Locating adverbials in discourse

Abstract

International audienceThis article analyses Locating Adverbials (LAs) such as 'un peu plus tard', 'ce matin', 'deux kilomètres plus loin' (a little later, this morning, two kilometers further) when they are dislocated to the left of the sentence (IP Adjuncts cases). Although not discourse connectives, in such a position, they seem to play an important part in structuring discourse. It is this contribution of LAs to discourse that we tackle, providing a descriptive analysis and a formal account grounded on Segmented Discourse Representation Theory. In particular, we deal with the frame introducer role of the LAs and with spatio-temporal interpretations of these markers occurring in trajectory descriptions

Setting the background in discourse

“…When locating adverbials occur in IP-adjunct position, [Vieu et al, 2005] show that the content of the framing topic is the "propositionalization" of the adverbial. This is obtained through existential closure over the λ-abstracted variables in the formula corresponding to the semantics of the adverbial, whose standard syntactic position is assumed to be VP-adjunct.…”

“…Cependant, le gros de ces travaux concerne Background backward alors que Background forward est relativement mé-connue. La similarité de sa fonction discursive avec les adverbiaux locatifs antéposés nous a conduit à traiter Background forward sur la base des solutions proposées pour ces derniers [Vieu et al, 2005]. Ces adverbiaux dont le pouvoir locatif dépasse les frontières de la phrase introduisent des structures discursives complexes.…”

“…Our proposal for Background forward builds on the SDRT analysis of locative adverbials in IP-adjunct position proposed in [Vieu et al, 2005, Vieu et al, 2006. Such locative adverbials introduce a complex discourse structure.…”

“…However, while [Vieu and Prévot, 2004] have recently done a careful study of Background backward on the whole much less attention has been dedicated to Background forward situations. Our approach for Background forward builds on the SDRT analysis of locative adverbials in IP-adjunct position proposed in [Vieu et al, 2005]. Such locative adverbials, which have the ability to locate not only the sentence but a whole segment, introduce a complex discourse structure.…”

SDRT and Continuation Semantics

“…Other syntactic and lexical constructions appear useful to analyze in the CS framework: (21) All of these examples offer interesting examples of the interplay between syntax, lexical semantics and discourse semantics. Frame adverbials studied in [27] like in the thirties and enumeration structures like that announced in (21e) introduce a novel element via lexical and syntactic constructions: they introduce a relation that holds between the label for the material in the adverbial or the clause in (21e) and a label in the discourse to come. Thus, our selection functions must select from future continuations, something that is relatively straightforward in continuation semantics but that requires a heavy-handed use of underspecification in standard formulations of SDRT.…”