Is it of much use?

[anne marie devlin]

Dear Konstantin (+ John), 
the proposed model is basically a separation of tense and aspect.  The tense refers to the basic times when an action/state happens i.e past present and future and the aspects refer to what I always refer to as additional information.
An example could be the verb to read.
 
In the present tense there are 3 aspects: I read, I am reading and I have read.  I read is the simple and refers to habitual use.  I am reading is continuous/progressive which is now or temporary and the really difficult is the perfect aspect which can refer to result or experience.  this can also be developed to I have been reading which can often answer the question 'how long?'
 
In the past this is realised as I read (red), I was reading and I had read with the aspectual meaning being comparative.
 
I the future it would be I will read, I will be reading and I will have read.
 
I think it's a useful model and I often present it as tense + extra information.
 
Regards
AM
 

> Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 11:17:26 +0000
> From: John.Dunn at GLASGOW.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Is it of much use?
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> 
> Konstantin,
> 
> It might be helpful if you could illustrate this scheme using a real verb. Though I am old enough to have been given a reasonably formal grounding in English grammar at school, one part of the system that was never properly explained to us was the tense system of the verb, perhaps because the model that underlay the grammar that we were taught was more appropriate for Latin than for English. I mention this because one consequence of my ignorance is that whenever I come across an account of the English tense system intended for foreign learners, I find the terminology rather mystifying and often at odds with my own intuitive understanding.
> 
> John Dunn. 
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Goloviznin Konstantin [kottcoos at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: 08 March 2012 11:18
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Is it of much use?
> 
> Hello Seelangers,
> 
> I think this should be of some interest or even more... Some linguist
> (= teacher of English from Saint-Petersburg) has proposed a system of
> English tenses. Instead of these he uses three times (=Past, Present,
> Future) and three + 1 types of actions: one-time actions (=simple
> tenses), processes or long-time actions (=progerssive ), results (=
> perfects) + long-time results (= progressive perfects). That is, in
> every of Past, Present, Future you can have three + 1 type of actions.
> 
> I see it real simpification in understanding what English tenses
> really are. From another hand this classifier is universal because of
> applicable to any language (for Russian as example).
> 
> And from the third hand, I consider a methodic having this classifier
> in as a real hit, but others see it a miss.
> 
> Looking forward to your posts, Konstantin.
> 
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