Chapter 4
The development of the perfect in selected Middle and New Germanic languages
This article gives an overview of the most important similarities and differences in perfect constructions
in modern Germanic languages. The focus is on the German present perfect form and its developments, which will be compared
with the perfect constructions of English and Dutch (West Germanic) and Swedish (North Germanic) throughout. First, I
introduce and compare the perfect forms in a selection of modern Germanic languages. I then focus on the emergence and
development of the German perfect, before I compare the degrees of perfect expansion in the languages under investigation. In
a final step, I investigate some of the consequences of the described processes: i.e. the loss of the German preterite form
(Präteritumschwund), the emergence of the double perfect constructions in German substandard varieties,
and the re-introduction of a semantic opposition in English.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Perfect forms in modern Germanic languages
- 3.The emergence and developments of the Germanic perfects
- 3.1The origin in Old Germanic
- 3.2The emergence of the German perfect
- 3.3The expansion of the German perfect
- 3.4Degrees of perfect expansion in modern Germanic languages
- 4.Consequences and current trends
- 4.1
Präteritumschwund in German dialects
- 4.2Double perfect constructions in German substandard varieties
- 4.3Re-introduction of a temporal opposition in English
- 5.Conclusion
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Notes
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References