Event in Compositional Dynamic Semantics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework for event-based discourse semantics using continuation semantics, integrating rhetorical relations and distinguishing discourse from sentence meaning.

Contribution

It presents a novel event-style dynamic semantics framework with separate composition functions for different discourse relations.

Findings

Framework effectively models discourse dynamics

Incorporates rhetorical relations into interpretation

Distinguishes discourse from sentence semantics

Abstract

We present a framework which constructs an event-style dis- course semantics. The discourse dynamics are encoded in continuation semantics and various rhetorical relations are embedded in the resulting interpretation of the framework. We assume discourse and sentence are distinct semantic objects, that play different roles in meaning evalua- tion. Moreover, two sets of composition functions, for handling different discourse relations, are introduced. The paper first gives the necessary background and motivation for event and dynamic semantics, then the framework with detailed examples will be introduced.