Semantic Interactions Between Modality and Tense

摘要 本研究主要探讨情态和 时间因素在英语语篇理解中的作用， 调查应该对建模施加哪些限制 这些元素在一个正式的语义理论。 初始 观察涉及两种现象。 第一种是模态 #21453;，似乎是为了营造一种氛围-- 语篇中的指称时间互动 现象，我们必须将模型中的瞬间和间隔视为 非原始的，根据事件定义的（它们自己构思的 作为部分可能世界）。 二是语义学 涉及时间和模态的话语， 包括条件句和反事实条件句。 等 实例表明对时间模型的进一步限制 现象，包括新的见解，跨世界的地位， 现在的概念，反映在言语时间的概念中， 这是解释时态的核心， Reichenbachian的方法，并在词汇语义的现在和 其他时间索引。 研究的主要目的是 考虑如何将各种限制与其他 中的模态和时间元素的语义考虑 英语 这项研究还涉及到几个悬而未决的问题 关于事件和方面类的语义， 语义建模中的上下文，以及上下文在 解释。

ABSTRACTS This research focuses on the interaction between modality and temporal elements in the interpretation of English discourses, investigating what restrictions should be put on the modeling of these elements in a formal semantic theory. The initial observations involve two kinds of phenomena. The first is modal subordination; it appears that in order to capture the mood- Reference Time interaction in discourses involving this phenomenon, we must treat instants and intervals in a model as non-primitive, defined in terms of events (themselves conceived as partial possible worlds). The second is the semantics of utterances which involve reference to times as well as modality, including conditionals and counterfactual conditionals. Such examples suggest further restrictions on the modeling of temporal phenomena, including new insights into the cross-world status of the notion of present, reflected in the notion of Speech Time, which is central to the interpretation of tense in a Reichenbachian approach, and in the lexical semantics of now and other temporal indexicals. The main goal of the research is to consider how to articulate the various restrictions with other considerations in the semantics of modal and temporal elements in English. The research bears as well on several open questions regarding the semantics of events and aspectual classes, the use of partiality in semantic modeling, and the role of context in interpretation.