The Category of Tense

The notion of absolute (physical) time with its division into past, present and future may not correspond to the grammatical tense, for tense is a linguistic category, often verbal. It shows the temporal relationship between the action in question and the moment of speaking.

The Past form shows that the time of the action belongs to the time sphere prior to the moment of speaking. The Future form shows that the time of the action is included in the time sphere following the moment of speaking. The Present form shows that the time of the action and the moment of speech belong to one and the same time sphere.

According to traditional grammar tense is a system of 3 member opposemes (writes - wrote - will write) showing the time of the action in relation to the moment of speech.

These 3 tenses may appear in the common or continuous aspect or in the form of the category of correlation (perfect).

Traditionally 16 tenses are distinguished in Modern English: 4 Indefinite, 4 Continuous, 4 Perfect and 4 Perfect Continuous. Most of them are made analytically.

But some scholars find only 3 “genuine tenses” in Modern English (professor Smirnitsky) - Indefinite Tenses. As to other tense-groups, they have the same time reference, e.g. the difference between the Indefinite and the Continuous Tense is not temporal but aspective. (E.g. I got up at 7. I was getting up at 7).

The Perfect forms express priority with regard to the moment of speaking and they are treated as relative tenses. The future-in-the past is also believed to be a relative tense.

Professor Smirnitsky was of the opinion that Future in the Past is a mood form (conditional) in meaning and form, while Khaimovich and Rogovskaya point out, that it belongs to a special grammatical category of posteriority (позднейшее обстоятельство) which is expressed by a system of 2 memeber opposemes: shall (will) come - should (would) come, the former has the meaning of absolute posteriority, the latter - relative posteriority. This category shows whether the action is posterior as to the moment speech or some moment in the past.

Professor Barkhudarov, following American linguists, denies the future tense in Modern English and treats “shall and will + Infinitive” as a modal phrase.

Thus the English verb has 2 tenses (present, past), category of correlation (non-perfect – vs -perfect), aspect (Non-continuous (Common) -vs- Continuous), category of posteriority (absolute future – relative future).

A different view of the English tense system has been put forward by professor Irtenyeva. According to this view the system is divided into two halves: that of tenses centering in the present, and that of tenses centering in the past. The view has the advantage of reducing the usual threefold division of tenses (past, present and future) to a twofold division (past and present) and each of the two future tenses is included into the past or the present system.

All these theories fail to serve practical purposes. The real use of these forms does not come under the frame of an ideal system. This happens because within each group of tenses the forms lack uniformity (единообразие) of the meaning and application. Most of the forms are characterized by various uses, i.e. at the same time they have basic meanings and marginal uses. E.g. Present Indefinite's basic meaning is that of permanent or recurrent (повторяющийся время от времени, периодический) actions (I get up at 7) but when used figuratively it may express a past action (Historic present), a general truth, an action taking place at the moment of speaking (I hear it).

Present and Past Continuous's basic meaning is an action in progress at a definite moment in the past and present, but Future Continuous is oftener used to express a future action which is supposed to take place as a matter of course (само собой разумеющееся). E.g. I feel I shall be asking you the same question tomorrow.

Past and Future Perfect serve to express priority, but the basic meaning of Present Perfect is the completion of the action.