THE CATEGORY OF TENSE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 424.

Tense is the grammatical category of verbs that expresses the relation between the time of the event and the time of the statement (the moment of speech).

The category of tense is established by means of three-member oppositions of the type: writes ― wrote ― will write; is reading ― was reading ― will be reading, etc.

There are lexical means expressing the time of an action.

e. g. yesterday, tomorrow, a week ago, at 5 p.m., in 1999, etc.

Lexical means are more exact in comparison with the category of tense as far as generally verbs name an action itself, and not direct time. Besides, the meanings expressed by the category of tense are relative. Tense is the grammatical category that reflects the objective time, but tense cannot be fully identified with time [3].

The Present is expressed in speech as a moment of speech or a longer period including this moment.

e. g. Listen! Peteris playing the guitar.

Peter is playinga lot these days.

In the second example the situation is obviously extended beyond the moment of speech.

The eternal truth and regular actions are rendered by the Present Simple that is often called generic in this case.

e. g. Hebuys his clothes at Harrods.

(= He is a regular client of Harrods).

Hegoes to England every summer.

(= He is an England-goer).

The sun rises in the East.

(= The sun is an East-riser).

In the examples above we have habitual, repeated actions that have no link with the moment of speech. Universal truths can also be considered properties or characteristics of a subject.

The Past is the time that precedes the present moment, and does not include it.

The Future is the time that follows the present moment and does not include it.

Occasionally the Past Simple and the Future Simple can also be used generically.

e. g. Men were deceivers ever.

Girlswill be girls.

Some linguists (O. Jespersen, L.S. Barkhudarov) express serious doubts and even deny the existence of the grammatical future tense. They claim that shall / will + Inf is a free combination which consists of the modal verb shall / will and the Infinitive. The modals preserve their original meaning: shall – that of 'obligation', will – that of 'volition'. Thus, modern English has no pure grammatical means of expressing futurity.

There are historical grounds that prove this point of view. In Old English there were only two tenses: the Present and the Past. Both were formed synthetically. In contrast the Future tense is represented by analytical grammatical forms. Besides, there is a difference in meaning between the Present and the Past, on the one hand, and the Future – on the other. The Present and the Past express real actions while future forms express actions which may or may not be fulfilled. That is why the idea of the grammatical future is so easily connected with modality.

B.I. Ilyish and some other scholars put forward some formal arguments to prove the reverse:

1) there are many cases in which shall / will cannot be treated as modals as they express mere futurity:

e. g. He will turn eight tomorrow;

2) a planned action in the future can be expressed by a present tense form. If the grammatical Future conveyed modality, this shade of meaning would be naturally lost while being rendered;

3) there is a tendency in modern English to employ will irrespective of a person;

4) the contracted form 'll is widely used.

There are different approaches to future-in-the-past tenses. It is clear that the starting point with them is not the present, but the past. That is why I.P. Ivanova puts forward the idea of temporal centres, and N.F. Irtenyeva – that of tenses centring in the present and tenses centring in the past.