Marie-Eve Ritz

The Use of the Present Perfect in Australian English

This paper describes and discusses the use of the present perfect in Australian English which, when compared to uses in other varieties of English, is found in a broader range of contexts. Examination of data collected mainly from radio news programs and chat shows reveals that the present perfect in Australian English is used: (1) in combination with past temporal adverbials; (2) in sequences indicating narrative progression; (3) in alternation with the simple past and the present tense to express stylistic contrast. All these uses are common in our sample, which seems to indicate that the category is undergoing an extension of its meaning.

“Vivid narrative use” and the meaning of the present perfect in spoken Australian English

Abstract This article examines the use of the present perfect (PP) in Australian English using a corpus of stories told during radio chat-show programs and news reports. We find that the PP is used (i) as a narrative tense in spoken texts both with and without narrative present (NarPres); (ii) in sequences of clauses expressing temporal progression; and (iii) with some definite temporal adverbials denoting past time. Such uses are either unusual or unacceptable in other English varieties. A systematic comparison of contexts where NarPres and narrative PP are used in oral narratives reveals that the PP replaces the NarPres predominantly with verbs denoting events. Usage in news reports, where the narrative interpretation is not possible, suggests that a temporal ambiguity exists in the current interpretation of PP sentences. Analysis of lexical aspect shows that the majority of verbs used in the narrative PP are both durative and contain a process part, a fact that helps explain the sense of vividness achieved. At the discourse level, use of the PP enables the speaker to present situations as tightly connected. Such extensions in usage show a possible path for change for a category that is known to be historically unstable in its meaning

Now or Then? The Clitic -rru in Panyjima: Temporal Properties in Discourse

The clitic -rru in Panyjima, glossed as ‘now’ by Dench, appears not only in present tense but also in past and future clauses. This paper analyses the uses of this clitic and its interactions with tenses at clause level, as well as its role in the wider discourse context. We argue that -rru has temporal and contrastive properties, more specifically that -rru modifies the time of the eventuality denoted and signals a change: it introduces a contrast with an earlier state of affairs corresponding to the negation of the eventuality denoted. Thus temporal progression is also inferred. We propose to represent this contrast as a presupposition that -rru introduces, using Discourse Representation Theory (DRT). We also show that in discourse, -rru is used to introduce new subtopics, thus expressing contrasts at this wider level as well. Discourse relations and their temporal inferences are analysed using Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT). We conclude that, while -rru often corresponds to the adverb ‘then’ in English, its contrastive properties liken it more to the adverb ‘now’ in other languages, especially when the latter is used in non-present time contexts.

Stories Down Under: Tense Variation at the Heart of Australian English Narratives

We examine tense variation in the complicating portion of unreflecting narratives of past personal experience in Australian English (AusE). Previous research has shown that the simple past tense (PT), historical present (HP) and historical present perfect (HPP) alternate innovatively in performed AusE narratives, enabling speakers to foreground pivotal events in the story. However, little is known about the sociolinguistic factors constraining tense variation more generally. Foregrounding is mostly performed by the HP in American English and by the HP and the HPP amongst working class London preteens. We provide a multivariate analysis of the sociolinguistic factors contributing to tense choice in the complicating clauses of 100 narratives of past personal experience collected in Perth in 2011/2012 and told by 38 high school- and university-educated native speakers of Anglo-Celtic AusE, aged 12–62. Multivariate analysis using Goldvarb X reveals that the PT is consistently favoured in complicating action clauses, as per its unmarked function in narrative, while the HPP is used minimally (1% (9/678)). Foregrounding in our narrative corpus is significantly constrained by speaker age. The PT dominates in the 36–62 cohort (89%). The HP is significantly favoured with quotative verbs by speakers aged 12–28 (0.66). Our cross-generational results indicate that AusE narrative style has undergone significant changes in line with Rodríguez Louros contentions on the reorganization of the AusE quotative system. Namely, the rise of quotation amongst youth (notably the upsurge of quotative be like) is crucially intertwined with the use of the HP to foreground pivotal events in conversational narrative. The apparent time perspective afforded by our methodology shows that the HP has systematically encroached on AusE story-telling.