Volltext-Downloads (blau) und Frontdoor-Views (grau)
The search result changed since you submitted your search request. Documents might be displayed in a different sort order.
  • search hit 7 of 10097
Back to Result List

Reichenbach meets underspecification. A novel approach to the perfect-past-cycle in German (and elsewhere)

  • This paper investigates the long-term diachronic development of the perfect and preterite tenses in German and provides a novel analysis by supplementing Reichenbach’s (1947) classical theory of tense by the notion of underspecification. Based on a newly compiled parallel corpus spanning the entire documented history of German, we show that the development in question is cyclic: It starts out with only one tense form (preterite) compatible with both current relevance and narrative past readings in (early) Old High German and, via three intermediate stages, arrives at only one tense form again (perfect) compatible with the same readings in modern Upper German dialects. We propose that in order to capture all attested stages we must allow tenses to be unspecified for R (reference time), with R merely being inferred pragmatically. We then propose that the transitions between the different stages can be explained by the interplay between semantics and pragmatics.

Download full text files

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar

Statistics

frontdoor_oas
Metadaten
Author:Guido SeilerGND, Thilo WeberORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-109018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.20002.sei
ISSN:2210-2124
Parent Title (English):Journal of Historical Linguistics
Publisher:Benjamins
Place of publication:Amsterdam
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2022
Date of Publication (online):2022/02/02
Publishing Institution:Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) [Zweitveröffentlichung]
Publicationstate:Postprint
Publicationstate:Zweitveröffentlichung
Reviewstate:Peer-Review
Tag:German; perfect; pragmatics; preterite; semantics; tense; underspecification
GND Keyword:Althochdeutsch; Deutsch; Historische Sprachwissenschaft; Korpus <Linguistik>; Mundart; Perfekt; Pragmatik; Semantik; Tempus; Vergangenheitstempus
Volume:12
Issue:1
First Page:108
Last Page:166
Note:
This is a postprint of an article that was published in "Journal of Historical Linguistics". The published article is under copyright of Benjamins. The publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.20002.sei
DDC classes:400 Sprache / 400 Sprache, Linguistik
Open Access?:ja
Leibniz-Classification:Sprache, Linguistik
Linguistics-Classification:Pragmalinguistik / Kommunikationsforschung
Linguistics-Classification:Semantik
Program areas:G1: Beschreibung und Erschließung Grammatischen Wissens
Licence (German):License LogoUrheberrechtlich geschützt