then, the English entry, (12b).
- Demonstrative.now.cell = Allen.le
- Demonstrative.then.cell = Allen.ofPosition English.TemporalDeictic.then_.cell
Built from
Used by presup_then, not_restricted_now_past, not_restricted_then_remote, eq_of_cats_of_presup_then
{T : Type u_1} [LinearOrder T] {a J : NonemptyInterval T} :
Tense.Perspective.Presup Demonstrative.then.cell a J ↔ ¬J.Overlaps a
Built from
Only R-PAST is compatible with now (p. 24): a reference within the now-interval lies within the assessment time and cannot precede it.
Built from ,
Built from ,
The assessment time (section 4.2)
CATS, (31): the assessment time is the utterance time, or a time preceded by exactly the times
that precede the time τ₀ of the most recent eventuality.
No going backwards (29): under CATS a reference within an assessment time that precedes the utterance time cannot precede the time of the most recent eventuality.
{T : Type u_1} [LinearOrder T] {a u τ₀ r : NonemptyInterval T} (h : Cats a u τ₀) (hr : r ≤ a) (hau : a.Precedes u) :
¬r.Precedes τ₀
Built from
Final then, (41): when the then-interval is the time of the most recent eventuality, CATS leaves the utterance time as the only assessment time, which the paper offers as one possibility.
{T : Type u_1} [LinearOrder T] {a u τ₀ : NonemptyInterval T} (h : Cats a u τ₀) (hJ : Tense.Perspective.Presup Demonstrative.then.cell a τ₀) :
a = u
Built from ,
Position (sections 4 and 6)
The position of a demonstrative in its sentence.
Derives DecidableEq.
Used by Licensed, Admits, Predicted, instDecidablePredicted, admits_iff
The positions, relative to the time of the preceding sentence, of the intervals a sentence-initial demonstrative may pick out: a later time by Narration as Default (33), an earlier time when the discourse makes one retrievable, and an overlapping time unless the preceding sentence answers a sister subquestion, whose alternatives are disjoint (28).
(sister anterior : Bool) :
Finset Ordering
- initialPositions sister anterior = ({Ordering.gt} ∪ if anterior = true then {Ordering.lt} else ∅) ∪ if sister = true then ∅ else {Ordering.eq}
Used by Licensed, gt_mem_initialPositions, lt_mem_initialPositions, eq_mem_initialPositions
The demonstrative's interval J: the time τ₀ of the preceding sentence in final position,
and a time in one of initialPositions relative to it in initial position.
- Licensed sister anterior Position.initial x✝¹ x✝ = (x✝¹.position x✝ ∈ initialPositions sister anterior)
- Licensed sister anterior Position.final x✝¹ x✝ = (x✝¹ = x✝)
Built from ,
A sentence with demonstrative d in position p can stand to the preceding sentence as o:
some times satisfy the presuppositions of a past tense and of the demonstrative restricting it,
(13), with the demonstrative's interval licensed and the assessment time placed by CATS.
The definition is too large to print here; read it in the source.
Built from ,
Used by admits_iff, accepted_iff_admits
The positional generalization (45): a sentence with a final demonstrative overlaps the preceding sentence; with an initial one it may follow it, overlap it only if the preceding sentence is not a sister, and precede it only with then and an earlier time to pick out.
- Predicted d sister anterior Position.final x✝ = (x✝ = Ordering.eq)
- Predicted d sister anterior Position.initial Ordering.gt = True
- Predicted d sister anterior Position.initial Ordering.eq = (sister = false)
- Predicted d sister anterior Position.initial Ordering.lt = (d = Demonstrative.then ∧ (anterior = true ∨ sister = false))
Built from ,
Used by instDecidablePredicted, admits_iff
(d : Demonstrative) (sister anterior : Bool) (p : Position) (o : Ordering) :
Decidable (Predicted d sister anterior p o)
The definition is too large to print here; read it in the source.
Built from , ,
Built from
Built from
Built from
The account derives the positional generalization (45).
Built from , , ,
The examples
The relation to the preceding sentence that a reading names.
- readingRelation = [("overlapping", Ordering.eq), ("forward-shifted", Ordering.gt), ("backshifted", Ordering.lt)]
Used by accepted_iff_admits
Whether an example's preceding sentence answers a sister subquestion.
Used by accepted_iff_admits
Whether an example makes a time before the preceding sentence retrievable.
- anteriorOf row = (row.feature? "anterior" == some "yes")
Used by accepted_iff_admits
A reading of an example is accepted exactly when the account admits it and, for an overlapping reading, the aspect of the sentences allows overlap, as in Partee's (6).
(row : Datum) :
row ∈ Examples.all → ∀ d ∈ row.parse? "demonstrative" [("now", Demonstrative.now), ("then", Demonstrative.then)], ∀ p ∈ row.parse? "position" [("initial", Position.initial), ("final", Position.final)], ∀ reading ∈ row.readings, ∀ o ∈ List.lookup reading.1 readingRelation, reading.2 = Judgment.acceptable ↔ Admits d p (sisterOf row) (anteriorOf row) o ∧ ¬(row.feature? "aspect" = some "state cannot overlap" ∧ o = Ordering.eq)
Built from , , ,