Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Exactly Peter.

Data such as this is discussed in the following article:

Anderson, Lloyd B. 1982. “The ‘Perfect’ as a Universal and as a 
Language-Specific Category.” Pages 227-264 in Tense-Aspect: Between 
Semantics and Pragmatics: Containing the Contributions to a Symposium on 
Tense and Aspect, Held at UCLA, May 1979. Edited by Paul J. Hopper. 
Typological Studies in Language 1. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

However, Rolf does not cite this reference in his dissertation, despite 
his extensive discussion of English aspect.

The title of the book I find quite interesting -- Tense-Aspect: Between 
Semantics and Pragmatics -- giving Rolf's insistence on maintaining a 
scrupulous distinction between semantics and pragmatics (as defined by him)!

Regards,
David Kummerow.

> On 25/03/2007 09:04, Rolf Furuli wrote:
> ...
>  >  In English, the perfective
>  > and imperfective aspects (represented by the participle and perfect,
>  > respectively) are mutually exclusive. ...
>
> I have been reading this post for some time now and I have not been
> understanding why you have not been recognising the existence in English
> of a verb form which is both perfect and uses the participle. OK, these
> examples are not entirely natural, but this "have been ...ing" verb form
> is a recognised one in English which contradicts your statement.

[snip]

> --
> Peter Kirk
> E-mail:  peter at qaya.org
> Blog:    http://www.qaya.org/blog/
> Website: http://www.qaya.org