12 - Event Coreference in Causal Discourses

Summary

Abstract

This study concerns the causal discourses that express a direct causation. With the help of the extended event structure for causative verbs proposed in Pustejovsky (1995), I will show that they involve an event coreference relation when the result is expressed by a causative verb in its transitive use. Then I will define two types of event coreference: generalization and particularization. Next, I will show that discourses expressing a direct causation with a resultative rhetorical relation involve a generalization relation (which explains their awkward behavior), while those discourses with an explanation rhetorical relation involve a particularization relation (which accounts for their normal behavior). Finally, I will study discourses in which the result is expressed with an unaccusative form of a causative verb. This study leads to question the extended event structure for unaccusatives proposed in Pustejovsky (1995).

Direct Causation and Event Coreference

The Notion of Direct Causation

It is well known that causal relations can be of different kinds. Among them, the direct causal relation is often mentioned in the literature and among others, by Fodor (1970) and Schank (1975). In the line of these works, I define the notion of a direct causation on conceptual grounds as follows: the result is a physical change of state for an object Y, the cause is an action performed by a human agent X, the action is the direct cause of the change of state.