ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will investigate interpretive constraints associated with three perfect forms: the past perfect, the present perfect, and the nonfinite perfect. In the last class, we include the participial perfect, exemplified by sentences like Having failed, he felt discouraged, and the bare-stem infinitival perfect, exemplified by modal predications like She must have left. In particular, we will examine evidence that each of these formally defined categories subsumes two or more distinct grammatical constructions. Formal and semantic overlap among the relevant constructions will be described by means of inheritance. In concluding this chapter, we will examine a diagrammatic representation of inheritance relations within the perfect system.
