Ingrammar,tense is acategory that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms ofverbs, particularly in theirconjugation patterns.
The main tenses found in many languages include thepast,present, andfuture. Some languages have only two distinct tenses, such as past andnonpast, or future andnonfuture, while some languages make finer tense distinctions, such as remote vs recent past, or near vs remote future. There are also tenseless languages, like most of theChinese languages, however, these languages do refer to time in different ways.
Tenses generally express time relative to themoment of speaking. In some contexts, however, their meaning may be relativized to a point in the past or future which is established in the discourse (the moment being spoken about). This is calledrelative (as opposed toabsolute) tense. Some languages have different verb forms or constructions which manifest relative tense, such aspluperfect ("past-in-the-past") and "future-in-the-past".
Expressions of tense are often closely connected with expressions of the category ofaspect; sometimes what are traditionally called tenses (in languages such asLatin) may in modern analysis be regarded as combinations of tense with aspect. Verbs are also often conjugated formood, and since in many cases the three categories are not manifested separately, some languages may be described in terms of a combinedtense–aspect–mood (TAM) system.
The English nountense comes fromOld Frenchtens "time" (spelledtemps in modern French through deliberate archaization), fromLatintempus, "time".[1] It is not related to the adjectivetense, which comes from Latintensus, theperfect passive participle oftendere, "stretch".[2]
In modern linguistic theory, tense is understood as a category that expresses (grammaticalizes) time reference; namely one which, usinggrammatical means, places a state or action at a time relative to that of the utterance.[3][4] Nonetheless, in many descriptions of languages, particularly in traditional European grammar, the term "tense" is applied to verb forms or constructions that express not merely position in time, but also additional properties of the state or action – particularly aspectual or modal properties.
The category ofaspect expresses how a state or action relates to time – whether it is seen as a complete event, an ongoing or repeated situation, etc. Many languages make a distinction betweenperfective aspect (denoting complete events) andimperfective aspect (denoting ongoing or repeated situations); the former may employ aperfect tense, but such a relationship between aspect and tense may not be simple. Some of the traditional "tenses" express time reference together with aspectual information. InLatin andFrench, for example, theimperfect denotes past time in combination with imperfective aspect, while other verb forms (the Latin perfect, and the Frenchpassé composé orpassé simple) are used for past time reference with perfective aspect.
The category ofmood is used to expressmodality, which includes such properties as uncertainty,evidentiality,[5]: 1030 and obligation. Commonly encountered moods include theindicative,subjunctive, andconditional. Mood can be bound up with tense, aspect, or both, in particular verb forms. Hence, certain languages are sometimes analysed as having a singletense–aspect–mood (TAM) system, without separate manifestation of the three categories.
The termtense, then, particularly in less formal contexts, is sometimes used to denote any combination of tense proper, aspect, and mood. As regardsEnglish, there are manyverb forms and constructions which combine time reference withcontinuous and/or perfect aspect, and with indicative, subjunctive or conditional mood.[6]: 306–308
Particular tense forms need not always carry their basic time-referential meaning in every case. For instance, thehistorical present is a use of the present tense to refer to past events. The phenomenon offake tense is common crosslinguistically as a means of marking counterfactuality inconditionals and wishes.[7][8]
Not all languages have tense:tenseless languages includeChinese andDyirbal.[9]: 50–53 Some languages have all three basic tenses (thepast,present, andfuture), while others have only two: some have past andnonpast tenses, the latter covering both present and future times, as inArabic,[10]Japanese,[11] andEnglish;[12][6]: 208–212 [13]: 74–77 whereas others such asGreenlandic,Quechua, andNivkh have future andnonfuture.[14][15] Some languages have four or more tenses, making finer distinctions either in the past (e.g. remote vs. recent past) or in the future (e.g. near vs. remote future). The six-tense languageKalaw Lagaw Ya of Australia has the remote past, the recent past, the today past, the present, the today/near future and the remote future.[16] Some languages, like the AmazonianCubeo language, have a historical past tense, used for events perceived as historical.[17]
Tenses that refer specifically to "today" are calledhodiernal tenses; these can be either past or future. Apart from Kalaw Lagaw Ya, another language with such tenses isMwera, aBantu language of Tanzania.[18]: 85 It is also suggested that in 17th-century French, thepassé composé served as a hodiernal past.[19] Tenses that refer to the past before today or the future after today are called pre-hodiernal and post-hodiernal respectively. Some languages also have acrastinal tense, a future tense referring specifically to tomorrow (found in some Bantu languages); or ahesternal tense, a past tense referring specifically to yesterday[20] (although this name is also sometimes used to mean pre-hodiernal).[21] A tense for after tomorrow is thus called post-crastinal,[22]: 195 and one for before yesterday is called pre-hesternal.[23]: 556
Another tense found in some languages, includingSwahili, is the persistive tense, used to indicate that a state or ongoing action still continues (or, if in the negative, does not).[24]: 525 TheWasho language has tenses to indicate if an event occurred before the speaker's lifetime.[25]: 636
Some languages have special tense forms that are used to expressrelative tense. Tenses that refer to the past relative to some time other than that of the utterance are calledanterior;[26]: 587 these include thepluperfect (for the past relative to a past time)[27]: 95 and thefuture perfect (for the past relative to a future time).[28]: 193–194 Similarly,posterior tenses refer to the future relative to the time under consideration,[29]: 623–624 as with the English "future-in-the-past": (he said that)hewould go.[30]: 565 Relative tenses are also sometimes analysed as aspects: theperfect aspect in the anterior case, or theprospective aspect in the posterior case.[31]: 885–886
Some languages, such asNez Perce orCavineña also haveperiodic tense markers that encode that the action occurs in a recurrent temporal period of the day ("in the morning", "during the day", "at night", "until dawn" etc) or of the year ("in winter").[32]
Some languages havecyclic tense systems. This is a form of temporal marking where tense is given relative to a reference point or reference span. InBurarra, for example, events that occurred earlier on the day of speaking are marked with the same verb forms as events that happened in the far past, while events that happened yesterday (compared to the moment of speech) are marked with the same forms as events in the present. This can be thought of as a system where events are marked as prior or contemporaneous to points of reference on a timeline.[33]
Tense is normally indicated by the use of a particular verb form – either aninflected form of the main verb, or amulti-word construction, or both in combination. Inflection may involve the use ofaffixes, such as the-ed ending that marks the past tense ofEnglish regular verbs,[34]: 670 but can also entailstem modifications, such asablaut, as found as in thestrong verbs in English and other Germanic languages,[6]: 405–406 orreduplication.[35]: 28 Multi-word tense constructions often involveauxiliary verbs orclitics. Examples which combine both types of tense marking include the Frenchpassé composé, which has an auxiliary verb together with the inflectedpast participle form of the lexical verb;[36]: 305 and theIrish past tense, where the procliticdo (in various surface forms) appears with the affixed or ablaut-modified past tense form of the lexical verb.
Indications of tense are often bound up with indications of other verbal categories, such asaspect and mood.[37]: 47 Theconjugation patterns of verbs often also reflectagreement with categories pertaining to thesubject, such asperson,number andgender viaportmanteau morphs. It is thus not always possible to identify elements that mark any specific category, such as tense, separately from the others.
A few languages have been shown to mark tense information (as well as aspect and mood) onnouns. This may be called nominal tense, or more broadlynominal TAM which includes nominal marking ofaspect andmood as well.[38]
For example, theKayardild language uses case markers to mark tense:[38]: 199 [39]: 404
Tenseless languages can and do refer totime, but they do so using lexical items that establish time reference, or by using combinations ofaspect,mood.[42] For example, mostSinitic languages express time reference chiefly by lexical means – throughadjuncts, time phrases, and so on.[43]: 201 (The same is done in tensed languages, to supplement or reinforce the time information conveyed by the choice of tense.[34]: 670 ) Time information is also sometimes conveyed as a secondary feature by markers of other categories, as with theaspect markers了le and過guò, which in most cases place an action in past time.[43]: 244–247 However, much time information is conveyed implicitly by context – it is therefore not always necessary, whentranslating from a tensed to a tenseless language, say, to make explicit in the target language all of the information conveyed by the tenses in the source.[43]: 236
For example, inMandarin, though the language is tenseless, the auxiliary verb会huì can be used to express an action that will occur in the future:[43]: 242
The syntactic properties of tense have been prominent in formal analyses of how tense-marking interacts with word order. Some languages (such as French[44]) allow an adverb (Adv) between a tense-marked verb (V) and its direct object (O); in other words, they permit [Verb-Adverb-Object] order. In contrast, other languages (such as English) do not allow an adverb to come between a tense-markedlexical verb and its direct object, and instead require [Adverb-Verb-Object] order. (For tense-markedauxiliary verbs in English, either position of the adverb is possible.[a])
The study of modern languages has beengreatly influenced by the grammar of the Classical languages, since early grammarians, often monks, had no other reference point to describe their language. Latin terminology is often used to describe modern languages, sometimes with a change of meaning, as with the application of "perfect" to forms in English that do not necessarily have perfective meaning, or the termsImperfekt andPerfekt toGerman past tense forms that mostly lack any relationship to the aspects suggested by those terms.
Proto-Indo-European verbs had present, aorist and perfect forms – these can be considered as representing two tenses (present and past) with differentaspects.[45]: 92 MostIndo-European languages have developed systems either with two morphological tenses (present or "non-past", and past) or with three (present, past and future).[citation needed] The tenses often form part of entangledtense–aspect–mood conjugation systems.[45]: 92 Additional tenses, tense–aspect combinations, etc., such as the future tense, can be provided by compound constructions using auxiliary verbs.[45]: 162
Pluperfect (plūs quam perfectum, praeteritum perfectum)
A newer grammar of Latin also lists these six[d] but comments that "The distinction between imperfective and perfective 'tenses' is really a distinction of aspect, which is at the basis of the whole conjugation system"; and states that Latin thus has just three tenses: present, past, and future.[47]: 107
Imperfect tense verbs represent a past process combined withimperfective aspect, that is, they often stand for an ongoing past action or state at a past point in time (seesecondary present) or represent habitual actions (seeLatin tenses with modality) (e.g. 'he was eating', 'he used to eat'). The perfect tense combines the meanings of a simple past ('he ate') with that of an English perfect tense ('he has eaten'), which in ancient Greek are two different tenses (aorist and perfect).
The pluperfect, the perfect and the future perfect may also realiserelative tenses, standing for events that are past at the time of another event (seesecondary past): for instance,mortuus erat,mortuus est,mortuus erit may mean respectively 'he had died', 'he has died' and 'he will have died'.
TheRomance languages (descendants of Latin) have past, present and future morphological tenses, with additional aspectual distinction in the past.French is an example of a language where, as in German, the simple morphological perfective past (passé simple) has mostly given way to a compound form (passé composé), the former mostly reserved for use in formal contexts.[36]: 305
The paradigms fortenses in Ancient Greek are similar to those in Latin, but with a three-way aspectual contrast in the past: theaorist, perfect and imperfect. Both aorist and imperfect verbs can represent a past event: through contrast, the imperfect verb often implies a longer duration (e.g. 'they urged him' vs. 'they persuaded him'). The aorist participle represents the first event of a two-event sequence, and the present participle an ongoing event at the time of another event.[48] Perfect verbs stand for past actions if the result is still present (e.g. 'I have found it') or for present states resulting from a past event (e.g. 'I remember').
TheGermanic languages (which include English) have present (non-past) and past tenses formed morphologically,[45]: 410 with future and other additional forms made using auxiliaries. In standardGerman, the compound past (Perfekt) is preferred over the morphological past in spoken language.[49]: 288
English has only twomorphological tenses: thepresent (ornon-past), as inhegoes, and thepast (orpreterite), as inhewent. The non-past usually references the present, but sometimes the future (as inthe busleaves tomorrow).[6]: 405 In special uses such as thehistorical present it can refer to the past as well.[6]: 625 These morphological tenses are marked either with asuffix (walk(s) ~walked) or withablaut (sing(s) ~sang).[6]: 405–406
In some contexts, particularly inEnglish language teaching, various tense–aspect combinations are referred to loosely as tenses.[50] Similarly, the term "future tense" is sometimes loosely applied to cases where modals such aswill are used to talk about future points in time.[6]: 629 [51]
In theSlavic languages, verbs areintrinsically perfective or imperfective.[52]: 1676 InRussian and otherEast Slavic languages, perfective verbs have past and "future" tenses, while imperfective verbs have past, present and "future", the imperfective "future" being a compound tense in most cases. The "future tense" of perfective verbs is formed in the same way as the present tense of imperfective verbs. However, inSouth Slavic languages, there may be a greater variety of forms –Bulgarian, for example, has present, past (both "imperfect" and "aorist") and "future tenses", for both perfective and imperfective verbs, as well asperfect forms made with an auxiliary (seeBulgarian verbs). However it doesn't have a real future tense, because the future tense is formed by the shortened version of the present of the verbhteti (ще) and it just adds present tense forms of person suffixes:-m (I),-š (you),-ø (he, she, it),-me (we),-te (you, plural),-t (they).
Old Irish, an earlyCeltic language, had past, present and future tenses.[53]: 86 The past tense contrasts the perfective and imperfective aspects.[53]: 86 Classical Irish, which underwent several changes to its verb morphology,[54]: 178 had a three-way aspectual contrast of simple–perfective–imperfective in the past and present tenses.[citation needed]
ModernScottish Gaelic on the other hand only has past, non-past and 'indefinite', and, in the case of the verb 'be' (including its use as an auxiliary), also present tense.[citation needed]
Persian, anIndo-Iranian language, has past and non-past forms, with additional aspectual distinctions.[55]: 18 Future can be expressed using the auxiliaryخواستنxâstan, but almost never in non-formal contexts, for which the present tense is used instead.[55]: 115 For example:
Hindustani (Hindi andUrdu), anIndo-Aryan language, has indicative perfect past and indicative future forms, while the indicative present and indicative imperfect past conjugations exist only for the verbhonā (to be). The indicative future is constructed using thefuture subjunctive conjugations (which used to be the indicative present conjugations in older forms of Hindi–Urdu) by adding a future suffix-gā that declines forgender and thenumber of the noun that the pronoun refers to. The forms ofgā are derived from the perfective participle forms of the verbjāna ('to go'). The conjugations of the indicative perfect past and the indicative imperfect past are derived from participles (just like the past tense formation inSlavic languages) and hence they agree with thenumber and thegender of the noun which the pronoun refers to and not the pronoun itself. The perfect past doubles as the perfective aspect participle and the imperfect past conjugations act as the copula to mark imperfect past when used with the aspectual participles. Hindi–Urdu has an overtly markedtense–aspect–mood system.Periphrastic Hindi–Urdu verb forms (aspectual verb forms) consist of two elements, the first of these two elements is the aspect marker and the second element (the copula) is the common tense-mood marker. Hindi–Urdu has three aspectsːHabitual,Perfective, andProgressive; and five moodsːIndicative,Presumptive,Subjunctive,Contrafactual, andImperative.[56]
Rapa is a French Polynesian language of the island ofRapa Iti.[57]: vi Verbs in the indigenous Old Rapa[f] occur with a TAM (tense, aspect, or mood) marker which can be followed by directional ordeictic particles. "The primary tense–aspect markers used in Old Rapa are the imperfective, progressive, perfective, past, imperative, and subjunctive."[57]: 99 However, specific tense–aspect–modality (TAM) markers and the type of deictic or directional particle that follows express different types of meaning.[57]: 105–106
"TAM particlei marks past action. It is rarely used as a matrix TAM and is more frequently observed in past embedded clauses."[57]: 103
Wuvulu-Aua does not have explicit tense, but rather time reference is conveyed by mood, aspect markers, and time phrases. Wuvulu speakers use arealis mood to describe the past as they can be certain about events that have occurred.[58]: 89 In some cases, realis mood is used for the present — often forstative clauses. An irrealis mood is used for the future.[58]: 90
Tense in Wuvulu-Aua may also be implied by using time adverbials and aspectual markings. Wuvulu contains three verbal markers to indicate sequence of events. The preverbal adverbialloʔo ('first') indicates the verb occurs before any other. The postverbal morphemeliai andlinia are the respective intransitive and transitive suffixes indicating a repeated action. The postverbal morphemeli andliria are respectively intransitive and transitive suffixes indicating a completed action.[58]: 91
Mortlockese uses tense markers such asmii to denote the present state of a subject,aa to denote a present state that an object has changed to,kɞ to describe something that has already been completed,pɞ andlɛ to describe the future,pʷapʷ to denote a possible action or state in the future, andsæn/mwo for something that has not yet happened. Each of these markers, except foraa andmii, is used in conjunction with the subjectproclitics. Additionally,mii can be used with any type of intransitive verb.[59]
Finnish andHungarian, both members of theUralic language family, have morphological present (non-past) and past tenses. TheHungarian verbvan ("to be") also has a future form.
Turkish verbs conjugate for past, present and future, with a variety of aspects and moods.
Arabic verbs have past and non-past; future can be indicated by a prefix.[10]
Korean verbs have a variety of affixed forms which can be described as representing present, past and future tenses, although they can alternatively be considered to be aspectual. Similarly,Japanese verbs are described as having present and past tenses, although the distinction may be analysed as one of aspect. SomeWu Chinese languages, such asShanghainese, useparticles to mark some tenses.[60] OtherChinese languages and many other East Asian languages generally lack inflection and are considered to betenseless, although they often have aspect markers which convey information about time reference.
^"Central position [of anadverb phrase (which may simply consist of one adverb)] in clauses headed by a lexical verb is between the subject and the verb; for clauses headed by an auxiliary verb it can again be between subject and verb, but is more often just after the verb (and hence not always clearly distinct from end position)."[6]: 575
^For averb phrase–orientedadjunct such asquickly, "Central position (after the tensed auxiliary if there is one) is an alternative [to end position]".[6]: 576, 578
^Although it names them respectively: present or present imperfective, future or future imperfective, imperfect or past imperfective, perfect, future perfect or future perfective, pluperfect or past perfective.[47]: 42–43
^"Very little of Old Rapa is still spoken, the modern language ('Reo Rapa') has become heavily Tahitianized, and a 'new' Rapa ('New Rapa') is emerging from revitalization efforts. . . ."[57]: vi
^Comrie, Bernard (1976).Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 6.ISBN978-0521290456.[T]he semantic concept of time reference (absolute or relative), ... may be grammaticalized in a language, i.e. a language may have a grammatical category that expresses time reference, in which case we say that the language has tenses. Some languages lack tense, i.e. do not have grammatical time reference, though probably all languages can lexicalize time reference, i.e. have temporal adverbials that locate situations in time.
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