Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2008, Page 63

Becoming Perfect: Observations on Icelandic vera búinn að 61
Even though the construction with vera + participle of an unac-
cusative verb places an event anterior to a reference time (cf. above),
it is not generally analyzed as a perfect (see Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson
1992:143; cf. also Höskuldur Þráinsson 2007:1 lf.). Unlike perfects, it
is ungrammatical in durative and iterative contexts, and modifícation
by manner and path adverbials is restricted; cf. (16) below.10 The
resultative reading is, hence, not restricted to the perfect tense:
(16) a. *Jón er farinn gangandi/í flýti til Boston.
John is gone on foot /in a hurry to Boston
b. *Jón er oft farinn til Boston.
John is often gone to Boston
c. *Jón er farinn yfir þrjár brýr á leiðinni.
John is gone over three bridges on the way
(Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson 1992:143)
According to Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson (1992), the perfect with hafa is
primarily restricted to the experiential meaning also with transitive
and unergative verbs, which do not form resultatives with vera. The
example in (17a) is semantically odd (as indicated by #) on a resulta-
tive reading that conveys that the keys are still lost at the reference
time. The experiential perfect in (17b), on the other hand, is fme; it
does not express that the result of the losing of the keys holds at the
reference time, but that there are fíve events of me losing the keys in
the past of the reference time:
(17) a. #Ég hef týnt lyklunum núna.
I have lost the keys now
b. Ég hef týnt lyklunum fímm sinnum.
I have lost the keys fíve times
‘I have lost the keys fíve times.’
For a resultative perfect, the construction with vera búinn að is used,
as in (18) (cf. Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson 1992).
10 The example in (16b) is grammatical on an irrelevant reading where oft takes
wide scope, i.e. ‘It is often the case that ...’ see Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson (1992). This
reading is disregarded here and in the following.