German Tense Fragment

[HK98] [Kra98a]

German tense paradigm entries following [HK98]'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 German.Tense.kratzerPreterit : Tense.SOT.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

• German.Tense.kratzerPreterit = { tensePronoun := Tense.SOT.Decomposition.kratzerGermanPreterit 1, hasPerfect := false }

def German.Tense.kratzerPerfekt : Tense.SOT.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

• German.Tense.kratzerPerfekt = { tensePronoun := { varIndex := 0, constraint := Tense.present, mode := Intensional.ReferentialMode.ReferentialMode.indexical }, hasPerfect := true }

theorem German.Tense.preterit_not_deictic : ¬kratzerPreterit.canBeDeictic

German Preterit cannot be deictic.

theorem German.Tense.perfekt_deictic : kratzerPerfekt.canBeDeictic

German Perfekt CAN be deictic.

theorem German.Tense.preterit_perfekt_contrast : kratzerPreterit.tensePronoun.constraint = Tense.past ∧ kratzerPerfekt.tensePronoun.constraint = Tense.present ∧ ¬kratzerPreterit.canBeDeictic ∧ kratzerPerfekt.canBeDeictic

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

German Preterit is always overt (anaphoric = free).

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

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