English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
B5.1 The ‘meanings’ of the tenses
B5 The meanings of tense and aspect
Section B Development
While the construction of tense and aspect forms is difficult (see A5 and A6), understanding their meanings is one of one of the hardest areas of English grammar.
B5.1 The ’meanings’ of the tenses
In A5 it was pointed out that there is not a simple one-to-one relationship between tense and time; this was one argument for rejecting the idea of a future tense. And
even though there is no dispute about the existence of two tenses for English, the choice of their names, ’present’ and ’past’ may be somewhat unfortunate, because they reinforce this ’tense = time’ fallacy. Indeed, some grammarians do not use these terms. And when we think about it, dividing the whole of human experience into two basic time options, present and past, would be very limiting. What about experiences that cross this division? Since every clause in English must have a verb, and since every verb must have one of these two forms (with limited exceptions), surely we should expect them to be flexible in their relationship to time. This is, in fact, what happens.
What follows is a relatively brief account of the tenses and their relationship to time and other factors.
The present tense
We can assign a number of meanings to the present simple tense (’simple’ because it does not involve any ’aspect’). Most of them involve some other time than just the present.
□ states:
The earth is round. I like chocolate.
This can refer to permanent states as in the first example, or to more specific states, as in the second. The time reference extends from the past through the present to the future.
□ repeated events or habits:
The sun rises in the east. Bill drinks heavily.
This refers to repeated events or actions that apply to the past, present and (presumably) future.
□ timeless happenings:
At the beginning of the film, the heroine falls in love with . . .
This is common in the plots of works of arts such as films, novels and plays because they are timeless; they do not relate to real events. Jokes also fall into this category: A man walks into a pub ... as does the use of the present in academic writing: The results suggest . . .
□ declarations of feelings or intentions:
That sounds great. I love it! I promise I won’t let you down.
□ instantaneous events:
Rooney shoots . . . and it’s a goal.
This use is common in sport commentaries and descriptions of processes (e.g. cooking: I take the eggs . . .) where a series of events is involved. This and the previous use are probably the closest we can get to a ’pure’ present, where only present time is involved.
□ the so-called ’historic’ present:
’As I sit down, there’s a great big noise ...’
This attempts to make past events more ’vivid’; it is used for narratives.
□ schedules:
The train leaves at 12. We look at this topic in more detail in the next chapter. Here, although the events described are in the future, there is present significance.
□ in conditionals and other clauses introduced by time conjunctions (see A10) referring to future events:
When they come in, don’t say a word.
As can be seen, all of these uses involve the present in some way, even though the state(s) or event(s) referred to may extend into the future (and also from the past). It has been said that the ’present’ tense is used whenever the ’past’ tense is not appropriate; that the present tense is more ’general’, or flexible, than the specific ’past’ (and some grammarians have suggested using the term ’non-past’ instead of ’present’).
The past tense
The past tense has a closer link to past time than the present tense does to present time. It refers to single or repeated events that are distinct from the present:
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth.
I walked the dog every day.
It is typical in stories:
Then the wolf jumped out of the bed . . .
It is associated with specific times so it is the default choice if there is an adverbial (see A8) referring to a completed past time:
My sister graduated in 2008.
I hated French when I was at school.
Other forms can, of course, refer to past time. See below for discussions of the use of the (present) perfect (I have done it), and of the difference between simple and progressive forms. The use of the past tense in reported speech is covered in B12.
There are only a few idiomatic exceptions where the past does not refer to past time, but to the present or future:
□ after expressions such as would rather, it’s time and the verb wish:
It’s time we went.
□ Referring to hypothetical events in conditionals:
If we left tomorrow, we would still arrive on time.
There is one more situation where the past tense does not refer to past time.
Activity B5.1
Think about wanted in this example:
Excuse me, Professor, do you have a moment? I wanted to ask you a question.
Is it really past in time? Could the professor say ’Oh, you wanted to ask me a question, but you don’t now,’ and walk away? What is the difference between want and wanted here? Can you see any connection between this use of the past tense, and past-time reference of the past tense? What does it have in common with examples where the past tense does indicate past time?
So we may express these relationships in a diagram, adding in the fact that adverbs (yesterday etc.) also have past-time reference.
Figure B5.1.1 Expressing past time in English
Activity B5.2
Identify the time reference of the underlined finite verbs in the following sentences. Use the following possibilities: past, present, future, general time.
1. May I stay? I’d rather you left.
2. Is it true that in the last book Harry Potter dies?
3. After you speak to him, call me.
4. At that point we decided to leave.
5. I hear you are getting married.