The Tense and Aspect System Chapter 7, Part 5 ENGLISH 5050: English Syntax and Morphology Robert F. van Trieste, Ph.D. All quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from chapter 7 of The Grammar Book, 2nd edition.

Past Tense Simple Aspect: 1  “A definite single completed event/action in the past: – I attended a meeting of that committee last week.  Habitual or repeated action/event in the past: – It snowed almost every weekend last winter.” – It snowed last winter. Is the “habitual or repeated” concept in the verb or in the adverbial of frequency? – used to is often used to clearly indicate a habitual or repeated action/event in the past. – Jack played basketball. vs. Jack used to play basketball.  “An event with duration that applied in the past with the implication that it no longer applies in the present: – Professor Nelson taught at Yale for 30 years.” – The concept of duration seems to reside in the adverbial.

Past Tense Simple Aspect: 2  “With states in the past: – He appeared to be a creative genius.  Imaginative conditional in the subordinate clause (referring to present time...: – If he took better care of himself, he wouldn’t be absent so often. – [English does not have conditional verb forms, so it must recycle the few verb forms that exist in order to express conditional and subjunctive. Spanish has conditional verb forms, such as, yo diría, tu dirías, etc. and subjunctive verb forms, such as, yo diga, tu digas, etc.]  Social distancing: [Politeness] – Did you want to sit down and stay a while?”

“Future” Tense Simple Aspect: 1  An action to take place at some definite future time: – Joel will take the bar exam next month. – [Joel is going to take the bar exam next month. – Joel might take the bar exam next month.]  A future habitual action or state: – After October, Judy will take the 7:30 train to Chicago every day. – [After October, Judy is going to take the 7:30 train to Chicago every day.] ... present habits, about which strong predictions can be made: – Erik is so funny. He’ll wake up, and before coming downstairs, he’ll start playing with his trains. – [It seems that, more than a “strong prediction”, it indicates the speaker’s attitude.]

“Future” Tense Simple Aspect: 2  A situation that may obtain in the present and will obtain in the future but with some future termination in sight...: – Nora will stay in Caracas until she improves her Spanish. – [Nora is going to stay in Caracas until she improves her Spanish. – Nora must stay in Caracas until she improves her Spanish.]  In the main (result) clause of future conditionals: – If you go, you'll be sorry. – [If you go, you are going to be sorry. – If you go, you might be sorry.]

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