“Discourse Verbs” and Discourse Periphrastic Links

There is a number of English or French verbs which take as semantic arguments eventualities or facts1. An example is the verb precede illustrated in (1a)2: its semantic arguments are the CL rise and the rise of blood leucocytes. The content conveyed by (1a) can be alternatively expressed in (1b); in other words, (1a) and (1b) are periphrastic. In (1b), the temporal relation between the CL and leukocyte rise is indicated by the discourse connective next.