Anteriority versus Extended-Now: Theories of the German Perfect

Rathert, Monika

doi:10.1515/9783050080116.410

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As it stands, my analysis requires minimally the assumption that a perfect introduces a perfect state, additionally to the temporal anteriority component (which would correspond to the semantics de Swart (1998) proposed for the PERFECT-feature). More generally, I think that the basic line of thought-that is, pragmatics enriching semantic meaning differently according to different markedness-parameters-could also be brought to work with at least some Extended Now analyses (as far as I see, the one developed by Rathert (2001) would support such a type of pragmatic reasoning).…”

Section: The Pragmaticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Present perfects compete

Schaden

2009

Linguist and Philos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

International audienceThis paper proposes a new look at the so-called ‘present-perfect puzzle'. I suggest that it is in fact part of a bigger problem, which also involves simple past tenses. I argue that present perfects compete with simple past tenses, and that the distribution of these tenses shows signs of the impact of this competition. The outcome of the competition is argued to be heavily dependent on which of the two tense-forms is the default. A pragmatic theory is proposed which accounts for the reduced distribution of the present perfect in languages like English and (American) Spanish, and the reduced distribution of the simple past tense in languages like French and German

show abstract

Section: The Pragmaticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If there were any life-time effects to be observed with the pluperfect in English, one should expect them to arise at a contextually fixed moment of reference [the Reichenbachian R (cf. Reichenbach 1947/1966]. In (10), the discourse context fixes R in the year 1942.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Present perfects compete

Schaden

2009

Linguist and Philos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Der Gebrauch des Perfekts – Ein Erklärungsmodell aus thailändischer Perspektive

Attaviriyanupap¹

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In grammar and textbooks of German as a foreign language the German perfect tense (Perfekt) is mostly presented as an alternative to the preterite tense (Präteritum). However, the German perfect tense itself deserves greater attention due to its wide range of usages. This tense can mark events with reference points located either before, simultaneous with and even after the speech time. For Thai learners of German it has been established that difficulties in learning how to use the German perfect tense are not primarily concerned with problems of choosing between the perfect and the preterite but rather between the perfect tense and the present tense. This paper focuses on the aspect of "completeness", comparable to the perfective aspect, leading to different effects in the usage of the German perfect. Since German is mostly learned as a second foreign language after English, a contrastive analysis of similarities and differences between the perfect tenses in English and German have to be included in the analysis. In the conclusion, a possible description of the German perfect tense for learners of German as a foreign language is suggested.

show abstract

Anteriority versus Extended-Now: Theories of the German Perfect

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Present perfects compete

Present perfects compete

Der Gebrauch des Perfekts – Ein Erklärungsmodell aus thailändischer Perspektive

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About