The perfect in Lithuanian: an empirical study
The perfect in Lithuanian: an empirical study

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents observations regarding the meanings and functions of the analytic perfect forms (in the active voice), traditionally called “compound tenses” (Lith. sudurtiniai laikai or sudėtiniai laikai), consisting of the verb būti ‘be’ and adjectival past participles in Lithuanian. The status of Lithuanian analytic forms is quite a controversial theme in Lithuanian linguistics and its relation to finite verb forms has been widely discussed. However, the discussions about the perfect in Lithuanian from the semantical and typological perspective are not still sufficient. So, the main purpose of the research is to observe the functional-semantic content of the Lithuanian analytic perfect forms from the typological viewpoint by analyzing how this content correlates with aspectual properties of verbs, and, to analyze the divisions in the usage domain of the simple tense forms and the analytic perfect forms. By referring to the contrastive analysis with Russian, I will try to give a more detailed explanation of the meanings and functions of the Lithuanian analytic perfect forms. Moreover, I will offer an analysis of the divisions in the usage domain of the simple tense forms and the analytic perfect forms in Lithuanian, based on the results of a questionnaire conducted in Lithuania.

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