Event

An event is something that happens at a certain time and place, in a certain possible world.

When we use human language, we're not just stating abstract mathematical truths. More often, we're describing events that exist in the world around us.

Toaq follows Davidsonian event semantics: we model a claim like Nuo jí as meaning $\exists e:{\textsf {sleep}}_{w}(e,{\textsf {me}})$ (in world w, there is an event e in which I sleep).

Davidsonian event semantics

The Davidsonian idea is to give predicates like nuo an implicit slot for the sleeping-event, and for declarative sentences to claim the existence of such events.

This gives rise to a nice semantics for type I adverbial adjuncts (which is called Predicate Modification by Toaqists):

Nuo jí nîe kúa
$\exists e:{\textsf {sleep}}_{w}(e,{\textsf {me}})\color {green}\wedge {\textsf {inside}}_{w}(e,{\textsf {room}})$

So, our model of adverbials is that they give us a way to make claims about the implicit event variable e.

We think of "I sleep in the room" as stating: there is an event e, such that e is an event of me sleeping, and e (as a spatio-temporal entity) is inside the room.

Neo-Davidsonian event semantics

The "neo-" idea is due to Parsons (1990): we further break up predicate statement claims into claims about thematic role participation.

Noaq jí kúe nîe kúa
Davidsonian: $\exists e:{\textsf {read}}_{w}(e,{\textsf {me}},{\textsf {book}})\wedge {\textsf {inside}}_{w}(e,{\textsf {room}})$
Neo-Davidsonian: $\exists e:{\textsf {read}}_{w}(e)\wedge {\textbf {Actor}}(e,{\textsf {me}})\wedge {\textbf {Theme}}(e,{\textsf {book}})\wedge {\textbf {Location}}(e,{\textsf {room}})$

See also

• Neo-Davidsonian semantics: A systematic exploration of the ways Brutus can do violence to Caesar, some slides that nicely introduce event semantics.