Гос филология / Гос филология / 16. The grammatical category of tense

The grammatical category of tense, aspect and time correlation

The grammatical category of tense is a category which expresses the relations between the time of the action and the moment of speech (now) or any other point of reference taken for the basis of temporal relations (then).

In most European languages the expression of time is associated with the grammatical category of tense which includes three grammatical tenses: present, past and future. The present tense expresses an action simultaneous to the time of communication, the past tense – an action prior to the time of communication and the future – an action subsequent (последующий) to the time of communication.

The forms of the present tense are regularly transposed into the sphere of the future. The future action expressed by the present tense forms usually becomes less hypothetical and more predictable. The past tense is the main tense of narration about the past events. It may be used to express universal truth. The forms of the future may be used to express universal truths or habitual characteristics.

The English system of tenses consists of two subsystems: absolute and relative tenses. Absolute tenses are correlated to the moment of speech whereas the relative tenses are correlated to some moment in the past taken for the reference point of temporal relations.