Conclusion

Abstract

The present study aimed at working out an account of the semantics of perfect constructions and their interaction with temporal adverbials in German. This account was established within a semantic framework of temporal interpretation, which was introduced in chapter 1. This framework is based on the three time parameter approach of Klein (1992, 1994), which separates and combines the temporal relations established by tense and by aspect: tense is a relation between the time of the utterance in which it occurs and the topic time, i.e. the time about which the speaker asserts something with the utterance; while aspect is a relation between the topic time of the utterance and its situation time. However, since the time parameter characterized as the topic time of a clause does arguably not have to be topical in nature (cf. chapter 3), the term ‘topic time’ was replaced by the more appropriate term ‘tense time’.