The temporal interpretation of clause chaining in Northern Paiute

Northern Paiute uses clause chaining to express certain temporal relations between clauses, which are conveyed by temporal subordinators such as after and while in English. Rather than a subordination structure, however, I show that clause chaining in Northern Paiute has an underlying coordination structure. I propose that temporal relations between the clauses in a chain arise, in part, from verbal morphology conveying relative tense. In Northern Paiute, relative tense can be bound in a coordination structure, as in an embedded clause in other languages (Ogihara 1994, 1995, 1996, Abusch 1997). In addition, I argue that this semantics is enriched pragmatically to produce a ‘forward-moving’ temporal interpretation characteristic of narrative discourse (Kamp & Rohrer 1983, among others). This in-depth investigation of one language raises questions about the syntax and semantics of clause chaining in other languages.