precedem

Precedem is a neologism introduced in discussions of narrative theory and computational linguistics to denote a specific temporal relation between two events within a discourse timeline. It refers to a precedential event that must occur before a reference event for the overall interpretation or coherence of a text. The idea is to capture a kind of precondition or sequencing constraint that is not fully expressed by ordinary lexical cues like before or after alone.

In formal terms, a precedem relation holds between a precedential event and a reference event when the occurrence of the former is a prerequisite for understanding or executing the latter within the given narrative or informational structure. This makes precedem useful for annotation schemes in corpus linguistics and for planning in natural language generation, where modeling the dependencies among events can improve coherence and predictability of output.

Examples are typically drawn from narratives, procedures, and conditional statements. For instance, in the sequence "The flood destroyed the river walls; rebuilding began afterward," the flood can be viewed as a precedem for the rebuilding, since the rebuilding follows the flood and depends on it in causality and chronology. In a contractual sentence such as "Payment must be received before delivery," payment can be described as a precedem for delivery, reflecting a prerequisite relation that influences subsequent actions.

Precedem is not widely standardized or widely adopted in mainstream syntax or semantics. It remains a proposed labeling concept in experimental annotation, with ongoing discussion about its definitions, scope, and relationship to existing notions of prerequirements, causality, and temporal relations. See also: event structure, temporal relations, narrative theory.