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    Thanks, Björn, for this interesting question – unfortunately, I am
    not aware of any work that answers it.<br>
    <br>
    There has been some quantitative work on stability (e.g. Dediu &
    Cysouw 2013 in PlosOne), but it seems that this work always concerns
    "language traits", not particular constructions.<br>
    <br>
    Lindstedt (2000) talks about gram types, which are
    construction-strategy types (or types of markers), and the stability
    of these cannot be so easily measured with the usual genealogy-based
    methods. If a language always has a future tense form/construction,
    then it will be stable with respect to the feature "is there a
    future tense construction?", but the form of the construction may be
    unstable if there is frequent renewal (e.g. Latin-Spanish canta-bo
    > canta-ré > voy a cantar 'I will sing'). Comparisons on the
    basis of language traits will simply overlook such renewals.<br>
    <br>
    On the other hand, one may take the perspective of a particular form
    (e.g. the French avoir+participle periphrasis) and ask how quickly
    it changes. But in order to compare such changes across languages,
    one needs to identify comparable paths of change with respect to
    their speed. This is hard, because it cannot be done on the basis of
    languages whose earlier stages we know little about (i.e. the vast
    majority of languages).<br>
    <br>
    Lindstedt (2000) says that perfects are unstable, but on what basis?
    Has there been any broadly comparative research on perfects since
    Dahl & Velupillai (2005) in WALS? It seems that we don't really
    know much more than we used to know two decades ago...<br>
    <br>
    Best,<br>
    Martin<br>
    <br>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 06.08.22 um 17:12 schrieb Björn
      Wiemer:<br>
    </div>
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        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Dear All,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">is anybody aware of work
            done to compare tense-aspect grams across languages with
            respect to (i) their stability in time and to (ii) their
            “fuzziness” in terms of range of functions? I’m particularly
            interested in a comparison between constructions considered
            as perfects vs those considered as futures. Both have been
            considered as rather unstable (in comparison at least to
            present tense), but have these “instabilities” been compared
            for a representative sample of grams belonging to the
            perfect or, respectively, to the future domain among each
            other? And has instability be captured in objectifiable
            (cross-linguistically testable) properties?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">            For
            instance, Lindstedt (2000: 366), in his contribution to the
            EuroTyp volume on tense-aspect, wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
            style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"
            lang="EN-US">“In terms of Greenberg’s (1978: 75-76)
            distinction between the stability and frequency of
            typological features, the perfect is a gram type that is
            frequent, that is to say, likely to appear in different
            languages, but unstable, as it often tends to be lost. More
            often than not, it does not disappear as a form but becomes
            something else – a general past tense, for instance.”</span><span
            style="font-family:"Times New
            Roman",serif;color:windowtext" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Would there be a measure
            for stability (for particular grams, constructions) and
            frequency (across languages) that would allow for a more
            straightforward comparison between grams/constructions, in
            particular between perfects and futures?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">            And, by the
            way, have futures been attested to become anything else, or
            do they just disappear (if they don’t stay)? Of course, we
            know of epistemic uses (e.g., Engl.
            <i>Paul will be in Heidelberg now.</i> = Certainly, Paul is
            in H. now; [pointing at an object before themselves]
            <i>What is this going to be? </i>= What might this be?].
            However, the question is whether, actually, these uses do
            not precede proper future uses (i.e. reference to a single
            event after speech time) in the chronology of functions
            assigned to some gram/construction. What is known about this
            chronological relation?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I would appreciate
            comments on this, and can compose a small digest of
            responses (if there will be many).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Björn (Wiemer).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE"
            lang="EN-US">-------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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              alt="obraz.png" class="" width="32" height="21"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">Björn
            Wiemer<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">Professor
            für slavistische Sprachwissenschaft<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">Institut
            für Slavistik, Turkologie und zirkumbaltische Studien
            (ISTziB), Abt. Slavistik<o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">Jakob-Welder-Weg
            18<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">D-
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        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">Tel.
            +49/ 6131/ 39 -22186<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE">Fax
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                style="color:#0563C1">wiemerb@uni-mainz.de</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE"><a
href="https://www.slavistik.uni-mainz.de/univ-prof-bjoern-wiemer/"
              moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color:#0563C1">https://www.slavistik.uni-mainz.de/univ-prof-bjoern-wiemer/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:DE"><a
              href="https://uni-mainz.academia.edu/Bj%C3%B6rnWiemer"
              moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color:#0563C1">https://uni-mainz.academia.edu/Bj%C3%B6rnWiemer</span></a>
            <o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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      <pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
Lingtyp mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp">https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a>
</pre>
    </blockquote>
    <br>
    <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- 
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/">https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/</a></pre>
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