The Temporal Interpretation of Complement and Relative Clauses: Contrasting English and Samoan

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The Temporal Interpretation of Complement and Relative Clauses: Contrasting English and Samoan

Hohaus, Vera
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URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10900/96916
http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:21-dspace-969165
http://dx.doi.org/10.15496/publikation-38299
Dokumentart: Aufsatz
Date: 2020-01-14
Source: Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 12(3): 42-60
Language: English
Faculty: 5 Philosophische Fakultät
Department: Allgemeine u. vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
DDC Classifikation: 400 - Language and Linguistics
420 - English and Old English
490 - Other languages
Keywords: Linguistik , Samoanisch , Englisch , Polynesische Sprachen , Austronesische Sprachen , Grammatik , Tempus , Semantik
Other Keywords:
Semantics
tense
aspect
subordination
presupposition binding
Samoan
ISBN: 1836-6821
License: Publishing license excluding print on demand
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Abstract:

Based on data from original fieldwork, this paper investigates the temporal interpretation of two subordinate constructions in Samoan, an aspect-prominent language. We show that both relative and complement clauses are interpreted as temporally dependent on the matrix sentence. Embedding a past perfective under a past perfective always yields a backward shifted interpretation, while embedding an imperfective yields a simultaneous interpretation. We derive this pattern by positing lambda abstraction over a temporal proform in the embedded constituent, which in the case of the past perfective is its presupposition.

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