The binary vs. privative status of verbal inflectional morphology: The case of Germanic.

Abstract

This paper argues that the binary opposition [+/-past] entails that Tpast contrasts with Tpres in computing a more complex kind of t- or tense-feature in the morpho-syntax and in exhibiting one more Vocabulary Item or marker in the morpho-phonology. It is argued that this situation used to be the case for all Germanic languages generally speaking, but that it is no longer the case for Present Day English or Mainland Scandinavian.