Abstract
The combination of a form of the verb kommen (‘come’) with the perfect participle of a motion verb usually expresses unidirectional movement towards an endpoint (namely the speaker), e.g. sie kamen gelaufen (‚they came running’). In Slavic linguistics the distinction ‚unidirectional vs. non-unidirectional movement’ is analyzed as representing an aspectual opposition ‚determinative vs. indeterminative’ which in many Slavic languages is expressed with different verbs. In this article it is assumed that German kommen + perfect participle is an analytical construction with the function ‚determinative’.
Although nowadays the participle is part of the complex predicate, it has developed out of a modal adverbial. In older stages of the Germanic languages the modal adverbial was represented by present participles or infinitives. A perfect participle did not arise in Dutch and German until the 12th century. It is argued here that this construction was not possible before the development of the impersonal passive from (objectless) intransitives, by which it was triggered.
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