ON THE RESULTATIVE CHARACTER OF PRESENT PERFECT SENTENCES

One of the features of meaning commonly attributed to present perfect is that of indicating results (I have had a bath. Result: I am clean, I have caught a cold. Result: I have a cold). This article is aimed at determining the status of the resultative propositions associated wit h present perfect sentences: are they the externalization of the seman tics of the perfect or pragmatic effects? It is shown that the results arising from processing perfect sentences may be of different kinds, which calls for a partly semantic, partly pragmatic explanation of 'cu rrent relevance'.