Modelling ‘ the perfect ’ , a category between tense and aspect Anna

I demonstrate that a consistent interpretation of Reichenbach’s (1947) primitives and their configurations enables the construction of an intuitive and elegant semantic space for all logically possible tense meanings, independent of their mode of expression. I argue that the property which defines the perfect in absolute tense systems is the dissociation of the temporal location of the situation from the reference point from which it is viewed (i.e. R ≠ E). The analytical problems posed hitherto by the English Perfect are due to the fact that it neutralises the distinction between E < R and R < E. Although the semantic dimension of the perfect emerges from the system of temporal meanings, alternatively the perfect could be viewed as a category expressing meanings between canonical tense and canonical aspect,