Is aspect time-relational? Commentary on the paper by Jürgen Bohnemeyer
- Wolfgang Klein
- … show all 1 hide
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Tense is traditionally assumed to express temporal relations between the time of the event and the moment of speech, whereas aspect expresses various views on one and the same event. In Klein (1994), it was argued that the intuitions which underlie this viewing metaphor can be made precise by a time-relational analysis as well. In his article “Aspect vs. relative tense: the case reopened”, Jürgen Bohnemeyer challenges one important point of this analysis, the equation of aspect and relative tense in the English perfect and in temporal forms of few other languages. In the present comment, it is argued that this is indeed a simplification, which does not speak, however, against a time-relational analysis of aspect in general. The main lines of such an analysis for the English perfect are sketched. It is shown that it naturally accounts for differences between the simple past and the present perfect, as well as for the oddity of constructions such as Einstein has visited Princeton or Ira has left yesterday at five.
Inside
Within this Article
- Concerns with the tradition
- Bohnemeyer’s challenge
- Conclusion
- References
- References
Other actions
- Bohnemeyer, Jürgen. 2002. The grammar of time reference in Yukatec Maya. Munich: LINCOM.
- Bohnemeyer, Jürgen. 2013. Aspect vs. relative tense: the case reopened. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. doi:10.1007/s11049-013-9210-z.
- Comrie, Bernard. 1985. Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossRef
- Jellinek, Max Hermann. 1913. Geschichte der neuhochdeutschen Grammatik. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
- Jespersen, Otto. 1924. The philosophy of grammar. ISBN 0-226-39881-1.
- Jespersen, Otto. 1931. Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles: Syntax v.3.
- Klein, Wolfgang. 1992. The Present Perfect puzzle. Language 68: 525–552. CrossRef
- Klein, Wolfgang. 1994. Time in language. London: Routledge.
- Klein, Wolfgang. 2002. An analysis of the German Perfekt. Language 76: 358–382. CrossRef
- Klein, Wolfgang. 2010. On times and arguments. Linguistics 48: 1221–1253. CrossRef
- Nishiyama, Atsuko, and Jean-Pierre Koenig. 2010. What is a perfect state? Language 86: 611–646. CrossRef
- Title
- Is aspect time-relational? Commentary on the paper by Jürgen Bohnemeyer
- Journal
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Natural Language & Linguistic Theory
Volume 32, Issue 3 , pp 955-971
- Cover Date
- 2014-08-01
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11049-014-9240-1
- Print ISSN
- 0167-806X
- Online ISSN
- 1573-0859
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Additional Links
- Topics
- Keywords
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- Aspect
- Relative tense
- Present perfect puzzle
- Topic time
- Authors
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- Wolfgang Klein (1)
- Author Affiliations
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- 1. Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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