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0.2. The relationship of time, tense and aspect
As mentioned above, the time has the three distinctions, the past, the present and the future. The speaker will consider them at the utterance, thus, s/he used tense and aspect at that time.
English tense has two, the past tense and the present tense. The past tense expresses the past events and the present tense expresses the present events. For example, "walk" is the present tense, when "ed" is put, "walked" is the past tense. (*1)


*1 This text used the past tense and the present tense. These are also called the past form and the present form. Especially, tense is paid attention to the time relationship.

Tense is relative to the time closely. It expresses the point as the time relationship.

Now, this text does not use the future tense, because English has the only two tense. If we express the future, we can use "will" or "shall" etc, but these are not admitted as the future tense yet.
"Will" and "shall" have not only the future meaning but also the mood as the modal auxiliary. Moreover, these are actually the present tense themselves grammatically. (*2)

*2 "Will" and "shall" are used mainly as the future expression currently, but their original meanings are not. In Old English (OE), these were the verbs as the volition of "will" and the obligation of "shall." For example, "shall" is often used on the Bible. These progress to the auxiliary verbs by now. But the volition meaning is still left in "will" and the obligation is done in "shall."

And other than them, "be going to" etc. are also used. Therefore, this text uses the future expression instead of the future tense/form. It is explained in the chapter 4.

Time feeling 01


Now, we explain aspect which means an act and a state, it is expressed with a grammatical form. That is, it is without tense. Therefore, we may think the future expression is also aspect, but in English it does not belong to. And aspect can be classified into two commonly, perfective and progressive. The perfect aspect is the perfect forms, the present perfect form (PrPF) and the past perfect form (PaPF) and the future perfect form (FuPF) . The progressive aspect is the progressive form.

Aspect is relative to the time closely like tense, but is paid attention to the time relationship which is not expressed by tense with the grammatical form. For example, the perfect aspect means the relationship between a completive event and the present, and the progressive form means the durative act and temporary. Thus, it has the line as the time relationship unlike the point of tense. This perfect aspect is explained in the chapter 3 and the progressive form is done in the chapter 6.

However, in English, it includes both of tense and aspect. Especially, PrPF has been argued for a long time whether it is tense or aspect. English aspect has both factor, this text does not use aspect but form like the perfect form and the progressive form. (*3)

*3 PrPF has both factors, but it is considered a kind of the present tense.

When the past event is expressed, the past tense or PrPF can be used. The speaker has to use them properly because each form has the particular meanings, thus, at the utterance s/he has the different feeling in mind. (*4)

*4 As to the past tense and PrPF in English, these are more strictly used than other European languages. For example, the definite past adverbs like "yesterday" can not co-occurred with PrPF in English, but some European languages use it with PrPF, especially in spoken.

Ich have ihn gestern gesehen. (German)
*I have seen him yesterday.

These two are explained in the chapter 2 and 3. Moreover, the future expression also has the two different feeling. This is explained in the chapter 4.
Time feeling 01






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