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Temporal modifiers and the Rogers-Aliant dispute

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

E. Graham Katz  and
Benjamin Shaer
E. Graham Katz
Affiliation:
CACI International
Benjamin Shaer
Affiliation:
Carleton University
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Abstract

In this article, we discuss a recent dispute between two Canadian companies, Rogers and Aliant, which went before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. This involved an apparently ambiguous provision in an agreement between these companies, the interpretation of which was widely seen to hinge on the placement of a single comma in this provision, although the dispute was ultimately resolved by reference to the unambiguous French version of this provision. We provide a syntactic and semantic analysis of the linguistic facts of the dispute, rejecting Aliant’s argument (and the CRTC’s original conclusion) that the placement of the comma provided robust evidence of the intended meaning of the disputed provision and showing how two temporal expressions in this provision, thereafter and prior, contribute to the meaning advanced by Rogers. We also demonstrate the essential equivalence of this meaning to that of the French version of the agreement.

Résumé

Résumé

Dans cet article, nous discutons d’un différend récent entre deux compagnies canadiennes, Rogers et Aliant, différend qui est allé devant le Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes. Au cœur du litige se trouvait une provision apparemment ambiguë dans une entente entre les deux compagnies, provision dont l’interprétation semblait, à l’avis de plusieurs, dépendre de la présence d’une simple virgule. En dernier lieu, le litige a été résolu en ayant recours à la version française de cette provision, considérée comme non ambiguë. Nous fournissons une analyse syntactique et sémantique des faits linguistiques du litige, et rejetons l’argument d’Aliant (et la conclusion initiale du CRTC) voulant que le placement de la virgule constituait une preuve forte du sens voulu de la provision contestée; de plus nous démontrons de quelle façon les deux expressions temporelles de la provision, thereafter et prior, contribuent au sens tel que compris par Rogers. Nous démontrons aussi l’équivalence essentielle de ce sens à celui de la version française de l’entente.

Keywords

Discourse Representation Theoryorphanstemporal modifierthereafterpriorThéorie de la représentation du discoursorphelinsmodificateur temporelthereafterprior
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 58 , Issue 1: Temporal and modal dimensions of legal discourses , March 2013 , pp. 85 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2013

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