Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1992, Page 135

The Two Perfects oflcelandic
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Perfect. This follows from the fact that events do not have the sub-
wterval property (cf. Bennett and Partee 1978), i.e. if events are true
f°r an interval, they cannot be true for every subinterval of that interval.
Hence, an event cannot be true both for an extended now interval and
every subinterval of it as required for universal perfects.
% contrast, states have the subinterval property. If they are true for
311 mterval i, they are also true for every subinterval of i. When i is an
extended now interval, this yields a universal perfect:
(7) John has lived in Boston for two years.
The extended now interval in (7) is a two year period leading up to
^e present time and John’s living in Boston is claimed to hold during
that interval. Note that (7) also has an existential reading where John’s
hving in Boston only holds for some two-year period in the past and
n°t necessarily the past two years.4 Hence, state verbs are compatible
Wlth both universal and existential perfects.
1-4 Universal perfects and durational adverbials
it is interesting to note that the universal reading in (7) seems to
hisappear if the durational adverb is absent:
(8) John has lived in Boston.
h is clear that (8) can mean that John lived in Boston at some time
111 lhe past (existential), but it is unclear if (8) may describe a simation
Wh°re John lives in Boston at the present time (universal). In fact,
^°me researchers have claimed that universal perfects always involve
Urational adverbs (cf. Bauer 1970). However, Mittwoch (1988:218)
§1Ves an example of a universal perfect without any such adverb:
(9) It’s been very hot (hasn’t it).
im ^'nCe ^ ur*iversal interpretation is really a subcase of the existential one, it is not
(7) ara,alely obvious that there is any ambiguity here. For arguments that sentences like
1 Abusch and Rooth (1990).
and^'ndeed ambiguous see e.g. Dowty (1979), Richards (1982), Mittwoch (1988)