The Discourse Functions of the English Present Perfect

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(1)The Discourse Functions ofthe Eng1ish Present Per危。t. 教科・領域教育学専攻言書吾系コース. M07163F 小池. The. pu『Pose. of this. study ls to. clari取the. discourse趾nctions ofthe EngIish present perfect．. present per胎。t has. a危㎜. the time re胎renCe SyStem of English ls. First，. The. overviewed．. ん〃e 十ρα∫りα〃吻’e．. なぎさ. The time re危rence systems vary with Eng1ish has an aspect，which is a verba1. 1allguages．. Since Japanese grammar conceming time re危rence is. category mainly indicating the speaker’s view of the. di脆rent舟。m English grammar，Japanese grammar has. te岬0ral. no grammatica1わ㎜that corresponds exactly to the. describes，such as whether it is progressive or complete．. In English we can understand whether. Eng1ish perfect、. matriX SentenCe．. inflection. but. mOre. COmmumCateS what the speaker. in his mind．. nOW．. past paれiciple describes the past event，so the present perfect partakes ofpast time and present time．. It lS. necessary to㎞ow how to gain the proper in缶㎜ati㎝命。m the. The tense aux舳aαんσ〃。rんα∫locates. the senten㏄itself in present time，but at the same time，. important1y， it. 危elS. SeηtenCe. v言ew that the past event is recognized as a de行nitive缶act. in the. However，it is said that the present. past，. sltuatlon the. a㎜xi1ialIy，and that past pa111iciple shows t11e speaker『s. per缶ect conveys what a situation is now by say㎞g what happened ln the. of the. In the present perfbct sentenceゐ。Ψe serves as the tense. the topic is located in past，present，or futuTe time，. judging fi’om the施rm of the verb. StmCture. Next，. grammatiCal 伽rm S0 that the hearer can. consider｛ng. Current. prevlous. releVanCe 1S studies， the. focused on． By Cu耐ent. relevant. sit口ation sometimes includes the speaker’s expectation. comprehend what the speaker intends to convey。. A1though several studies have been made on the. of what will happen in血ture time．. We can say that. semantic meaning ofthe present perfect，there seems to. current relevance co㎜ects血ture time as well as past. be IittIe agreement on the nature ofthe present per危。t、. tme to present tlme。. ‘CurrentreIevance’is oien taken up as the core concept. nativein危㎜antsonEnglishandexamine舳rmeaning. of the present perfect，but it has not been explained. and use of the present perfbct．. COnCluSiVely．. This paper is oriented to㎞vestigating. Artifacts were compi1ed丘。m. The speaker’s interest. is not on when the past event hapPened but on the曲。t. the communicative effects ofthe present per危。t and its. that the situat｛on which resu1ted丘。m the past event has. discourse fhnctions．. been held in a certain time up to mw．. 260. The present.

(2) perfectsentencepackages somein地mation：itte11sus. ρ〃此〃e promes a certah duration in a speaker’s mind，. what happened m past time，what−s happening in. a hearer can infer the speaker’s ir■timate缶ee1ing about. presemt time，and what wi1けappen in伽ure time．A. the duration or the present sjtuation， A hearer1■ies to. hearer gets a cIue丘。m the relevant circumstances of a. confirm his interpretation of the speaker’s市eeling，and. speaker and himself，and u11derstands the speaker’s. thespeakertriestocomp1ementin佑㎜ati㎝tomakethe. intended蝪i㎎．. hearer understand his 胎eling． The preseηt per危。t exhibits a topic conceming the present situatioηand the. Lastly，i11us血ative sentences fbulld in chil（1ren’s. picture book are sc1‘utinized，i110rder to ascer士ain what. interpretation of the present perfect sentences wiH. discourse f−11ctions the present per危。t sentences have．. prompt interactive conversation and buHd up a b餉er. Two stories廿。m“Frog a11d Toad Are Friends”wri帷en. understanding of the participants’standpoint． This. by Arno1d Lobel are taken up as language materials．. function of the present perfect should be paid more. Since the stories are written in p1ain Er■giish ar−d unfb−d. a耐ent10n tO．. thエ。ugh conversation between Frog and Toad，discourse. can be analyzed in their u脆rances．The infomant. 主任指導教員有働眞理子. interpretations help us to grasp the nuances ofmeaming. 指導教員有働眞理子. 。f tbe sentences，amd communicative effects are clarified． In addition，the prosodic characteristics are examined by uti1izing the audio book and we notice that. the speaker’s stresses， tones a11d poses used in the present perfbct sentences，help us interpret his feeling。. I also utilize Concordance p］ot，which is a缶unctio11of. Antconc， Concordance pIot demonstrates where the present perfect occurs and clusters during tbe course of. stones． Data丘。m th言s analysis suggest that the. presentperfect血ncd㎝s as atopicalization，an舳ms a tuming Point． The present perfect is more than just a statement．. It is no exaggeration to say that we have not地Hy understood it so 曲r． It is true that乃σリe is not the. modalauxiliary．However，s㎞ceth舳mゐm＋ρ倣. 261.

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