The interplay of information structure and the placement of after and before

In this paper we show how information structure affects the text coherence for before/after-sentences in a discourse. We analyse information structure with respect to the question of how information is presented on the sentence level and how the presented information can be connected to the preceding discourse. In particular, we raise the question of when a preposed temporal clause is felicitous in a given discourse context. Since we are concerned with the subordinative temporal connectives before and after, two alternatives of presenting the meaning expressed are conceivable: either the temporal clause follows the main clause (e.g. (1)) (which is the unmarked case) or the temporal clause is preposed (e.g. (2)):