Tense

Tense is a category used in the grammatical description of verbs (along with aspect and mood), referring primarily to the way the grammar marks the time at which the action denoted by the verb took place. It can be broadly classified as:

• absolute tense: indicates time in relationship to the time of the utterance (i.e. "now").
• relative tense: in relationship to some other time, other than the time of utterance.

Natural language

In the UNLarium framework, the attribute tense is represented by the following hierarchy, where lower levels subsume upper levels:

{{#tree:id=nl_tense|openlevels=0|root=Tense|

• absolute tense (ATE)
  • present (PRS): in the present
  • past (PAS): in the past
    • hesternal past tense (HEP): before yesterday
    • prehesternal past tense (PEP): before hesternal tense
    • hodiernal past tense (HOP): before today
    • prehodiernal past tense (POP): before hodiernal tense
    • immediate past tense (IPT): very recent past
    • nonrecent past tense (NCP): before recent past
    • recent past tense (RCP): recent past
    • nonremote past tense (NMP): after remote past
    • remote past tense (RMP): remote past
  • future (FUT): in the future
    • near future (FUN): in the near future
    • remote future (FUR): not in the near future
  • nonpast (NPAS): not in the past
  • nonfuture (NFUT): not in the future
  • still (STL): immediately before the utterance
  • not-yet (NYET): expected to occur in the future
• relative tense (RTE)
  • relative past (RPT): before an absolute tense
  • relative nonpast (NRPT): not before an absolute tense
  • relative present (RPS): at the absolute tense
  • relative future (RFT): after an absolute tense
  • relative nonfuture (NRFT): not after an absolute tense

}}

General tenses

General tenses, such as simple past or simple future in English, are indicated by the uppermost level of the corresponding branch.

English

simple past = PAS

simple future = FUT

Relative and absolute-relative tenses are indicated by combining absolute and relative tenses through "&"

English:

past perfect (= past of the past): PAS&RPT

future perfect (= past of the future): FUT&RPT

French:

passé antérieur (= past of the past): PAS&RPT

future antérieur (= past of the future): FUT&RPT

Tense, mood and aspect

In synthetic languages, the distinction between grammatical tense, aspect and mood is fuzzy and at times controversial, because they are often amalgamated in single morpheme:

aorist: PAS&PFC

imperfect (past imperfect): PAS&NPFC

present perfect: PRS&PFC

Simple and compound tenses

The difference between simple and compound forms must be informed only if they represent different alternatives for the same tense. If this is the case, the compound is indicated through the attribute "CPW":

French

passé simple: PAS

passé composé: PAS&CPW

Examples

List of grammatical tenses:

• English tenses
• French tenses

UNL

In UNL, tense is to be represented as attributes indicating the actual time of the event.
The corresponding values for the attribute tense are the following:

{{#tree:id=unl_tense|openlevels=0|root=Tense|

• absolute tense
  • @past: at a time before the moment of utterance
  • @present: at the moment of utterance
  • @future: at a time after the moment of utterance
  • @recent: close to the moment of utterance
  • @remote: remote from the moment of utterance
• relative tense
  • @anterior: before some other time other than the time of utterance
  • @posterior: after some other time other than the time of utterance

}}

The UNL representation should indicate the time rather than the grammatical tense of a form.

There is no simple one-to-one relationship between tense forms and time. In English, for instance, the present (grammatical tense) may be used to represent the future (time)

I’m going home tomorrow = go.@future.@recent (and not go.@present)

@present is used to indicate an action at the present and not habits, routines and statements

I'm in Frankfurt. = @present

I always come to school by cycle. = no tense information

The sun sets in the Occident. = no tense information

Tense values may be combined.

I'm going home tomorrow = go.@future.@recent

I had been there = @past.@anterior

Examples

List of grammatical tenses:

• English tenses
• French tenses