Part of
Perfects in Indo-European Languages and BeyondEdited by Robert Crellin and Thomas Jügel
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 352] 2020
► pp. 1–14
This Introduction highlights some of the recurrent themes of the volume, in particular two diachronic paths: (i) resultative > perfect > perfective past; (ii) relaxation of an initial constraint restricting the perfect to results attributed to the patient. The latter leads to a discussion of be and have perfects, including English and Dutch data that point to important methodological caveats.