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9783110485905

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This book is an important and innovative contribution to the literature on time, aspect and discourse structure. By carefully probing into the different uses of a single word (the English adverb `now') and into the various theories that have been put forward to account for those uses, Altshuler succeeds in throwing new light on the intriguing interactions between temporal reference, event structure and rhetorical relations. The insights of Part I are put to excellent use in Part II, where they are applied to two notorious puzzles from the tense and aspect literature, cessation and double access. As Altshuler shows convincingly, only a penetrating analysis of the interaction between temporal, aspectual and rhetorical relations will lead to a solution of these puzzles. Hans Kamp, University of Stuttgart, Germany This book is a significant addition to work on temporal indexicals, tense and aspect, and even more importantly, to the understudied relations between the temporal and the discourse structure of texts. It brings together some of the most exciting, recent work in linguistics on these subjects and weaves a compelling picture of temporal structure in narrative discourse. Nicholas Asher, Institut en Informatique de Toulouse, France This book is the most thorough, authoritative and innovative treatment of narrative discourse to date. The main thesis is that the notions of prominence and coherence constitute the core notions of a formal theory of narrative discourse. In an innovative move, temporal anaphora and narrative progression are motivated by means of two coherence principles, NARRATION and RESULT, whose explanatory adequacy is tested by an abductive reasoning method. The striking feature of this approach to narrative discourse is the wealth of analytical tools that are developed based on insights from a number of subfields of semantics and pragmatics, spanning tense, temporal adverbs, aspect, discourse coherence theory and Gricean pragmatic principles of interpretation, each explored in collaboration with researchers who are specialists in the respective fields. The book will be an indispensable resource to all researchers interested in narrative discourse, be it linguists, philosophers or others in neighboring fields of cognitive studies. Hana Filip, Heinrich-Heine-University, Dusseldorf, Germany

This book is an important and innovative contribution to the literature on time, aspect and discourse structure. By carefully probing into the different uses of a single word (the English adverb now') and into the various theories that have been put forward to account for those uses, Altshuler succeeds in throwing new light on the intriguing interactions between temporal reference, event structure and rhetorical relations. The insights of Part I are put to excellent use in Part II, where they are applied to two notorious puzzles from the tense and aspect literature, cessation and double access. As Altshuler shows convincingly, only a penetrating analysis of the interaction between temporal, aspectual and rhetorical relations will lead to a solution of these puzzles. Hans Kamp, University of Stuttgart, Germany This book is a significant addition to work on temporal indexicals, tense and aspect, and even more importantly, to the understudied relations between the temporal and the discourse structure of texts. It brings together some of the most exciting, recent work in linguistics on these subjects and weaves a compelling picture of temporal structure in narrative discourse. Nicholas Asher, Institut en Informatique de Toulouse, France This book is the most thorough, authoritative and innovative treatment of narrative discourse to date. The main thesis is that the notions of prominence and coherence constitute the core notions of a formal theory of narrative discourse. In an innovative move, temporal anaphora and narrative progression are motivated by means of two coherence principles, NARRATION and RESULT, whose explanatory adequacy is tested by an abductive reasoning method. The striking feature of this approach to narrative discourse is the wealth of analytical tools that are developed based on insights from a number of subfields of semantics and pragmatics, spanning tense, temporal adverbs, aspect, discourse coherence theory and Gricean pragmatic principles of interpretation, each explored in collaboration with researchers who are specialists in the respective fields. The book will be an indispensable resource to all researchers interested in narrative discourse, be it linguists, philosophers or others in neighboring fields of cognitive studies. Hana Filip, Heinrich-Heine-University, Dusseldorf, Germany

This book is an important and innovative contribution to the literature on time, aspect and discourse structure. By carefully probing into the different uses of a single word (the English adverb now') and into the various theories that have been put forward to account for those uses, Altshuler succeeds in throwing new light on the intriguing interactions between temporal reference, event structure and rhetorical relations. The insights of Part I are put to excellent use in Part II, where they are applied to two notorious puzzles from the tense and aspect literature, cessation and double access. As Altshuler shows convincingly, only a penetrating analysis of the interaction between temporal, aspectual and rhetorical relations will lead to a solution of these puzzles. Hans Kamp, University of Stuttgart, Germany This book is a significant addition to work on temporal indexicals, tense and aspect, and even more importantly, to the understudied relations between the temporal and the discourse structure of texts. It brings together some of the most exciting, recent work in linguistics on these subjects and weaves a compelling picture of temporal structure in narrative discourse. Nicholas Asher, Institut en Informatique de Toulouse, France This book is the most thorough, authoritative and innovative treatment of narrative discourse to date. The main thesis is that the notions of prominence and coherence constitute the core notions of a formal theory of narrative discourse. In an innovative move, temporal anaphora and narrative progression are motivated by means of two coherence principles, NARRATION and RESULT, whose explanatory adequacy is tested by an abductive reasoning method. The striking feature of this approach to narrative discourse is the wealth of analytical tools that are developed based on insights from a number of subfields of semantics and pragmatics, spanning tense, temporal adverbs, aspect, discourse coherence theory and Gricean pragmatic principles of interpretation, each explored in collaboration with researchers who are specialists in the respective fields. The book will be an indispensable resource to all researchers interested in narrative discourse, be it linguists, philosophers or others in neighboring fields of cognitive studies. Hana Filip, Heinrich-Heine-University, Dsseldorf, Germany

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Daniel Altshuler is an assistant professor of linguistics at the School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College.

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