Abstract
In this paper, I discuss observations on when given by Sandström (1993) for constructions of the form ‘When A B’, where A and B both describe events (as opposed to states). Sandströ m proposes that for events described in the simple past, the temporal interpretation of such sequences varies according to whether A describes a culminated process (CP)(accomplishment) or a culmination (CULM)(roughly, an achievement). She offers an account of this behaviour based on the claim that culminations denote changes of state while culminated processes do not. I argue that this claim is unmotivated, and in addition, draw attention to a range of counterexamples to her generalisation. I present an analysis which is not based on the CP/CULM distinction but relies instead on the distinction originally proposed by Dowty (1979) between the event structures CAUSE-BECOME and BECOME. I show that this distinction is closely related to whether the event has a prototypical agent. It is therefore thematic structure rather than temporal structure that determines the behaviour of when in these cases.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Caenepeel, M. and G. Sandström: 1992, ‘A Discourse-Level Approach to the Past Perfect’, in M. Aurnague, A. Borillo, M. Borillo and M. Bras (eds.), Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Semantics of Time; Space and Movement. pp. 167–182. Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse CNRS et Université Paul Sabatier; Equipe de Recherche en Syntaxe et Sémantique — CNRS et Université Toulouse Le Mirail, France.
Dowty, D.: 1979, Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Dowty, D.: 1989, “On the Semantic Content of the Notion of ‘Thematic Role”’, in G. Chierchia, B. H. Partee, and R. Turner (eds.), Properties; Types and Meaning, Vol. 2: Semantic Issues, pp. 69–129. Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Egg, M.: 1995, ‘The Intergressive as a New Category of Verbal Aktionsart’, Journal of Semantics 12(4), 311–356.
Hinrichs, E.: 1986, ‘Temporal Anaphora in Discourses of English’, Linguistics and Philosophy 9, 63–82.
Kamp, H. and U. Reyle: 1993, From Discourse to Logic: Introduction to Modeltheoretic Semantics of Natural Language; Formal Logic and Discourse Representation Theory, Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Krifka, M.: 1992, ‘Thematic Relations as Links between Nominal Reference and Temporal Constitution’, in I. Sag and A. Szabolsci (eds.), Lexical Matters, CSLI Lecture Notes 24, pp. 29–53. CSLI Publications, Stanford.
Levin, B.: 1983, On the Nature of Ergativity, PhD Dissertation, MIT.
Levin, B. and M. Rappaport Hovav: 1995, Unaccusativity at the Syntax — Lexical Semantics Interface. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Moens, M.: 1987, Tense; Aspect and Temporal Reference, PhD Dissertation, University of Edinburgh.
Moens, M. and M. J. Steedman: 1988, ‘Temporal Ontology and Temporal Reference’, Computational Linguistics 14(2), 15–28.
Perlmutter, D.: 1978, ‘Impersonal Passives and the Unaccusative Hypothesis’, in Proceedings of BLS 4, pp. 157–189. Berkeley Linguistic Society, Berkeley.
Pustejovsky, J.: 1991, ‘The Syntax of Event Structure’, Cognition 41, 47–81.
Sandström, G.: 1993, When-clauses and the Temporal Interpretation of Narrative Discourse, Technical Report 34, Department of General Linguistics, University of Umeå.
Sanfilippo, A.: 1991, ‘Thematic and Aspectual Information in Verb Semantics’, Belgian Journal of Linguistics 6, 87–114.
Van Valin, R. D., Jr.: 1990, ‘Semantic Parameters of Split Intransitivity’, Language 66, 221–260.
Vendler, Z.: 1967, ‘Verbs and Times’, in Linguistics in Philosophy, pp. 97–121. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.
Verkuyl, H.J.: 1989, ‘Aspectual Classes and Aspectual Composition’, Linguistic and Philosophy 12(1), 39–94.
Zaenen, A.: 1988, Unaccusative Verbs in Dutch and the Syntax-Semantics Interface, Report CSLJ88-123, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, Cal.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Glasbey, S. Event Structure, Punctuality, and When . Natural Language Semantics 12, 191–211 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:NALS.0000031406.38900.cc
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:NALS.0000031406.38900.cc