Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Present perfect tense'

Most Brazilian students learning English face difficulty when studying thepresent perfect. It is one of the most challenging aspects of the Englishlanguage for Portuguese speakers due to the similar form with a divergentsemantic value. The Brazilian Portuguese present perfect forces iteration andthe student automatically transfers the same meaning when translating anEnglish sentence literally. Brazilian learners get confused about when and inwhat situations to use the English present perfect and frequently are not able todistinguish it from the simple past use. This study is comprised of two parts.First, a comparative study was done to investigate which Portuguese tensetranslators of famous literary books consider to be equivalent to the Englishpresent perfect according to the message which is being conveyed. Thedatabase used was the bidirectional parallel corpus of English and PortugueseCOMPARA. Second, textbooks developed to teach English in Brazil wereanalyzed in order to verify from what perspective students were beinginstructed concerning the present perfect and whether the semantic differencesbetween the two languages were pointed out. According to the translationcorpus, the English present perfect is mostly equivalent to Brazilian Portuguesesimple past. Adverbs are also often needed to express the English presentperfect meaning in Portuguese. The textbooks were found to present poorexplanations and seem not to call the learners’ attention to the source of the problems. Textbooks do not stress the importance of the semantic value and thecontext, and do not call attention to the different meanings between theBrazilian and the English present perfect.

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
Neste trabalho buscamos um melhor entendimento dos limites e das limitações de emprego de um tempo verbal português: o pretérito perfeito composto (PPC) do modo indicativo. Com base na Semântica Funcional e por meio de um questionário aplicado tanto a falantes de português-língua materna quanto a aprendizes de português-língua estrangeira, testamos, basicamente: a (im)possibilidade de intercâmbio entre o PPC e o presente contínuo, a influência do valor semântico de verbos principais e de adjuntos adverbiais, e ainda, as noções de iteratividade e continuidade expressas pelo PPC.
In this study we set better limits for the uses of a specific verb tense in Portuguese: the present perfect indicative. We developed our work on the basis of the theoretical apparatus of Functional Semantics. Native Portuguese speakers and learners of Portuguese as 2nd language completed a questionnaire. We tested basically if the present perfect and the present continuous could be used interchangeably, but also the influence of the semantic value of main verbs and adjuncts, and the verb aspect expressed by the present perfect.

On the basis of an investigation of a corpus of 5.5 million words, this thesis analyses the use of the present perfect in modem American and British English. The investigation traces the development of the present perfect from its origins as a structure with adjectival meaning to its modern-day use as an aspectual verb form. A frequency analysis tests the claims of various writers that the present perfect is losing ground against the preterite and is less frequent in American than in British English. Neither claim is supported by the results of this analysis. A temporal specifier analysis investigates the co-occurrence of a large number of adverbials with the various verb forms. It finds that certain groups of specifiers which have hitherto been considered markers for the present perfect are in fact very poor indicators. Specifiers indicating a period of time lasting up to the moment of utterance, however, are found to be very reliable indicators. With one exception no significant difference was found between the British and American corpora in this respect. A functional-semantic analysis examines the various theories of the present perfect against the background of the results of the empirical investigation and finds them to be insufficient in one or more respects. In the final chapter the division between tense and aspect is shown to be artificial and a model of the present perfect is presented which is based on the idea of multilayered aspectual values. The model is centred on the unifying concept of phragmatisation - the closing of the event time-frame. According to this model, discourse topics involving the present perfect are perceived to describe an event which takes place in a time frame which is not closed to the deictic zero point at the moment of utterance. The final section describes which factors are operative in the phragmatisation or closing of event time frames.

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The present perfect (PrP) is a complex issue for researchers and non-native speakers of English that has been studied from many different perspectives. This research aims at showing a description of the PrP in the language of news media and brings to light new insights into the teaching of English as a foreign language. Linguistic research on the nature of news stories has seen a great increase since the 1970s. So, the theoretical underpinning for the research provides a briefing of the state-of-the-art literature on the area that includes views on tense and aspect, Travaglia (1985) and Comrie (1985), the usage of PrP according to Schwenter (1994), Michaelis (1998), Engel & Ritz (2005)) and Nishiyama & Koenig (2005, 2006) and the meaning of discourse by Bell (1991), Fowler (1991), Halliday (1978, 1985) and Fairclough (1995, 1999). It, therefore, provides a clear picture of what has been researched on the uses of the PrP and its various functions in the language of news media. More specifically, the research reported here, which used the documentary research methodology (Sanghera:2002), uses examples from the data collected, which include 60 sample articles from the websites of quality British and American broadsheets, such as The Guardian and The Independent (UK), The New York Times and The USA Today (USA), the website from the TV news broadcasters, BBC and CNN as well as from weekly magazines such as Newsweek and Time, which serve the purpose of illustrating both the occurrence and usage of the PrP in different contexts. The period sampled refers to the years 2003-2008 and the range of topics and subgenres include hard news (current events and one-off unscheduled events called spot news) and soft news (longer featured articles on different issues which are not time-bound to immediacy). The research question investigated in the study is: what kind of functions emerge from the PrP samples in the language of news media? With respect to the question, the results indicate the PrP is a means of intensifying the information according to specific pragmatic needs the producer has while writing the piece of news. Therefore, this study brings an original contribution to the existing body of research on the expression of time in TESOL and Applied Linguistics
Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo descrever as funções do present perfect (PrP) que emergem do discurso jornalístico e traçar considerações discursivas e pedagógicas sobre essa questão. Optou-se pelo PrP, por ser um item da gramática da língua inglesa estudado sob diferentes perspectivas, por causa de sua complexidade tanto para os pesquisadores como para falantes não-nativos. A pesquisa lingüística acerca da natureza dos textos jornalísticos tem-se desenvolvido de modo abrangente, desde os anos de 1970, razão pela qual este trabalho, fundamentando-se na literatura da área, apresenta as visões de tempo verbal e aspecto, segundo Travaglia (1985) e Comrie (1985) e o uso do PrP, conforme os estudos de Schwenter (1994), Michaelis (1998), Engel & Ritz (2005) e Nishiyama & Koenig ( 2005, 2006). Esta revisão de literatura fornece uma perspectiva cronológica do que tem sido pesquisado sobre o uso do PrP e suas várias funções no discurso jornalístico, além de uma resenha dos autores sobre o discurso, dentre os quais, Bell (1991), Fowler (1991), Halliday (1978, 1985) e Fairclough (1995, 1999). Mais especificamente, fazendo uso da metodologia de pesquisa documental (Sanghera, 2002), analisam-se os dados coletados que incluem 60 textos de revistas e jornais da imprensa de qualidade americana e britânica, via mídia digital, The Guardian e The Independent (GB), The New York Times e The USA Today (EUA), os websites das redes de TV BBC e CNN e das revistas Newsweek e Time, com o propósito de ilustrar a ocorrência do PrP em diferentes contextos e assuntos. O período de coleta abrange os anos 2003 2008, e a diversidade de tópicos e subgêneros incluem Hard News (notícias atuais, como acidentes, e notícias acerca de política e diplomacia) e Soft News (artigos opinativos, não necessariamente relacionados a uma notícia recente). Em suma, procurou-se verificar que resultados indicam que o uso do PrP intensifica o valor da informação e atende às necessidades pragmáticas do produtor ao escrever o texto jornalístico e tentar dar uma contribuição original para as pesquisas que se direcionem à expressão da temporalidade no ensino de inglês como LE e para a Lingüística Aplicada no estudo do gênero notícia jornalística

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This work is a study of correspondence in the area of English and Portuguese verb tenses, and takes as focus the Present Perfect verb tense. In this study it is used as corpus the occurrences of this English verb tense in North American articles of the National Geographic magazine, and its statements and sense effects compared with the translations of the respective Brazilian articles. With the purpose of reflecting on this correspondence, this work is based on the description of the Present Perfect presented by grammars of different theoretical orientations, on the analysis of the grammatical categories of aspect and tense in both English and Portuguese languages, and, also, on theoretical aspects related to the problem of foreign language acquisition.
Este trabalho é um estudo de correspondência no domínio de tempos verbais da língua inglesa e da língua portuguesa, e toma como foco o tempo verbal Present Perfect da língua inglesa. Para tanto, utilizam-se como corpus as ocorrências desse tempo verbal em edições norte-americanas da revista National Geographic e analisam-se seus enunciados e efeitos de sentido comparados aos das traduções das respectivas edições brasileiras. Com o objetivo de refletir sobre essa correspondência, este trabalho fundamenta-se na descrição do Present Perfect apresentada por gramáticas de diferentes orientações teóricas, na análise das categorias gramaticais aspecto e tempo em língua inglesa e em língua portuguesa, e, ainda, em aspectos teóricos referentes à aquisição de língua estrangeira.

Three adult ESL students in a private setting participated in this case study, which investigated the effects of teaching students through strategy instruction, to adopt learning strategies that matched their individual learning style. I designed the training to draw attention to 16 learning strategies, that learners could chose from, according to their VARK (visual, aural, read and write, kinesthetic) profile. Instruction was provided in the context of an intermediate level 1 class, for a weekly three hour class. The focus of the study was to gain knowledge of cognition, metacognition and apply that knowledge to the use of personalised learning strategies. The goal was to then apply these strategies to facilitate learning a new verb tense, the present perfect. The training provided opportunities for practice, in both the learning strategies and the linguistic content. This study is a descriptive case study and not an experimental study. Therefore, in order to describe the contributions of strategy instruction, as revealed by the data, I employed a number of procedures. Pretest and postest results were analysed and showed a significant increase in the ability of students exposed to the training to correctly use the present perfect in context. Interview and questionnaire data were used to complement the test score data. It appears that strategy instruction is a factor that contributed to the score improvement and, because strategy instruction entails a number of elements, it is the combination of these elements such as the selection and use of appropriate strategies, cognitive and metacognitive awareness, knowledge of self, and practice in context that contributed to the score gains.

Les épopées d’Homère et de Virgile, la Chanson de Roland sont marquées par une alternance qui peut paraître capricieuse. En fait, on la saisit beaucoup mieux dès lors qu’on prend en compte la présence des corps : ceux du jongleur, de l’aède, du récitant ; le corps du public. Postures, gestuelle, mouvements, regard, souffle, musique s’articulent à cette alternance pour en faire une véritable danse. Cette thèse étudie d’abord comment dansent chacun des temps principaux du récit dans ces épopées, en accordant la priorité à Homère et au Roland ; puis elle étudie comment cette danse des temps prend corps dans chacune des petites pièces dont nous décelons que sont composées les épopées anciennes comme le Roland : les laisses
The Homeric and Virgilian epics, as well as the Chanson de Roland are full of tenseswitching, the use of which might seem capricious to the modern reader. It is in fact much better understood when bodies’ presence is taken into account — these bodies being the bard’s one as well as the audience’s. Postures, gestures, moves, eyes, breath, music are joint partners to tenseswitching, so that tenses really dance in epics. This study is firstly about how each one of the main narrative tenses dances in Homer and the Roland, and also in the Æneid. Then it studies the way tenses dance in each of the small pieces we find in the classical epics as well as in the Roland : the laisses

碩士
玄奘大學
應用外語學系碩士班
101
According to the previous researches, the inflection forms of English verbs have always been the most difficult part for Taiwanese university freshman English students, and the main reason is that the Chinese is considered as a language without morphological changes in order to indicate verb tenses, which means that it uses various pre- or post-verbal markers instead. For example “ceng曾, yi已；le了, zhe著, guo過”, and time phrases or adverbs, such as “zuotian (‘yesterday’), chintian (‘today’), jingchang (‘always’), cengjing (‘ever’), to indicate these before mentioned verb tenses. However, English verbs necessary require some adjustments to clarify the time in a verb (There are up to twelve tenses in usage: Simple Present, Present Perfect, Present Progressive, Present Perfect Progressive; Simple Past, Past Perfect, Past Progressive, Past Perfect Progressive; Simple Future, Future Perfect, Future Progressive, Future Perfect Progressive). The objective of this study is to investigate the EFL students during their English learning process, specifically focused to the Simple Past, Present Perfect, and Past Perfect verb tenses. Thus, this research will be based on simple past, present perfect, and past perfect verb tenses’ learning strategies analysis, with the goal to identify relevant learning barriers and determine the main cause or causes for these non effective learning performances. In conclusion the vital goal is to educate the EFL university freshman students on how to distinguish those relevant differences among the English simple past, present perfect, and past perfect verb tenses during the learning process. As a result, these freshmen will be able to read and write English efficiently and, in consequence to reach high scores and have better performances. The involved students of this study are 50 freshmen of Department of Applied Foreign Languages in Hsuan Chuang University. Sixty-two percent of these students have learnt English more than six years, 64% like English, and 78% consider that English grammar is highly important. All students are required to take a pre-test which aims at three English tenses (simple past, present perfect and past perfect). After reviewing and revisiting the test questions, students take the post-test. By analyzing and comparing the errors in pre-test and post-test, I categorize the possible reasons for their making mistakes, and see if there are proper solutions to make the related issues more understood. Key words: English inflections, English simple past, English present perfect, English past perfect, error analysis

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New Mexico, 2004.
"July 2004." eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 172-178).

Comparison of the Tense Systems in Spanish and French: the Use of the Present Perfect and Past Simple This paper is concerned with tenses in Spanish and in French. First they are analysed generally, from the theoretical point of view, and subsequently, the author focuses on comparing the use of two of them: the present perfect and the past simple. The author is building on the conviction that although the verb systems of Roman languages are nearly identical, and also that the basic values of their tenses are identical, their specific uses may differ. First, she examines how tenses participate in the expression of time in language and how they can refer to extralinguistic time. As much attention has been paid to this topic, part one of the paper examines the theories that have been reflected the most in works on Spanish and French verbs. The fact that each of them emphasises a different aspect in explaining the meaning and function of each tense allows us to better understand the fundamental value of the tenses. One chapter is devoted to the diachronic view of the Roman system of verbs which allows us to see which features and development tendencies are common to all Roman languages, and which are only found in some of them. Here, the author points out primarily the fact that the loss of the...

Prefix ex- u latinských sloves a jeho aspektová funkce Latin Verbal Prefix ex- in Regard of Aspect - disertační práce - Mgr. Martina Vaníková Summary The proposed thesis titled Latin Verbal Prefix ex- in Regard of Aspect is a pilot study that deals with the ways of expressing aspect in Latin, which is based on the detailed analysis of the functions of the verbal prefix ex- as one of the important components of this category. It also tries to find the method for the future research on the matter. In the theoretical part of the thesis the author gives summary of existing theories on aspect in general, with special attention given to the theories on aspect in the Czech and Latin language. The author defines the terms "aspect", "Aktionsart" and "situation type" at great length, and she particularly sets light to the term "telicity", distinguishing the "inherent telicity" from "maximizing". The practical part consist of: 1. a detailed analysis of all the occurrences of the indicative imperfect of the verbs with the prefix ex- from the corpus, which comprises of all well-preserved Latin texts from Plautus to Cicero; 2. an analysis of the indicative future and present tense forms of the selected verbs with the prefix ex-. Based on the analysis of the imperfect, the author verifies her hypothesis that the prefix...