Michaelis Laura A. Aspectual Grammar and Past Time Reference

Routledge, 1998. — 317 p. — ISBN: 0-415-15678-5 (Print Edition), ISBN: 0-203-02998-4 Master e-book ISBN, ISBN: 0-203-20096-9 (Glassbook Format) — (Routledge Studies in Germanic Linguistics, Volume 4).This study presents a semantic framework for analysing all aspectual constructions in terms of the event state distinction, and describes the grammatical expression of aspectual meaning in terms of a theory of grammatical constructions. In this theory, grammatical constructions, like words, are conventionalized form-meaning pairs, which are best described not only with respect to their intrinsic semantic values, but also with respect to the functional oppositions in which they participate.Acknowledgements
List of terms
List of abbreviationsTense and aspect
Scope and orientation
Theoretical commitments
Past-time reference
A theory of constructions and their interrelations
The structure of the study
Aspectual Meaning
Toward a theory of aspect
The aspectual construct as a grammatical and conceptual category
Formal theories of aspect
The aspectual system of English: a synopsisThe Grammatical Embodiment Of Aspectual Meaning
The organisation of grammar and lexicon
Constructional accommodation
Serial application
Idiomaticity and phasal aspectThe English Perfect System
Compositionality
The contrast between present perfect and past: semantics or pragmatics?
Present perfect versus past perfect; the time-specification constraint
A constructional analysis of the perfect system
Diachrony, synchronic motivation and the principle of ecology
Inheritance
The general perfect constructionThree Perfect Forms
The past perfect
The present perfect
The nonfinite perfect
Conclusion: the network
Interpretations Of The Present Perfect
The past revisited
Vagueness versus ambiguity
Semantic structures
Grammatical reflexes of existential—resultative ambiguityNotes