Re: Perfect aspect
| From: | Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, September 30, 2004, 23:17 |
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In a message dated 9/30/2004 6:03:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Peter.Bleackley@RD.BBC.CO.UK writes:
>Actually, this is an interesting question. Exactly how and why did "have"
>get the sense of "auxiliary verb for perfect aspects"?
I recall reading somewhere that this is believed to have started with
sentences roughly like "I have a cake baked" in the sense of "I have a cake that is
in-a-state-of-having-been-baked."
From there, it's a small step to "I have baked a cake."
Doug
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