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A Revised Template Description for Time (v3)

5 Bare Temporal Phrases


In section 2 above, we translated temporal phrases appearing without an overt temporal preposition into the Tipsterese predicate during. These include interval denoting terms such as last year, this summer, and next month, as in the following examples:

a. They expect earnings to rise next month.

b. Last year, IBM stock posted an increase of 3%.

c. The plant should be open this summer.

The problem inherent in any treatment of bare temporal phrases is that the correct intepretation of the phrase is not possible without an understanding of the event type of the entire sentence. For example, in sentence (1) the most exact translation involves the predicate during while in (3) the most precise predicate would be after. Thus, the elided (or understood) preposition is different for these cases, giving rise to what is called context-dependent metonymy.

Because of the difficulty of providing for the exact mapping for bare temporal phrases --in the absence of sentential event-type information-- we have chosen to reduce these to the more conservative but always correct interpretation involving the Tipsterese predicate during. Later developments in the individual systems, however, which allow for more sophisticated analysis will replace this treatment.


A Revised Template Description for Time (v3) - 07 JUN 95
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