Overview

This work provides an extensive account of perfect constructions in German, of its numerous meaning effects, and of its interaction with temporal adverbials and temporal subclauses. By doing this, it takes the semantics of the whole German tense system into account, provides analyses of several temporal adverbials and their intricate behaviour, and offers ideas concerning the semantics of temporal subclauses. Although one of the main goals of the book is to integrate the results of the study into a formal semantic framework, it also considers many pragmatic factors as well as aspects concerning German syntax. The book will be of interest to scholars and advanced students interested in issues regarding tense, aspect, temporal adverbials, and temporal subclauses.

Full Product Details

Author:   R. Musan
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition:   2002 ed.
Volume:   78
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   1.300kg
ISBN:  

9781402007194

ISBN 10:   1402007191
Pages:   275
Publication Date:   31 July 2002
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1: Introduction.- 1. Outline.- 2. Tense and aspect.- 3. Contexts and temporal specifications.- 4. The tenses in German.- 5. Temporal interpretation and individuals.- 6. A formal semantic implementation of tense and aspect.- 7. Conclusion.- 2: The Semantics Of The Present Perfect.- 1. Perfectly compositional.- 2. The morphosyntactic source of the anteriority component.- 3. The stativity of perfect constructions.- 4. Identifying the synchronic anteriority component: an optimality approach to focus effects.- 5. Conclusion, formal semantic account, and refinements.- 3: The Meaning Effects Of The Present Perfect.- 1. The problem.- 2. The effects of the present perfect.- 3. Previous accounts.- 4. How pragmatic principles operate on the semantics.- 5. Why past tense and present perfect often can be substituted by each other.- 6. Completedness effects.- 7. Indefiniteness effects.- 8. Present relevance.- 9. Stage-level-to-individual-level switches: Mozart’s lung disease.- 10. Individual-level-to-stage-level switches: temporary intelligence.- 11. English vs. German: Einstein and Princeton.- 12. Conclusion.- 4: Types Of Temporal Adverbials.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Quantificational adverbials, position adverbials, and duration adverbials.- 3. Duration adverbials and situation types.- 4. Distinguishing position and duration adverbials.- 5. The interpretation of nonquantificational temporal adverbials.- 5: Interactions With Temporal Adverbials.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The formal integration of temporal adverbials in semantic representations.- 3. Temporal adverbials on the tense level, aspect level, and participle level.- 4. Temporal adverbials as frame-setting modifiers.- 5. Temporal adverbials as restrictors of nontemporal quantifiers.- 6. Temporal adverbials below the participlelevel.- 7. Temporal adverbials with quantificational and nonquantificational components.- 8. Iteration of adverbials on a single level.- 9. On universal perfect readings.- 10. Remarks concerning negation.- 11. Summary.- 6: The Contribution Of Particular Adverbials.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Seit-adverbials: ‘up-to-TT’ interpretations.- 3. Extended now theories of perfect constructions: apparent evidence by up-to-TT-adverbials and why it is misleading.- 4. Existential and universal perfect readings.- 5. Temporal bis-adverbials: ‘TT-independent’ interpretations.- 6. Temporal in-adverbials.- 7. Adverbials of the type x-lang.- 8. Conclusion.- 7: Temporal Subordinate Clauses, Conjunctions, And Matrix Clauses.- 1. Introduction.- 2.’ simultaneity’ between main clause and subclause.- 3. Time parameters of the main clause before time parameters of the subclause.- 4. Time parameters of the main clause after time parameters of the subclause.- 5. Durational subclauses: solange (‘as long as’).- 6. Conclusion.- 8: On The Syntax Of Temporal Adverbials.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The unmarked surface order of temporal adverbials of a single level.- 3. Preposing of temporal adverbials in English.- 4. ‘Topicalization’ of temporal adverbials in German.- 5. Scrambling of temporal adverbials.- 6. Summary: base positions and surface positions of temporal adverbials.- 9: Conclusion.- References.

Reviews

From the reviews: <p> This book provides an in-depth overview of perfect constructions in German and offers an extensive account of their uses from the perspective of a formal semantic framework. It also considers many pragmatic factors as well as particular characteristics of German Syntaxa ]A thorough conclusion, list of references, and index make this work a useful manual for (advanced) students and scholars. (Linde Roels, LANGUAGE, volume 81, issue 3, page 784, 2005) <p> Renate Musan provides a uniform compositional semantics for German perfect constructions and their interaction with temporal adverbials. The book is aimed at an audience of semanticists with a specific interest in the semantics of tense and temporal adverbials in German. a ] Musana (TM)s book is rich in empirical facts, and provides an in-depth analysis. a ] the book as a whole will certainly stand as an important point of reference for future studies of the German perfect. (HenriAtte de Swart and Berit Gehrke, Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 41, 2005)

From the reviews: This book provides an in-depth overview of perfect constructions in German and offers an extensive account of their uses from the perspective of a formal semantic framework. It also considers many pragmatic factors as well as particular characteristics of German Syntax...A thorough conclusion, list of references, and index make this work a useful manual for (advanced) students and scholars. (Linde Roels, LANGUAGE, volume 81, issue 3, page 784, 2005)

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