What is an event?

An event is a kind of information in discourse that

• actually occurs,
• is overt , and
• occurs at the now point on the time line.

A discourse hypothesis is that events and non-events are differentiated.

• Negatives (Nothing is described as having occurred.)
• Questions (Nothing is described as having occurred.)
• Modal expressions (No claim is made in a modal expression that anything occurred.)
• Expressions containing verbs in projected time (Nothing is described as having yet occurred.)
• Expressions containg verbs (They are not overt. see, hear, feel, but expressions containing look, listen, touch can be events)
• Flashbacks and previews (They don't occur at the now point of the narrative.)

• Hale 1977

Context for this page:

• Concept module: event
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): E
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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