A Syntactic Approach to the Present Perfect Puzzle in the History of English

Abstract

In present-day English the present perfect form ‘have plus the perfect participle’ is not compatible with definite-past-time adverbs, such as yesterday. On the other hand, in earlier English the same form could be used with the definite-past-time adverbs, just like the simple past. This phenomenon is labeled the present perfect puzzle in the literature and is observable in some modern Germanic and Romance languages. The purpose of this paper is to provide a syntactic account for this puzzle. Specifically, after showing a correlation between finite and non-finite verb movement, support will be provided for the argument that while languages with independent V-to-T movement allow the definite-past-time adverbs to be used in the present perfect, languages without independent V-to-T movement do not. In addition, a claim will be made that the obsolescence of the present perfect puzzle in the history of English can be attributed to the loss of overt verb movement.