Tense and Aspect What is tense? Tense is a deictic category which relates the time of the event/state represented by the clause to the time of the utterance, i.e. the speech moment, 'now'. Tense is expressed by the form of the finite verb in the verb phrase. All languages allow speakers and listeners to locate situations (i.e., event, process, state ) in time.

Grammaticalized Location in Time Expressions for locating time can be divided into three classes: Lexically composite expressions (e.g., five minutes after John left, last year) Lexical items (e.g., now, today, yesterday, last ) Grammatical categories (tense, aspect) Languages express location in time by means of grammatical categories, e.g., Languages express location in time by means of grammatical categories, e.g., (1) John sang (2) John sings (3) John has sung(4) John is singing The difference in (1) and (2) in English is tense The difference in (1) and (2) in English is tense The difference in (3) and (4) is aspect The difference in (3) and (4) is aspect

Time Line Time can be represented as a straight line, with the past represented conventionally to the left and the future to the right. past 0 present future E S S P S P P P E

Tense in English Conceptually, we have three tenses, but, grammatically, English has only two different tense marking strategies: Past: Past: the event happened before now. Non-past:. Non-past: the event happens now or whatever time interval that includes now. It encompasses both “present” and “future”. Past tense: tells us that the event or state described by a sentence occurred sometime before the speech time. It is usually marked by -ed on the verb (but also irregularly as in give/gave, bring/brought, sing/sang, etc.) Past tense: tells us that the event or state described by a sentence occurred sometime before the speech time. It is usually marked by -ed on the verb (but also irregularly as in give/gave, bring/brought, sing/sang, etc.) I climbed the mountain. I climbed the mountain. I spoke before the jury. I spoke before the jury. I could talk to him last week. I could talk to him last week.

Tense in English Non-Past tense tells us that the event or state, described by a sentence holds true of the speech time, i.e., now. In some cases, non-past tensed sentence describes actions that may be reoccurring or about to occur. Non-Past tense tells us that the event or state, described by a sentence holds true of the speech time, i.e., now. In some cases, non-past tensed sentence describes actions that may be reoccurring or about to occur.  Ali works in a multi-national company.  Khaled runs a factory.  Gold is a shining metal.  The Earth revolves around the sun.

Aspect in English What is Aspect? What is Aspect? It is a term used to describe the state of verb action as beginning, in progress, or completed.. In many languages, aspect and tense are closely interwoven with each other. English has two main aspects: 1. The perfect 2. The progressive

Aspect … cont’d Perfect Aspect: Perfect Aspect: It describes an action that started and completed sometime before topic time (e.g. now) and still has a relevance to it. It is marked by the combination of the auxiliary "have" and the past participle morpheme “ –en ” occurring on the verb that follows “have”. a. a. Students have expressed to me their love for linguistics. b. b. You have been great, good night! c. c. Martha has reportedly driven him crazy. d. d. She had known him for a year when he died.

Aspect … cont’d Progressive Aspect: Progressive Aspect: It describes an ongoing action, or an eventuality in progress, especially one that is continuous or repetitive. It is marked by the combination of the auxiliary “ be ” + the present participle “-ing” on the main verb. a. Sally Johns is speaking again. were sleeping b. While you were sleeping, I ate the cake. are being c. You are being childish. was thinking d. He was thinking of Janine.

Tense and Aspect in Arabic Arabic has two tenses: past and present. Future tense is indicated by means of future particles (ســــ ) or (سوف ) Arabic has two aspects: 1- The perfect refers to a past time or completed action. 2- The imperfect refers to present or non-past time

Tense and Aspect in Arabic PerfectImperfect أناكتبتُأكتبُ نحن كتبنا نكتب انتكتبتَتكتبُ انتِكتبتِتكتبينَ هو كتبيكتب هيكتبتتكتب هم كتبويكتبون هن كتبنيكتبن

Activity A)- Translate the following into Arabic 1- Man is mortal 2- Abdullah left for Cairo yesterday 3- I walk for two kilometers every day 4- I lived in New York for one year 5- Maha is going to finish her report tonight 6- Don’t worry! I’ll help you with this 7- George is writing a book on literature these days 8- The exhibition is starting next week. 9- Ali was listening to music at 8pm yesterday evening 10- Mona was cooking when the telephone rang

Activity 11- I will be sitting in class at this time tomorrow 12- John and Mary have moved into a new apartment 13- I have lived in Amman for two years 14- I have been playing basketball since 10 o’clock 15- Huda has been thinking about changing her major 16- The rain had stopped before the time class was over 17- The police had been looking for the thief for 3 months 18- My parents will have gone to sleep by the time I get home. 19. I will have been watching the film for two hours before I go to bed.