LINGUIST List 17.1188

Thu Apr 20 2006

Qs: Individuality of Novel Usage of Present Perfect

Editor for this issue: James Rider <riderlinguistlist.org>

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Directory         1.    Tomas Van Stappen, Individuality of Novel Usage of Present Perfect

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Message 1: Individuality of Novel Usage of Present Perfect
Date: 19-Apr-2006
From: Tomas Van Stappen <tvstappevub.ac.be>
Subject: Individuality of Novel Usage of Present Perfect


To whom it may concern,

For my dissertation project at the Free University of Brussels I havechosen a corpus-based study of the forms, functions and distribution of thePreterite and Present Perfect in American and British English.

I am especially interested in novel uses of the Present Perfect such as ''Ihave seen him yesterday''. According to Gachelin this novel usage ''caneven occassionally be already seen at work inside marginal trends ofStandard English''. This novel use is thought of as particularly Britishand contrasts with the traditional view that the present perfect cannotcombine with past time adverbials.

It is my guess that this novel use will occur significantly more if a firstperson singular pronoun is the subject of a situation that is described bya present perfect in combination with a past time adverbial. At somesubconscious level, a shift in perspective like this (reference time beingmoved from overlapping with the moment of speaking to a time-span situatedentirely before that moment) is too personal and unorthodox for the speakerto be imposed upon a hearer or some third party. At least, that is one ofmy hypotheses.

Unfortunately, I cannot find anything in the literature on thegrammaticization of the present perfect to a past tense that supports orrelates to this hypothesis. Therefore, any suggestions would be greatlyappreciated. I am also interested in articles relating to the degree ofindividuality that is involved in grammaticization of the present perfect(or grammaticization in general), that is in articles that deal with therole of the individual language user in the process of grammaticization.

Yours sincerely,

Tomas Van Stappen3rd year Germanic LanguagesFree University of Brussels

REFERENCES: Gachelin, Jean-Marc. 1990. Aspect in non-standard English, inJ.L. Duchet (ed). ''L' auxiliare en question'', Travaux Linguistiques duC.E.R.L.C.O. 2, 1990.

Linguistic Field(s): Psycholinguistics                             Text/Corpus Linguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)