c. [[Suppose [a verb 1 takes an object 2 ] 3. Then [it 4 governs accusative case 5 ] 6 ] 7
RT:What is unusual about theif-thenconstruction is that the referential dependency goes in the opposite direction from
usual.Normally, clauses referentiallylicensetheir constituents, as in(37).Butintheif-thenconstruction,thesubordinate
if-clause referentially licenses the main clause (optionally preceded by then). If one presumes a single structure
incorporating both descriptive and referential information, this reversal is difficult to capture. The situation is even
worse if one expects syntactic structure (say LF) to reflect referential dependency directly. However, if referential
dependencies are sorted out into a separate tier, we can keep syntactic, descriptive, and referential dependence
separate. The precedent fro mphonology leads us to expect that a syste mof tiers will exhibit just such mis matches.
Noticethatin(48c)the“scope”oftheconditionaloperatorstretches over twosentences. As Fauconnier(1985)and H.
Clark(1996) observe,wecanextendthisidea todealwiththevaluationoffictionalnarratives:theentire“world”ofthe
narrative is enclosed in a frame, in which characters have their own identity. Proper names within a narrative may be
grounded either within the narrative itself (like Sherlock Holmes) or in the“real world”(say, as in the operaNixon in
China);the difference is only in where the grounding arrow comes from. Similarly, events in the narrative are usually
taken to befictional, but it is also possible for a narrative to refer to“real”events such as the election of Nixon.
However, the narrative itself need not be explicit about the source of grounding; this is for the hearer tofigure out,
hence an instance of enriched composition.
Narrativesalsoprovidea simpleexampleofembedded referentialframes. Ifthenarrativespeaks ofHolmeswantingto
buy a cigar, it refers neither to a real cigar nor to afictional cigar, but to afictionally desired cigar. This is easily
expressed in the formalism by embedding thewantbox inside thefictionbox, as in (49). Note also thatHolmesis
grounded not to the“real world”but to the interior of thefictionbox.