Publishing Partner: Cambridge University Press CUP Extra Publisher Login
amazon logo
More Info

New from Cambridge University Press!

ad

The Structural Design of Language

By Thomas S. Stroik, Michael T. Putnam

In this book, Stroik and Putnam take on Turing's challenge. They argue that the narrow syntax – the lexicon, the Numeration, and the computational system – must reside, for reasons of conceptual necessity, within the performance systems.

Summary Details


Query:   The Preterit and the Present Perfect
Author:  Takashi Kumagai
Submitter Email:  click here to access email
Linguistic LingField(s):   Syntax

Summary:   Regarding query : in LINGUIST Issue: Vol-17-1993

Thank you for all the replies to my query regarding The present perfect as
the preterit and the present perfect with past time adverbials.

The results (preliminary stages):

-These are the sentences classified under adverbials with mean. (AE =
American English, Total = American English and Others.)
-The replies are 28 in AE and 15 in others including 5 in British English.
The replies of British English are only 5 which are fewer than I thought.
At present I include them in others.
-Questionnire constructs 23 questions with ‘Good’, ‘?’, ‘??’, ‘?*’, ‘*’. I
temporarily replace them with numeric. Good=5, ?=4, ??=3, ?*=2, *=1.


Already
1. She already finished the work.（AE:4.75 ,Total:4.37）
8. Ellen already heard the news. （AE:4.68 ,Total:4.30）
14. Rainy wrote the memo already, and it is on your desk. （AE:4.61
,Total:4.09）
21. Nash was already approached by several pro football teams. （AE:3.89
,Total:3.60）

Just
2. She just left the office. （AE:4.86 ,Total:4.67）
10. He just read all the reports. （AE:4.82 ,Total:4.70）
15. The department just mailed out 300,000 notices. （AE:4.93 ,Total:4.77）
19. I just went to Tokyo Station to see him off. （AE:4.79 ,Total:4.63）

Recently
5. I didn't see much of you recently. （AE:2.36 ,Total:2.23）
13. She recently joined the staff of the hotel. （AE:4.86 ,Total:4.74）
17. Salmon populations were severely depleted recently. （AE:4.71 ,Total:4.49）
23. Oil imports rose recently. （AE:4.96 ,Total:4.67）

Yet
4. We didn't yet receive a clear refusal of our offer. （AE:3.79 ,Total:3.51）
7. To my knowledge she didn't leave yet. （AE:3.82 ,Total:3.28）
11. If you didn't send in your payment yet, please do so immediately. （AE:
4.07,Total:3.67）
18. The data wasn't yet interpreted. （AE:3.79 ,Total:3.56）

Past time adverbials
3. I have seen John yesterday. （AE:1.96 ,Total:1.98）
6. Long ago I've given up that idea. （AE:2.18 ,Total:1.95）
9. He has left a few minutes ago. （AE:2.18 ,Total:2.14）
12. I have seen him ages ago. （AE:1.79 ,Total:1.77）
16. That problem has been solved long ago. （AE:2.89 ,Total:2.81）
20. I have seen Mary last night. （AE:1.89 ,Total:1.88）
22. I've just now received word that they've arrived safely. （AE:4.82
,Total:4.72）

***
I can make it available upon query in the form of a primitive excel sheet.
Please tell your e-mail address to: excel@englishcafe.jp

And I continue these studies and I need more replies, especially British
English to compare it with AE. I would appreciate it if new repliers could
post to my query.

My query : http://www.englishcafe.jp/survey.html

Thanks again,

Takashi Kumagai.
Hokkaido University of Education, Hakodate campus.

LL Issue: 17.2201
Date Posted: 31-Jul-2006


Back

Sums main page