Abstract
Four components contribute to the meaning of the morphologically and syntactially complex form traditionally called »Perfekt« in German. These are (a) the underlying verb lexeme, (b) the morphological marking of the ›past participle‹, (c) the addition of the verb stem sei- or hab-, and (d) the finiteness marking of this verb stem. It is shown that each of the last three components makes a constant contribution to the entire construction, and that the meaning of the Perfekt, including its notorious ambiguity between a ›present perfect reading‹ and a ›simple past reading‹, follow from this analysis.
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