conf. LUNGU 16/2

[Bridget Copley]

Le programme "Temporalité: Typologie et Acquisition" (temptypac) de la
Fédération "Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques" du CNRS a le plaisir
d'annoncer un exposé:

Oana LUNGU (Univ. Nantes)
The Construal of Embedded Tenses in Romanian


Date : lundi 16 février 2009
Lieu : 59 rue Pouchet, salle 159
Heure : 14h30-16h30
Métro : ligne 13, Guy Moquet ou Brochant

Un plan d'accès se trouve à :
http://www.umr7023.cnrs.fr/article.php3?id_article=86

Vous pouvez consulter le site web de temptypac à :
http://www.ivry.cnrs.fr/~7023web/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=31

Résumé :

In this talk, I discuss the status of Romanian tenses with respect to  
the cross-linguistic typology, which
distinguishes between Sequence of Tense, (SOT) and non-SOT languages.  
The major difference between SOT
languages (English) and non-SOT languages (Japanese/Russian) is that,  
in the former, past under past yields a
simultaneous reading whereas, in the latter, present under past yields  
a simultaneous construal. On traditional
tense analyses, simultaneous construals in SOT languages arise via a  
“null” (past) tense, while in non-SOT
languages, simultaneous construals arise via either a “null” tense  
(Japanese) or a “shifted indexical” present tense
(Russian). I examine the distribution of Romanian past and present in  
complement and relative clauses and show
that in Romanian (i) past always expresses anteriority and (ii)  
present may be indexical under past and the
realization of a “null” tense under a matrix future. I also discuss  
cases where present in complement clauses
(embedded under a matrix past) yields a simultaneous construal in the  
light of two major theories of shifting
indexicals (Schlenker, 2003; Anand & Nevins, 2004), and show that  
neither gives a neat account of the Romanian
data. I suggest instead an alternative explanation according to which  
the denotation of the present depends on the
presuppositions associated to the content of the embedded clause.  
Present under past can be construed as
simultaneous only when the speaker is not committed to the truth of  
the subordinate clause. Otherwise, present is
only indexical.

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