German Tense Fragment

@cite{heim-kratzer-1998} @cite{kratzer-1998}

German tense paradigm entries following @cite{heim-kratzer-1998}'s decomposition. The key contrast with English: German Preterit is a genuine PAST pronoun (anaphoric — requires discourse antecedent), while English "simple past" has a covert PRESENT tense head.

The Preterit Restriction

Modern German Preterit (Präteritum) cannot be used "out of the blue" in most dialects; it requires a narrative context supplying a temporal antecedent. This follows from the tense head being PAST (anaphoric).

#"Ich schaltete den Herd nicht aus." (out of the blue — marginal) "Ich habe den Herd nicht ausgeschaltet." (present perfect — fine)

The present perfect (Perfekt) has replaced the Preterit in spoken German for out-of-the-blue past reference, matching the prediction: Perfekt has a PRESENT tense head (indexical-compatible).

def Fragments.German.Tense.kratzerPreterit : Semantics.Tense.Decomposition.KratzerDecomposition

German Preterit (Präteritum): genuine PAST pronoun. Anaphoric — requires a discourse-established temporal antecedent. No PERF aspect head intervenes; the pastness is in the tense itself.

Equations

• Fragments.German.Tense.kratzerPreterit = { language := "German", surfaceForm := "V-te", tensePronoun := Semantics.Tense.Decomposition.kratzerGermanPreterit 1, hasPerfect := false }

def Fragments.German.Tense.kratzerPerfekt : Semantics.Tense.Decomposition.KratzerDecomposition

German Perfekt (present perfect): PRESENT tense + PERFECT aspect. Parallel structure to English simple past. Can be used deictically because the tense head is present (indexical).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

theorem Fragments.German.Tense.preterit_not_deictic : kratzerPreterit.canBeDeictic = false

German Preterit cannot be deictic.

theorem Fragments.German.Tense.perfekt_deictic : kratzerPerfekt.canBeDeictic = true

German Perfekt CAN be deictic.

theorem Fragments.German.Tense.preterit_perfekt_contrast : kratzerPreterit.tensePronoun.constraint = Core.Tense.GramTense.past ∧ kratzerPerfekt.tensePronoun.constraint = Core.Tense.GramTense.present ∧ kratzerPreterit.canBeDeictic = false ∧ kratzerPerfekt.canBeDeictic = true

The Preterit–Perfekt contrast: different underlying tense heads. Preterit has a PAST head (anaphoric); Perfekt has PRESENT + PERF (indexical). Both can refer to past events, but only Perfekt is deictic-compatible. This explains why Perfekt has largely replaced Preterit in spoken German.

theorem Fragments.German.Tense.preterit_always_overt (localDomain : Bool) : kratzerPreterit.tenseOvertness localDomain = Core.Tense.Overtness.overt

German Preterit is always overt (anaphoric = free).

theorem Fragments.German.Tense.perfekt_always_overt (localDomain : Bool) : kratzerPerfekt.tenseOvertness localDomain = Core.Tense.Overtness.overt

German Perfekt tense head is always overt (indexical = free).