Die Vergangenheitstempora im Deutschen und ihr semantisches Potential
Die Vergangenheitstempora im Deutschen und ihr semantisches Potential

Summary/Abstract: The present article deals with the semantics of tense forms of Präteritum and Perfectum in German. The author questions all the widely known theories on the meaning of Präteritum and Perfectum, demonstrating that, on the one hand, the complex past tense (Perfectum) does not always express both temporality and aspectuality (perfectivity), but also only temporality itself. On the other hand, the simple past tense (Präteritum) always contains both temporality and aspectuality, except for lexically-conditioned cases.

• Details
• Contents