• Language and Information
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.91-103
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• 2002

The temporal structure of events on the discourse level has long been of great interest in both theoretical and computational linguistics. In this paper, we offer a unified approach to the temporal relationships related to a hierarchical discourse structure. We apply the method of pronoun resolution to the interpretation of tense. It is based on an analysis within the framework of the controlled information packaging theory. A unique aspect of our account is that temporal interpretation across discourse segments in global discourse is subject to the same principles as the interpretation of global anaphora, and that there is thus no need to postulate independent principles to account for the discourse behaviour of tense. In this way, we can neatly explain the general view that tense parallels the anaphoric nature of pronouns.

• Language and Information
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.27-40
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• 2000

The purpose of this paper is to propose a way of analyzing English embedded tense in terms of temporal per- spective time. To this end, the notion of temporal perspective time and Cooper and Ginzburg's(1996) attitude account are employed. Temporal perspective time is used to define the tense and to capture the anaphoric property of embedded tense,: the embedded temporal perspective time draws the embedding event time by anaphora. The ambiguity in the sequence of tense construction is described in terms of the attitude tense constraint reflecting the anaphoric property and two definitions of the past tense. The double access property in the present-under-past construction is described in terms of the constraint, the notion of eventuality, and the situation theoretic existential quantifier.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.381-431
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• 2016

This paper deals with Slavic discourse deixis comparing Russian, Polish, Czech and Bulgarian demonstrative and personal pronouns. In general, the Slavic proximal pronouns have precedence over the distal ones. Proximal pronouns, such as Russian eto, Polish to, and Bulgarian tova, are employed more frequently and widely than their distal counterparts to, tamto and onova. The distance-neutral pronoun to in Modern Czech was also a proximal pronoun in the past. These Slavic proximal and former-proximal pronouns function as a discourse deixis marker, whereas, in most other languages, the discourse deixis is mainly a function of distal or non-proximal demonstrative pronouns. However, the Russian, Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian discourse deixis differs in distal demonstrative and personal pronouns. In general, the Polish and Czech discourse deixis does not employ the distal demonstrative pronoun tamto or the personal pronoun ono. The Russian distal demonstrative pronoun to is actively used as a discourse deixis marker, and the personal pronoun ono can also be used to refer to the preceding discourse, though it is not frequent. In Bulgarian the distal demonstrative pronoun onova is rarely used to refer to a discourse, but the personal pronoun to frequently indicates a discourse that is repeatedly referred to in a text. The discourse deixis, which is a peripheral deixis and can be both deixis and anaphora, reveals different characteristics in different Slavic languages. In Russian, where all of the proximal, distal, and personal pronouns function as a discourse deixis marker, the deixis itself plays a crucial role in distinguishing these three pronouns from each other, revealing the speaker's psychological, emotional, temporal, and cognitive proximity to or distance from a given discourse. In Bulgarian, the most analytic Slavic language, the personal pronoun is used more as a discourse deixis marker to reveal the highest givenness of a discourse, and it seems that Bulgarian discourse deixis is more anaphoric than the other Slavic discourse deixis is.