Lecture 6

Lecture 6. The Verb: Tense. Aspect. Phase (time-related categories)

TIME vs. TENSE

TIME is an objective category
TENSE is a grammatical category of the verb which reflects the objective category of time by a set of morphological forms (I am reading - I was reading - I'll be reading)

DIVISION OF TIME AND TENSE

TIME: past, present, future
TENSE: traditional: past, present, future; modern: past, present (non-past)

PRESENT TENSE (is extensive, wide meanings): SEMANTIC SCOPE
- the momnt ofspeaking - I hear a noise
- a prolonged process - We live in Chelyabinsk
- a timeless process - The Earth moves round the Sun
- a future process - I am leaving tomorrow. When he comes, we'll go out
- a past process - I enter the room and who do you think I see?! My cousin Rachel!

PAST TENSE (is intensive, only one meaning): SEMANTIC SCOPE
- a past process prior to the moment of speaking and not correlated with this moment - I lived in MOscow in 1989


A TWOFOLD DIVISION OF TENSES

Member/ PAST PRESENT / NON-PAST /
Plane COMMON

Meaning Marked / Unmarked /
intensive extensive
(past) (past-present-future)

Form Marked -d/ed, Unmarked
vowel/consonant
change,
suppletion,
zero morpheme

Function Predicate Predicate


A THREEFOLD DIVISION OF TENSES

Member/ PAST PRESENT FUTURE
Plane

Meaning Marked (past) Unmerked Marked (future)
(present)

Form Marked -d/ed, Unmarked Marked (shall/will +
vowel/consonant infinitive)
change,
suppletion,
zero morpheme

Function Predicate Predicate Predicate


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE TENSE

SYSTEN OF TRADITIONAL MODERN
TENSES THREEFOLD TWOFOLD

PROPERTIES H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, M. Joos,
A. Smirnitsky, F. Palmer, R. Quirk,
B. Ilyish, M. Bloch L. Barchudarov

ARGUMENTS - shall/will+inf - shall/will+inf=free syntactic
analytical morph. combinations, no discont. morph.
forms
- shall/will have lost - modal meanings are always present
their modal meaning
- inherent modal - not the only construct. to express
meaning of uncertainty the future (be going to, ...)
characteristic of the
future


THE CATEGORY OF ASPECT

Member/ COMMON CONTINUOUS
PLANE

Form Unmarked Marked (discontinuous morpheme
(He reads) {be=-ing} He is reading)

Meaning Unmarked Marked (a process in progress)
(a process He was watching movies at 5 pm
having some
limit or im
progress)
He brought
her flowers
(yeasterday -
every day)

Function Functions of finites and non-finites


THE SEMANTIC SCOPE OF THE COMMON ASPECT

- a momentary action: She dropped the plate
- a recurrent action: I get up at seven o'clock
- an action or state which lasts a long period of time: He lived in Moscow from 1968 to 1973
- an action or state of unlimited duration: The Volga flows into the Caspian sea / They suffer a lot


DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF ASPECT

TENSE TENSE-ASPECT SPECIFIC CATEGORY
OF ASPECT

O. Jespersen H. Sweet, I. Ivanova L. Barchudarov, B. Ilyish, M. Bloch

no aspective indefinite-definite common-continuous
distinctions, tense-aspects aspects
4 groups of (transitional
tenses: indef, approach)
continuous,
perfect,
perf. cont.


TENSE AND ASPECT ARE TIME-RELATED CATEGORIES

- tense locates situations im time with reference to the moment of speech (situation-external time)
- aspect is concerned with the internal temporal structure of the situation (situation-internal time)

MEANS OF EXPRESSING ASPECTUAL SEMANTICS

- grammatical means - morphosyntactic category of aspect {be+-ing}
- lexical means
* terminative - non-terminative verbs (nod, catch, jump - love, live, sit, stand)
* adverbs and adverbial phrases (all day long, permanently, on end) actualizing the aspective meaning of double aspective verbs


PHASE

Member/ Perfect Non-perfect
Plane

Form Marked {have+-ed/ Unmarked: asks, asked, etc.
vowel/consonant
change/suppletion/
zero morpheme
(have asked, has done)

Meaning Priority (relative): Non-priority: She lost her job
She had lost her job
and was working as
a waitress

Function Function of finite and non-finite forms


Category of phase reflects secondary situation-external time (reference to the action expressed by tense - primary).


DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF PHASE

TENSE ASPECT TENSE-ASPECT PHASE

H. Sweet M. Deutschbein I. Ivanova A. Smirnitsky
G. Curme A. West L. Barchudarov
O. Jespersen G. Vorontsova M. Bloch

Primary Transmissive Perfect forms The category
(non-perfect), or resultative express temporal of correlation
secondary (perfect) and aspective (Perfect -
(perfect) aspect functions in a priority of corr.;
tenses blend non-perfect -
non-pr. & non-corr.)


The term "phase" was borrowed from electrical circuit theory by American linguists Trager and Smith (1951)

- current (non-perfect) phase - the action is simultaneous (in phase) with its effect: He came
- perfect phase - the effect of the action is delayed (out of phase): He has opened the book