Auxiliary selection and counterfactuality in the history of English and Germanic

  • The retreat of BE as perfect auxiliary in the history of English is examined. Corpus data are presented showing that the initial advance of HAVE was most closely connected to a restriction against BE in past counterfactuals. Other factors which have been reported to favor the spread of HAVE are either dependent on the counterfactual effect, or significantly weaker in comparison. It is argued that the effect can be traced to the semantics of the BE perfect, which denoted resultativity rather than anteriority proper. Related data from other older Germanic and Romance languages are presented, and finally implications for existing theories of auxiliary selection stemming from the findings presented are discussed.

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Metadaten
Author:Thomas McFaddenORCiD, Artemis AlexiadouORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-1108545
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1075/la.97.12mcf
ISBN:9789027233615
ISBN:9789027293169
Parent Title (English):Comparative studies in Germanic syntax : from Afrikaans to Zurich German, Linguistik Aktuell = Linguistics Today ; 97
Publisher:J. Benjamins Pub.
Place of publication:Amsterdam ; Philadelphia, PA
Editor:Jutta M. Hartmann, László Molnárfi
Document Type:Part of a Book
Language:English
Year of Completion:2006
Date of first Publication:2006/11/22
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2008/09/24
GND Keyword:Englisch; Deutsch; Hilfsverb
Page Number:25
First Page:[237]
Last Page:[262]
Source:http://ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/mitarbeiter/tom/project/papers/cgsw20pap.pdf ; Comparative Studies in Germanic Syntax, hrsg.v. Jutta M. Hartmann/Lászloacute Molnárfi (Amsterdam 2006), S. 237-262
HeBIS-PPN:205650848
Institutes:keine Angabe Fachbereich / Extern
Dewey Decimal Classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
Sammlungen:Linguistik
Linguistik-Klassifikation:Linguistik-Klassifikation: Sprachgeschichte / History of language
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht