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‘Already’ and ‘yet’: a suppletive set of aspect-markers?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Elizabeth Closs Traugott  and
John Waterhouse
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Affiliation:
Department of English, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
John Waterhouse
Affiliation:
English for Foreign Students, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
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Extract

The present study arose out of an investigation of whether already and yet as in He has left already, *He has left yet, IHe hasn't left already, He hasn't left yet formed a suppletion set that matches some →any, sometimes → ever, etc. as in They want some love, *They want any love, ?They don't want some love, They don't want any love (for discussion of some, sometimes, too, etc. cf. Klima, 1964; Fillmore, 1967; UCLA, 1967: Negation). Various observations about the restriction of already and yet to certain tenses and aspects, and about their failure to match with many adverbs of time, led to an investigation of whether already and yet were really adverbs of time, as is usually assumed. The conclusions we reached are that already and yet indeed form a suppletion set (with certain limitations not shared by other suppletives), but that they cannot usefully be treated as time adverbs. Rather, they seem to have close connexions with perfect aspect. The arguments presented here in support of this hypothesis are by no means exhaustive but will hopefully provide a suggestive contribution toward the study of both adverbs and aspects.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , September 1969 , pp. 287 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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