Time, space, and action: Exploring the narrative structure and its linguistic marking

Temporal Adverbials as Segmentation Markers in Discourse Comprehension

“…Other temporal expressions do not necessarily create such a temporal gap, but still behave as a topic shift marker. This is the case for A moment later (Zwaan, 1996), but also for the connective then (Bestgen & Vonk, 1995) or for adverbials like Around two o'clock in everyday narratives (Bestgen & Costermans, 1994;Costermans & Bestgen, 1991). Obviously, the adverbial expressions studied here are linguistic indicators of discourse structure (Grosz, Pollack, & Sidner, 1989), and so belong to the general class of cue phrases and discourse markers that express the semantic and pragmatic connections between discourse segments (Redeker, 1991;Schiffrin, 1987).…”

“…At the same time, they act as transitional expressions to signal thematic discontinuity. In corpus analyses and in more controlled studies of simple narratives about daily events, Costermans and Bestgen (1991;Bestgen & Costermans, 1994) observed that speakers and writers introduce temporal adverbs like then or next or temporal adverbials like Around two o'clock at the beginning of the sentences that introduce important shifts in their narratives.…”

“…The segmentation function of such adverbials originates in the well-known four principles (i.e., time, place, character, and theme) that govern narrative coherence and, conversely, determine narrative partition (Bestgen & Costermans, 1994;Chafe, 1979;Graesser, Millis, & Zwaan, 1997;Grimes, 1975;Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998). Linguistic expressions that signal a discontinuity in one of these dimensions (a new character, a change of place, or a new time frame) create a discontinuity in the narrative.…”

“…Recently, corpus analysis and experimental research has shown that speakers and writers use punctuation, overspecified referential expressions, and adverbial expressions to mark the segmentation of their discourse (Bestgen & Costermans, 1994;Costermans & Bestgen, 1991;Fayol & Abdi, 1988;Schiffrin, 1987;Segal et al, 1991;Vonk et al, 1992).…”

8. The processing of pragmatic information in discourse

“…According to these principles, readers assume by default (following Grice's Maxim of Relevance) that continuity is maintained, hence interpreting subsequent sentences in a continuous fashion. It follows that if continuity is violated, which occurs in the case of a topic shift, it should be marked in some way (Bestgen and Costerman 1994).…”