Tense and Aspect From Semantics to

The authors bridge the gap between the semantic and syntactic properties of verb tense and aspect, and suggest a unified account of tense and aspect using Chomsky's Principles and Parameters Framework. They compare tense and aspect systems in Romance languages with Germanic ones.

Alessandra Giorgi is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, University of Bergamo, Italy.

Fabio Pianesi is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Technology and Scientific Research (IRST) in Trento, Italy.

Symbols

xi

(2)

Introduction

xiii

1. The Syntactic and Semantic Background

3

(34)

1.1. The syntactic framework

3

(14)

1.1.1. The Split-Infl hypothesis

3

(3)

1.1.2. Chomsky's minimalist approach

6

(6)

1.1.3. A few words on phrase structure

12

(1)

1.1.4. Syncretic categories and the Feature Scattering Principle

13

(4)

1.2. The semantic representation

17

(20)

1.2.1. Tenses as sentential operators

17

(5)

1.2.2. Temporal entities

22

(3)

1.2.3. Events

25

(12)

2. On the Italian, Latin, and Portuguese Temporal Systems

37

(30)

2.1. The temporal projection

37

(3)

2.2. The Italian system

40

(5)

2.3. The Latin system

45

(2)

2.4. The Portuguese system

47

(5)

2.5. On nominative case assignment

52

(4)

Appendix: On the etymology of the Latin pluperfect and future perfect

56

(11)

3. The Present Perfect in Germanic and Romance

67

(84)

3.1. The morphosyntactic properties of the Germanic verbal systems

68

(22)

3.1.1. The morphosyntax of the English verbal system

68

(8)

3.1.2. Other Germanic languages

76

(3)

3.1.3. The position of negation

79

(4)

3.1.4. English modals again

83

(1)

3.1.5. On the present perfect puzzle

84

(3)

3.1.6. The simple past and the present perfect in Italian

87

(3)

3.2. The semantics of the present perfect

90

(28)

3.2.1. On the notion of consequent state

90

(3)

3.2.2. Some tentative speculations on the semantics of the present perfect and the simple past

93

(4)

3.2.3. A revision of the notion of consequent state

97

(2)

3.2.4. A compositional semantics for synthetic and analytic perfects

99

(2)

3.2.5. On the argumental status of temporal adverbials

101

(10)

3.2.6. The present perfect in English and MSc and temporal localizations

111

(3)

3.2.7. Toward an account of the present perfect puzzle

114

(4)

3.3 More on the present perfect in Italian-like languages

118

(8)

3.3.1. A note on Icelandic

119

(3)

3.3.2. The interpretation of the present perfect in Spanish and Catalon

122

(1)

3.3.3. The analysis of the Portuguese periphrastic present perfect

123

(3)

3.4. Some observations on the temporal and aspectual properties of the Italian present perfect

126

(7)

Appendix: The present perfect in Catanese and Vicentino

133

(18)

4. The Present and Imperfect in Germanic and Romance

151

(42)

4.1. The present tense

152

(21)

4.1.1. Crosslinguistic evidence

152

(2)

4.1.2. The structure of events

154

(3)

4.1.3. Punctuality and the properties of the speech event

157

(1)

4.1.4. A revised notion of punctuality

158

(2)

4.1.5. The present tense and perfectivity

160

(13)

4.2. On the present-in-the-past interpretation of embedded events in Germanic and Romance

173

(20)

4.2.1. The Italian imperfect: a characterisation

173

(8)

4.2.2. Comparative evidence

181

(12)

5. On the Semantics and Morphosyntax of the Italian Subjunctive

193

(87)

5.1 Toward a semantics of the subjunctive

193

(37)

5.1.1. The data

194

(7)

5.1.2. Previous accounts

201

(4)

5.1.3. Mood and modality

205

(6)

5.1.4. Mood in subordinate clauses

211

(7)

5.1.5. Factive predicates

218

(2)

5.1.6. Dream and its companions

220

(3)

5.1.7. Intralinguistic variations in mood choice

223

(1)

5.1.8. Other factors affecting mood choice

224

(4)

5.1.9. Concluding remarks

228

(2)

5.2. The morphosyntax of the Italian subjunctive

230

(26)

5.2.1. Syncretic categories and the Feature Scattering Principle

230

(2)

5.2.2. Subject-Verb inversion phenomena in Italian

232

(4)

5.2.3. The V-to-C solution

236

(3)

5.2.4. The syncretic category solution

239

(8)

5.2.5. Extraction from subjunctive clauses

247

(9)

5.2.6. Conclusions

256

(1)

Appendix: Conditionals and counterfactuals

256

(24)

6. The Double Accessibility Reading in Italian and English

280

(13)

6.1. The Double Accessibility Reading

280

(2)

6.2. The Italian data

282

(3)

6.3. The English data

285

(4)

6.4. Conclusions

289

(4)

References

293

(11)

Author Index

304

(4)

Subject Index

308

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Tense and Aspect From Semantics to Morphosyntax

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials