Tense of verbs

Plan:

 

Introduction

1. Tense of verbs

2. Aspect 

3. Mood

Conclusion

Used literature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

Tense–aspect–mood, commonly abbreviated tam and also called tense–modality–aspect or tma, is the grammatical system in a language that covers the expression of tense(location in time), aspect (fabric of time – a single block of time, continuous flow of time, or repetitive occurrence), and mood or modality (degree of necessity, obligation, probability, ability).^[1] In some cases, evidentiality (whether evidence exists for the statement, and if so what kind) may also be included.

The term is convenient because it is often difficult to untangle these features of a language. Often any two of tense, aspect, and mood (or all three) may be conveyed by a single grammatical construction; but this system may not be complete in that not all possible combinations may have an available construction. In other cases there may not be clearly delineated categories of tense and mood, or aspect and mood.

For instance, many Indo-European languages do not clearly distinguish tense from aspect.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]} In some languages, such as Spanish and Modern Greek, the imperfective aspect as a whole is fused with the past tense in a form traditionally called the imperfect. This fusion can occur because the imperfective aspect only exists in the past tense. Other languages with distinct past imperfectives include Latin and Persian.

Not all languages conflate tense, aspect, and mood, however; close to a theoretically ideal distinction, with separate grammatical markers for tense, aspect, and/or mood, is made in many analytic languages .

 

 

 

 

 

1.Tense of verbs   Tense is the grammatical term that refers to the time when the action of the verb occurs: past, present, future. The time frame of an action is usually established by referring to the present moment; for example, the passé composé and the future are respectively past and future in relation to the present.   However, some tenses establish their time frame by referring to other actions in the past or in the future. For example, the plus-que-parfait tense indicates a past action that occurred prior to the the completion of another past action. The futur antérieur tense indicates a future action that will have occured before another future action. Actions that occur before another action are described as being anterior.   Tenses are also described by their number of parts. For example, a tense with only one verb form is called asimple tense (ie, le passé simple). In contrast, a tense comprising two forms, the auxiliary verb and the participle, is referred to as a compound tense (ie, le passé composé). TENSE refers to the absolute location of an event or action in time, either the present or the past. It is marked by an inflection of the verb:  David walks to school (present tense)   David walked to school (past tense)  Reference to other times -- the future, for instance -- can be made in a number of ways, by using the modal auxiliary will, or the semi-auxiliarybe going to:  David will walk to school tomorrow   David is going to walk to school tomorrow.  Since the expression of future time does not involve any inflecton of the verb, we do not refer to a "future tense". Strictly speaking, there are only two tenses in English: present and past.                                                        2. Aspect   Aspect, unlike tense, is not concerned with placing events on a time line. Rather, aspect is concerned with making distinctions about the kinds of actions that are described by verbs: progressive actions, punctual actions, habitual actions, etc.   The most important aspectual distinction in French concerns the difference between the two most common past tenses: the imparfait and the passé composé. While both tenses refer to actions in the past, they are used for very different types of actions. The imparfait indicates an action that is ongoing or habitual. Actions in the imparfait may be simultaneous or overlapping. The passé composé on the other hand, indicates an action that is in a strict sequence in relation to another action. In other words, an event in the passé composé must be completed before another may be used in narration.   Look at the examples below that illustrate their meaning. A. The simple (infinite) aspect does not relate to the flow of time (it does not indicate      where on a time line an action begins or ends), but merely states whether or not the      action occurs. It is used to indicate habitual or repeated actions or conditions.  Monkeys eat bananas.                              The verb eat tells only what monkeys eat. B. The perfect (complete) aspect indicates that the end of the action or condition is known      and is used to emphasize the fact that the action is complete. The action may, however,      may be completed in the present, in the past, or in the future.                 The moneys have eaten the bananas.         In this sentence, the action took place in the past, but it is implied that it took place        recently and is still relevant at the time of speaking. C. The progressive (continuous) aspect indicates that the action or condition is ongoing      in the present, the past, or the future. The monkeys are eating the bananas.        In this example the action of eating bananas is still in progress. D. The Perfect Progressive (continuous) aspect indicates that an action has, had, or will be  in progress at a particular point in time. It is frequently used to indicate the duration of  an action or event. I had been studying for six hours before I took a break In this sentence the action of studying is complete  TENSE refers to the absolute location of an event or action in time, either the present or the past. It is marked by an inflection of the verb:  David walks to school (present tense)   David walked to school (past tense)  Reference to other times -- the future, for instance -- can be made in a number of ways, by using the modal auxiliary will, or the semi-auxiliarybe going to:  David will walk to school tomorrow   David is going to walk to school tomorrow.  Since the expression of future time does not involve any inflecton of the verb, we do not refer to a "future tense". Strictly speaking, there are only two tenses in English: present and past.  ASPECT refers to how an event or action is to be viewed with respect to time, rather than to its actual location in time. We can illustrate this using the following examples:  David fell in love on his eighteenth birthday    David has fallen in love    David is falling in love  In the verb fell tells us that David fell in love in the past, and specifically on his eighteenth birthday. This is a simple past tense verb.  In also, the action took place in the past, but it is implied that it took place quite recently. Furthermore, it is implied that is still relevant at the time of speaking -- David has fallen in love, and that's why he's behaving strangely. It is worth noting that we cannot say *David has fallen in love on his eighteenth birthday. The auxiliary has here encodes what is known as PERFECTIVE ASPECT, and the auxiliary itself is known as the PERFECTIVE AUXILIARY.  In [3], the action of falling in love is still in progress -- David is falling in love at the time of speaking. For this reason, we call it PROGRESSIVE ASPECT, and the auxiliary is called the PROGRESSIVE AUXILIARY.  Tense indicates the location of an action in time. There 12 verb tenses that most people learn in school three simple tenses (present, past, and future) three continuous tenses (present, past, and future) three perfect tenses (present, past, and future) three perfect continuous tenses (present, past, and future) Aspect always includes tense. In [2] and [3] above, the aspectual auxiliaries are in the present tense, but they could also be in the past tense:  David had fallen in love -- Perfective Aspect, Past Tense   David was falling in love -- Progressive Aspect, Past Tense  The perfective auxiliary is always followed by a main verb in the -edform, while the progressive auxiliary is followed by a main verb in the -ing form. We exemplify these points in the table below:  enses interact with the grammatical concept of aspect. Aspect defines how the flow of time is viewed in the sentence. Sounds too abstract ? Be patient! The following will make this much clearer. In English there are four aspects according to which the tenses can be conveniently sorted.  1. The Progressive (or continuous) Aspect views the action in the process of happening, being in the middle of things and not having completed it.  Ron is cooking dinner at the moment.  [He is still doing it and not finished]  2. The Perfect Aspect views the action as having been completed before another point in time. The action is finished but may influence what follows it.  Ron has already seen this film.  [The action is completed. It may influence our present choice of what film to see, since we don’t want Ron to see it again]  3. The Perfect-Progressive Aspect combines the qualities of the previous two. It views the action as an ongoing one that has been going on until a certain point in time and having been completed up to that point. They may influence what follows.  By 1996, Dona had been dieting rather seriously and subsequently lost a lot of weight.  [Dona was in an ongoing process that was completed in 1996. This influenced what followed – the loss of weight]  4. The Simple (or Zero) Aspect does not relate to the flow of time and merely states whether or not the action occurs.  Dona works in London.  The names for the various English verb tenses are derived when combining time with aspect. The following is a short general overview of the tenses accompanied by examples illustrating their typical usage.                                                                    3. Mood  Another related grammatical concept here is mood. Mood (or mode) regards the relationship of the verb with reality and intent. While other languages have different verb forms for the same tenses in different moods, English does not get too complicated with moods. Some regard English as having the following four moods:  1. The Indicative Mood regards the action as actually occurring in reality, as a matter of fact. All the tenses mentioned above are in the indicative mood, which is the most prevalent in English.  2. The Imperative Mood states requests, orders, and strong suggestions.  Go there now! Do not postpone this any longer!  3. The Conditional Mood regards the action as not factually occurring in reality, but only as a result of a potential fulfillment of some condition. •     The Present Conditional (would+base verb) expresses hypothetical results, reporting what someone said, and in polite speech. If I won the lottery, I would go on a trip around the world. •    The Past Conditional (would+ have+ past participle form of the verb) expresses hypothetical outcomes that may have occurred in the past and can no longer be achieved. If you had told me about the party, I would have come with you (but you didn’t). 4. The Subjunctive Mood expresses desires, wishes, and assumptions that are not necessarily to be fulfilled in reality. It is used in specific figures of speech and is of little use in Modern English.I demand that she leave at once! If only you were here!If that be the case, than…   Perfective Aspect Progressive Aspect Present Tense has fallen is falling Past Tense had fallen was falling   These aspectual differences are best understood in a narrative context where the imparfait is typically used to set the scene of a story by giving background information.   Installé à la terrasse du Cactus Cafe, Texregardait les filles qui passaient. Ilsavourait une tasse de café, mais quelque chose manquait . . . une cigarette!   Seated on the terrace of the Cactus Cafe, Tex was watching the girls who walked by. He was enjoying a cup of coffee, but something was missing . . . a cigarette! The passé composé is used for the foreground, that is, the plot line events. Note that plot line events are sequential, that is, an event must be completed before another event begins.   Tex a sorti une cigarette de son paquet. Il l'a allumée et il a tiré une grande bouffée. Mmm   Tex took out a cigarette from his pack. He lit it and took a long drag. Mmm ... ecstasy! Mood is a grammatical category distinguishing verb tenses. There are four moods in French: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, andimperative. All of these moods, except the imperative, may be conjugated in different tenses. Each of these moods has a different function.   The indicative mood is the most common and is used to relate facts and objective statements.   Tammy se réveille tôt le matin.(present tense of the indicative mood) Tammy gets upearly in the morning. The subjunctive mood is used more commonly in French than in English. It is used to express opinions and feelings (subjective thoughts).   Il est dommage que les parents de Texsoient morts. (present tense of the subjunctive mood)   It is too bad that Tex's parents are dead. The conditional mood is used to express hypothetical or contrary-to-fact statements.   Si Corey était beau, il aurait une copine.(present tense of the conditional mood)   If Corey were handsome, he would havea girlfriend. The imperative mood is used to give direct orders or commands.   Tex, réveille-toi!   Tex, get up! voice   Voice is a grammatical category describing the relationship between a verb and its subject. Voice is either activeor passive. Active voice refers to the situation where the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb.   Les autorités ont expulsé Tex de France.   The authorities expelled Tex from France. On the other hand, passive voice refers to the situation where the subject receives the action of the verb.   Tex a été expulsé de France (par les autorités).   Tex was expelled from France (by the authorities).

 

TERMINOLOGY

• verb, auxiliary (open class vs. closed class)

• (inflectional/bound) morpheme

• (non-)finiteness

VERBS

The verbal paradigm determines inflectional properties of verbs in a language.

English: • inflectional form vs. shape

• primary vs. secondary forms

• preterite vs. present tense

• 3rd singular present vs. plain form

• gerund/present vs. past participle

Clauses are either finite or non-finite.

finite: • primary verb form

• plain verb form (imperative, subjunctive)

non-finite: • participial verb form

• plain verb form (infinitive)

ð partial fit between finiteness and verb inflection

Auxiliaries can be modal or non-modal.

(1) 5VERB

lexical auxiliary

walk, come, bring… 

non-m4odal modal

be, have, do can, will, shall, may, must, ought, need, dare

(could, would, should, might)

Consider the interaction of the 4 systems (primary & secondary tense, aspect, mood):ENG 135: PED GRAM (CLASS 9) 2

(2) SYSTEM TERMS MARKING

1. primary tense preterite preterite inflection

present present tense inflection

2. secondary tense perfect have with past participle

non-perfect [no special marking]

3. aspect progressive be with present participle

non-progressive [no special marking]

4. mood  modal modal with plain form

non-modal [no special marking]

TENSE

primary tense: • present tense

- present time (utterance time?), future I (futurate),

future II (subordinate), past time (historic present)

• preterite

- past time, modal preterite, backshift

secondary tense: • present perfect

- time adjuncts, current relevance, preterite perfect,

perfect without primary tense, continuative perfect

ASPECT

Aspect is used to “indicate how the speaker views the situation described in the clause

with respect not to its location in time but to its temporal structure or properties.”

• progressive aspect

• progressive and imperfectivity

• progressive vs. non-progressive

• progressive futurate

 

 

 “Mood is a grammatical category associated with the semantic dimension of modality.

Mood is to modality as tense is to time: tense and mood are categories of grammatical

form, while time and modality are the associated categories of meaning.”

• factual vs. non-factual

• asserted vs. non-asserted

• epistemic, deontic, dynamic modality

• futurity, modality, and will

• preterite forms and irrealis were

The aspectually and modally unmarked past tense is usually marked for tense by the suffix -ed, pronounced as /t/, /d/, or /əd/ depending on the phonological context. However, over 400 verbs (including over 200 with distinct roots – short verbs for features of everyday life, of Germanic origin) are irregular and their morphological changes are internal (as in I take, I took). (See List of English irregular verbs.) This aspectually unmarked past tense form appears in innately stative verbs (I felt bad) and in non-stative verbs, in which case the aspect could be habitual (I took one brownie every day last week) or perfective (I took a brownie yesterday), but not progressive.

This form is negated with an invariant analytical construction using the morphologically unmarked verb (I / he did not feel bad, I did not take a brownie). As with do and do not, no emphasis is imparted by the use of did in combination with the negative not (compare the affirmative I / he did take the brownie, in which did conveys emphasis).

 

 

The above two forms can be combined, to indicate a present or past view of a prior (oprior and current) event which occurred with stative or progressive aspect (I have/had been feeling well, I have/had been taking classes); here the construction is have/has/had + been + main verb + -ing. There is a subtle difference in usage between the case where the viewpoint is from the present and the case where it is from a point in the past: have been taking classes implies that the action is not only of present relevance but is continuing to occur; in contrast, had been taking classes indicates present relevance, but allows but does not require the action to still be occurring (I had been taking classes but was not still doing so; I had been taking classes and still was).

This combined form is negated by inserting not after have/has/had (I have not been taking classes).

Both of these morphological changes can be combined with the compound verbal constructions given below involving invariant auxiliaries, to form verb phrases such as will have been taking.

Aside from the above-mentioned auxiliary verbs, English has 14 invariant auxiliaries (often called modal verbs), which are used before the morphologically unmarked verb to indicate mood, aspect, tense, or some combination thereof. Some of these have more than one modal interpretation, the choice between which must be based on context; in these cases, the equivalent past tense construction may apply to one but not the other of the modal interpretations. For more details see English modal verbs.

used to indicates both past tense and habitual aspect (I used to run every day) or occasionally stative aspect (The sun used to shine more brightly). It cannot be used with the very recent past (*I used to run every day last week is not acceptable, but I used to run every day last summer is acceptable though usually no lexical time marker like last summer is included). The form that negates the main verb is used not to + verb; the form that negates habituality is did not use to + verb.

 

Conclusion

For the morphological changes associated with the subjunctive mood, see English subjunctive.There are two types of conjugated compound verbs in English, which can be combined.The construction have/has + morphologically altered verb (usually with the suffix -ed) indicates a combination of tense and aspect : for example, have taken indicates a present viewing of a past or past and present event, so the continuing relevance of the event is an aspectual feature of the construction. The event in the past could be either stative, habitual, or perfective aspect, but not progressive.Furthermore, the time of viewing itself can be placed in the past, by replacing have/has with had: had taken indicates a past viewing of an event prior to the viewing.

The have/has/had + verb + -ed construction is negated by inserting not between the two words of the affirmative (have/has/had not taken).

The construction am/is/are + verb + ing indicates present tense combined with progressive aspect if the verb is innately non-stative, as in I am taking it, or combined with innate stative aspect as in I am feeling better. For some stative verbs such as feel, the innate stative nature can be unmarked, so the simple verb form is used (I feel better), or it can be marked (as in I am feeling better) with no difference in meaning. For some other statives, however, either the unmarked form must be used (I know French, but not *I am knowing French) or the marked form must be used (I am experiencing boredom, I am basking in glory, but not I experience boredom or I bask in glory, which would imply a non-stative (specifically habitual) use of the verb).

The am/is/are + verb + ing construction is negated by inserting not between the two words of the affirmative (am/is/are not taking).