Cross - linguistic variation in temporal adjunct clauses

A particular meaning can be realized by morphosyntactically distinct expressions across languages. One of the challenges for cross-linguistic research is to account for convergence in meaning in light of morphosyntactic variation. This paper examines cross-linguistic variation in the distribution and interpretation of tense in temporal adjunct clauses (TACs, e.g. English John crossed the street before/after he fell) in English, Japanese and Russian. The cross-linguistic variation exhibited by these three languages with respect to TACs has received analyses that rely on syntax to varying degrees (Ogihara 1994, Ogihara 1996, Arregui and Kusumoto 1998). After introducing the pattern in section 2, we develop a semantic analysis in section 3 that accounts for the variation solely on the basis of the meanings of the tenses and the temporal connectives realized in these constructions. A comparison of our analysis to the previous ones in section 4 identifies both empirical and theoretical advantages. Section 5 concludes the paper.