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UNIT 9 – VIEWPOINTS ON EVENTS: TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY

MODULE 41: EXPRESSING LOCATION IN TIME THROUGH THE VERB: TENSE

1. CONCEPT AND DEFINITION OF TENSE. TENSES IN ENGLISH.
Tense is the grammatical expression of the location of events in time. It anchors an event to the speaker's experience of the world by relating the event time to a point of reference. The normal, universal unmarkedpoint of reference is the moment of speaking – speech time. In narrative a point in past time is usually taken as the reference point. English has two tenses, the present and the past (marked form).

2. HOW IS THE FUTURE TENSE EXPRESSED IN ENGLISH?
English has no verbal inflection to mark a future tense. It is expressed by the modal auxiliaries shall, will. A number of forms such as going to torefer to future events.

3. WHAT IS “DEICTIC CENTRE”?
The deictic centre is the I (the speaker herself) the here (the location) and the now (the time). Tense has a deistic function, it distinguishes a proximal event (present) to a distal event (past).
Past time Now Future time
Speech time
The present moment

4. WHAT IS THESTATIVE AND DYNAMIC USE OF A VERB?
Stative verb is when it refers to a single constant state: I know her address and Dynamic when it is a dynamic occurrence: He goes to work by train.
Most verbs can be used both ways. Have usually refers to a state: birds have wings but it can also be used as dynamically as in: have breakfast. Dynamic verbs can occur with the imperative, the progressive and afterdo in wh-cleft sentences.
Have breakfast! / We are having breakfast / what we did was breakfast. (compare with: *have wings…)

5. BASIC AND SECONDARY MEANINGS OF BOTH THE PRESENT TENSE AND THE PAST TENSE.
The basic meaning of the present tense is to locate a situation holding at the present moment.
The instantaneous present, events that coincide with the speech time and have no durationbeyond it:
Performative: I promise I'll be careful
Exclamation with initial directional adverb: Off the go!
Commentaries: I place the fruit in the blender, press gently and pour water.
The state present, used with static verb senses, it refers to an interrupted state, which began before the moment of speaking and it may continue after that. Timeless statements such as: Jupiter is a planet andtemporal references with verbs such as: know, think, believe, belong, stand for.
The habitual present, used with dynamic verbs to encode situations that occur habitually over time, even if the action is not happening at the moment of speaking: Tim works in an insurance company.
Secondary meanings of the present tense, used to refer to past events.
In newspaper headlights(stands apart from thetext): Thousands flee persecution.
In relating incidents in informal casual speech: The historic present and the quotative (it happens within the discourse).
He was only an average athlete and the suddenly he wins two medals.
I had just left the bank when this guy comes up to me and asks me for money.
In reporting information with verbs of communicating (say, tell) and of perception ( see, hear,understand). The reported information is still valid even though the communicative process took place in the past:
The weather forecast says the rain is on the way / I understand that you would like to move to London.

The basic meaning of the past tense is to locate an event or state in the past. The speaker conceptualizes the event as having occurred at some specific time in the past and theevent is wholly located in the past, in a timeframe that is separate from the present.
Secondary meanings refer to time frames other than the past in these three ways:
In close conditionals and other hypothetical subordinate clauses which express a presupposition on the part of the speaker. The reference is to present time:
If we had enough time… / presupposes we haven's enough time
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