Even though there has been little agreement as to how the phenomenon of serialization is to be defined, it is generally assumed (i) that there is a close meaning dependency (of some kind) between the event descriptions serialized (serials hereafter), (ii) that the serials cannot be modified independently by such sentential operators as tense, aspect, mood, etc., and (iii) that these aspects of serialization are closely related to the fact that a serial construction refers to a `single event'.However, these assumptions have not been materialized into an explicit analysis of serialization. In particular, it has not been clearly accounted for how the concept of single event is attributed to the meaning dependencies between serials that are apparently so diverse as to defy a unique semantic characterization. Thus, in previous studies, the apparent heterogeneity of meaning dependencies has led to `fragmentation' of serialization into coordinating and subordinating types, and of the subordinating type, in turn, into a variety of lexically governed subtypes.This dissertation argues against such fragmentation and provides a unified semantic analysis of serialization, drawing on the philosophical discussions of event individuation and causation. Under my analysis, the sense of inseparable connection between serials is represented by a counterfactual dependency between them. The counterfactual dependency only entails that the first serial is necessarily related to the second, without specifying the nature of the necessary relatedness. Thus, the variety of meaning dependencies observed in the literature can be accommodated as particular instances of the counterfactual dependency.Moreover, the single event reading of serialization is attributed to the `counterfactual' dependency between serials: in virtue of the dependency, the serials are not identified independently of each other, and hence are construed as constituting a single event unit. A variety of structural constraints on serialization observed in the literature are then analyzed as natural consequences of the conceptual unity of the serialized events as a whole. / Department of English
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/177069 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Jo, In-Hee |
| Contributors | Riddle, Elizabeth M. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | x, 254 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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