Decoding French equivalents of the English present perfect: evidence from parallel corpora of parliamentary documents

Scholars have yet to establish a consensus regarding French equivalents of the English present perfect (PP). This study investigates the French equivalents of the PP through the lens of parallel corpora. Although the pass & eacute; compos & eacute; is commonly considered the French equivalent, no singular tense in French entirely mirrors the PP. This paper challenges this assumption by suggesting other French forms as viable correspondences, including the pr & eacute;sent de l'indicatif, the pass & eacute; r & eacute;cent, the futur ant & eacute;rieur, and the imparfait. Leveraging the benefits of parallel corpora for crosslinguistic analysis, these forms were scrutinized in relation to their function and application across different uses of the PP. The findings provide empirical evidence that enriches the understanding of the crosslinguistic complexity between the PP and its French equivalents, offering valuable insights for foreign language learning, teaching, and translation. The study also stresses the importance of interpretations of tense equivalences in the pursuit of successful crosslinguistic communication. Les chercheurs n'ont pas encore & eacute;tabli de consensus concernant les & eacute;quivalents en fran & ccedil;ais du present perfect anglais (PP). Cette & eacute;tude examine les & eacute;quivalents du PP en fran & ccedil;ais & agrave; partir de corpus parall & egrave;les. Bien que le pass & eacute; compos & eacute; soit commun & eacute;ment consid & eacute;r & eacute; comme l'& eacute;quivalent en fran & ccedil;ais, aucun temps en fran & ccedil;ais ne refl & egrave;te enti & egrave;rement le PP. Cet article remet en question cette hypoth & egrave;se en sugg & eacute;rant d'autres formes fran & ccedil;aises comme correspondances viables, notamment le pr & eacute;sent de l'indicatif, le pass & eacute; r & eacute;cent, le futur ant & eacute;rieur et l'imparfait. En tirant parti des avantages des corpus parall & egrave;les pour l'analyse interlinguistique, ces formes ont & eacute;t & eacute; examin & eacute;es en relation avec leur fonction et leur application & agrave; travers diff & eacute;rents usages de PP. Les r & eacute;sultats fournissent des preuves empiriques qui enrichissent la compr & eacute;hension de la complexit & eacute; interlinguistique entre le PP et ses & eacute;quivalents en fran & ccedil;ais, offrant des informations pr & eacute;cieuses pour l'apprentissage, l'enseignement et la traduction des langues & eacute;trang & egrave;res. L'& eacute;tude souligne & eacute;galement l'importance d'interpr & eacute;tations des & eacute;quivalences de temps dans la poursuite d'une communication interlinguistique r & eacute;ussie.