A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.[1][note 1] Some typical tenses are present,past, and future.
Tense can make finer distinctions than simple past-present-future; past tenses for example can cover general past, immediate past, or distant past, with the only difference between them being the distance on the timeline between the temporal reference points. Such distinctions are not precise: an event may be described in the remote past because it feels remote to the speaker, not because a set number of days have passed since it happened; it may also be remote because it is being contrasted with another, more recent, past event. This is similar to other forms of deixis such as this and that.
In absolute tense, as in English, tense indicates when the time of assertion, time of completion, or time of evaluation occurs relative to the utterance itself (time of utterance). In relative tense, on the other hand, tense is relative to some given event.
The number of tenses in a language may be disputed, because the term tense is often used to represent any combination of tense proper, aspect, andmood. In many texts the term "tense" may erroneously indicate qualities of uncertainty, frequency, completion, duration, possibility, or whether information derives from experience or hearsay (evidentiality).[citation needed] Tense differs from aspect, which encodes how a situation or action occurs in time rather than when. In many languages, there are grammatical forms which express several of these meanings (see tense–aspect–mood).
In languages which have tenses, they are normally usually indicated by a verb or modal verb. Some languages only have grammatical expression of time through aspect; others have neither tense nor aspect. Some East Asian isolating languages such as Chinese express time with temporal adverbs, but these are not required, and the verbs are not inflected for tense. In Slavic languages such asRussian a verb may be inflected for both tense and aspect together.
Classification
Tenses are broadly classified as present, past, or future. In absolute-tense systems, these indicate the temporal distance from the time of utterance. In relative-tense systems, they indicate temporal distance from a point of time established in the discourse. There are also absolute-relative tenses, which are two degrees removed from the temporal reference point, such as future-in-future (at some time in the future, event will still be in the future) and future-in-past (at some time in the past, event was in the future).
Many languages do not grammaticalize all three categories. For instance, English has past and non-past ("present"); other languages may have future and non-future. In some languages, there is not a single past or future tense, but finer divisions of time, such as proximal vs. distant future, experienced vs. ancestral past, or past and present today vs. before and after today.
Some attested tenses:
§ Immediate future: right now
§ Near future: soon
§ Post-hodiernal: after today
§ Remote future, distant future
§ Nonfuture tense: refers to either the present or the past, but does not clearly specify which. Contrasts with future.
§ Still tense:[citation needed] indicates a situation held to be the case, at or immediately before the utterance
§ Nonpast tense: refers to either the present or the future, but does not clearly specify which. Contrasts with past.
§ Past tenses. Some languages have different past tenses to indicate how far into the past we are talking about.
§ Immediate past: very recent past, just now
§ Recent past: in the last few days/weeks/months (conception varies)
§ Nonrecent past: contrasts with recent past
§ Prehodiernal: before today
§ Prehesternal: before yesterday
§ Remote past: more than a few days/weeks/months ago (conception varies)
§ Nonremote past: contrasts with remote past
§ Ancestral past, legendary past
§ General past: the entire past conceived as a whole
Use of tenses
The verb tenses you use in your lit review reveal more to your reader than just the time frame. They can also tell your reader:
- whose idea is being put forward (yours or someone else's)
- something about your attitude toward the ideas you are reporting on (if you have attributed them to an author/theorist)
- how general or specific your point/description is
In brief, tenses are used in the following ways (note that this is a simplified description of tense use):
The present tense is used for:
- a generalisation (in overviews, statements of main points, etc.) OR a generally accepted scientific fact
Example: "This thesis investigates the second approach."
- a statement made by you as a writer
Example: "Non-standard applications such as CASE, CAD/CAM are now emerging."
- a statement reporting the position of a writer and your support or lack of support for this position
Example: "Therefore, this sequential approach is impractical in the real world where projects are typically large (Radice, 1988) and the activities from one stage may be carried out in parallel with the activities of another stage."
The past tense is used to:
- Describe the contents, findings, or conclusions of past research. It emphasizes the completed nature of a past activity. It is often referred to as the 'reporting' tense, and is traditionally used by scholars to report all past findings, including even very current research in some cases.
Example: "This model was not popular in the software industry until it was later refined by Boehm (1976)."
The present perfect tense is used to:
- indicate that research in the area is still continuing, or that the research has immediate relevance today
Example 1: "Several researchers have studied distributed database design."
Example 2: "Fricke (1983) has illustrated that black liquor shows three rheological behaviours."
Example 2: "Fricke (1983) has illustrated that black liquor shows three rheological behaviours."
- generalise about past literature
Example: "Software has been tested manually for most of the last four decades."
- present a view using an information-prominent citation
Example: "The services that have been identified for the future B-ISDN include [7] [77] [78]."
Thus, you can use tenses to indicate more than chronology. You can use the past tense in reporting others' research to indicate that that research is of secondary importance to your current work. You can use the present perfect to indicate that the research is of more direct and primary importance. You can use the present tense to indicate your general position relative to reported research.
Some comments I received on the post about the forms of the irregular verb “drink” indicate that not everyone is clear as to how participles are used to form verb tenses that use the helping verbs “has, have” and “had.” Here’s a review.
Participles are verb forms, but they are incomplete. In order to function as “real” verbs, they must be used with helping verbs.
English has two participles: the present participle and the past participle.
The present participle always ends in -ing: jumping, skiing, writing, drinking, sighing, etc.
The past participle usually ends in -ed, as in called, climbed, interrogated, and studied. Many verbs, however, have past participles that do not end in -ed.
Some, for example, end in -en:
write/wrote/(have) written
bite/bit/(have) bitten
take/
write/wrote/(have) written
bite/bit/(have) bitten
take/
perfect
past perfect
present perfect took/(have) taken
past perfect
present perfect took/(have) taken
Some end in -t:
mean/meant/(have) meant
creep/crept/(have) crept
sleep/slept/(have) slept
mean/meant/(have) meant
creep/crept/(have) crept
sleep/slept/(have) slept
Many irregular verbs, like drink, have distinctive past participle forms:
drink/drank/(have) drunk
go/went/(have) gone
am-is/was/(have) been
slay/slew/(have) slain
drink/drank/(have) drunk
go/went/(have) gone
am-is/was/(have) been
slay/slew/(have) slain
Participles have numerous uses, but right now I’m just looking at how they are used to form the following verb tenses:
present progressive
past perfect progressive
past perfect progressive
Present Perfect
The present perfect tense is used to describe
a) an action that happened at an indefinite time in the past
b) an action that that began in the past and continues in the present
The helping verbs used with the past participle to form the present perfect tense are has and have:
The House of Windsor has ruled England since 1917.
My sister has tried every kind of shampoo on the market.
We have written to them numerous times without receiving an answer.
Past Perfect Tense
The past perfect tense is used to describe an action that took place in the past before another past action. The helping verb used with the past participle to form the past perfect is had:
Before reinforcements arrived, the enemy had captured most of the men.
Present Perfect Progressive
The present perfect progressive describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. The present participle is used with the helping verbs has been and have been to form the present perfect progressive:
I have been thinking about going to France one more time.
Charlie has been trying to make the team for two years now.
We have been sitting in the park for hours.
The teachers have been meeting after school to plan the new schedules.
Past Perfect Progressive
The past perfect progressive describes a past, ongoing action that was completed before some other past action. The present participle is used with the helping verbs had been to form the past perfect progressive:
When the accident occurred, she had been talking on her cell phone.
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