Finite Verb Forms

THE MEANING OF TENSE

The role of finiteness in the verbal group can be compared with the function of the deictic in the nominal group. It serves to relate the content of the message to the speaker in terms of the "here and now" - this is the intrinsic meaning of tense. It establishes a temporal link between speaker and event in a way which is analogous to the way that the deictic establishes a "pointing" reference with respect to the nominal group.

The system of primary tense is principally concerned with the expression of events which occur in time as related to the moment of the speaker's utterance. Some grammarians identify two simple tenses, the past and present, but others would also add a third tense, the future. Both of these interpretations are in a sense valid. However, there is a structural contrast in that the future simple tense is formed by means of the auxiliary verb WILL, whereas the past and present simple tenses can be realised in main verbs without use of an operator.

It is certainly true to say, therefore, that for main verbs in English, there are only two simple tenses which can be formed solely by inflection of the main verb. Unlike some other languages, there is no such inflected form which serves as a future tense in English. For the moment, then, because of this structural limitation, we shall consider primary tense in terms of only the present and past simple tenses, and leave discussion of the future until later when the functions of the modal auxiliaries will be examined.

We should first say something about what is meant by the concept of "tense", and in fact the distinction between tense and modality is not always clear. Tense is usually taken to refer to events occuring in time, as of course the various names given to different tenses suggest - e.g. "present simple", "past perfect", "future continuous" and so on.

Tense in verbal groups is indeed connected with temporal reference, but not in any rigidly defined sense as the nomenclature might suggest. Time reference in English is in fact signified in a variety of ways, most importantly and particularly through adverbs of time reference, with varying degrees of specificity - words such as "yesterday", "last week", "soon", "already" and so on. The function of tense in the verbal group is best understood not as indicating specific times in the way that these adverbs do, but rather as expressing concordance and compatibility with these more specific adverbial or other textual referents.

For example, although we speak of the "present simple" tense in English, this can in fact be used to refer to present, future, past or other events which are indeterminate as to when they occur. Whichever time reference interpretation we place upon a particular instance of use depends upon any specific adverbials which occur in conjunction with the verbal group, as well as other information which we might draw from the immediate linguistic or social environment.

Example (a) indicates that the event will occur in the future at the specified time.

Example (b) is indeterminate, but signifies that the event has occurred in the past and will occur again in the future. It does not indicate that the event occurs at the moment of speaking.

Example (c) is the type of statement which occurs at the beginning of news reports on the radio or television, or in a newspaper headline, and serves as a heading announcing a report which is to follow. It in fact reports an event which has already occurred but whose information value is felt in the present.

Example (d) has no specific time reference at all, and simply describes a particular skill that someone has.

Here is an outline of some of the main semantic functions for the present simple tense:-

Such examples show that the term "present" when used to identify tense in the verbal group is far from being simply confined to the usual understanding of the meaning of this word. It should not be understood as imposing a restricted "here and now", "moment of speaking" temporal reference that the term signifies in its dictionary meaning.

We should therefore think of tense in the verbal group not as a defining feature, but rather one which establishes compatibility with certain time references which arise elsewhere in the text, as for example adverbs, or other contextual features.

The past simple tense similarly illustrates such versatility in its usage.

In none of these examples is there a reference to past events. In both (a) and (b) the events referred to occur in the present - the moment of speaking - and the function of the past tense is to express politeness. In example (c) the meaning is hypothetical and has no time reference.

We can show the principal range of semantic functions available for the past tense as follows:-

We shall discuss the functions of the various tense forms again later, but for the moment it is sufficient to point out that the tense system in verbal groups is essentially a system of concordance and compatibility with other linguistic features which are outside the verbal group, particularly with time adjuncts.

A corollary of compatibility is that there should also be incompatibility, and this is of course the case.

It is important then that the tense system should be understood in this way, for although there are of course very clear restrictions on grounds of incompatibility which do apply in the functioning of the tenses in English, as the above examples illustrate, the system is in fact flexible and sensitive to considerable variation with regard to time reference.

Although we shall be obliged to continue with the traditional nomenclature for the tenses, since this is so well established, it should always be remembered that the names given to the various tenses signify morphological forms rather than purely functional categories. Provided we keep in mind that the names which we use to identify the tenses indicate a guide to compatibility of usage, rather than a specification of usage, then the terminology retains some validity.

It is important that teachers in particular should be aware that in the expression of time reference in English, the tense system in the verbal group is not the primary determining factor, but is essentially a harmonising function which serves in relating the verbal group to the linguistic environment.

* EXERCISE.

Identify the tense forms and particular meanings (e.g. time reference, politeness, hypothetical etc) which are expressed in the verbal groups in the following examples. Can you suggest from this a likely context or source for each example - e.g. news report, informal conversation, novel, play etc.

e.g.	(a) The train arrives at five o'clock.
	(b) He comes here occasionally.
	(c) A massive earthquake strikes Mexico City.
	(d) He plays the piano brilliantly.

e.g.	(a) I just wanted to ask you something.
	(b) Did you want another cup of tea?
	(c) If you had a million pounds what would you do?

e.g.	(i) He walks to school.
	(ii) He walked to school.

e.g.	* He comes yesterday.
	* He came tomorrow.