Temporal semantics

ii Introduction Welcome to the ACL 2012 Student Research Workshop. As was the case last year, this year we have solicited and accepted both Research and Thesis Proposal papers. We accepted 14 out of the 31 submissions that we received from students in a wide variety of countries. Two papers were withdrawn, and 12 will be presented as posters during the main ACL 2012 Poster Session. We have paired senior members of the research community with each student in order to provide feedback and guidance to our student authors.

The main goal of this investigation is to establish the temporal and aspectual properties of these four types of textual sequences: narrative, descriptive, explicative and argumentative (cf. Adam (1992)).
Our analysis takes into account Vendler’s (1967) classification of situation types and the theoretical framework of Kamp and Reyle’s (1993) Discourse Representation Theory. The relevant factors that are under scrutiny in our analysis are situation types, verbal tenses, time adverbials, connectives with temporal value, and discourse relations.
Among the conclusions of this investigation, we argue that narrative and descriptive sequences show important differences in terms of temporal and aspectual properties. Narrative sequences typically include events, and the temporal relation of precedence is clearly dominant. Descriptive sequences typically include stative situations, and the temporal relation of overlapping is dominant. Both explicative and argumentative sequences share these properties: they may include either events or states, and either the temporal relations of precedence or overlapping may be dominant.

This investigation aims at establishing the temporal and aspectual properties of the narrative sequences that occur in texts which belong to a specific discourse genre: the live narration of a sporting event (such as a football game). As prototypical properties, narrative sequences include denotation of events and the temporal relation of precedence. When narrative sequences occur in texts of this particular genre, speakers may choose presente do indicativo or pretérito perfeito simples as the dominant verbal tense. Evidence points out that, in terms of temporal and aspectual properties, there is an interaction between the narrative sequential prototype and the discourse genre of the text that the analysed sequence is part of.

Neste artigo, propomo-nos analisar a expressão do tempo numa sequência textual de tipo explicativo. O objectivo da nossa investigação consiste em verificar se existem propriedades temporais e aspectuais inerentes às sequências explicativas. O nosso ponto de partida traduz-se na seguinte questão: a selecção inicial, por parte do locutor, do tipo sequencial explicativo determina necessariamente a ocorrência, na superfície textual, de certos mecanismos temporais e aspectuais, os quais são, por isso mesmo, inerentes aos textos que actualizam este protótipo? Por outras palavras, há propriedades temporais e aspectuais específicas das sequências textuais que constituem actualizações do protótipo explicativo? Estas reflexões constituem, portanto, um contributo no sentido de demonstrar se é pertinente ou não associar à sequência explicativa a ocorrência preferencial de um dado tempo verbal ou de uma determinada classe aspectual ou ainda de uma dada relação discursiva entre os enunciados.

The  photograph  of  the  Persian  hereditary  prince  Mozaffar  al-Din Mirza embodies a synthesis of distinct visual spheres interacting with one another in a transnational space of artistic creation. The politi- cally  defined  objective  of  Luigi  Montabone  commissioned  to  photograph  the Italian diplomatic mission to Persia in 1862, the visual politics of the Persian sovereign and their encounter in the social space of the freshly proclaimed crown prince gives rise to a political iconography of power con- solidation and dynastic national identity. Yet, the subsequent reception of the photograph epitomizes the process of meaning construction in hetero- geneous social spaces.

The goal of my investigation is to establish the existence of temporal and aspectual
properties which are prototypical of the descriptive sequences. I intend to answer the
following questions: is there a tense (present tense, for instance) which prevails in all
descriptive sequences? Are these sequences characterized by the occurrence of a specific
aspectual class (like states)? What about time adverbials? Do they occur in a significant
number (like it happens mostly in narrative sequences)? Is there a discourse relation which
prevails in these types of textual sequences?
The results of this investigation suggest the following hypothesis, which I will try to
confirm in my next studies: the prototypical temporal and aspectual properties of the
descriptive sequences must be seeked at the aspectual classes level and at the time relations
level (and not at the tense level, or at the time adverbs level, or even at the discourse relations
level). Descriptive sequences are mainly characterized by the occurrence of states and by the
overlapping relation between these stative situations.
In association with other studies – see Silva (2002) and Silva (2005a) –, it arises the
ideia that, so far as temporal and aspectual properties are concerned, there is a continuum
between two poles: the narrative sequence pole (which is mainly characterized by the
occurrence of events and the temporal relation of sequenciality between those events) and the
descriptive sequence pole (which is mainly characterized by the occurrence of states and the
temporal relation of overlapping between those states).

KEYWORDS: Descriptive sequence, States, Overlapping, Verbal form, Discourse relation

In cognitive linguistics, motion metaphors of time (e.g. Christmas is approaching, We left the crisis behind) have been actively studied during the last decades. In addition to motion verbs, prepositional expressions are an important element in such metaphors. This work combines insights from Cognitive Grammar and Conceptual Metaphor Theory to account for uses of English path prepositions in motion metaphors of time. It is argued that such expressions conceptualize time as a path where a mover is advancing. The nature of the mover varies: it can be an individual entity metaphorically in motion (e.g. We wentTHROUGHa hard winter), an extended period of time (e.g. The period of Daylight Saving Time goes onPASTSeptember), or the temporal profile of a process (e.g. I sleptTHROUGHthe afternoon). The nature of the mover correlates with the grammatical function of the path expression, which alternates between a complement of a motion verb and a free modifier. Accordingly, the time path can ...

This investigation aims at establishing the temporal and aspectual properties of the narrative sequences that occur in texts which belong to a specific discourse genre: the live narration of a sporting event (such as a football game). As prototypical properties, narrative sequences include denotation of events and the temporal relation of precedence. When narrative sequences occur in texts of this particular genre, speakers may choose presente do indicativo or pretérito perfeito simples as the dominant verbal tense. Evidence points out that, in terms of temporal and aspectual properties, there is an interaction between the narrative sequential prototype and the discourse genre of the text that the analysed sequence is part of.

Abstract: Time is one of the most difficult aspects to handle in real world applications such as database systems. Relational database management systems proposed by Codd offer very little built-in query language support for temporal data management. The model itself ...

Neste artigo,procedemos à análise da expressão do tempo num texto de instruções que se integra no sub-género “modo de emprego”. Pretendemos, com esta reflexão, contribuir para um conhecimento mais aprofundado dos mecanismos de expressão temporal que são predominantemente utilizados nestes textos, e determinar se este género discursivo actualiza o protótipo sequencial narrativo, o protótipo sequencial descritivo ou se se situa num ponto intermédio de um “continuum” entre os dois protótipos. Deste modo, a investigação realizada centra-se em dois grandes objectivos, a que correspondem as duas perguntas seguintes: i) Que mecanismos de expressão do tempo e que tipo de relação temporal predominam nos textos de instruções? ii) Com base nesses mecanismos e nas relações temporais atestadas entre as situações referidas, que protótipo sequencial (entre os que estão previstos na teorização de Adam (1992)) actualiza o género discursivo texto de instruções?

Cyber-Physical System (CPS) requires networks with temporal semantics. The correct functioning of CPS depends crucially on temporal considerations, especially for time-critical requirements. It is an urgent need to couple temporal semantics into the requirement analysis in developing CPS. There have been past attempts at coupling temporal into designing reactive systems. Most of the current proposals, however, suffer from limitations when considered in CPS scenarios by ignoring temporal aspects of the behavior that are essential to the system. This leads naturally to the use of temporal automaton for modeling and verification of requirements of CPSs. The proposed method is simple, yet powerful to express the temporal semantics of CPS. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model by an engineering example.

Propomo-nos reflectir, neste artigo, acerca da expressão do tempo em textos de instruções a partir da análise de um género discursivo particular: a receita de culinária. Assinalaremos as especificidades que caracterizam a temporalidade destes textos, designadamente a ausência de ancoragem no eixo do tempo e o facto de a duração e a ordenação relativa dos estados de coisas referidos se revelarem decisivas para a finalidade prática subjacente a estes textos. Para uma análise global das relações temporais entre as situações referidas, explicitaremos os diferentes processos de interacção entre formas verbais, adverbiais temporais e classes aspectuais.

This article presents some comparative results of an investigation
project about temporal and aspectual properties in texts of different sequence types
(namely narrative and descriptive; cf. Adam (2001)) and, simultaneously, in texts of
different discourse genres. It is argued that aspectual classes (cf. Moens (1987)) and
temporal relations among eventualities depend upon the choice of the sequence
type: narrative sequences include mainly events and the temporal relation of precedence;
descriptive sequences include mainly states and the temporal relation of
overlapping. It is also pointed out that narrative sequences present a more complex
temporal and aspectual structure than descriptive sequences. Furthermore, the
results of the analysis of two narrative sequences which belong to two different
discourse genres suggest that some discourse genres also play an important role on
determining the temporal and aspectual properties of a textual sequence.

KEYWORDS: sequence type; discourse genre; tense; aspectual class; temporal relation

The paper deals with some features of the perfective future (sdelaju) and the imperfective future (budu delat') in Russian. These forms are examined in respect to their temporal semantics, modal semantics and pragmatics. The analysis of the temporal semantics shows that the perfective future has a number of features in common with the present. The analysis of the modal semantics shows that there are a number of characteristics such as the verbal person, the verbal aspect or interrogativity/non-interrogativity that can influence the interpretation of the future tense grammeme.

This article examines how narratives are structured in a language in which event order is largely not coded. Yucatec Maya lacks both tense inflections and temporal connectives corresponding to English after and before. It is shown that the coding of events in Yucatec narratives is subject to a strict iconicity constraint within paragraph boundaries. Aspectual viewpoint shifting is used to reconcile iconicity preservation with the requirements of a more flexible narrative structure.

This article presents some comparative results of an investigation project about temporal and aspectual properties in texts of different sequence types (namely narrative and descriptive; cf. Adam (2001)) and, simultaneously, in texts of different discourse genres. It is argued that aspectual classes (cf. Moens (1987)) and temporal relations among eventualities depend upon the choice of the sequence type: narrative sequences include mainly events and the temporal relation of prece- dence; descriptive sequences include mainly states and the temporal relation of overlapping. It is also pointed out that narrative sequences present a more complex temporal and aspectual structure than descriptive sequences. Furthermore, the results of the analysis of two narrative sequences which belong to two different discourse genres suggest that some discourse genres also play an important role on determining the temporal and aspectual properties of a textual sequence.

This article examines how narratives are structured in a language in which
event order is largely not coded. Yucatec Maya lacks both tense inflections
and temporal connectives corresponding to English after and before. It is
shown that the coding of events in Yucatec narratives is subject to a strict
iconicity constraint within paragraph boundaries. Aspectual viewpoint shifting
is used to reconcile iconicity preservation with the requirements of a more
flexible narrative structure.

The paper investigates the six German tenses Präsens, Präteritum, Perfekt, Plusquamperfekt, Futur I, and Futur II in the perspective of temporal semantics, i.e. their correlation to the three categories present reference, past reference and future reference. It is outlined how 24 established didactic grammars of German as a foreign language describe the semantics of the German tense system. Since the given explanations are not free of inaccuracies and misleading characterizations, several didactic proposals are advanced

This article presents some comparative results of an investigation project about temporal and aspectual properties in texts of different sequence types (namely narrative and descriptive; cf. Adam (2001)) and, simultaneously, in texts of different discourse genres. It is argued that aspectual classes (cf. Moens (1987)) and temporal relations among eventualities depend upon the choice of the sequence type: narrative sequences include mainly events and the temporal relation of precedence; descriptive sequences include mainly states and the temporal relation of overlapping. It is also pointed out that narrative sequences present a more complex temporal and aspectual structure than descriptive sequences. Furthermore, the results of the analysis of two narrative sequences which belong to two different discourse genres suggest that some discourse genres also play an important role on determining the temporal and aspectual properties of a textual sequence.

In cognitive linguistics, motion metaphors of time (e.g. Christmas is approaching, We left the crisis behind) have been actively studied during the last decades. In addition to motion verbs, prepositional expressions are an important element in such metaphors. This work combines insights from Cognitive Grammar and Conceptual Metaphor Theory to account for uses of English path prepositions in motion metaphors of time. It is argued that such expressions conceptualize time as a path where a MOVER is advancing. The nature of the MOVER varies: it can be an individual entity metaphorically in motion (e.g. We went THROUGH a hard winter), an extended period of time (e.g. The period of Daylight Saving Time goes on PAST September), or the temporal profile of a process (e.g. I slept THROUGH the afternoon). The nature of the MOVER correlates with the grammatical function of the path expression, which alternates between a complement of a motion verb and a free
modifier. Accordingly, the time path can relate with figurative (motion-related) or veridical (duration-related) conceptualizations of time. While a spatial path is direction-neutral, a time path can, with few exceptions, only be scrutinized in the earlier => later direction.

The main goal of the investigation that is presented in this article is to establish the temporal and aspectual properties of these four types of textual sequences: narrative, descriptive, explicative and argumentative (cf. Adam (1992)). Our analysis takes into account Vendler’s (1967) classification of situation types and the theoretical framework of Kamp and Reyle’s (1993) Discourse Representation Theory. The relevant factors that are under scrutiny in our analysis are situation types, verbal tenses, time adverbials, connectives with temporal value, and discourse relations. Among the conclusions of this investigation, we argue that narrative and descriptive sequences show important differences in terms of temporal and aspectual properties. Narrative sequences typically include events, and the temporal relation of precedence is clearly dominant. Descriptive sequences typically include stative situations, and the temporal relation of overlapping is dominant. Both explicative and argumentative sequences share these properties: they may include either events or states, and either the temporal relations of precedence or overlapping may be dominant.

KEYWORDS: tense; time adverb; aspectual class; textual sequence; discourse relation