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The English ‘Perfect’ reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Gero Bauer
Affiliation:
Department of English, University of Vienna

Extract

In an article in this Journal (Specification and English tenses) Crystal has pointed out the hitherto neglected role that adverbial determiners may play in giving unambiguous indication of time where the verbal tense-form itself is not specific enough: ‘It is [in such cases] not a question of tense-form alone giving the relevant distinguishing indication of time, as has been traditionally assumed, but of tense-form with or without adverbial specification which gives unambiguous indication’ (Crystal, 1966: 5). Adverbials may thus become ‘non-omissible determiners’ (a term borrowed by Crystal from Ivić, 1962).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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