Chapter 10: Tense, Aspect and Mood Flashcards
aspectuality and aspect
The linguistic notion of aspect is concerned with the way in which the grammar of a language encodes how situations unfold over time. The related semantic notion is called aspectuality.
present tense
Its basic use is that expresses a situation unfolding at the moment of speaking, though it can be used to refer to the future. Most verbs take the base form as its present tense.
Uses of the present tense (present)
- State use - conveys that a situation has held and will continue to hold indefinitely e.g. Trump is a tyrant.
- Historic present - used to talk about the past e.g. I was in the pub and this man comes up to me and talks to me like he knows me.
- Instantaneous use - to describe events as they are happening, common in news or sports commentaries e.g. he kicks the ball but he hits him in the nuts!!
- Timeless use - used in written texts to convey notions that are not in real time but are of ‘unchanging truths’ e.g. Gravity pulls us to the ground.
past tense and formation
It’s basic use is to refer to situations that have happened in the past. To form the past tense -ed is appended to regular verbs, whereas irregular verbs have special past tense forms e.g. buy/bought, am/was.
present tense and formation
Its basic use is that expresses a situation unfolding at the moment of speaking, though it can be used to refer to the future. Most verbs take the base form as its present tense.
Uses of the present tense (present)
- State use - conveys that a situation has held and will continue to hold indefinitely e.g. Trump is a tyrant.
- Historic present - used to talk about the past e.g. I was in the pub and this man comes up to me and talks to me like he knows me.
- Instantaneous use - to describe events as they are happening, common in news or sports commentaries e.g. he kicks the ball but he hits him in the nuts!!
- Timeless use - used in written texts to convey notions that are not in real time but are of ‘unchanging truths’ e.g. Gravity pulls us to the ground.
present participle
-ing form of verb, can be combined with auxiliary to express different tenses, aspects and moods.
Referring to future time
- present futurate
- past futurate
- modal verbs
- present futurate - refers to future that is schedules in some way eg. I teach at 4 tomorrow.
- past futurate - refers to future time from the viewpoint of a moment in the past eg He told me he was going to teach (/tomorrow).
- modal verbs - express meaning of intention eg
‘I will teach tomorrow’.
‘No, you shall teach on Thursday.’ - present progressive futurate - conveys the sense that the event denoted is contingent on another eve
Referring to future time
- present futurate
- past futurate
- modal verbs
- present futurate - refers to future that is schedules in some way eg. I teach at 4 tomorrow.
- past futurate - refers to future time from the viewpoint of a moment in the past eg He told me he was going to teach (/tomorrow).
- modal verbs - express meaning of intention eg
‘I will teach tomorrow’.
‘No, you shall teach on Thursday.’ - present progressive futurate - conveys the sense that the event denoted is contingent on another event e.g. Mum will be hanging out the washing tomorrow (/if the weather is warm).
progressive aspect
- progressive construction
- Progressive Construction - Encodes an ongoing situation. Formed by auxiliary be and the present participle eg ‘James is/was listening to rap music’. Can occur in finite and nonfinite forms e.g. finite - as above, non-finite James may be/have been listening to rap music.
progressive aspect
- the progressive construction
- Progressive Construction - Encodes an ongoing situation. Formed by auxiliary be and the present participle eg ‘James is/was listening to rap music’. Can occur in finite and nonfinite forms e.g. finite - as above, non-finite James may be/have been listening to rap music.
uses of progressive
- typically occurs with verbs that express an ongoing activity in the present of past
- can occur with state verbs to denote a stative situation (ie it is only temporary) e.g. James is being nice, implies James is not always nice.
- also used with stative verbs like ‘want’ and ‘understand’ e.g. I am desperately wanting some food, you are not understanding me.
- can be used to express irritation, sometimes with an adverb e.g. Dad is (always) poking me.
perfect aspect
- the perfect construction
is formed by the a perfect auxiliary with the past participle. eg James has been listening to rap music.
perfect aspect
- the perfect construction
- is formed by the a perfect auxiliary with the past participle. eg James has been listening to rap music.
- can occur in finite and nonfinite forms eg. finite (as above), non-finite - I’m happy to have tried ballet, Having tried ballet, I booked a tap class (the perfect auxiliary does not carry tense)
- expresses anteriority except in progressive auxiliary be + perfect auxiliary have e.g. My injury may have been caused by tap class.
Uses of present perfect
- present perfect of recent past (hot news perfect) - happened in past but have current relevance, can be combined with Adjuncts that indicate recency e.g. the shop has (just) closed.
- continuative perfect - indicates a situation that began in past, extends to present moment, and potentially into the future. e.g. Mum has always loved yellow. Can be used to talk about habits.
- experiential present perfect - indicates that a situation occurred at least once in the beginning in the past and leading up to the present e.g. I have read that book before.
