| Popis: |
This chapter is concerned with determining how strictly ordered sequences of events described by the passé composé (PC) in Old French should be accounted for. The analysis here proposed will combine (i) insights from analyses claiming that this tense did not have (yet) a past perfective semantic content (e.g. Martin 1971), but really behaves like a resultative narrative (‘perfective’) present in many of the above configurations, with (ii) insights from analyses claiming that it had perfective uses in some specific types of sequence of events configurations, albeit at a pragmatic level. The chapter will also show how recurrent inter-clausal syntactic patterns, as well as non-syntactically marked related discourse structural patterns, simultaneously played a role in the rise of such uses—thus pointing to interesting convergences between syntax and discourse, and to some properties they might share, particularly with respect to grammatical processes. |
