An analysis of the English present perfect

In this paper, I discuss the English present perfect within the framework of generative grammar. First, I support the claim that the present perfect has only one temporal meaning. A sentence in the present perfect describes a situation which obtained at some unspecified interval(s) of time from the past up to and including the present. Truth functionally the present perfect is identical to the past tense. Second, I propose that current relevance is a condition of repeatability on the situation described in the topic proposition which is entailed by the proposition described in a sentence in the present perfect. By using a sentence in the present perfect, the speaker indicates that the situation in the topic proposition is being repeated or is repeatable at the time of the speech act. Finally, I propose that a sentence in the present perfect conveys an explanatory sense and is used when information which appropriately exemplifies or explains the topic of discourse is being given or requested. 1. Some current generative claims There are two traditional assumptions about the English present perfect on which generative grammarians have made some important observations. The first assumption is that a sentence in the present perfect describes either a situation which occurs in the past or one which begins in the past and continues through the time of the speech act (cf. Jespersen, 1931: 47). The second assumption is that the past situation must somehow relate to the present; in Curme's terms 'the person or thing referred to must be living or still existing thus related to the present' (1935: 321). Regarding the first assumption, two representative views have been espoused by generative grammarians. The first view, proposed by McCawley (1971), holds that the present perfect has four senses: universal, Linguistics 17 (1979), 561-589. © Mouton Publishers.