ABSTRACT
This paper elucidates the linguistic representation of temporal relations among events. It does so by examining sentences that contain two clauses connected by temporal/causal connectives, words like once, by the time, when, and before. Specifically, the data involve the effect of the tenses of the connected clauses on the acceptability of sentences. For example, Rachel disappeared once Jon had fallen asleep is fine, but *Rachel had disappeared once Jon fell asleep is unacceptable. First a theory of acceptability is developed, then its implications for interpretation are discussed. The strategy employed is to factor linguisitic knowledge into a general, syntactic component and a lexical component dependent on the properties of individual connectives. Once the syntactic and lexical components have been teased apart the problem of interpretation becomes clearer. Finally, a computer model of the theory, which serves as a workbench and confirms the theory's behavior, is demonstrated.
