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In:The Perfect Volume: Papers on the perfect
Edited by Kristin Melum Eide and Marc Fryd
[Studies in Language Companion Series 217] 2021
► pp. 213–240

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Chapter 9
The impact of the simultaneity vector on the temporal-aspectual development of the perfect tense in Romance languages

 | University of Salamanca
Published online: 9 July 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.217.09tor
Abstract
This paper seeks an explanation of the Perfect in the Romance languages that takes into account its temporal rather than aspectual features. We contend that there is no real “aoristicization” process of the Perfect over time and across languages, but instead a semantic expansion of the notion of simultaneity enclosed in the functional configuration of the form. Based on the classical time vector configuration for Spanish posited by Rojo (1974) and Rojo & Veiga (1999), we argue that the semantic differences of the Perfect in Romance languages can be explained as a different development of the semantic possibilities of the simultaneity vector, whereby it may remain at a very low level and be hardly deictic (Portuguese) or become a pure sign of locutionality, and therefore mainly pragmatic (French).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Tense and aspect in the perfect
  • 3.The perfect’s temporal vectors. Simultaneity
  • 4.The Portuguese perfect
  • 5.The perfect in American Spanish
  • 6.The perfect in European Spanish and Catalan
  • 7.The perfect in French
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (68)
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