Tense is the linguistic device to express time relations

English has three basic tenses:-

I She saw me (past)
I She will see me (future)
I She sees me (present)
Generally, the reference point for the tense system is act of speaking

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 3 / 21

 The reference to past and future is taken at the time of speaking

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 4 / 21

 Note that tense can be expressed via a bound morpheme on the verb
It may also be expressed periphrastically i.e. via a phrase
I She played tennis (bound)
I She will play tennis (periphrastic)
I She plays tennis (bound)

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 5 / 21

 In Chinese, there are no bound morphemes for coveying tense- this
can be done only periphrastically
It is possible to have sentences without periphrastic tense markers
that convey time

(1) Ta dai ni qu nail ?

ta take you go where ?
Where did he take you ?

(2) Zhangsan dapuo yi-ge huaping

Zhangsan break one-cl vase
Zhangsan broke a vase

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 6 / 21

 Chinese poetry exploits this ‘timeless’ quality in its poetry
A direct translation has no verbs in 4 out of the 5 lines
Autumn Thoughts by Ma Zhiyuan – literal translation
Dried vines, old tree, evening crows
Small bridge, running water, people homes
Old road, west wind, scrawny horse
Evening sun west sets
Guts-torn man at sky’s end

A more appealing translation ..

Withered wisteria, old tree, darkling crows
Little bridge over flowing water by someone’s house
Emaciated horse on an ancient road in the western wind
Evening sun setting in the west
Broken-hearted man on the horizon.

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 7 / 21

More on Tense

Tense does not generally tell us about the duration of time.

E.g. the following sentences are in the present tense- but are really
intervals including the present moment– the length of these intervals
varies
I He is hungry
I Smoking kills
I That is amazing!
I Brown defends the freedom of the press in his novel

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 8 / 21

More on tense

The past tense refers to a time in the past, without telling us about
its connection to the present
e.g. Did you finish ?
If we wish to refer to a past time periphrastically, then we can use
adverbs like yesterday and last year

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 9 / 21

Complex tenses: Perfect

In contrast to past tense, the perfect refers to some time in the past,
and connects it to the present
Formed by adding ‘have/had’
I I have written,
I I had written1 ,
I I will have written
e.g. Have you finished ? implies whether the action (as of this
current moment) is completed or not ?
Other examples: Have you read Shakespeare’s sonnets ? - implies
that as of this current moment, you either read the sonnets or not
On the other hand, if you were referring to a literature course taken
by your friend, you may ask –in the past tense – Did you read
Shakespeare’s sonnets ?

1
Also known as pluperfect
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Complex tenses: Progressive
The progressive shows an action or state with a time frame that is
continuous or expanded
Formed by adding be + -ing
I I am listening,
I I was listening
I I will be listening
E.g. He was writing when I entered means that his writing has
started but not completed at the moment I entered
This form used to show that an action is incomplete rather than
complete (I am finishing the manuscript)
or that an act is habitual rather than momentary (I was running on
weekday evenings)
or intentions/plans in the immediate future (I am catching the
midnight train tonight)
Note that it’s possible to combine both complex tenses: I have been
waiting since afternoon is present perfect progressive
Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 11 / 21
Difference between the two sentences?

Ralph was building a fire escape last week past progressive

Ralph built a fire escape last week past

In the first case, the action is not yet completed - and we don’t know
when it will: this is also known as imperfective aspect
In the second case, the action is complete- and the sentence is known
to have perfective aspect
Aspect is not explicitly marked on the verb in English -it is not
grammaticalized, but this is the case with languages like Spanish and
Russian

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 12 / 21

 Examine the story below and answer the question

Those people, not one of them realized I was not human. They looked at
me and they pretended I was someone called Sister Mary. Maybe they
really thought I was Sister Mary.
In the story above, was I Sister Mary?

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 13 / 21

 Verbs such as realize are factive : explaining a true event that is
realized in the complement
Of course, the negation of these implies that the event is not true
(occurrence of both these verbs implies that
The verb thought is relatively neutral-: replacing the sentence with
Maybe they really believed I was Sister Mary yielded a much better
response from ChatGPT

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 14 / 21

Evidentiality

How does a speaker communicate an attitude towards the source of

information?
E.g. a simple sentence like She was rich can be compared with the
following:-
I I saw that she was rich
I I read that she was rich
I She was rich, so they say
I I’m told she was rich
I Apparently she was rich
I She was rich, it seems
I Allegedly she was rich
Such qualifications allow a speaker to say whether the statement
relies on first hand knowledge, was acquired from another source or
whether such a source was reliable

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Evidentiality

Some languages mark this information using a morpheme

For example, Makah (an indigenous language of N. America) will use
the following suffixes:
I direct experience: zero marking
I inference from physical evidence: -pi:t
I auditory source: - ’qadi
I quotative: - wa:t

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 16 / 21

 The morpheme marking of evidentiality shows that in some languages,
this must be obligatorily expressed, but in others it is optional.
E.g. the Jaqi languages spoken in Peru, Bolivia and Chile, accuracy
on the part of the speaker is important with respect to their public
reputation
Hence, they must use the evidential marker obligatorily in their speech

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 17 / 21

Modality

Modality is a cover term for devices which allow speakers to express

degrees of commitment to or belief in a proposition
Unlike evidentiality which focuses on the source of information–
modality marks the degree of confidence in a statement
Noah has gone to the airport (S)
Modal systems allow speakers to show strong or weak commitment to
the factuality of statements
In the examples below, this is done via an adjective or adverb of
modality
I It is certain that S
I It is probable that S
I It is likely that S
I It is possible that S

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Modal auxiliaries

She has left by now

I She must have left by now
I She might have left by now
I She could have left by now
I She needn’t have left by now
I She couldn’t have left by now
These types of verbs are modal verbs
All of these signal degrees of knowledge that the speaker has :
express epistemic modality

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 19 / 21

 It is also possible to use modal verbs to signal obligation,
responsibility and permission: these are deontic modals
You can drive this car :- you are able to drive this car OR You have
my permission to drive this car
Modals of obligation (in decreasing order of strength)
I You must drive this car
I You should drive this car
I You need to drive this car
I You ought to drive this car
Modals of permission (in decreasing order of strength)
I You can drive this car
I You could drive this car
I You might drive this car

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 20 / 21

 Legal documents in particular contain examples of deontic modality:
e.g. lessee shall pay lessor annual base rent in the amount of one
hundred dollars etc.
The modal auxiliary shall tells us that the lessee is obliged to pay
something to the lessor
To automatically process legal documents, and summarize the
obligations, entitlements, prohibitions of a contracting party,
understanding deontic modals is important

Ashwini Vaidya (HUL 243) 14th Oct 2024 21 / 21