Tutorial on
Aspect
TbiLLC 2013
Daniel Altshuler
Heinrich-Heine
Universität
(1) Data set 1
a. Bill was writing a letter to complain.
b. Bill had written a letter to complain.
c. Bill wrote a letter a letter to complain.
(2) Data set 2
a. The boxer was punching him.
b. The boxer had punched him.
c. The boxer punched him.
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(1) Data set 1
a. Bill was writing a letter to complain.
b. Bill had written a letter to complain.
c. Bill wrote a letter a letter to complain.
(2) Data set 2
a. The boxer was punching him.
b. The boxer had punched him.
c. The boxer punched him.
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(1) Sue came home late.
a. Bill was writing a letter to complain.
b. Bill had written a letter to complain.
c. Bill wrote a letter a letter to complain.
(2) Bill finally managed to open his
eyes.
a. The boxer was punching him.
b. The boxer had punched him.
c. The boxer punched him.
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Moens & Steedman 1988
The perfect:
A function from a set of culminations to a set of
consequent states of those culminations which
are ongoing at the reference time.
Consequent state: “It does not necessarily include all events
that are objectively and in fact consequences. It rather
includes only those consequences that the speaker views as
contingently related to other events that are under discussion,
say by causing them or by permitting them to occur.”
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Derivation with present perfect
(16) Harry has now arrived.
(17) Derivation of (38)
i.[Harry now arrive]CULMINATION
ii.[[Harry have now arrive]CULMINATION]CONSEQUENT STATE
speech time, reference time
arrived
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Derivation with the pluperfect
(18) a. Every one began to clap.
b. Harry had arrived.
(19) Derivation of (39)
i.[Harry arrive]CULMINATION
ii.[[Harry had arrive]CULMINATION]CONSEQUENT STATE
began to clap, reference time
speech time
arrived
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Coercion
(20) #Bill has ran (on the treadmill next to his sister).
(21) #The star has twinkled
(22) a. #Einstein has visited Princeton.
b. Princeton has been visited by Einstein.
Food for thought
(23) Einstein hat Princeton besucht.
Einstein has Princeton visit
“Einstein visited Princeton”
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Problems: Kamp et al (2011)
(24) Today Fritz has submitted his paper.
(25) Heute hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht.
Today has Fritz his paper submitted
(24) and (25) are true if Fritz submitted his paper
within the period of time denoted by the adverb today
and heute respectively

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Present Perfect Puzzle (Klein 1992)
(26) *Yesterday Fritz has submitted his paper.
(27) Gestern hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht.
Yesterday has Fritz his paper submitted
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Some work on the German Perfect
A small sample:
Klein 1992; 1999, Musan 2000, Löbner 2002,
von Stechow 2002, Rathert 2004, Pancheva &
von Stechow 2004, Rothstein 2008, Kamp et al.
2013, Mittwoch, forthcoming.
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Kamp et al’s (2013) project

Tense and adverbs concern distinct temporal coordinates
Perfects across languages differ with respect to what event
parts combine with tense and which combine with adverbs.

Revise Moens & Steedman’s analysis for English present
perfect and German “ordinary” present perfect with hab
Moens & Steedman’s analysis works well for the German
zustandsperfekt with sei-.

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Kamp et al’s (2013) analysis
(28) Today Fritz has submitted his paper.
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Kamp et al’s (2013) analysis
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Kamp et al’s (2013) analysis
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Kamp et al’s (2013) analysis
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Kamp et al’s (2013) analysis
t’ f ec e s t y
day(t’)
n  t’
ec  t’
Fritz’(f)
paper’(y)
t=n
ts
e: submit’(f, y)
res(s, e)
ec = e ⊕ev s
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German present perfect
(29) Heute hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht.
Today has Fritz his paper submitted
The German perfect differs from the English perfect in:
leaving ‘alt’ (the feature that relates to the adverb) at e
(rather than shifting it to ec)

the
‘tlt’ (the feature that relates to the tense) is still shifted
to s.
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Back to the present perfect puzzle
(30) *Yesterday Fritz has submitted his paper.
(31) Gestern hat Fritz seine Arbeit eingereicht.
Yesterday has Fritz his paper submitted
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Meaning of the perfect
20
Back to Einstein examples
(32) a. #Einstein has visited Princeton.
b. Princeton has been visited by Einstein.
(33) Einstein hat Princeton besucht.
Einstein has Princeton visit
“Einstein visited Princeton”
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German present perfect
(34) Einstein hat Princeton besucht.
Einstein has Princeton visit
“Einstein visited Princeton”
The
German present perfect involves shifting tlt to a formal
result state. “Such a states doesn’t require an independent
characterisation that must hold at the utterance time, let alone
one which predicates some property of an individual mentioned
in the sentence”
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English present perfect
(35) a. #Einstein has visited Princeton.
b. Princeton has been visited by Einstein.

The English present perfect involves shifting tlt to a target
result state. Such a states require an independent
characterisation that must hold at the utterance time; often
concerning some property of an individual mentioned in the
sentence.
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Zustandsperfekt
(36) Heute ist die Arbeit eingereicht
(Literally: ‘Today is the paper submitted.’)
The
result state includes today.
Some kind of current relevance of the submission can
be detected
Salient reading: Fritz submitted the paper before the
beginning of today.
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Current relevance
25
Zustandsperfekt
(37) Heute ist die Arbeit eingereicht
(Literally: ‘Today is the paper submitted.’)
Analysis
Shifts both tlt and alt to the result state
The result state is a target (not formal) result state
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Zustandsperfekt
(37) Heute ist die Arbeit eingereicht
(Literally: ‘Today is the paper submitted.’)
Analysis
Shifts both tlt and alt to the result state
The result state is a target (not formal) result state
Explains:
(38) *Gestern ist die Arbeit eingereicht
(Literally: ‘Yesterday is the paper submitted.’)
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Summary

English present perfect
◦ Shift tlt to target state
◦ Shift alt to ec (entire event nucleus, with target state)

German ‘ordinary’ present perfect
◦ Shift tlt to formal result state
◦ Shift alt to e (event, without formal result state)

German ‘zustandsperfekt;
◦ Shift tlt to target state
◦ Shift alt to target state
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Other questions
combination
with stative VPs
‘seit’
phrases
quantification (with the universal perfect)
perfect interpretation in languages that don’t have
perfect morphology
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Against result state theory
(39) Peter hat gerade
gespült, als ich heimkam.
Peter has in-the-moment done-the-dishes when I home-came
‘Peter was doing the dishes when I got home.’
“As
the eventuality denoted by such a present
perfect is viewed as ongoing, there can be no
perfect or resultant state meaning”
(Rothstein, pg. 49)
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Food for thought
Narration within an elaboration
(41) John built a house last year. First he got an architect to
draw up a plan. Next he hired a contractor. At the end he was
very pleased (Bittner 2008, pg. 21).
Perfect progressive
(40) From this lodge I turned into the field opposite to Ingress
Park, where Mr. Alderman Harmer has been building a
splendid mansion: it is entirely of stone, and is in the Gothic
style.
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Next time

All aspectual operators make reference to an event’s
consequent state. Aspectual operators differ in:
 whether they relate an event or its consequent state
to temporal coordinates that are specified by tenses
and temporal adverbs
 the type of relation that holds between the given
eventualities and the aforementioned temporal
coordinates.
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