The category of order

The category of tense.

3 basic categories of the verb: aspect, correlation and voice. They are constituted by 2 forms of the verb – analytical and non-analytical. The categories of mood, tense and person are basically different. They are characteristic of only finite forms of the verb. The category of tense, being a predicative category, differs from other categories in its structure, grammatical meaning and its syntactic function because it is connected with the essence of the speech act, with interpersonal relations.

The opposition of past and present is not the opposition of just 2 verbal forms but the opposition of 2 systems of forms:

Present:	Past:
works	worked
is working	was working
has worked	had worked
has been working	had been working
is going to work	was going to work
is to work	was to work

Functionally all the forms, entering these two systems, are the same. They’re used in the syntactic function of the predicate in the sentence. But in speech in the plane of communication the present forms reveal their specific character: they reflect facts and evens as actual, immediately related to the participants of the speech act. On the contrary, the forms of the past reflect something that is already the past, history, not immediately related to the participants of the speech act. What is represented by the past forms is of some cognitive interest to the addressee.

If we admit that the tense forms of the present express reality and make the information actual for the participants of the speech act, it is possible then to account for the rule ‘in clauses of time and condition forms of the present are used instead of the future’ (though the verb expresses a future action). The same is relevant for the use of the forms of the present in object clauses after the verbs with the meaning know, learn, find, imagine, see (that), look, take care, mind, etc.:

The problem of the future tense: will+Infinitive.

- An instant or spontaneous decision to do something.

- Predictions of a general character

- Requests, promises, threats, offering help, etc.

Other ways to express a future action: Present Continuous, going to.

In Modern English there are also special forms for expressing relative priority - perfect forms. Perfect forms express both the time (actions preceding a certain moment) and the way the action is shown to proceed (the connection of the action with the. indicated moment in its results or consequences). So the meaning of the perfect forms is constituted by.two semantic components: temporal (priority) and aspeetive (result, current relevance). That is why perfect forms have been treated as tense-forms or aspect-forms (come - has come; is coming - has been coming).

Members of these oppositions are not opposed either as tenses or as aspects (members of each opposition express the same tense and aspect). These oppositions reveal the category of order (correlation, retrospect, taxis).

Tense and order are closely connected, but they are different categories, revealed through different oppositions: comes – came; comes - has come. The fact that the verbals have the category of order (to come - to have come, coming - having come) and have no category of tense also shows the difference of these categories.

The meaning of perfect forms may be influenced by the lexical meaning of the verb (limtive/unlimitive), tense-form, context and other factors.

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