Aspect in Ancient Greek - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics

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144 Chapter 6. The temporal structure of discourseOn the pushing account, on the other hand, t 5 binds by default to t 3 (rule2a):(175) (171) ⊕ (173) =n e 1 t 1 t 2 t 3 e 2 t 4 t 6p enter(e 1 )τ(e 1 ) = t 1t 1 ⊆ t 2t 1 ⊃≺ t 3t 2 ≺ nm phone(e 2 )τ(e 2 ) = t 4t 4 ⊆ t 5t 4 ⊃≺ t 6t 5t 5 ≺ nt 5 := t 3⇒n e 1 t 1 t 2 t 3 e 2 t 4 t 6p enter(e 1 )τ(e 1 ) = t 1t 1 ⊆ t 2t 1 ⊃≺ t 3t 2 ≺ nm phone(e 2 )τ(e 2 ) = t 4t 4 ⊆ t 3t 4 ⊃≺ t 6t 3 ≺ nThe reader may check himself that in both ways we obtain the desired resultthat the telephoning (e 2 ) follows the entering (e 1 ).We could say that on a pushing account this ρ is always the identity relation.I prefer this over a resolution of ρ to various temporal relations, whathappens on a pulling account, because I think it’s conceptually clearer. Thepoint is that if the resolution options of ρ are not restricted the relation is toopermissive. A restriction to ≺ and ⊆, however, or any temporal relation, isjust a stipulation. Moreover, we would expect that the default resolution forρ is identity. Let me explain this. The complex anaphoric condition of (172)is reminiscent of Asher and Lascarides’ (1998) account of the phenomenon ofbridging. They define bridging as “an inference that two objects or events thatare introduced in a text are related in a particular way that isn’t explicitlystated, and yet the relation is an essential part of the content of the text inthe sense that without this information, the lack of connection between thesentences would make the text incoherent” (p. 83). Let me illustrate this with(176):(176) I took my car for a test drive. The engine made a weird noise.The definite description the engine introduces the instruction to pick up apreviously introduced engine. The context doesn’t supply one explicitly. However,the hearer makes the inference that the engine spoken of in the secondsentence is the engine of the car mentioned in the first sentence. On Asherand Lascarides’s account of this phenomenon, a definite description introducesa discourse marker that has to be linked to a previously introduced discourse
6.3 Analysing the patterns 145marker via an underspecified relation, which must be further specified throughconnecting to the discourse context. In (176), the relation is the part-of relation.On this account the normal case of anaphora is the special case ofbridging in which the relation resolves to identity. Resolution to identity isthe preferred option, as Asher and Lascarides note. This brings me back topulling accounts of narrative progression. There the default resolution for ρ isnot identity, but succession for events and inclusion for states. This is conceptuallystrange. For these reasons, I prefer a pushing account, in which accountthe temporal relation is not only by default, but always identity.6.3.3 Explaining the patternsLet’s now see how the proposed account gives the right results for our Greekexamples. (177) (for the glossed version, see (160)), with two aorists, behavesthe same as (169), with two passé simples:(177) κα δο τε ντ ν̋ νηο̋ τ Αθηναίη οκοδµησε Αλυάττη̋ ν τΑσσησ, ατ̋ τε κ τ̋ νοσου νέστη.“Alyattes built-aor not one but two temples of Athena at Assesos,and recovered-aor from his illness.” Hdt. 1.22.4The context for the interpretation of the second clause of (177) contains amongother things world knowledge of the ancient and the information provided bythe whole work of Herodotus up to that point. For simplicity, however, I takeit to be the first clause of (177), which is represented as (178): 7(178)n e 1 t 1 t 2a build temples(e 1 )τ(e 1 ) ⊆ t 1τ(e 1 ) ⊃≺ t 2t 1 ≺ nNote that (178) is constructed following the rules for the sentence internalcomposition of meaning with which we were concerned in chapter 4. As before,aoristic aspect specifies that there is an eventuality of the kind specified bythe predicate temporally included in the topic time t 1 and past tense indicatesthat this topic time is in the past. 8 The only addition is the introduction of anextra time t 2 , immediately following τ(e 1 ), a contribution of aoristic aspect.The preliminary representation of the second clause is (179):7 Henceforth I combine the two conditions τ(e 1 ) = t 1 and t 1 ⊆ t 2 into one conditionτ(e 1 ) ⊆ t 2 .8 Of course, the topic time of this sentence is an anaphor too. For simplicity, I havepresented the outcome of the resolution process and accommodated the topic time.
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Aspect in Ancient GreekA semantic a
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viNick Asher, David Beaver, the lat
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Contentsix8 Conclusions and discuss
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2 Chapter 1. Introductiongroundbrea
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4 Chapter 1. Introduction(4) µετ
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6 Chapter 1. Introductionimperfecti
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1.3 Organisation of the thesis 9In
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Chapter 2The interpretations of aor
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2.3 Additional interpretations of t
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2.5 The challenge 21scriptions of h
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24 Chapter 3. Aspect in formal sema
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3.2 The perfective-imperfective dis
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3.3 Aspectual coercion 673.3.1 Aspe
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3.3 Aspectual coercion 69bials ((88
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3.3 Aspectual coercion 71the term c
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3.3 Aspectual coercion 73in the ext
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76 Chapter 4. An analysis of aorist
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Page 104 and 105: 94 Chapter 4. An analysis of aorist
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194 Appendix B: Examples spelled ou
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206 Appendix C: List of abbreviatio
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208 Appendix C: List of abbreviatio
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210 References(Eds.), Cross-linguis
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212 ReferencesGrice, P. (1975). Log
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214 ReferencesLemmon, E. J. (1962).
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216 Referencesvan der Sandt, R. (19
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218 References
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220 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch)
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222 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch)
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