Abstract

This paper focuses upon the relation between the semantic structure of verbs and the types of present perfect. The aim is to examine the existence of the potential influence that semantic features have on the classification of a verb into one of four types of present perfect. The corpus includes examples of lexical verbs in the form of the present perfect that belong to four situation types given by Vendler and defined by different combinations of features including telicity and duration, which are in the focus of the research. The classification of the examples into four types of present perfect with the reference to telicity and duration has provided an insight into their potential compatibility with the specific types of present perfect.