BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Do the preterite and the perfect mean the same? Some remarks on th
 e Vilamovicean verbal system from a grammaticalization perspective - Alexa
 nder Andrason\, University of Iceland
DTSTART:20081203T163000Z
DTEND:20081203T173000Z
UID:TALK15207@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:James Clackson
DESCRIPTION:Nowadays\, Vilamovicean (Wymysöeris) is probably the smallest
  Germanic language in the world. It is understood by approximately eighty 
 persons\, and actively spoken by no more than twenty. From the group of th
 ese twenty speakers only a few are still fully competent and preserve the 
 pure version of Vilamovicean. The ideas presented in this lecture are base
 d on interviews with ten best Vilamovicean native speakers performed in Ju
 ly 2008 in Wilamowice in Poland. The analysis and description of the Vilam
 ovicean verbal system presented here form a part of a wider research proje
 ct led by the author in collaboration with Tymoteusz Król that aims at wr
 iting a compendious grammar of Vilamovicean.\n\nThe verbal system of Vilam
 ovicean includes the following categories: tense (present\, preterit and f
 uture)\, resultative (perfect) and possibly aspect (progressive). Moreover
 \, there is a modal distinction between the indicative\, the irrealis (sub
 junctive-conditional)\, and the imperative. Finally\, Vilamovicean possess
 es two voices: active and passive. Not all of these categories have been f
 ully grammaticalized. Some may be defined as core or central\, while other
 s are peripheral and show a lexical force rather than a grammatical functi
 on. Surprisingly\, one may find among\nnative speakers and some scholars a
  widespread opinion claiming that two verbal grams\, i.e. the preterit and
  the perfect\, offer the same meaning\, both indicating anterior events an
 d situations (Kleczkowski 1924\, Mlynek 1907\, and Wicherkiewicz 2004). Th
 e impression one gets from the existing grammars is that the perfect and t
 he preterite overlap semantically\, and thus may be used indistinguishably
  one instead of another. This article is aimed at analyzing the similariti
 es and differences in uses of the perfect and preterite in order to answer
  the question whether these two grams have really converged semantically i
 nto a “broad and general” past\, and admit an indiscriminate mutual su
 bstitution.\n\n
LOCATION:Room 1.11\,  Classics Faculty
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR