Temporal connectives in a discourse context

Abstract

We examine the role of temporal connectives in multi-sentence discourse. In certain contexts, sentences containing temporal connectives that are equivalent in temporal structure can fail to be equivalent in terms of discourse coherence. We account for this by olfering a novel, formal mechanism for accommodating the presuppositions in temporal subordinate clauses. This mechanism encompasses both accommodation by discourse attachment and accommodation by temporal addition. As such, it offers a precise and systematic model of interactions between presupposed material, discourse context, and the reader's background knowledge. We show how the results of accommodation help to determine a discourse's coherence.