The Treatment of Tense in Situation Semantics

Abstract

In this paper, the four classical issues involving definite or dynamic interpretations of tense are first reviewed, as discussed in Hinrichs (1987). Then, an attempt is made to solve them in a situation-theoretic framework a la Barwise (1989) with the notions of described, discourse, resource or background situations. For semantic composition, Yoo and Lee's (1988) equation solving approach is adopted to treat Hinrichs's tensed sentences. Finally, described and discourse situations are differentiated by the notions of temporal localization, connectedness, and dynamicity to state cons-traints on discourse situations and then properly to induce the dynamic or rational interpretation of a discourse.