Chapter 12. The perfect in Avar and Andi
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Samira Verhees
Abstract
This chapter deals with perfect forms of the verb in Avar and Andi, two East Caucasian languages. The presence of an ergative agent is shown to be an important parameter in distinguishing resultative constructions from resultative perfects in these languages. This distinction is relevant to determine whether current relevance meanings of the perfect are at all represented in these languages, alongside resultative proper and evidential usages. Based on elicitation as well as corpus data, this study shows that the Avar perfect represents a highly polysemic verb form that combines resultative proper, current relevance and indirect evidentiality, while its Andi counterpart shows a more advanced stage of grammaticalization of the indirect evidential meaning.
Abstract
This chapter deals with perfect forms of the verb in Avar and Andi, two East Caucasian languages. The presence of an ergative agent is shown to be an important parameter in distinguishing resultative constructions from resultative perfects in these languages. This distinction is relevant to determine whether current relevance meanings of the perfect are at all represented in these languages, alongside resultative proper and evidential usages. Based on elicitation as well as corpus data, this study shows that the Avar perfect represents a highly polysemic verb form that combines resultative proper, current relevance and indirect evidentiality, while its Andi counterpart shows a more advanced stage of grammaticalization of the indirect evidential meaning.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
- Chapter 2. A quantitative perspective on modality and future tense in French and German 19
- Chapter 3. The temporal uses of French devoir and Estonian pidama (‘must’) 41
- Chapter 4. The competition between the present conditional and the prospective imperfect in French over the centuries: First results 65
- Chapter 5. Evidentiality and the TAM systems in English and Spanish 83
- Chapter 6. Expressing sources of information, knowledge and belief in English and Spanish informative financial texts 109
- Chapter 7. Evidentiality and epistemic modality in Old Catalan 145
- Chapter 8. ‘I think’ 165
- Chapter 9. Embedding evidence in Tagalog and German 185
- Chapter 10. Questions as indirect speech acts in surprise contexts 213
- Chapter 11. Non-finiteness, complementation and evidentiality 239
- Chapter 12. The perfect in Avar and Andi 261
- Chapter 13. The different grammars of event singularisation 281
- Chapter 14. Phraseological usage patterns of past tenses 309
- Chapter 15. Path scales 335
- Name Index 357
- Subject index 363
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
- Chapter 2. A quantitative perspective on modality and future tense in French and German 19
- Chapter 3. The temporal uses of French devoir and Estonian pidama (‘must’) 41
- Chapter 4. The competition between the present conditional and the prospective imperfect in French over the centuries: First results 65
- Chapter 5. Evidentiality and the TAM systems in English and Spanish 83
- Chapter 6. Expressing sources of information, knowledge and belief in English and Spanish informative financial texts 109
- Chapter 7. Evidentiality and epistemic modality in Old Catalan 145
- Chapter 8. ‘I think’ 165
- Chapter 9. Embedding evidence in Tagalog and German 185
- Chapter 10. Questions as indirect speech acts in surprise contexts 213
- Chapter 11. Non-finiteness, complementation and evidentiality 239
- Chapter 12. The perfect in Avar and Andi 261
- Chapter 13. The different grammars of event singularisation 281
- Chapter 14. Phraseological usage patterns of past tenses 309
- Chapter 15. Path scales 335
- Name Index 357
- Subject index 363
