9.4.1.1 Tense

Use this domain for verbal auxiliaries, affixes, adverbs, and particles that indicate tense (also known as temporal deixis)--the time of a situation (event, activity, or state) in relation to a reference point, which is usually the time of utterance. The following definitions are taken from Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

  • present: the situation occurs simultaneously with the moment of speech.
  • past: the situation occurred before the moment of speech.
  • future: the situation takes place after the moment of speech; the speaker predicts that the situation in the proposition will hold.
  • crastinal: tomorrow.
  • hesternal: yesterday.
  • hodiernal: today, normally with past.
  • pre-hodiernal: before today.
  • post-crastinal: after tomorrow.
  • ancient past: used for narrating events in ancient or mythical time.
  • remote: combines with other tense labels to indicate a situation occurring temporally distant from the moment of speech.
  • immediate: a meaning label that may be combined with other tense labels to indicate a situation not simultaneous with the moment of speech, but very close to it.
  • immediate future: what is about to occur.
  • immediate past: occurring immediately before the moment of speech. Also called the Recent Past. Do not use this label if there is any sense of current relevance--use anterior for that.
  • Immediate may also be combined with anterior or imperative.
  • expected future: the situation is to occur in the near future; what is scheduled to happen.
  • narrative time: the use of a form with no other past uses for reporting a past narrative.
  • gnomic present: the situation described in the proposition is generic; the predicate has held, holds, and will hold for the class of entities named by the subject, such as 'Elephants have trunks'.
  • What general words refer to the tense of an event?
    tense, time
  • What words are used to indicate the present tense?
    (no words or affixes in English)
  • What words are used to indicate the past tense?
    -ed, (in English vowel replacement is also used to indicate past tense, e.g. run, ran)
  • What words are used to indicate the future tense?
    will, going to