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Part of
Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond
Edited by Robert Crellin and Thomas Jügel
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 352] 2020
► pp. 215–244

Chapter 6
Paradigmatisation of the perfect and resultative in Tocharian

| Leipzig University
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.
Keywords: Tocharian, perfect, resultative, orientation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Perfect as a cross-linguistic category
  • 3.The old perfect
  • 4.The new perfect. Morphosyntactic properties
    • 4.1The auxiliaries
    • 4.2 pret.p orientation
  • 5.Functions of the pret.p construction
    • 5.1Resultative meaning
    • 5.2Perfect meaning
    • 5.3Pluperfect
      • 5.3.1Headed by the imperfect auxiliary
      • 5.3.2Headed by the preterite auxiliary
    • 5.4Preterite functioning as a perfect
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 23 September 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.352.06ser
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