Une propriété pragmatique du past perfect
This paper puts forward a new analysis of the past perfect structure. The careful study of various utterances reveals that it can have a clearly pragmatic scope. The compound form appears as a means of underlining a semantic shift of the verbal notion. What matters then is to show that this verbal n...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICO
2007-12-01
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| Series: | Corela |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/corela/397 |
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| Summary: | This paper puts forward a new analysis of the past perfect structure. The careful study of various utterances reveals that it can have a clearly pragmatic scope. The compound form appears as a means of underlining a semantic shift of the verbal notion. What matters then is to show that this verbal notion does not tally with the speaker’s or the addressee’s expectations. The pragmatic background governing the construction of the utterance has become inadequate in context. The past perfect can operate as a way for the speaker to use the linguistic code in order to refer to the pragmatic level of presupposed items. |
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| ISSN: | 1638-573X |