1. Absolutive and Non-Absolutive Time Denotation

All lexical expressions of time are traditionally divided into “present-oriented” or absolutive expressions of time which distribute human time perception into the spheres of the present, past, future.

E.G. last week, tomorrow, yesterday are absolutive denotations as they are connected with the time orientation which is the present moment.

The non-absolutive time denotation is not connected with the present moment, but correlates the events in terms of their precedence, simultaneousness or futurity.

E.G. at the same time, after 2 days, some time later

Such denotations are called relative.

In case of factual time denotation is related with the astronomical or historical time marking.

E.G. The Middle Ages, during the WW1, in 1986

As the category of objective time is a very complicated one, there are lingual devices of different nature and status to reflect it adequately. Moreover, in utterances or sentences time denotation of the situation / event / situational events is usually performed by different means to give a detailed characterization of the temporal features of the event described: the finite verb forms signify more generalized characteristics of the reflected processes, the lexical means convey more detailed descriptions.

E.G. I saw him.

I saw him yesterday at 7 p.m.

It is advisable to realize that in the literary text the verb forms are mainly relative, as the time of the text is viewed as preceding the real time of the text creation. In addition, the author usually chooses the departing point in the past which becomes central for the narration.

As for the general character of verb-forms functioning the distinction between real /absolutive and relative/non-absolutive time denotation is not of much importance, as the same verb tenses-forms are used to express both absolutive and non-absolutive time.

The application of the principle of oppositions to the verb-forms results in the recognition of two possibilities concerning temporal categories that are accepted in the theory of English grammar at present.

1. the opposition of the present and past tenses, the past tense being the marked member of the opposition this category is called the category of primary time, this one is absolutive.

2. The opposition between future tenses and no future tenses with the future tenses forms regarded as the strong member of the opposition. Blokh M.Ya. calls this temporal category of relative character the category of prospective time or “prospect” for short.

Reference with the moment of speech is relevant for the verb forms expressing dynamic character of actions. There are verb-forms which focus more, on the characterization of actions not so much in their dynamism as on the detailed description of the action in a particular temporal sphere.

e.g. She loved the circles they moved in now. She had met Sarah’s father and brother socially on several occasions and it still seemed unbelievable to her that Sarah had so easily tossed away what she herself had struggled for.

The departing point is located in the past. The forms “had met”, “had tossed”, “had struggled” are not dynamic, they give detailed characterization of the actions expressed with the forms “seemed”, “moved” which indicate the moments in the past.

It is worthy to note that another means of indication of the departing point is the lexical one “now”, the lexical meaning of which is that of the present moment or period. Certain contradiction observed in the example is of a different character in the sentence.

e.g.. Yesterday when I walk along the street I suddenly bump into her.

These cases are the examples of the grammatical phenomena called transposition. By transposition we mean the use a grammatical form in an unusual surrounding. Two types of transposition 1) regular and 2) stylistic are distinguished in grammar. Regular transpositions are stylistically neutral and do not lead to synonyms.

In addition to the three conventionally distinguished spheres of the Past, Present, Future tense-forms are united into 4 basic tense-forms groups:

Simple / Indefinite /

Progressive / Continuous /

Perfect

Perfect Progressive

/The recognition of these groups seems logical enough as well as is convenient for teaching purposes./

Such tense form has the basic grammatical meaning and a number of secondary grammatical meanings.

e.g.. The group of simple has the basic grammatical meaning of the general characterization of action at some period / moment of time in the present, past or future.

The continuous verb forms express actions in the their processuality;

e.g. the actions are viewed as developing at a definite moment / period of time regardless their beginning or ending.