Towards a unified view of the present perfect.
A comparative study on Catalan, English and Gĩkũyũ
Teresa Maria Xiques
Autonomous University of Barcelona
In this talk, I examine the properties of the Present Perfect (henceforth PrP) across
different languages. In particular, I present a comparative study of Catalan, English and
Gĩkũyũ, a Bantu language that has ‘graded tenses’. The main question explored is how
we can account in a uniform way for the cross-linguistic pattern found in Catalan and in
English. I examine one of the most striking differences between the uses of the PrP in
Catalan and English, namely, a hodiernal reading of the PrP present in Catalan but not
in English. Unlike Catalan, English exhibits the Present Perfect Puzzle (Klein 1992), cf.
(1) and (2). In Catalan, the location of the event modified by punctual time adverbials
cannot go beyond the limits of the day of speaking in PrP sentences, because the
compound verbal form stands in a complementary distribution with the periphrastic past
form, and the latter verbal form is used to describe events located before the day that
contains the utterance time. There is a claim in the literature that the PrP in Catalan is
ambiguous between a hodiernal past and a perfect interpretation (Curell 1990, Curell
2003, Curell & Coll 2007; Pérez Saldanya 2002), but the former temporal schema
cannot explain the impossibility of modifying PrP sentences by past time adverbials, see
(3). I also provide empirical support against the external 24-hour Rule (Giorgi & Pianesi
1997; Brugger 2001; a.o.) and show that this constraint is mainly dependent on the
presence of explicit temporal modification, see (4). I claim that the main property of the
PrP in Catalan is not that is has an extra reading that English does not possess, but
rather that hodiernal is a subtype of the existential PrP that allows, in addition, for a
temporal modification of the event by punctual time adverbials. I adopt a PTS theory
(Dowty 1979; McCoard 1978; Iatridou et al.’s 2001) and assume a split between the
PTS and the reference time (Pancheva & von Stechow 2004) to account for the
hodiernal reading of the Catalan PrP. I apply the typological relation of overlapping
between the PTS and the reference time to show that the perfect time interval in Catalan
requires a delimited temporal interval that can overlap with the reference time. I suggest
that such a temporal relation is connected to the progressive meaning of the present
tense. The Catalan present can be used to report an ongoing event but the English
present has a habitual interpretation for almost all types of eventualities, apart for states,
see (5). In Catalan, the event time can intersect with the utterance time. This semantics
of the present tense is inherited in the PrP, where the PTS intersects with the reference
time. This temporal relation of overlap is made explicit via the presence of time
adverbials which restrict the location of the event time on a fixed position that does not
necessarily include the utterance time, i.e., punctual time adverbials or time adverbials
headed by a demonstrative. I also examine a type of hodiernal reading found in Gĩkũyũ,
a language typologically not related to either Catalan or English. Gĩkũyũ has a specific
prefix (i.e., kũ), which places the eventuality on the day surrounding the utterance time,
see (6). As in Catalan, within this temporal interval, the location of the eventuality can
be fixed on the time axis by punctual time adverbials. I follow Johnson’s (1980) and
Hewson & Nurse’s (2005) insights and consider the option of analysing this prefix as a
lexical specification of an extended now.
(1)
a. Hem
anat al
mercat a les deu.
Have.1pl gone to.the market in the ten
‘We went to the market at ten.’
b. * Vam
anar al
mercat avui a les
Aux.1pl go to.the market today in the
deu.
ten
(2)
a. * Chris has left at six.
b. * Chris has left York yesterday.
(3)
* Hem
anat al
mercat ahir
a les
Have.1pl gone to.the market yesterday in the
(4)
Aquest Nadal
he
estat
a Mèxic.
this
Christmas have.1sg been to Mexico
‘This Christmas I have been/was in Mexico.’
[may not be Christmas currently]
a. Ara treballa.
now work.1sg
‘He is working now.’
b. He works now.
(Klein 1992:526-546)
(5)
(6)
nĩekũhanyũkĩte
rũcinĩ
nĩ-e-kũ-hanyũk-ĩte
rũcinĩ
ASRT-3sgS-HOD-run-PERF morning
‘He has run this morning.’
deu.
ten
(speaking in the afternoon)
(Johnson 1981:166)
Selected references
Curell, H. & M. Coll (2007). On the dual nature of the Catalan present perfect. de
Saussure, L., J. Moeschler & G. Puskas (eds.), Tense, Mood and Aspect.
Theoretical and Descriptive Issues, Cahiers Chronos 17, Rodopi,
Amsterdam/New York, pp. 111-127.
Hewson, J. & D. Nurse. (2005). The relationship of tense and aspect in the Gĩkũyũ verb.
Bostoen, K. and J. Maniacky (eds.), Studies in African comparative linguistics
with special focus on Bantu and Mande. Essays in honour of Y. Bastin and C.
Grégoire, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln, pp. 281–311.
Johnson, M. (1980). A Semantic Description of Temporal Reference in the Kikuyu
Verb. Studies in African Linguistics 11 (3), pp. 269-320.
Pancheva, R. & A. von Stechow (2004). On the present perfect puzzle. Moulton, K. &
M. Wolf (eds.), Proceedings of the 34th North East Linguistic Society, vol. 2,
GLSA, pp. 469-484.
Pérez Saldanya, M. (2002). Les relacions temporals i aspectuals. Solà, J., MR. Lloret, J.
Mascaró & M. Pérez Saldanya (eds.), Gramàtica del català contemporani, vol.
3, Empúries, Barcelona, pp. 2567-2662.