Perfect (grammar)
The perfect tense or aspect (abbreviated PERF or PRF) is a verb form that indicates that an action or circumstance occurred earlier than the time under consideration, often focusing attention on the resulting state rather than on the occurrence itself. An example of a perfect construction is I have made dinner. Although this gives information about a prior action (the speaker's making of the dinner), the focus is likely to be on the present consequences of that action (the fact that the dinner is now ready). The word perfect in this sense means "completed" (from Latin perfectum, which is the perfect passive participle of the verb perficere "to complete").
In traditional
In the grammar of some modern languages, particularly of
The perfect can be denoted by the
As an aspect
In some analyses, the perfect is identified as one of the grammatical aspects. In the perfect aspect, the event being referred to is viewed as already completed at the time of reference.[1] It should not be confused with the perfective aspect,[2][3] which marks a situation as a single event without internal structure, and does not imply prior occurrence or present relevance as the perfect aspect does. The perfect also contrasts with the prospective aspect, which encodes the present relevance or anticipation of a future event. While the perfect is a relatively uniform category cross-linguistically, its relation to the experiential and resultative aspects is complex – the latter two are not simply restricted cases of the perfect.[4]
The perfect is not necessarily incompatible with other grammatical aspects. In English, for example, it can be combined with the
If perfect is viewed as an aspect, then the verb forms traditionally called just "perfect" (as in Greek or – in appropriate contexts – in Latin) in fact combine the perfect aspect with present tense (the event occurred prior to the time of speech). The pluperfect and future perfect forms combine perfect aspect with past and future tense respectively. This analysis is reflected more explicitly in the terminology commonly used in modern English grammars, which refer to
However, not all uses of "perfect" verb forms necessarily express this "perfect aspect" – sometimes they are simply used as expressions of past tense, that is, as preterites. This applies to some uses of the Latin perfect, and also (for example) to the modern German Perfekt.
Types
In English, several uses of the perfect aspect have been recognized:[5][6][7]
- Resultative perfect (referring to a state in the present which is the result or endpoint of an event in the past):
- "I have lost my pen-knife" (message: I still don't have it)
- Continuative perfect (past situations continuing into present):
- "I have always guided him"
- Anterior perfect (completed past situations, but with relevance to the present):
- "It has rained" (implication: the streets are wet now)
- Experiential perfect (stating that a given situation has occurred at least once in a period of time leading up to the present time):
- "Bill has been to America"
- "I have seen that film three times now"
- Universal perfect (stating that a given situation has been going on continuously during a period leading up to the present time):
- "The meaning of the Perfect has been debated for 200 years"
In other languages other uses of the perfect are found:
- Perfect of present state (stating that a present situation holds as a result of something that has happened recently):[8]
- (Swahili) A-me-choka 'he is tired' (lit. 'he has become tired')
- (Swahili) A-me-simama 'he is standing' (lit. 'he has stood up').[9] This can be considered to be the same as resultative perfect.
- Perfect of very recent past:
- (Alicante Spanish) Yo estaba andando en el bosque. De pronto he pisado una culebra. Me ha mordido en la pierna. '(An hour ago) I was walking in the forest. Suddenly I stepped on a snake. It bit me in the leg.' (lit. 'I have stepped on a snake ... it has bitten me').[10]
- Evidential or inferential perfect (a statement that something must have happened because of the evidence available):
- (Swedish) Tjuven har kommit in genom det här fönstret 'The thief evidently got in through this window' (literally, 'has got in')[11]
- Reportative perfect (referring to an event which the speaker has heard about but not personally witnessed). This is common in languages such as Turkish, Persian, Georgian, and Bulgarian:[12]
- (Turkish) Hasta-y-mış-ım 'They say I was/am ill' (literally, 'I have been ill')[13]
Discontinuous past
In some languages a type of tense has been noted with exactly the opposite implication to a perfect. This type of tense is known as discontinuous past.[14] Thus if a sentence such as "I have put the book on the table" implies that it is still on the table, so a discontinuous past sentence "I put the book on the table" in these languages would imply that the book is no longer on the table.
Construction with auxiliaries
A number of modern European languages exhibit a parallel type of perfect (or perfect-like) construction, formed with an
The have-perfect developed from a construction where the verb meaning have denoted possession, and the past participle was an adjective modifying the object, as in I have the work done.[citation needed] This came to be reanalyzed, with the object becoming the object of the main verb, and the participle becoming a dependent of the have verb, as in I have done the work. The construction could then be generalized to be used also with intransitive verbs. A vestige of the original interpretation is preserved in some languages in the form of inflection on the participle to agree with the gender and number of the object.
The be-perfect developed similarly, from a construction where the verb meaning be was an ordinary copula and the participle expressed a resultative state of the subject.[15] It is consequently used mostly with verbs that denote a change in the state or location of the subject, and in some languages the participle inflects to agree with the gender and number of the subject.
Languages that use these constructions can generally inflect the auxiliary to produce different verb forms for the perfect aspect: the
The basic (present) perfect form, with the auxiliary in the present tense, may specifically carry the meaning of perfect aspect, as in English; however in some languages it is used more generally as a past tense (or preterite), as in French and German.
The use of auxiliaries and meaning of the constructions in various languages are described below.
- English uses have as the auxiliary; the use of be with some intransitive verbs (as in I am come; he is gone) is archaic. For more details see the section on § English below.
- Dutch.
- interrogative clauses). The construction with "present perfect" form is called the passé composé (compound past) and is the usual past tense for completed events, corresponding to both the English present perfect and to the simple past. For more details see passé composé.
- Italian uses avere ("have") and essere ("be") as auxiliaries, distributed in much the same way as avoir and être in French. The participle agrees with the subject when essere is used, and with a preceding pronoun direct object when avere is used. The present perfect is often used also for completed events where English would use the simple past. For details see Italian grammar.
- Spanish uses haber ("have") as the auxiliary with all verbs. The "present perfect" form is called the pretérito perfecto and is used similarly to the English present perfect. While ser ("to be") was used as an auxiliary verb in a similar sense to modern French and Italian, this use disappeared by the 18th century.[16] See Spanish verbs.
In particular languages
Proto-Indo-European
In reconstructions of the
Ancient Greek
The Ancient Greek perfect developed from the PIE perfect (stative) form; in both cases the stem is typically formed by reduplication. In Greek, however, it took on a true "perfect" meaning, indicating an action with a permanent result.[17] The effect of the action is seen in the resulting state; this state may belong to either the subject or the object.[18] The meaning is therefore similar to the English present perfect, although usage of the Greek perfect is rather narrower than in English. Greek also has a pluperfect and a (compound) future perfect, although their use is rare.
Other verb forms used in Ancient Greek to refer to past circumstances were the aorist, which was used simply to report past events (for example in narrative), and the imperfect.
For details of the formation and use of the Greek perfect, see
Latin
In Latin the PIE aorist merged with the perfect.[19] Consequently, the Latin perfect tense serves both as a true perfect (meaning, for example, I have done), and as a simple preterite, merely reporting a past event (I did). It contrasts with the imperfect, which denotes uncompleted past actions or states.
Latin also has pluperfect and future perfect forms. For details of how all of these forms are made, see Latin conjugation.
English
The
- I have eaten; he has eaten (present perfect, generally denoting something that took place prior to the present moment)
- I had eaten (past perfect, something that took place prior to a moment in the past)
- I will have eaten (future perfect, something to take place prior to a moment in the future)
- I would have eaten (conditional perfect, something conceived as taking place in hypothetical past circumstances)
- Have [your dinner] eaten (perfect imperative)
- ...that he have eaten... (present perfect subjunctive, a rarely used form; see English subjunctive)
- (to) have eaten (perfect infinitive)
- having eaten (perfect gerund or participle)
The perfect can also be combined with another aspect
- I have been eating; he has been eating (present perfect progressive)
- I had been eating (past perfect progressive)
- etc.
The perfect aspect (or perfect progressive) can also be combined with marking for the passive voice. Perfect passive forms can be constructed by replacing the participle of the main verb with the corresponding participle of be followed by the past participle of the main verb: it has been eaten; it will have been eaten; it has been being eaten. Perfect progressive passives, as in the last example, therefore involve two consecutive participles of the auxiliary verb be; these constructions are rarely used.
The implications of the present perfect (that something occurred prior to the present moment) are similar to those of the simple past. The simple past is generally used when the occurrence has a specific past time frame – either explicitly stated (I wrote a book in 1995; the water boiled a minute ago), or implied by the context (for example, in the narration of a sequence of events). The present perfect, on the other hand, is used when the assumed time frame lasts up until the present moment: I have written two novels (in my lifetime; I am still alive); You have done no work this morning (it is still the morning). It is often used to draw attention to the consequences rather than the action: I've built a tree-house (the time of building is not important; the focus is on the result, the present existence of the tree-house).[21]
Perfect progressive forms are used mainly to refer to an action continuing up to (or nearly up to) the time of reference, again with emphasis on its consequences (we were tired because we had been running), or its duration (we have been working for ten hours/since 7 o'clock). They may express interrupted activities (I had been writing a novel when she came to talk to me).[22]
The perfect infinitive (without to in most cases) can be used after
For more details on the usage of the various perfect constructions in English, see Uses of English verb forms.
See also
References
- ^ Dahl, Osten, Tense and Aspect Systems, Blackwell Publ., 1985, chapter 5.
- ISBN 9780521588058.
- ISBN 9780415086288.
- ^ Dahl, 1985, p. 190.
- ^ Michaelis, Laura (1994)"The Ambiguity of the English Present Perfect". Journal of Linguistics 30: 1
- ^ Mittwoch, Anna (2008) "The English Resultative Perfect and Its Relationship to the Experiential Perfect and the Simple Past Tense". Linguistics and Philosophy, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 323–351
- ^ Comrie, Bernard (1976) Aspect: An introduction to verbal aspect and related problems. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University, pp. 52ff
- ^ Comrie (1976) Aspect, p. 57.
- ^ Ashton, E. O. (1947). Swahili Grammar (Including Intonation). Longmans Green, p. 37.
- ^ Lindstedt, Jouko "The perfect – aspectual, temporal and evidential". In Dahl, Östen (ed.) (2000). Tense and Aspect in the Languages of Europe. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin and New York, p. 267.
- ^ Lindstedt, Jouko, "The perfect – aspectual, temporal and evidential", p. 376.
- ^ Comrie, Aspect, p. 108ff.
- ^ Sezer, Engin "Finite Inflection in Turkish", p. 17. In Taylan, Eser Erguvanlı (ed.) (2002), The Verb in Turkish, John Benjamins, Amsterdam.
- ^ Plungian, Vladimir A. & Johan van der Auwera (2006). "Towards a typology of discontinuous past marking." Sprachtypol. Univ. Forsch. (STUF), Berlin 59, 4, 317–349.
- ^ Joan Bybee, Revere Perkins, William Pagliuca, The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World, University of Chicago Press, 1994.
- ^ María Elena Sánchez Arroba (2010). "Auxiliares "ser" y "haber" en los tiempos compuestos delespañol antiguo". Memorias del Vi Foro de Estudios en Lenguas Internacional 2010 (Fel 2010).
- ^ Herbert Weir Smyth. A Greek grammar for colleges. page 413, paragraph 1852.b: stage of action: completed action with permanent result.
- ^ Smyth. p. 434, par. 1945.a: effects of a completed action.
- ^ L. R. Palmer, The Latin Language, University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, p. 8.
- ISBN 9780521588058.
- ^ Present Perfect. Guide to Grammar and Writing.
- ^ Past Perfect Progressive Tense.
- ^ Conditional Sentences. Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Conditional Verb Forms. Guide to Grammar and Writing.
- JSTOR 3586517.