Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2, University of Hamburg, course: Tense, Aspect and Modality, 18 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In their analysis of the perfect in English and German Klein and Vater postulate that the English present perfect and the German Perfekt are very much the same except that the Perfekt has two additional usages. They refer to Anderson (Anderson, 1982:228) and list five major usages of perfect in the English language to which exist corresponding usages in the German Perfekt and give the following examples - the example for the present continuous is left out because it does not concern the analysis given in this paper: 1. Experiential Have you ever been to Japan? Sind sie je in Japan gewesen? 2. Current relevance of anterior He has studied the whole book. (So he can help.) Paul hat sich mit Biologie befasst. (Paul kennt sich damit aus.) 3. New situation, "hot news" The Etna has just erupted! Eben hat es geblitzt! 4. Result-state He has gone. (or) He is gone. (is not here) Er ist weggegangen. (Er ist weg.) The two additional functions they see are that the Perfekt can easily relate to the future and often functions like the English simple past as can be shown by the following examples: 1. The Colossus of Rhodos weighed 100 tons. Der Koloss von Rhodos hat 100 Tonnen gewogen 2. Tomorrow at ten, Peter will have left London. Morgen um zehn hat Peter London verlassen. In their proceeding they postulate that the tense systems of English and German do not mainly differ with respect to the perfect but that the role of the present tense is to blame for the observation made in the beginning. They base this conclusion on an excerpt from Comrie who wrote about the compositional structure of the perfect - being a composite of a present tense auxiliary and a past participle - that "the present auxiliary conveys the present meaning, while the past particip

This book is the first book-length study on the Swedish present perfect. It provides an in-depth exploration of the present perfect in English, German and Swedish. It is claimed that only a discourse-based ExtendedNow-approach fully accounts for the present perfect. The main claim is that the length of the ExtendedNow-interval varies cross-linguistically. The book is couched within the framework of the Discourse Representation Theory and also within Distributed Morphology. It is shown that Swedish provides empirical evidence against all previous research in the field. The following questions are investigated: Is it possible to assign a single uniform meaning to the present perfect? How can we account for the different readings of the perfect? How can we account for the cross-linguistic variation? These issues are addressed from a comparative perspective by integrating previous research on the present perfect. This book is of interest to all those working in the field of tense and aspect.

This book is the first book-length study on the Swedish present perfect. It provides an in-depth exploration of the present perfect in English, German and Swedish. It is claimed that only a discourse-based ExtendedNow-approach fully accounts for the present perfect. The main claim is that the length of the ExtendedNow-interval varies cross-linguistically. The book is couched within the framework of the Discourse Representation Theory and also within Distributed Morphology. It is shown that Swedish provides empirical evidence against all previous research in the field. The following questions are investigated: Is it possible to assign a single uniform meaning to the present perfect? How can we account for the different readings of the perfect? How can we account for the cross-linguistic variation? These issues are addressed from a comparative perspective by integrating previous research on the present perfect. This book is of interest to all those working in the field of tense and aspect.

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2003 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Komparatistik, Note: 1,00, Freie Universit t Berlin (Institut f r Englische Philologie), Veranstaltung: Understanding English-German Contrasts, 28 Quellen im Literaturverzeichnis, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Within the last two decades many attempts have been made to define a generally accepted concept of universal temporal and aspectual systems. There are comprehensive studies about the grammatical functions of tense and aspect, their categories and their meaning. In regard to their tense systems, English and German show amazing parallels in the inventory of forms but there are major differences in their use and function. The following paper gives an overview of English and German tense and aspect systems and presents traditional and current theories and controversies on them. Moreover, an attempt will be made to discuss in detail function and use of the perfect, future and progressive construction in these two languages.

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Mannheim, language: English, abstract: This paper is going to provide an insight into contrasts between the English and German language. Due to a shared origin from the Indo-European languages, the two languages are perceived to be similar enough to have sufficient things in common in order to establish comparability but are at the same time also distinctive enough to show significant contrasts. The essential theme of this paper argues that English and German may exhibit formal parallels on the surface, however, accommodate very different underlying usages and internal structures. Due to a limited length of this paper the discussion of contrasts is restricted to the resultative and narrative usage of the Present Perfect tense as well as to declarative main clauses in the syntax.

Long trusted as the most comprehensive, up-to-date and user-friendly grammar available, HAMMER'S GERMAN GRAMMAR AND USAGE provides you with a complete guide to German as it is written and spoken today. This new edition includes: -concise descriptions of the main grammatical phenomena of German and their use -examples of grammar taken from contemporary German, helping you to understand the underlying grammatical principles more quickly -invaluable guidance on pronuciation and the German accent -discussion of new words from English roots such as 'zertweeten' ('to tweet'), helping you to communicate in German as used by Germans today -clarification on the spelling reform and current spellings of German, thus increasing your confidence while writing and reading in German. Praised for its clear layout and lucid explanations, this new edition distinguishes the most common forms of usage, both formal and informal, and offers you a combination of reference grammar and manual of current usage that you will find invaluable, whether a student or a teacher, at intermediate or advanced level.