The semantics of perfect in Nafsan and implications for typology

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of the semantics of the perfect in Nafsan (South Efate) and argues for several implications for the typology of the perfect aspect. I show that all the functions of the perfect in Nafsan can be derived from placing the Topic Time in the posttime of the event in question, equal to Klein (1994) analysis of the English perfect. The main typological implications discussed within this analysis are: a) perfect in a tenseless language can have present, past, and future perfect readings, b) the interpretation of change of state can arise with perfects through aspectual coercion of states, c) duality with negation can arise as a consequence of the aspectual coercion process and not necessarily from the meaning of ‘already’. These three points are taken to argue against the proposed typological category of “iamitive” that unites the meanings of the resultative function of the perfect and ‘already’ (Olsson, 2013).