Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 275-281. / Microfilm. / ix, 281 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

The primary object of inquiry is the semantics of the progressive and perfect constructions in English, and their interaction with the deictic category of tense. The domain of inquiry is text. The major concern is the argument that a full description of these constructions' development involves consideration of both functional (semantic- pragmatic) and formal (morphosyntactic) change. The bases of the framework constructed for analysis are Lyons' (1977; 1982) theory of locutionary subjectivism, and Traugott's (1982) model of semantic- pragmatic shifts in the grarrmaticalization process. Thus the description depends on the r ole of text in characterizing and shaping the meaning and use of auxiliary elements. Accordingly, I use a range of text-types for illustrative purposes. It is important to emphasize their exemplary function - they do not constitute a statistically defined or determined corpus. The main theme of this dissertation is the emergence of what I call the 'subjectivity' of these constructions in the context of their realization as grarrmatical markers of the English auxiliary. The study is divided into three parts. The first (chapters 1, 2, and 3) is a synchronic characterization of tense semantics focussing on subjectivity and text; and against this background, the semantics of the progressive and the perfect. The second part (chapters 4, 5, 6) is a detailed historical account of the perfect and the progressive in the framework of grarrmaticalization. A central concern of this section is the exploration of the semantic-pragmatic shifts forming part of the grarnnaticalization process. The last part, chapter 7, is an attempt to show the early instantiation of expressive meanings through the subjective function of tense, the progressive and perfect in experiential text- types, represented by the personal letter . The study is therefore organized cyclically, its major themes being the grarrunaticalization and semantic- pragmatic development of the English auxiliary, and their elucidation through text.

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This dissertation investigates the verbal system of Persian and is focused on the interaction of modality, tense, aspect and negation in this language. The dissertation challenges the idea that the syntactic structure maps on to the semantic interpretation or vice-versa.It is argued that modals are raising constructions in some languages (Wurmbrand 1999). Modals in Persian, which do not have subject-raising constructions, show different behavior. First, the root complex modals are generally syntactic control in Wurmbrand's (1998, 2001) proposal. There are just a few gaps with respect to dynamic root modals. Second, all epistemic modals which are either defective auxiliary modals or complex modals take default agreements and are pseudo-raising constructions. Third, the syntactic structures of modals show that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the structural positions and semantic interpretations of modals in Persian except in the auxiliary modal bâyad 'must'.The second contribution of this dissertation is that the class of restructuring verbs varies across languages. German semantic control verbs are instances of restructuring constructions (Wurmbrand 2001) while the only case of restructuring in Persian is the functional restructuring which appears in auxiliary modals such as bâyad 'must' and šâyad 'may' since they are mono-clausal and do not have a CP.This dissertation also investigates the structure of complex verbal forms in Persian. It is argued that Persian future tense is an instance of Serial Verb Constructions. However, progressives which are bi-clausal constructions are Aspectual Complex predicates.In the case of the structural analysis of the interaction of Persian modals and negation, this dissertation shows that the syntactic structure maps on the semantic interpretation or vice-versa. There are just a few gaps with respect to the scope possibilities of particular modals.The final contribution of this dissertation is related to the problem of the word order of NV elements and LV within complex predicates. This research provides three suggestions regarding the clausal complement position in complex predicates, and suggests that the vP remnant movement is the most reasonable one, since it is compatible with the recent trends of syntactic theories and suggested for some other languages (Mahajan 2003).

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Ce travail de thèse se donne pour objectif de mettre en évidence le fonctionnement des différents effets de sens produits en discours par le futur et le conditionnel à partir d’une valeur en langue unique de chacun de ces temps, dans une perspective contrastive entre l’espagnol et le français. La première partie interroge les notions de temporalité, d’aspectualité et de modalité, ainsi que les théories énonciatives qui sous-tendent toute recherche sur le temps verbal pour déterminer les cadres théoriques dans lesquels s’inscrit cette analyse et définir la valeur en langue du futur et celle du conditionnel sur lesquelles on s’appuie. Dans une seconde partie, on se propose de mettre en évidence le mécanisme d’actualisation de cette valeur aspectuo-temporelle dans la production de différents effets de sens de ces deux temps dont le fonctionnement est similaire en espagnol et en français. La troisième partie est consacrée quant à elle à l’analyse d’un fonctionnement différent dans les deux langues étudiées : l’effet de sens conjectural. / The purpose of this work is to show the various usages of future and conditionnal tenses in speech connected with the meaning in language of each tense. This is a contrastive approach between Spanish and French. In the first part, we explore the notions of temporality, aspectuality and modality. The enunciative theories that underlie every research on verbal tense are questionned too in order to define the theorical frameworks and the meaning of each analyzed tense. In the second part, we point out the actualization process of the aspectuo-temporal meaning of each tense that produces various usages in speech which works in a similar way in Spanish and French. In the third and last part, we focus on the analysis of a diferent functioning between these two languages : the conjectural usage.

Cette présente recherche se situe dans le cadre des études contrastives. Elle recouvre, dans une perspective d’analyse, en matière de traduction d’une oeuvre littéraire du thaï au français, en particulier sur l’utilisation des temps verbaux. Puisque des différences importantes existent entre ces deux langues qui ne sont pas linguistiquement proches, il y a souvent des difficultés dans la traduction de l’expression du temps d’une langue à l’autre. En la matière, la principale différenciation réside dans le fait que le thaï, langue sans morphologie, possédant des mots invariables, exprime le temps par l’adjonction de morphèmes. De plus, le thaï utilise le système temporel primaire avec trois temps principaux : présent, passé et futur. Au contraire, pour le français, langue flexionnelle, le verbe transporte avec lui la marque de temps, et dès lors, chaque forme verbale indique un temps grammatical : une forme verbale fait référence au moment où se déroule le procès. L’expression de temps en français se sert des temps divisés en des époques de sous-divisions, dont le système temporel secondaire. Le thaï utilise des moyens très différents pour se référer aux moments du déroulement des événements par rapport au système du français. Alors, les objectifs de cette recherche sont d’étudier les systèmes qui commandent l’usage des temps verbaux de chaque langue afin de chercher des formes équivalentes. Nous espérons que cette recherche constituera un bon point de départ pour des études de linguistique comparée thaï – français / The present research is situated in the domain of contrastive studies. It covers, in an analytical perspective, the translation of a literary work from Thai to French and in particular the use of verb tenses. Since these two languages are not linguistically close and are significantly different, difficulties arise when translating the expression of tenses from one language to the other. The main difference comes from the fact that Thai language, which does not have any inflectional morphology and possesses invariable words, expresses tenses by addition of morphemes. Furthermore, Thai uses the primary tense system of three main moments : past, present and future. On the contrary, in French, which is an inflectional language, the verb carries the tense mark, and as such, every verbal form indicates a grammatical tense : a verbal form indicates the moment at which the process occurs. To express tenses, French uses tenses which are divided into periods which include the secondary temporal system. Compared to the French tense system, Thai language uses different ways of expressing the moments at which an event occurs. Therefore, the objectif of this reserach is to study the system which commands the usage of verbal tenses of each language in order to find equivalent forms. We hope that this research will provide a good starting point for comparative linguistics studies between Thai and French