The compound past tense in portuguese: analysis of functions and values marked by iterative or durative reading

Abstract

In this study, we discuss the semantics of the compound past (perfect) (PPC), based on the plurality readings obtained in its usage and distributed in iterative or durative, due to the characteristic of each verbal predicate. We also pointed out that these readings deviate the PPC from a functional competition with the simple past in the synchrony, reflecting a linguistic situation divergent from the diachrony, in which the compound past tense reached values closer to the expression of the simple past tense. Thus, the contribution of the analysis does not concern an investigation pointing out the different functions of the two forms of past tense, but rather, it aims to show the semantic characterization of contemporary PPC also as a result of the functional competition between the different readings of PPC throughout its history: the resultative reading and the readings of plurality which were established in its trajectory, as described by Becker (2016). Also the proposed discussion seeks to contribute pointing out the complexity of formulating a single and rigorous definition of this verb tense. Therefore, we aim to develop a qualitative analysis on a semantic frame, based on Ilari (2001) as the main theoretical description and also points the definitions of the perfect from Comrie (1976), Klein (1992) and Kiparsky (2005. The data from the Corpus do Português (CdP) is used as a resource to identify the various readings of the PPC. In this perspective, the incompleteness of descriptions based in one semantic value for the PPC is justified, since it is configured differently in each predicate, similarly to a quantifier. Finally, from this semantic characterization, we propose possible discursive functions for the form, according to the repetition inferred in the event denoted by the PPC. As a final result, we highlight the frequent presence of the durative reading associated with the PPC from the 19th century, which might have been the decisive factor for the distancing of functions between the simple and compound forms of past tense, which is also similar to the results of Becker (2016, 2020) and Barbosa (2008).