The Beforefuture Static Tense1

In 85% of its uses the Beforefuture Static represents verbal pro- I cesses with their limits emphasized (Model I), e. g.:

1. "It was a shock, Thomas, but in a week, you'll see, you'll have forgotten it" (G. Greene); 2. "I daresay you'll have gone to bed by the time I've finished" (W. S. Maugham); 3. "In that case you'll have lost nothing" (J. Braine).

The 15% of the form are used to represent a verbal process as a rel­atively static feature or relationship. For example:

1. I shall finish my life's work on my way back; and then I shall have lived long enough (B. Shaw); 2. "Think of her wandering for hours lost in the dark I" — "There is no need to worry, Max, she will have suffered at most a little discomfort and alarm" (M. Mitchell); 3. "And before this is due you shall have watched for many years the sun set over cloud­less days of happiness" (A. Munthe).

Irrelevancy of the Meaning Concrete Process for the Grammatical Content of the Dynamic Tenses

I n 1929 E. Koschmieder advances the point of view that the so called Con- tinuous tenses denote one concrete action or state whose progression at a certain moment of time is actually observed by the speaker¹. In 1930 E. Kosch- mieder is supported by B. Trnka² and in 1939 by M. Deutschbein who gives the graphical representation of the point of view (Fig. 6).

M. Deutschbein maintains that when using a continuous tense, the speaker has necessarily chosen his mental standpoint (A¹) so that he can observe from it the going on of the ver­bal process (A—E)³. In this country this point of view is shared by D. G. Radchenko⁴ and I. P. Ivanova⁵.

As we see, the point of view sanctions the use of dynamic tenses о n 1 у in cases of single act verbal processes of limited duration, that is, those having a definite location on the line of time (several moments, minutes, hours, etc.)⁶, taking place at a certain moment of time corresponding to the speaker's mental standpoint from which he can observe their development (see Fig. 6).

It will be shown below that the absolute dynamic tenses are n e u t r a l to all these "meanings", and, therefore, to the aspectual meaning of concrete process.

In the first place, these tenses are common with verbal processes of indefinite or even infinite duration. Three examples of the Present Dynamic of such verbal processes have already been given on page 26. Below are mofe examples with this and other dynamic tenses:

1. A man's fortune or material progress is very much the same as his bodily growth, Either he is growing stronger, healthier,wiser, as the youth approaching manhood, or he is growing weaker, older, less incisive mentally, as the man approach­ing old age. There are no other states (Th. Dreiser); 2. At any given moment, each of the three forms of matter (of the universe), Fire, Earth, and Water is made up of two equal portions, one of which is taking the upward and the other the downward path. Now, it is just the fact that the two halves of everything are being attracted n opposite directions (J. Burnot); 3. All motion in this universe is in the form of successively rising and falling. Systems after systems are coming out of the finer forms, evolving themselves, taking the grosser forms, again melting down, as ifc were, and going back to the cause. Each manifestation of life is coming up and then going back again. (Th. Dreiser); 4. There were two rocks reaching up from the floor of the ocean. They were resting against each other with a wide opening between them (D. Russell); 5. The ranch hotel lay just where the foothills of the Sierras with their groves of live oaks were sloping into the golden plains of the Sacramento (E. Seton-Thompson). 6. "If the present trend continues we will become a nation of a very few rich, with a small section of the working class employed, and a few farmers actually farming. The rest of the nation will be living in semi-starvation on pensions, relief, food stamp plans, and unemployment benefits" (The Worker).

The Dynamic tenses are also common in sentences containing repeated ver­bal processes, e. g.:

1."I'm spending an hour a day on these damn books" (J. Braine); 2. "What are you getting?" — "Fifteen pounds a week" (W. S. Maugham); 3. She is playing a lot of tennis and beats them all" (R. Macaulay); 4. I asked the soldiers whether I could accompany them.—"Who are you?" the lieutenant asked.— «I'm writing about the war," I said.—"American?" — "No, English" (G. Greene); 5. She realized that Agatha Payne was paying her visits twice daily (H. Walpole);6. Jimmie Mathews was attending classes at the Leddersford Technical College (J. Braine); 7. Amy was getting along fine; She was washing and sewing for neighbors, and every week Lauter's boss was giving her seven dollars as an advance on his future wages (A. Maltz); 8. "You'll be working two days a week now, hey?" (F. Pohl); 9. "We're losing our individuality. Soon they'll be breeding us from testtubes" (A. Kingsley); 10. "In five-hundred years there may be no New York or London, but the Siamese will be growing paddy in those fields, they'll be carrying their produce to market on long poles wearing their pointed hats. The small boys will be sitting on small buffaloes" (G. Greene).

The above examples can also serve as an illustration of the fact that the dynam­ic tenses are also used to express verbal processes which are n о t taking place at a specific moment of time. This is particularly evident in the following sen­tences:

1. "I just naturally like to hustle and get things done, that's all. I cannot be satisfied unless I'm fixing a fence, or cutting wood, or picking cotton or something" (E. Caldwell) (At the moment of speaking Christy is at Mr. Crossman's office); 2. "As I say to Cook, Mr. Timothy is more of a man than he ever was. You see, when he's not walking, or taking a bath, he's eating, and when he's not eating, he's sleeping" (J. Galsworthy) (It is evident that Mr. Timothy cannot at the same time be walking, taking his bath, eating, and sleeping); 3. She told him that she had settled down and was painting (W. S. Maugham) (The conversation between Susan and Larry was taking place at a restaurant).