- •4И(Англ.) к69
- •Preface to the second edition
- •General notions the verb
- •Actions and states
- •Qualitative characteristics of processes
- •Verbal modes of action
- •General and variant lexical meanings of verbs
- •Verbal aspect
- •Finite and non-finite verbal forms
- •Part I grammatical content of the finite forms grammatical categories of the english verb
- •Time and aspect relations denoted by the english verbal forms
- •Time content of the finite verb forms
- •Logical Time
- •Processes of the Objective World and Time Relationships
- •Irrelevancy of the Meaning of Simultaneousness for the Grammatical Content of the Dynamic Tenses
- •Aspectual content of tenses
- •Present, past, and future tenses (absolute tenses)
- •PastStatic a n d p a s t d у n a m і с
- •Future Static and Future Dynamic
- •Present Static and Present Dynamic
- •Model II
- •Present Static and Present Dynamic
- •Past Static and Past Dynamic
- •Future Static and Future Dynamic
- •Model III
- •Present Static and Present Dynamic
- •Past Static and Past Dynamic
- •Future Static and Future Dynamic
- •Model IV
- •The Beforefuture Static Tense1
- •Irrelevancy of the Meaning Concrete Process for the Grammatical Content of the Dynamic Tenses
- •Irrelevancy of the Meanings Resultative Connections, Current Relevance, and Completeness for the Grammatical Content of the Anterior Tenses
- •The system of the english tenses
- •Part II the use of the tenses relative frequency of the tenses
- •Table III frequency of use of anterior dynamic, beforefuture static, and future dynamic tenses
- •Table IV the use of tenses in technical literature1
- •In different kinds of text
- •In the passive voice
- •Table VII
- •Factors influencing the choice of the tenses in speech
- •Factors Conditioned Mainly by the Peculiarities of the English Verb System
- •The Historical Factor
- •Harmony Between Tense-sequence Meaning and Speech Information
- •Factors Permitting the Speaker to Choose From Two or More Tenses
- •Economy of Speech Efforts
- •Direction of Speech Intentionality
- •Stylistic Considerations
- •The use of absolute static tenses
- •The present static
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Present Time
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Past Time
- •Adverbials of Time Used with the Present Static
- •The past static
- •The use of the past static to refer to sequent processes
- •The use of the past static to refer to simultaneous processes
- •The Past Static in Sentences Where Resultative Connections with the Present are Expressed
- •The Past Static in Sentences with Ever, Never, Always, Before
- •The Use of the Past Static after the Beforepresent Static in the Same or Different Sentences
- •Parallel uses of the past and the beforepast static
- •The past static and definiteness of verbal processes in time
- •Adverbs and Adverbial Phrases of Time Frequently Combined with the Past Static
- •Miscellaneous
- •The future static
- •Miscellaneous
- •The use of absolute dynamic tenses
- •The present dynamic
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Present Time
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Future Time
- •Processes Objectively Belonging to Past Time
- •The present dynamic to refer to simultaneous processes
- •The present dynamic to refer to sequent processes
- •Adverbs and adverbial phrases of time combined with the present dynamic
- •Verbs used in the present dynamic
- •Miscellaneous
- •The past dynamic
- •Examples of Verbal Processes of Increasing Length
- •The past dynamic to refer to simultaneous processes
- •Synchronous Processes:
- •Sentences with a While-Clause (see Table XIV).
- •The past dynamic to refer to processes begun or terminated when another process represented in its limits took place
- •The past dynamic to refer to processes correlated with a situation existing or a process occurring at the moment of speaking
- •Parallel uses of the past dynamic and anterior tenses
- •The past dynamic to refer to processes future relative to some moment in the past
- •Adverbs and adverbial phrases of time combined with the past dynamic
- •Verbs used in the past dynamic2
- •Miscellaneous
- •The future dynamic
- •Examples of Verbal Processes of Increasing Length
- •The future dynamic to refer to simultaneous processes
- •The future dynamic to refer to sequent processes
- •Adverbials of time combined with the future dynamic
- •Verbs used in the future dynamic3
- •Verbs used in the beforefuture static
- •Inclusive and Exclusive Processes
- •Verbs used in the beforepresent dynamic
- •Independent Clauses
- •Included Clauses
- •Verbs used in the beforepast dynamic
Part II the use of the tenses relative frequency of the tenses
The relative frequency of tenses depends on the kind of literature chosen for statistic counts. The three tables below will illustrate this.
Table II
THE USE OF TENSES IN FICTION1
Tenses |
Time |
|||||
|
Present |
Past |
Future |
|||
|
Total |
% |
Total |
% |
Total |
% |
Absolute Static |
10,333 |
25.55 |
23,297 |
57.7 |
1,188 |
3.00 |
Absolute Dynamic |
758 |
1.9 |
964 |
2.4 |
24 |
0.06 |
Relative Static |
1,529 |
3.8 |
2,113 |
5.2 |
I |
0.002 |
Relative Dynamic |
87 |
0.2 |
70 |
0.17 |
— |
— |
Below the data of the table are listed in accordance with the decreasing frequency of the tenses:
Past Static 57.7%
Present Static 25.5%
Beforepast Static 5.2%
Beforepresent Static 3.8%
Future Static 3.0%
Past Dynamic 2.4%
Present Dynamic 1.900%
Beforepresent Dynamic 0.200%
Beforepast Dynamic 0.170%
Future Dynamic 0.060%
Beforefuture Static 0.002%
Beforefuture Dynamic —
The above data show that in fiction by far the most frequently used tense is the Past Static, the rest of the tenses being from approximately 2 (the Present Static) to 23,000 (the Beforefuture Static) times less frequent.
The data also show that the frequency figures below 1% illustrate the use of the respective tenses extremely vaguely. These tenses, therefore, have been counted in the text (fiction) amounting to about 50,000 pages. The results of the count are arranged in Table III, the figures in the third and fourth columns indicating the number of pages per tense (pp/tense) and the frequency ratio of each tense relative to the Beforepresent Dynamic (times less than the Beforepresent Dynamic). For comparison, the pp/tense for the Past Static is also given in the table.
Table III frequency of use of anterior dynamic, beforefuture static, and future dynamic tenses
Tense |
Total |
Pp/tense |
Times less than the Beforepresent Dynamic |
Beforepresent Dynamic |
2,093 |
24 |
1.0 |
Beforepast Dynamic |
1.901 |
26 |
1.1 |
Future Dynamic |
578 |
86 |
3.5 |
Beforefuture Static |
105 |
475 |
20.0 |
Beforefuture Dynamic |
3 |
16,700 |
681.0 |
Past Static |
Cf. Table II |
1/23 |
0.002 |
The data of the table listed in accordance with their decreasing frequency:
Present Static 90.0%
Future Static 5.3%
Past Static 2.0%
Beforepresent Static 1.2%
Present Dynamic 1.0%
Future Dynamic, Beforefuture Static 0.07%
Beforepast Static 0.05%
Past Dynamic, Relative Dynamic —
The data show that in technical literature the Present Static is by far the most frequently used tense (90%), the Future Static being about 17 and the Beforepast Static 1,760 times less frequent.
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