The perfect system in Latin

Abstract

The Latin perfect system is argued to denote that an eventuality described by a predicate terminates prior to some moment in time, whether utterance time in the case of the ‘present’ perfect, or reference/topic time, in the case of the perfect infinitive, past and future forms. The ‘present’ perfect is argued to function as a perfective, while the past, future and infinitive perfect are argued to denote anteriority. Additional conditions are considered in order to explain the behaviour with state and achievement predicates. The participle in *-to- generally denotes that an eventuality described by the predicate terminates prior to topic time, as well as that an event’s poststate (if any) holds at topic time. As such the participle is generally passive in diathetical orientation, although there are exceptions. In certain kinds of predicate, namely those describing extent and mental state, the perfect loses direct reference to a prior event and refers only to an eventuality’s poststate.