A Constraint-based Semantics for Tenses and Temporal Auxiliaries

Combining ideas from Donald Davidson, Hans Reichenbach and Discourse Representation Theory (DRT), I will develop a constraint-based semantics for the Dutch tenses and temporal auxiliaries which is fully integrated in the HPSG framework. The semantics will be inspired to a large extent by DRT, but the syntax is squarely based on the lexicialist surface-oriented approach of HPSG, and so is the treatment of the relation between syntax and semantics. Instead of DRT’s construction rules which map syntactic structures onto discourse representation structures, I will use lexically anchored constraints on the relation between syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of signs. Since the constraints which I will use are monotonic, the resulting treatment is non-directional, in contrast to DRT’s construction rules, which are unidirectional (from syntax to semantics) and irreversible. Next to this technical advantage, there is also a conceptual one: since the construction rules of DRT have the unlimited power which was once characteristic of transformations in the Standard Theory, they allow for such a broad range of stipulations and arbitrarily complex conditions that the linguist is not encouraged to strive for maximum transparency in the formulation of relations between syntax and semantics/pragmatics. The constraint-based approach, on the other hand, imposes a much tighter discipline on the formulation of such relations, and thus enhances the possibility of arriving at computationally viable analyses. The paper starts with a section on the representation of tensed verbs in general, and then covers the Dutch tenses, the auxiliaries of the perfect