recent_Ting

							Corpus Linguistics
Belinda Liang-Ting, Juan
0971128                                                                         Page 1 of 2
                           How recent is recent?
                  On overcoming interpretational difficulties
1. Introduction
-- In this paper, a case of polysemy of recent (recently) has been addressed to see how
   readers or hearer deal with it.
-- There can be no question that recent (and recently) refers to the time shortly before
   what is happening or starting in the present time. However, recent (and recently)
   sometimes cannot refer to the present time.
-- Indeed, their distance in time from the present is entirely irrelevant for the
   interpretation of the sentence. The point of reference is not the time of speaking or
   writing but the time of the event described.
-- Recent and recently are mildly polysemous: they can refer (a) to a period shortly
   before the moment of speaking/writing or (b) to a period shortly before the event
   that is being discussed. These two are showed by two time-scales in page 224.
-- When the absolute temporal reference point and the subjective reference point are
   clearly separated in time, ambiguity sometimes occurs. There are ways to alleviate
   the misunderstandings.


2. Ambiguity Neutralised
-- Merger:
   The ambiguity is resolved when NOW and THEN merged, partially or completely.
-- Verb tensing:
   The case of ambiguity that we have been considering so far have occurred either in
   a noun phrase. If the adverb is part of a finite verb phrase, thus with a tensed verb,
   its ambiguity is regularly deactivated.
-- Propositional logic:
   If out of two potential conflicting interpretations, a THEN one and a NOW one,
   only one produces a meaningful proposition, that interpretation is naturally
   selected.
-- Gricean logic:
   There are many cases where the two competing interpretations are propositionally
   possible. Nevertheless, one of them is frequently much more likely than the other.
-- Why Gricean logic is called is because as part of Grice’s Cooperative Priciple, he
   presented conversational maxims which are important for the successful
   interchange of information and ambiguities can be solved by this logic.


3. ‘Wait-and-see’ strategy
-- In so far as readers or listeners become aware of the ambiguity of recent(ly), they
Corpus Linguistics
Belinda Liang-Ting, Juan
0971128                                                                           Page 2 of 2
  are then likely to resort to the simple strategy of ‘wait and see’; that is, they will
  take note of the semantic element common to the two senses, ‘shortly before a
  given point in time’, an element that is sufficiently informative.


4. Conclusion
-- This study shows that the polysemy and potential ambiguity of a lexical item like
   recent may appear to have misunderstanding.
-- Some implicit and explicit elements are used to alleviate ambiguities which might
   break down the communication.