English Perfect Research Articles

Aspectual Coercion and Lexical Semantics

Abstract In many traditions of aspectual analysis, verbs (or, rather, predications) are sorted into Aristotelian types, and grammatical aspects are seen as operators that (a) take tenseless propositions as arguments and (b) change the eventuality type of the proposition. This tradition tells us little about how state and action clauses mean what they mean, because it does not explain how aspectual markers affect the meanings of verbs with which they combine. In the present framework, aspectually sensitive constructions selectively bind to componential verb representations, permuting them. In part 1 of this series (Michaelis, 2022), I argued that by viewing such permutations as operations on a verb’s Aktionsart structure, we can explain the relationship between input and output situation types of aspectual mappings effected by verbal morphosyntax. In this article, part 2, I apply this framework to type shifts performed by the English Perfect and Progressive constructions, as well as past and present tenses.

Comparative analysis of the Perfect in German, English and Chechen languages

Recently, a lot of research has been devoted to the typological analysis of languages. The article examines the functional features of the Perfect in German, English and Chechen languages. A comparative analysis shows that these three languages have many similarities and differences in the formation and use of tense forms. The Perfect forms of the three languages differ in grammatical tenses in exactly the same way as the non-perfect forms. In addition to effective action, Perfect tenses are used in colloquial speech and denote action in the Past. The Perfect (Present Perfect tense) in German is more flexible, whereas in English and Chechen it is necessary in some situations to be expressed in other tenses. These differences and the reasons behind them attract the attention of many researchers to a comparative analysis of the category of time, in particular the Perfect.

The Translation of the English Perfectives into Arabic in Selected Literary Texts

This paper deals with the problems faced while trying to translate the English perfectives (present perfect simple and past perfect simple) into Arabic and suggested solutions to overcome these problems. It handles the tense system in English and Arabic and it shows how difficult the present perfect is for the non-native speakers of English. The paper reveals that little attention has been paid to the past perfect and the relationship between the two tenses has not been taken seriously in most grammar books. It aims to tackle the problem of translating the English present/past perfect into Arabic by suggesting some linguistic devices which can be of semantic and formal equivalents to the English perfect giving it a clear distinction from other tenses with the purpose of achieving the accurate meaning of the original. The researcher hopes that the findings of this study will, to a certain extent, help the translators, lexicographers and those who pay great attention to the contrastive studies.

Korean EFL Learners’ Underuse of the English Perfect: A Collostructional Analysis of Written Learner Corpora

This study examines whether and how Korean EFL learners underuse verbal lexemes as the English perfect using a series of corpus-based methods involving two written learner corpora, which amount to 3,590,194 words in total. It is difficult to detect which forms are significantly underused by language learners because the underused patterns are such that the learners avoid producing them in the data and are therefore less visible, unlike the overused patterns. Accordingly, the current work performs collostructional analysis to measure the association strength between the perfect construction and the specific verbal lexemes, thereby demonstrating that collostructional analysis works effectively to reveal the underused patterns in the language learners’ data. The collostructional analysis reveals that 416 verbal lexemes were underused while only 4 verbal lexemes were overused. It is proposed that this underuse behavior of Korean EFL learners might result from the lack of grammatical markers for the perfect in Korean and the use of temporal adverbials. Along this line of research, this paper proposes the effectiveness of collostructional analysis in measuring associations and potential pedagogical implications.

Towards Better Understanding of Present Perfect Characteristics and Usage – Professional Insight and Suggestion

Taking into consideration delicate nature of translation, and the fact that the process could easily trigger (both positive and negative) language transfer, this paper aims to shed some light on the status of the Present Perfect Tense in the process of translating from Serbian into English. Relying on the corpora of data comprising 113 sets of sentences, translated by students majoring in English, we tried to identify how frequent the usage of Present Perfect is. Apart from that – we aimed to determine which verb forms (tenses used in context) in Serbian eventually become Present Perfect in English and whether decisions of such a kind are consistent. The qualitative analysis proved the evasive nature of English Present Perfect; namely, it was shown that, despite some lexical hints used in Serbian sentences, the usage of Present Perfect was inconsistent. In conclusion, the paper suggests the implementation of collaborative teaching practices, with the goal of activating critical thinking, and contrastive analysis and thus improving students’ understanding, as well as their active usage of acquired grammatical notions.

Functional Category of Aspectuality in the Russian And English Languages

This article studies functional and semantic Tense/Aspect complexes in Russian and English, focusing on their similarities and differences. In Russian, Tense-Aspect meanings of the verb forms correlate with the semantic components of Aktionsart, while in English both Imperfective and Perfective aspects of the verb semantics are realized by the constituent category of Tense/Aspect. The inner asymmetry of the verb forms and meanings is acknowledged for each of the contrastive languages, especially for the two languages compared. The material of the study is retrieved from grammar books and manuals and from literary text samples, principally concerns the use of Tense/Aspect forms of the Russian verb and the forms of the English Perfect. The novelty impact of the study is determined by focusing on the irregularity of the aspectual meanings of English Perfect forms and Tense/Aspect forms of the Russian verb, whereas they are mostly due to lexical meanings of the verbs influenced by intralinguistic specificities of the semantics of lexical indicators as well as mechanisms of communication on the whole. Aspectual meanings both for the Perfective and Imperfective Aspect in languages under comparison used to make up lexical and grammatical aspectual categorical complexes. In terms of Aspect and Tense, peculiarities are found as functional and semantic ones, highly dependent on the situation and context of communication, thus involving extralinguistic factors which also concern the extralinguistic environment of Tense/Aspect verbal forms in use. The comparison of functions and the semantics of Aspect and Aktionsart in the Russian language with those of English Perfect asymmetry is proved to emerge, being caused by cross-linguistic structural and typological differences, particularly, the existence or not the similar forms, their varying semantic load, analytical or synthetic tendencies and others. The asymmetry is especially vividly seen translation and lexicographic field to compose varying kinds of bilingual dictionaries.

A Diachronic Study of English BE Perfect Relics

A Diachronic Study of English BE Perfect Relics

A Diachronic Study of the English Perfect Progressive Passive

A Diachronic Study of the English Perfect Progressive Passive

American English Perfect Construction Across Registers

Perfect construction of English changes continually, and the emergence of various corpora has made it possible for researchers to study language changes in a quantitative way. Studying language changes from the perspective of a particular aspect is usually quite fruitful, but most of the studies in the area of concern in this paper have focused only on British English, or spoken register. To fill some gaps in this area, this quantitative study aims to elucidate the influence of different registers in the recent changes of perfect construction in American English. This study is based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the largest and balanced corpus of American English. Raw materials of over 450 million words from 1990 to 2012 were processed. The frequencies in all four categories of perfect (present perfect, past perfect, non-finite perfect, and infinitival perfect) and in each of the five registers (spoken, fiction, magazine, newspaper, and academic) were calculated, and processed through a linear regression model and chi-square test. A decreasing trend in using perfect construction is identified through data analysis. The main contributor to this decreasing trend is present perfect in spoken, magazine, and academic. There is no significant change in the newspaper register while fiction exhibits a significant increase in perfect construction, contributed by large proportions of past perfect. The results are suggestive of the role that the registers play in the recent development of the perfect construction of English.

A Diachronic Study of the English Perfect Passive

The English perfect passive was not used in Old English, in which the preterit passive was used instead of the present perfect passive. In early...

Learning the Present Perfect in English Through the Drama The Newsroom: A Cognitive + Communicative Approach

Learning the Present Perfect in English Through the Drama The Newsroom: A Cognitive + Communicative Approach

Temporal Subordination and the English Perfect

No abstract.

Synchronic Variation in The Old English Perfect

AbstractIn Old English, the present/past dichotomy of the Germanic verbal system was supplemented by the development of periphrastic forms such as the perfect and pluperfect. However, the inflected past tense continued to be used beside these newer forms to express similar temporal content. The research presented here aims to provide accurate quantitative data on the distribution within Old English texts both of the periphrastic forms and of semantically comparable preterites. Upon analysis, these data reveal a substantial degree of synchronic variation among Old English texts in their use of these grammatical categories, with no observable diachronic trends. The evidence does not suggest that this variation is grammatically motivated; it is hypothesised that the preterite and the periphrastic forms differed in their perceived stylistic value, although the exact details of such a difference may no longer be recoverable.

The Present Perfect and Preterite in British and American English

The objective of our article is to present the selected results of the research which was conducted for the purpose of our master’s thesis. We focused on the transfer of the functions of the present perfect into the domain of the preterite in informal British and American English. We put together a British and an American corpus and analysed the differences and similarities between British and American English in this transfer. We examined some factors that may influence this transfer either in American or British English, or in both varieties. The major factors will be presented in this article. The results show that the differences between both varieties mostly occur in the frequency of this transfer. Moreover, in American English there are more significant factors than in British English. Nevertheless, we can observe that the general tendency is the same in both varieties. This fact may indicate that this phenomenon, which was first noticed in informal American English, is spreading to informal British English.

The Anaphoric Theory of Tense

No abstract.

The English Perfect and the Anti-Perfect Used to Viewed from a Comparative Perspective

In this article, it is argued that the basic function of the auxiliary used to is that of expressing a past disconnected from the present. As such, it can be labelled the anti-perfect, its meaning ...

The Use of the Present Perfect in Australian English

This paper describes and discusses the use of the present perfect in Australian English which, when compared to uses in other varieties of English, is found in a broader range of contexts. Examination of data collected mainly from radio news programs and chat shows reveals that the present perfect in Australian English is used: (1) in combination with past temporal adverbials; (2) in sequences indicating narrative progression; (3) in alternation with the simple past and the present tense to express stylistic contrast. All these uses are common in our sample, which seems to indicate that the category is undergoing an extension of its meaning.

Observations on the Present Perfect in English

Observation of actual sentences shows that the expected incompatibility of the present perfect in English and adverbs ‘of finished time’ may be set aside by speakers whose focus of attention is on the current relevance of the event to the moment of speaking. The criterion of ‘current relevance’ has also led to a recent new usage. Communicational problems and conflicts here appear to be resolved pragmatically with reference to the principal purpose of communicational activity. This suggests a significant amount of flexibility in linguistic processing with grammatical form subordinate to communicational function.

Obsolescence in the English Perfect? Evidence from Samana English

L'A. examine l'evolution morphosyntaxique du parfait de l'anglais parle par la communaute linguistique de la peninsule Samana de la Republique dominicaine. Il s'agit de la quatrieme generation de descendants d'un groupe d'africains-americains dont la langue a evolue independamment du vernaculaire afro-americain moderne

Temporal Subordination and the English Perfect

No abstract.