11. The category of tense. Posteriority

Time and tense:

Time – objective, universal concept, independent of language, common to all human beings

Tense – gram. Expression of time relations, when these are realized by V-forms, it is language dependent.

When speaking of the expression of time by the verb, it is necessary to strictly distinguish between the general notion of time, the lexical denotation of time, and the grammatical time proper, or grammatical temporality.

Grammatical and lexical means of expressing time:

Lexical:

Adverbs of time, prepositional group, can make reference to time; can denote any definite moment; denote time directly.

Grammatical:

V- forms; it is an abstraction; - indirectly not the time proper, but an action that takes place..took place..will take place in a moment of speaking.

Gram. Expression of time in English:

Absolutely – the category of tense with regard to the moment of speaking.

He graduated from the university – the fact happened before the moment of speaking

The absolutive time denotation, in compliance with the experience gained by man in the course of his cognitive activity, distributes the intellective perception of time among three spheres: the sphere of the present, with the present moment included within its framework; the sphere of the past, which precedes the sphere of the present by way of retrospect; the sphere of the future, which follows the sphere of the present by way of prospect.

Relatively – other Vcs with regard to the moment of some other action

He said that he graduated – absolutely

He told me that he had graduated - the fact that happened before the moment of his telling me that – relatively – the category of Order

The relative expression of time correlates two or more events showing some of them either as preceding the others, or following the others, or happening at one and the same time with them.

The category of tense in English is revealed through an inflexional opposition. Meaning which reflects the objective category of time and expresses the relations between the time of the event and the time of the utterance => it denotes time absolutely.

How many tense forms??

2 Main approaches:

1. Ask – asked – will ask (Smirnitskij) He recognizes the existence of the future tense as the grammatical form.

2. Ask – asked ( inflexional, binary opposition)

The problem – gram. status of shall/will:

• Shall/will retain their original lexical meanings of volition and obligation (modal meanings) -> and cannot be treated as pure tense auxiliaries -> no future tense -> 2 tenses (Jesperson)

BUT!

• I will have to go there – no modal meaning -> analytical form (Ilyish, Barkhudarov)

BUT IS IT A TENSE FORM?

• Future events are not facts as they have not yet happened, they are modalized rather than factual predication ->should be treated as mood forms (Downing, Lock) -> or some special category?

• Where there is an opposition -> there is a category

Ask⁻ , will ask⁺ asked⁻ – would ask⁺

Non-future – future no-prospect – prospect

The category of posteriority/ prospect

The opposition of gram. forms having different gram.meanings -> gram. category

Comes – will come

Came – would come

This opposition reveals a special category, the category of posteriority ( prospect). Will come denotes absolute posteriority, would come – relative posteriority.

Ask⁻ – asked⁺ the category of tense

Ask⁻ – will ask⁺ the category of prospect/posteriority

Asked⁻ – would ask⁺ the category of prospect