perfect tense

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Brian Hayden wrote:

> Dear SEELANGers,
>
> Mr. Gladner's post reminded me of something that I always wondered
> about. Until someone pointed out to me that Я устал was a sentence
> consisting of subject + perfective verb, I had always assumed that it
> was a copular sentence --  subject + predicate adjective, with «устал»
> not being the past tense of a verb, but rather the short form of the
> adjective усталый.

My initial reaction was this was a classic case of L1 interference, 
since we don't normally say "I tired" or "I have tired" in English; we 
say "I am tired" instead. But read on...

> That leads me to this question: is there any case in modern Russian
> in which Я устал is, всё-таки, a present tense subject + predicate
> adjective sentence, and not a subject + perfective past tense verb?

How about these cases that force a present-tense interpretation?
	Ты наверное сейчас устал и очень хочешь спать.
	Я сейчас устал и голодный.
	Ты всё делала по дому? И теперь устала и плохо выглядишь?
	Я настолько сейчас устала, что я даже не найду в себе
		силы для этого.

Google searches:
	"сейчас устал" -- 58,800 hits
	"теперь устал" -- 20,500 hits
	"вчера устал"  -- 24,500 hits

The present-tense usages are clearly competitive with the past-tense 
usages, so we must admit this possibility.

Here's an interesting set of expressions that highlight the differences 
in verbal/adjectival expression for several other verbs as well:
<http://www.manythings.org/bilingual/rus/59.html>

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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