Simple Tenses. Lecture 16

Transcription

1 Simple Tenses Lecture 16

2 Tense Tense: a grammatical category of the finite verb forms; Tense relates the time of the event/state to the time of the utterance (the speech moment, 'now'). two different tenses in English: present and past tense: David walks to school. (present tense) David walked to school. (past tense)

3 we do not refer to a "future tense" It is possible to refer to events in future time, but the verb morphology of English does not provide special tense forms for that. David will walk to school tomorrow David is going to walk to school tomorrow. Since there is no specific inflecton of the verb, we do not refer to a "future tense". There are only two tenses in English: present and past.

4 In English, the category of tense is based on the functional opposition of two sets of forms: past & non-past. What have traditionally been regarded as tenses (in addition to present and past) should instead be regarded as combinations of tense and various semantic categories: perfective aspect, reference to future time. past tense form - marked the non-past form unmarked

5 Meanings of the Present Tense Form - present time reference Comrie (1985) situations which occupy a much longer period of time than the present moment The Eiffel Tower stands in Paris. Verbs of State unrestrictive use (Leech 1971) - usually found with state verbs general facts, e.g. Two and three is five.

6 Meanings of the Present Tense Form - present time reference The instantaneous use denotes situations coinciding with the moment of speaking. It appears with verbs of non-state (event verbs). The instantaneous use signifies an event simultaneous with the present moment.

7 a. sports commentaries: He shoots the ball straight at the goalkeeper. b. demonstrations: I click save and close the document. c. exclamations: Here they come! d. the situation reported and the act of speech are simultaneous because they are identical (Leech 1971): I swear on my life I was never at that place.

8 Meanings of the Present Tense Form - present time reference habitual use: denotes situations occurring over a period of time of various duration Like the instantaneous use, It is confined to event verbs. It represents a series of individual events which as a whole make up a state. a. recurrent situations they usually include adverbials of frequency: It often snows in January. He visits his parents every Sunday. b. habitual action/ event: He drives to work. c. typical feature of the subject: He plays tennis very well. Rivers run dry in summer.

9 Meanings of the Present Tense Form - future and past reference The Present Simple may refer to future time exclusive of the present, e.g. I start work next week. Historic Present, where past happenings are portrayed as if they were going on at the present time, e.g. A guy walks into a bar with a duck on his head In subordinate clauses of time and clauses of condition the PS form denotes future time reference: He will help me, when he comes. If he comes, he will help me.

10 Meanings of the Past Tense Form The past tense form locates the verbal situation reported in a period of time prior to the moment of speaking (Comrie 1985). The past tense form says nothing about whether the past situation occupies just - a single point prior to the present moment, or - an extended time period prior to the present moment, or - indeed the whole time up to the present moment.

11 Leech (1971: 13): there are two elements of meaning involved in the commonest use of the Past tense. the situation takes place before the present moment: I lived in Washington, DC for five months. (I no longer live there) the speaker has a definite time in mind specified by an adverbial of time: She visited us in July. He went to Spain two years ago. The past moment or period of time may remain unspecified: He taught German for three years.

12 state vs. event uses of verbs 2.1. Verbs of Non-state a. durative verbs usually denote a situation, which took place over a period of time: He lived in Spain in his youth. He worked for the Government in b. non-durative verbs may denote: - a single/momentary action or event: He closed the door and bolted it. The snow thawed.

13 - a succession of similar situations repeated over a past period of time + an adverbial of frequency: He sent a postcard home every weekend. It often rained in June. Without the adverbial of frequency the meaning of the past simple form will be interpreted as a single/momentary action or event: He sent a postcard home. It rained last night.

14 2.2. Verbs of State a. The Past Simple form of verbs of quality denotes a situation over a past period of time; the period can be explicitly stated. She had dark hair and blue eyes. (when we first met) b. The Past Simple form of verbs of temporal state refer to situations in a past period of time (of various duration): She was very happy at school.

15 2.2. Verbs of State c. The Past Simple form of verbs of private state can denote: - momentary state (verbs of sense perception): I saw him at the corner. - permanent state (verbs of intellectual state): I know him quite well. - temporary state of various duration (verbs of bodily sensation and of emotion/attitude): His leg hurt all day long. She liked the meal very much.

16 The Past Tense form implies that the moment of speaking is excluded from the period of the time during which the situation takes place. in narratives Leech (1971): the Past Simple tense with hypothetical (or unreal) meaning: If you loved me, you wouldn t do such a thing. In conditional sentences and in reported speech the past tense form is usually used with non-past time reference.

17 Jackson (1990) a past habit is expressed by: - the invariant auxiliary used to Mary used to play the piano when she was young. or - alternatively, past habit is expressed by would Every Saturday I would go on a long bike ride. However, only used to is possible when we talk about past states. We used to live in New York when I was a kid. *We would live in New York when I was a kid.