Tutorial on

AspectTbiLLC 2013

Daniel Altshuler Heinrich-Heine

Universität

(1) Data set 1a. Bill was writing a letter to complain.b. Bill had written a letter to complain.c. Bill wrote a letter a letter to complain.

(2) Data set 2a. The boxer was punching him.b. The boxer had punched him. c. The boxer punched him.

2

(1) Data set 1a. Bill was writing a letter to complain.b. Bill had written a letter to complain.c. Bill wrote a letter a letter to complain.

(2) Data set 2a. The boxer was punching him.b. The boxer had punched him. c. The boxer punched him.

3

(1) Sue came home late.a. Bill was writing a letter to complain.b. Bill had written a letter to complain.c. Bill wrote a letter a letter to complain.

(2) Bill finally managed to open his eyes.a. The boxer was punching him.b. The boxer had punched him. c. The boxer punched him.

4

The perfect: A function from a set of culminations to a set of consequent states of those culminations which are ongoing at the reference time.

Consequent state: “It does not necessarily include all events that are objectively and in fact consequences. It rather includes only those consequences that the speaker views as contingently related to other events that are under discussion, say by causing them or by permitting them to occur.”

Moens & Steedman Moens & Steedman 19881988

5

(16) Harry has now arrived. (17) Derivation of (38)

i.[Harry now arrive]CULMINATION

ii.[[Harry have now arrive]CULMINATION]CONSEQUENT STATE

speech time, reference time arrived

Derivation with present perfectDerivation with present perfect

6

(18) a. Every one began to clap. b. Harry had arrived.

(19) Derivation of (39)i.[Harry arrive]CULMINATION

ii.[[Harry had arrive]CULMINATION]CONSEQUENT STATE

began to clap, reference time speech timearrived

Derivation with the Derivation with the pluperfectpluperfect

7

(20) #Bill has ran (on the treadmill next to his sister).(21) #The star has twinkled(22) a. #Einstein has visited Princeton. b. Princeton has been visited by Einstein.

Food for thought(23) Einstein hat Princeton besucht. Einstein has Princeton visit

“Einstein visited Princeton”

CoercionCoercion

8

(24) Today Fritz has submitted his paper.

(25) Heute hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht. Today has Fritz his paper submitted

(24) and (25) are true if Fritz submitted his paper within the period of time denoted by the

adverb today and heute respectively

Problems: Kamp et al Problems: Kamp et al (2011)(2011)

9

(26) *Yesterday Fritz has submitted his paper.

(27) Gestern hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht. Yesterday has Fritz his paper submitted

Present Perfect Puzzle (Klein Present Perfect Puzzle (Klein 1992)1992)

10

A small sample:Klein 1992; 1999, Musan 2000, Löbner 2002, von Stechow 2002, Rathert 2004, Pancheva & von Stechow 2004, Rothstein 2008, Kamp et al. 2013, Mittwoch, forthcoming.

Some work on the German Some work on the German PerfectPerfect

11

Tense and adverbs concern distinct temporal coordinates Perfects across languages differ with respect to what event parts combine with tense and which combine with adverbs. Revise Moens & Steedman’s analysis for English present perfect and German “ordinary” present perfect with hab- Moens & Steedman’s analysis works well for the German zustandsperfekt with sei-.

Kamp et alKamp et al’’s (2013) projects (2013) project

12

(28) Today Fritz has submitted his paper.

Kamp et alKamp et al’’s (2013) analysiss (2013) analysis

13

Kamp et alKamp et al’’s (2013) analysiss (2013) analysis

14

Kamp et alKamp et al’’s (2013) analysiss (2013) analysis

15

Kamp et alKamp et al’’s (2013) s (2013) analysisanalysis

16

Kamp et alKamp et al’’s (2013) s (2013) analysisanalysis

17

t’ f ec e s t y

day(t’) n t’ ec t’Fritz’(f) paper’(y)t = n t se: submit’(f, y)res(s, e)ec = e ⊕ev s

(29) Heute hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht. Today has Fritz his paper submitted

The German perfect differs from the English perfect in: leaving ‘alt’ (the feature that relates to the adverb) at e (rather than shifting it to ec) the ‘tlt’ (the feature that relates to the tense) is still shifted to s.

German present perfectGerman present perfect

18

(30) *Yesterday Fritz has submitted his paper.

(31) Gestern hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht. Yesterday has Fritz his paper submitted

Back to the present perfect Back to the present perfect puzzlepuzzle

19

Meaning of the perfectMeaning of the perfect

20

(32) a. #Einstein has visited Princeton. b. Princeton has been visited by Einstein.

(33) Einstein hat Princeton besucht. Einstein has Princeton visit

“Einstein visited Princeton”

Back to Einstein examplesBack to Einstein examples

21

(34) Einstein hat Princeton besucht. Einstein has Princeton visit

“Einstein visited Princeton”

The German present perfect involves shifting tlt to a formal result state. “Such a states doesn’t require an independent characterisation that must hold at the utterance time, let alone one which predicates some property of an individual mentioned in the sentence”

German present perfectGerman present perfect

22

(35) a. #Einstein has visited Princeton. b. Princeton has been visited by Einstein.

The English present perfect involves shifting tlt to a target result state. Such a states require an independent characterisation that must hold at the utterance time; often concerning some property of an individual mentioned in the sentence.

English present perfectEnglish present perfect

23

ZustandsperfektZustandsperfekt

24

(36) Heute ist die Arbeit eingereicht(Literally: ‘Today is the paper

submitted.’)

The result state includes today.Some kind of current relevance of the submission can be detectedSalient reading: Fritz submitted the paper before the beginning of today.

Current relevanceCurrent relevance

25

ZustandsperfektZustandsperfekt

26

(37) Heute ist die Arbeit eingereicht(Literally: ‘Today is the paper

submitted.’)

AnalysisShifts both tlt and alt to the result stateThe result state is a target (not formal) result state

ZustandsperfektZustandsperfekt

27

(37) Heute ist die Arbeit eingereicht(Literally: ‘Today is the paper submitted.’)

AnalysisShifts both tlt and alt to the result stateThe result state is a target (not formal) result state

Explains:(38) *Gestern ist die Arbeit eingereicht

(Literally: ‘Yesterday is the paper submitted.’)

English present perfect◦Shift tlt to target state◦Shift alt to ec (entire event nucleus, with target

state)

German ‘ordinary’ present perfect◦Shift tlt to formal result state◦Shift alt to e (event, without formal result state)

German ‘zustandsperfekt;◦Shift tlt to target state◦Shift alt to target state

SummarySummary

28

Other questionsOther questions

29

combination with stative VPs‘seit’ phrases quantification (with the universal perfect)perfect interpretation in languages that don’t have perfect morphology

(39) Peter hat gerade gespült, als ich heimkam. Peter has in-the-moment done-the-dishes when I home-came ‘Peter was doing the dishes when I got home.’

“As the eventuality denoted by such a present perfect is viewed as ongoing, there can be no perfect or resultant state meaning” (Rothstein, pg. 49)

Against result state theoryAgainst result state theory

30

Narration within an elaboration(41) John built a house last year. First he got an architect to draw up a plan. Next he hired a contractor. At the end he was very pleased (Bittner 2008, pg. 21).

Perfect progressive(40) From this lodge I turned into the field opposite to Ingress Park, where Mr. Alderman Harmer has been building a splendid mansion: it is entirely of stone, and is in the Gothic style.

Food for thoughtFood for thought

31

All aspectual operators make reference to an event’s consequent state. Aspectual operators differ in:

whether they relate an event or its consequent state to temporal coordinates that are specified by tenses and temporal adverbs

the type of relation that holds between the given eventualities and the aforementioned temporal coordinates.

Next timeNext time

32