Chapter 12 - Time and reality Flashcards
What is Tense
the grammatical expression of relative time
Types of present tense
“now”
“performative present”
“habitually over a period of time that includes ‘now’”
“future, the planning of which includes ‘now’”
“possible/probable conditional future situation”
“vivid narrative past”
Types of past tense
“before now” or “true past”
“polite request for a reminder”
“hypothetical conditional (past)”
“hypothetical conditional (present)”
“hypothetical conditional (future)”
Perfect aspect
a situation is viewed in its entirety, including its beginning, middle, and completion
Aspect
the internal temporal “shape” of actions or states
Imperfective aspect
a situation is viewed from the “inside”, as an ongoing state or process. Habitual, progressive, and iterative aspects are all subtypes of imperfective
Perfect aspect
normally describes a currently relevant state that results from the situation (normally an action) expressed by the verb
Completive aspect
expresses the completion of an action
Inceptive aspect
expresses the starting phase of an action
Inchoative aspect
describes the event of entering into a state
Punctual aspect (actions)
punctual actions are those which have no internal temporal structure because they occur in an instant in time
Progressive aspect
a subtype of imperfective. Actions in progressive aspect are ongoing, dynamic processes. They typically involve movement and change
Iterative aspect
when a punctual action takes place several times in succession
Habitual aspect
asserts that a certain action regularly takes place from time to time. It does not assert that an instance of the action is taking place at the time of speaking, or any other specific reference time, though it may incidentally
Epistemic modality
describes the speaker´s perception as to how “real” a situation is, or how confident the speaker is in the truth of the assertion
