Home Chapter 6. Paradigmatisation of the perfect and resultative in Tocharian
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 6. Paradigmatisation of the perfect and resultative in Tocharian

  • Ilja A. Seržant
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company

Abstract

In this chapter I consider a periphrastic construction based on the resultative participle and the auxiliary. The semantics are those typical of a perfect grammaticalized from a resultative construction. The combination with time adverbials as well as contextual information show that the reference time coincides with the moment of speech and is not prior to it. In addition to the inherited meaning of the resultative perfect, other meanings typical of a perfect are also found, e.g., the experiential perfect. Finally, there are no selectional input restrictions: all Vendler classes are found in this construction – a situation that may not be found with early resultatives. Even though, these properties suggest an advanced grammaticalisation degree of the construction, there are also indications for its recent development. For example, there is no evidence for a non-compositional interpretation of the auxiliary such as remote past – a meaning facet typical of pluperfects.

Abstract

In this chapter I consider a periphrastic construction based on the resultative participle and the auxiliary. The semantics are those typical of a perfect grammaticalized from a resultative construction. The combination with time adverbials as well as contextual information show that the reference time coincides with the moment of speech and is not prior to it. In addition to the inherited meaning of the resultative perfect, other meanings typical of a perfect are also found, e.g., the experiential perfect. Finally, there are no selectional input restrictions: all Vendler classes are found in this construction – a situation that may not be found with early resultatives. Even though, these properties suggest an advanced grammaticalisation degree of the construction, there are also indications for its recent development. For example, there is no evidence for a non-compositional interpretation of the auxiliary such as remote past – a meaning facet typical of pluperfects.

Downloaded on 15.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/cilt.352.06ser/html
Scroll to top button