Aspectual Grammar and Past-Time Reference

by Laura A. Michaelis. 298 pgs.

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publication details

Contributors:

Laura A. Michaelis

Publisher:

Routledge

Place of Publication:

London

Publication Year:

1998

Table of contents

	CONTENTS
	Acknowledgements	ix
	List of terms	xi
	List of abbreviations	xviii
	INTRODUCTION	1
	0.1 Tense and aspect	1
	0.2 Scope and orientation	3
	0.3 Theoretical commitments	5
	0.4 Past-time reference	8
	0.5 A theory of constructions and their interrelations	11
	0.6 The structure of the study	13
1	ASPECTUAL MEANING	15
	1.1 Toward a theory of aspect	15
	1.2 The aspectual construct as a grammatical and conceptual category	16
	1.3 Formal theories of aspect	41
	1.4 The aspectual system of English: a synopsis	58
	1.5 Conclusion	70
2	THE GRAMMATICAL EMBODIMENT OF ASPECTUAL MEANING	72
	2.1 The organisation of grammar and lexicon	72
	2.2 Constructional accommodation	78
	2.3 Serial application	83
	2.4 Idiomaticity and phasal aspect	84
	2.5 Conclusion	104
3	THE ENGLISH PERFECT SYSTEM	106
	3.1 Compositionality	106
	3.2 The contrast between present perfect and past: semantics or pragmatics?	108
	3.3 Present perfect versus past perfect; the time-specification constraint	117
	3.4 A constructional analysis of the perfect system	119
	3.5 Diachrony, synchronic motivation and the principle of ecology	122
	3.6 Inheritance	127
	3.7 The general perfect construction	135
	3.8 Conclusion	138
4	THREE PERFECT FORMS	140
	4.1 The past perfect	140
	4.2 The present perfect	153
	4.3 The nonfinite perfect	206
	4.4 Conclusion: the network	210
5	INTERPRETATIONS OF THE PRESENT PERFECT	213
	5.1 The past revisited	218
	5.2 Vagueness versus ambiguity	227
	5.3 Semantic structures	234
	5.4 Grammatical reflexes of existential—resultative ambiguity	246
	5.5 Conclusion	258
	CONCLUSION	260
	Notes	262
	References	281
	Index	289

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