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But in scientific grammar such cases are common. Agreement and concord (see A8) are one example.

This is particularly true for types of adverb. Here in this section what I have called comment adverbs are also known as sentence adverbs or disjuncts.

Linking adverbs are also called conjuncts by some grammarians (not to be confused with conjunctions).

B4.2 Conclusion

The traditional idea of adverbs, as modifying verbs (hence their name) in the same way that adjectives modify nouns, is far from being the full truth. Adverbs do many different jobs and not all are related to verbs. In fact, only the first type, central adverbs, are closely linked to verbs, and then not always.

Comments

Activity B4.1: (1) and (3) are adverbs of manner; the saying and pressing are done in a hopeful way. (2), (4) and (5) are comment adverbs, showing the speakers’ position (‘they are hoping/hopeful that . . .’). Often comment adverbs come at the start of a sentence and there may be commas separating them in writing, as in (4), but not always, as in (5).

Activity B4.2: On lines (1), (4) and (5) however is a linking adverb; it contrasts the idea in this sentence with the one in the previous one (which we cannot see). Note the use of commas and the different positions. However, on lines (2) and (3) however is a degree adverb, modifiying the following adjectives, and meaning ‘it does not matter how’. (In (2) it is actually part of a phrasal conjunction.)

Activity B4.3: In lines (1) and (3) so is a degree adverb. On line (2) it is a linking adverb, while in line (4) it is a conjunction, though the meaning is still to with a consequence. In (5) there are two possible explanations: either ‘not going to that party’

is treated as an adjective which can be modified by so as a degree adverb; or so can be regarded as a modal adverb similar in meaning to ‘definitely’.

THE MEANINGS OF TENSE AND ASPECT

While the construction of tense and aspect forms is difficult (see A5 and A6), under-standing 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

B5

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 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.

T H E M E A N I N G S O F T E N S E A N D A S P E C T 99

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.

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?

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Activity B5.1

So we may express these relationships in a diagram, adding in the fact that adverbs (yesterday etc.) also have past-time reference.

distance

past time

adverbs meaning form

past tense politeness,

tentativity Figure B5.1.1 Expressing past time in English

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.

B5.2 Aspect

Aspect is the name given to verb choices which involve the addition of auxiliaries to complete a verb phrase, as opposed to the inflections which indicate tense. The construction of aspectual forms is described in A6. We saw in A5 that in common pedagogic parlance aspect is included in tense, but on a scientific level the two need to be distinguished both formally and semantically.

Aspect involves how events relate to times in addition to their exact timing, i.e.

how an event or state relates to the surrounding time periods

❏

whether an event or state has relevance to another, later, point in time

❏

There are three aspects (excluding the ‘simple’ forms):

progressive (continuous):

❏ I am singing. / They were walking.

perfect:

❏ I have sung. / They had walked.

perfect progressive:

❏ I have been singing. / They had been walking.

All three can combine with both past and present tenses, as the pairs of examples show. The progressive and perfect aspects are discussed below. It is worth noting that

Activity B5.2

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T H E M E A N I N G S O F T E N S E A N D A S P E C T 101

the vast majority of finite verb phrases in English consist of simple forms (i.e. present or past tenses); the perfect and progressive aspects are fairly rare, while the perfect progressive aspect is very rare.

The progressive aspect

Leaving aside the future use (as discussed in A5; see also D5), progressive forms are often said to refer to a lasting or continuous state or activity:

He’s standing outside the door.

I was talking about something else.

She’s been speaking for 45 minutes.

However, we need to recognise that simple verb forms can also refer to lasting states.

For example I live in Paris.

appears to be more ‘lasting’ than I’m living in Paris.

which suggests a temporary state.

There are other problems with the idea of duration or continuity, as with these examples:

He’s been ringing me all day.

You’ve been telling lies.

Here, rather than a continuous action we are more likely to give an ‘iterative’

(or ‘repeated’) interpretation. But this has little to do with the aspect; it is more to do with the semantic nature of the verb; ‘ringing’ and ‘telling lies’ are things we do in short bursts, not over long periods, whereas by contrast

She’s been walking all day

could be continuous, because of the nature of walking.

Rather than focusing on a period of time, what the progressive does is focus on a point (the present or past, as specified by the tense) within a period of time. It says

‘think about the action at a certain point in time, but don’t forget the time before and after’. Thus the progressive aspect often has the idea of dropping the reader or listener into something in progress, bringing an activity to life, making it more ‘vivid’:

We jumped into the water and a moment later we were being carried downstream.

It would be perfectly possible to say we were carried downstream, as a completed action, but the progressive form tries to make the reader picture the activity in progress. So with the above examples (I live in Paris / I’m living in Paris), the latter tries to make the ‘living’ more an activity than a state, hence its shorter duration.

TERMINOLOGY

You will have noticed that I have used the term ‘progressive’ instead of

‘continuous’ to describe these verb forms, even though the latter is more common in some circles. This is because I feel that ‘progressive’ is a better term, because ‘continuous’ could be misleading. We have seen a number of situations where an action is not continuous, or where a simple form could be used for something ‘continuous’.

The perfect aspect

Perfect forms relate past events and states to the present time (present perfect) or to a subsequent point of time in the past (past perfect). The relationship may involve:

a completed action or state with a relevance to the present (or past):

❏ I’ve hidden

the presents.

an action or state lasting up to the present (or past):

❏ You’ve drunk enough.

an accumulation of experience:

❏ I’ve met many diplomats.

Consider this joke, told by Groucho Marks, a well-known comedian, in a film. As he is leaving a party, he says to the hostess: ‘I’ve had a wonderful evening’. She is very happy when she hears this, but then he continues ‘But this wasn’t it!’ What two meanings of the present perfect are involved in this

‘misunderstanding’?

Match these present perfect forms to their meaning:

a) I’m afraid you’re too late; they’ve gone. 1. past activity, present relevance b) I’ve been to Hong Kong lots of times. 2. past action, present relevance c) I can see you’ve been playing football. 3. accumulation of experience

We can often make a statement about the present based on a present perfect tense. Take the three sentences in Activity B5.4a and, using the present tense, write a sentence which contains an implication based on the original.

Comparing the present perfect and the past tense

One of the hardest tasks for learners of English is to decide between these two forms, since both commonly refer to past time. However, the past tense, as we saw, refers to specific past times unconnected with the present; the present perfect is more general, referring to a time frame that extends from a point in the past up to the present.

In fact, though, the difference between the two is not absolute; it is not determined objectively by the time and time relationships. The same event can be construed with both the present perfect and past:

Widdowson (1999) claimed that . . . Widdowson (1999) has claimed that . . .

The choice here depends on whether we think that the claim still ‘affects’ the present.

Activity B5.3

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Activity B5.4a

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Activity B5.4b

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T H E M E A N I N G S O F T E N S E A N D A S P E C T 103

VARIATION IN ENGLISH

The adverbs yet and already are used differently in British and American English when referring to past time:

American: Did you see the film yet/already? (past tense) British: Have you seen the film yet/already? (present perfect) This again suggests that the difference between the past tense and present perfect is not absolute.

B5.3 Stative and non-stative verbs

We need to investigate one more distinction between verbs, that between ‘stative’

and ‘non-stative’ (or ‘dynamic’) verbs. This is closely related to the use of the progressive.

Stative verbs such as want, like, need, resemble and own tend not to occur in progressive forms. It would sound strange to say ‘He’s wanting an ice-cream.’

Because they basically refer to states there is no need for an alternative with the progressive to indicate an activity in progress. And they have no imperative (see B9):

Want this!

However, there are times when we want to emphasise a state and make it seem like an activity, for example:

I’ve been wanting to meet you for ages.

You’ll be needing a haircut soon. (‘I can see a point in the future when you will be in need of a haircut.’)

And adverts exploit this emphatic interpretation of the progressive with stative verbs:

We’re loving it!

A number of verbs can be both stative and non-stative, but with different meanings (another example of grammar and meaning being related). Thus think is stative when it refers to opinions, but non-stative when it refers to a mental process:

I think we should go now. (Not ‘I am thinking . . .’) Don’t interrupt; I’m thinking.

Similarly, the verb be is normally non-stative, but if it is used with adjectives referring to temporary behaviour then it can have progressive forms (and the imperative):

You’re being naughty. Be quiet.

Look at the sentences below containing have. One of them is wrong/sounds strange. Which? How can this be explained?

1. I have three sisters.

2. I am having three sisters.

3. I have a bath every day.

4. I am having a bath.

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Activity B5.5

VARIATION IN ENGLISH

In Indian English the use of stative verbs with progressive forms is common, for example:

They are owning several houses.

And this use is also becoming more common in British and American English:

I’m thinking we should leave now.

B5.4 Conclusion

Describing the subtle shades of meaning involved in the tenses and aspects is one of the hardest tasks in English grammar. However, much unhelpful information is given out, especially that which encourages the tense = time fallacy, or which suggests that progressive forms are only to do with continuous or lasting events.

The impression is often given that tense and aspect choice relies on objective criteria (such as the timing and nature of the event) which are independent of the speaker or writer. But, as we have seen, the same past event can be described with the present perfect or the past tense according to whether the speaker sees it as relevant or not relevant to the present; or it can be referred to with the past or past progressive according to the impression that the writer/speaker wants to convey. Similarly, stative verbs can be used with the progressive, given the right conditions. Here the concept of construing – the way we perceive the world (or the way we want our listeners to perceive the world) – is crucial, along with the grammatical choices that we have at our disposal. (See the readings in D2 and D4.)

Comments

Activity B5.1: Wanted here is referring to a present-time ‘want’. The difference between it and the present tense is that the former sounds more polite or tentative, while the latter sounds more ‘urgent’ and might be inappropriate when addressing one’s professor. What unifies this use of the past tense with its normal use for past time is the idea of distance: either distance in time, or personal ‘distance’ between speaker and hearer.

Activity B5.2: 1, though past tense, is future time; 2 is general time (or timeless, because it is a novel); 3 is future time; 4 is a normal past-time use of the past tense;

5 is referring to the past (hear) and future (are getting).

Activity B5.3: The hostess thinks he is referring to an up-to-the-present experience, but, as his second sentence makes clear, he is referring to an earlier (accumulated) experience.

Activity B5.4a: The links are a2, b3, c1.

M O D A L A U X I L I A R I E S 105

Activity B5.4b: For example:

a) She’s not here.

b) I know the city well.

c) Your clothes are dirty.

Activity B5.5: (2) is the one that sounds strange, because when it refers to relationships (or possession) have is a stative verb. However, in (3) and (4) it is a non-stative verb, referring to an action (repeated in 3, in progress in 4). In British English have got could be substituted for have in (1) but not in (3).

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