Chapter 12
The Gothic perfective constructions in contrast to West Germanic
The paper deals with selected questions of ‘perfectivity’ as both aspect and tense function in Gothic in
comparison with old and contemporary West Germanic languages. Perfectivity is treated as a functional category which
originated in verbal aspect, but which has been re-analysed in many languages which have lost aspect as a grammatically marked
opposition. In old East Germanic (Gothic), the prefix ga- originally marking terminative
aktionsart was grammaticalised as the marker of perfective aspect. This is still reflected in Gothic, but
lost in West Germanic. Hence, the development of perfectivity in Old Germanic is connected with the development of perfective
aspect. However, in old West Germanic languages comparable prefixed compounds have already lost their aspect-marking function
and could be used as general semantic modifiers of related simplex verbs. Beside the perfective-marking prefix, perfectivity
also could be encoded by means of periphrastic forms, which gradually developed from aspect to tense function, so that in
contemporary West Germanic languages aspectual (perfective) readings of periphrastic constructions are extremely
peripheral.
Article outline
- 1.Introductory remark on the term ‘perfect’
- 2.The Gothic ga-compounds as viewpoint-aspect markers
- 3.‘Aspectual-like’ prefixations vs. periphrastic constructions in Western Germanic
- 4.Periphrastic constructions with perfective function in Gothic and their counterparts in Old Western Germanic
languages
- 5.A remark on Modern German passive constructions
- 6.Conclusion
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Notes
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References
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Sources