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Chapter 3. Celtic past tenses past and present

  • Arndt Wigger
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Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond
This chapter is in the book Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond

Abstract

Past tense marked for perfective aspect, resultative, or other typical features of grammatical perfect forms is clearly in evidence in all of the modern Celtic languages, although not normally listed in the standard paradigms. An overview of usages in the modern languages will be given here, the major structures being of fairly recent origin. The formal structure is periphrastic throughout, divided between an older type employing the preposition ‘after’, and a newer one which shows some resemblance to the have-perfects in many other European languages. In agreement with previous authors, these major formal types will be referred to as p1 and p2 respectively. As the question of active vs. passive is crucial here, this side of the matter will be discussed to some extent, as will be the issue of syntactically reduced structures containing traces of a perfect tense. Questions of contact-induced change will not be addressed in this descriptive overview, except on some minor points. Given the grammatical and semantic complexity of this matter, with different developments over six literary languages and a multitude of dialectal varieties, the early (pre)history will not be discussed in much detail here.

Abstract

Past tense marked for perfective aspect, resultative, or other typical features of grammatical perfect forms is clearly in evidence in all of the modern Celtic languages, although not normally listed in the standard paradigms. An overview of usages in the modern languages will be given here, the major structures being of fairly recent origin. The formal structure is periphrastic throughout, divided between an older type employing the preposition ‘after’, and a newer one which shows some resemblance to the have-perfects in many other European languages. In agreement with previous authors, these major formal types will be referred to as p1 and p2 respectively. As the question of active vs. passive is crucial here, this side of the matter will be discussed to some extent, as will be the issue of syntactically reduced structures containing traces of a perfect tense. Questions of contact-induced change will not be addressed in this descriptive overview, except on some minor points. Given the grammatical and semantic complexity of this matter, with different developments over six literary languages and a multitude of dialectal varieties, the early (pre)history will not be discussed in much detail here.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors’ foreword vii
  4. Abbreviations xi
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 2. The development of the perfect within IE verbal systems 15
  7. Chapter 3. Celtic past tenses past and present 49
  8. Chapter 4. The development of the perfect in selected Middle and New Germanic languages 95
  9. Chapter 5. Perfects in Baltic and Slavic 123
  10. Chapter 6. Paradigmatisation of the perfect and resultative in Tocharian 215
  11. Chapter 7. The synthetic perfect from Indo-Iranian to Late Vedic 245
  12. Chapter 8. The perfect in Middle and New Iranian languages 279
  13. Chapter 9. The perfect in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic 311
  14. Chapter 10. The perfect in Classical Armenian 351
  15. Chapter 11. The Hittite periphrastic perfect 377
  16. Chapter 12. The Gothic perfective constructions in contrast to West Germanic 411
  17. Chapter 13. The perfect system in Ancient Greek 435
  18. Chapter 14. The perfect in Medieval and Modern Greek 483
  19. Chapter 15. The perfect system of Old Albanian (Geg variety) 505
  20. Chapter 16. The perfect system in Latin 549
  21. Chapter 17. Calquing a quirk 591
  22. Chapter 18. The perfect in context in texts in English, Sistani Balochi and New Testament Greek 615
  23. Chapter 19. Indo-European perfects in typological perspective 635
  24. Language Index 669
  25. Subject Index 675
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.352.03wig

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors’ foreword vii
  4. Abbreviations xi
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 2. The development of the perfect within IE verbal systems 15
  7. Chapter 3. Celtic past tenses past and present 49
  8. Chapter 4. The development of the perfect in selected Middle and New Germanic languages 95
  9. Chapter 5. Perfects in Baltic and Slavic 123
  10. Chapter 6. Paradigmatisation of the perfect and resultative in Tocharian 215
  11. Chapter 7. The synthetic perfect from Indo-Iranian to Late Vedic 245
  12. Chapter 8. The perfect in Middle and New Iranian languages 279
  13. Chapter 9. The perfect in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic 311
  14. Chapter 10. The perfect in Classical Armenian 351
  15. Chapter 11. The Hittite periphrastic perfect 377
  16. Chapter 12. The Gothic perfective constructions in contrast to West Germanic 411
  17. Chapter 13. The perfect system in Ancient Greek 435
  18. Chapter 14. The perfect in Medieval and Modern Greek 483
  19. Chapter 15. The perfect system of Old Albanian (Geg variety) 505
  20. Chapter 16. The perfect system in Latin 549
  21. Chapter 17. Calquing a quirk 591
  22. Chapter 18. The perfect in context in texts in English, Sistani Balochi and New Testament Greek 615
  23. Chapter 19. Indo-European perfects in typological perspective 635
  24. Language Index 669
  25. Subject Index 675
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