A Narrative-Expectation-Based Approach to Temporal Update in Discourse Comprehension

Abstract

This study concerns the mechanisms involving temporal update in discourse comprehension, comparing traditional approaches based on Aktionsart and Iconicity against an approach based on narrative expectations. Our experiments suggest that readers pay more attention to fine-grained discourse properties (such as salient temporal boundaries and event complexity) pertaining to the eventualities they encounter in the narrative in determining whether narrative time will be moved or not as opposed to strictly adhering to coarse-grained defaults imposed by Aktionsart and Iconicity. These results suggest a more active view of discourse comprehension, where readers actively generate expectations about when the next-mentioned eventuality is likely to take place.

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