The grammar of the english verb phrase part 27 ppt

I. The basic meaning and use of the absolute present tense 175
situation that lasts for a longer time is very ‘real’ and is no doubt the one that
most people would indicate when asked to indicate what (temporal) informa-
tion is conveyed by such a sentence. This shows that there is a considerable
input of pragmatics even when we process the temporal information of very
‘basic’ sentences Ϫ something we have already pointed out in 2.18.
3.1.2 Since an absolute present tense form expresses no more than that the
situation time coincides with t
0
, and since the situation time may be either the
time of the full situation (if the situation is punctual) or a punctual subinterval
of the full situation (if the situation is conceived of as homogeneous), the pres-
ent tense does not say anything about the length of the (actualization of the)
full situation in the real world. It can therefore be used irrespective of whether
the full situation is viewed as punctual or durative.
Here comes the winner! (The situation time is punctual while the full situation has
a certain (limited) duration. The sentence is therefore treated as homogeneous.)
It’s drizzling. (The full situation is durative and represented as homogeneous; the
situation time is punctual because it coincides with t
0
.)
He works as a history teacher at the local boys’ school. (The full situation is a
permanent habit.)
Our teacher speaks Swedish fluently. (The full situation is a permanent ability, which
is a kind of characteristic state.)
I like every kind of perfume. (The full situation is a permanent characteristic.)
The full situation is interpreted as having maximal duration in ‘universal sen-
tences’ (expressing an eternal truth Ϫ see 2.21):
The sun sets in the west.
Ice melts at zero degrees Centigrade.
Paris lies on the Seine.

176 3. The absolute use of the present tense
II. The present tense as part of the
‘Special Present Time-sphere System’
In English it is possible Ϫ in well-defined contexts Ϫ to use the set of present time-
sphere tenses to refer to situations that are understood to actualize in the past, the pre-
present or the post-present.
3.2 Definition
We will use the term ‘Special Present Time-sphere System’ to refer to a sys-
tematic use of present-time-sphere tenses which is special in that the present
tense is used, not because the situation referred to actualizes (or is actualizing)
at t
0
, but for another reason. (We speak of ‘system’ because the other present
time-sphere tenses Ϫ present perfect and future tense Ϫ are involved as well Ϫ
see 3.3.2.) In the various usages of the Special Present Time-sphere System, the
choice of the present tense represents a ‘shift of temporal perspective’ (see 2.20)
or is motivated by the fact that the present tense is the unmarked tense in the
English tense system, i. e. the tense with the simplest semantics and forms. In
the following sections we examine the most typical uses of the present tense in
the Special Present Time-sphere System.
3.3 The historic present
The historic present locates the situation time of a past situation in the present for
dramatic effect. The hearer knows that the situation is in the past although it is repre-
sented as if it were present.
3.3.1 In the
historic present, a past situation is represented as if it were a
present situation. This use is therefore an example of a ‘shift of temporal per-
spective’ (see 2.20). The historic present is generally assumed to be a means of
describing a past situation vividly, as if it were actualizing in the speaker’s and
hearer’s here-and-now.

So yesterday we’re all sitting on the couch in the living room when Dexter walks in
through the door holding a still live bird in his mouth. And he then proceeds to toss
it around and kill it in front of us. […] That cat is insane. (www)
Suddenly a man in uniform takes me by the arm and asks me what I’m doing there.
II. The present tense as part of the ‘Special Present Time-sphere System’ 177
So this drink turns up at the counter in a plastic cup. It’s murky and looks horrible
as [if] it’s got some kind of mocha colored whipped cream on top that’s all flat and
falling into the drink. (www)
We frequently find such sentences in the historic present intermixed with past
tense sentences and combining with adverbials indicating a past Adv-time. Such
co-occurrence is not surprising because the felicitous use of the historic present
depends, of course, on its being clear that the time reference of the present
tense is past.
Suddenly the door swings open and a man rushes into the room. He snatches Maud’s
handbag from her hand and disappears through the French windows. We were so
flabbergasted that he was gone before any one of us reacted.
Last week I’m watching ‘Newsnight’ on television when suddenly there’s a terrific
explosion. You’ll never believe this, but my whole TV-set was gone;ithad, as they
say, ‘imploded’.
So last week I’m with a client, discussing the finer points of navigating a new release
of their flagship web application. We had come to easy consensus on virtually every
aspect of the design save one, and the group around the table was pretty evenly
divided on just how the function should be implemented on the page. (www)
So yesterday, we’re just driving home and we see the Brazil Nut so we stop and chat.
She was pleased to see us, well Tallboy in particular, because she needed someone
who was au fait with things electric. The lawnmower wasn’t working properly, the
handles should come up as soon as it switches on and is pulled backwards. Tallboy
isn’t one to refuse a mending challenge, so once the shopping has been unloaded
and put away, we wander over. (www)
As is clear from these examples, the sentences in the past tense usually belong

to the ‘background’, not to the ‘foreground’ (ϭ the ‘backbone’ of the story).
That is, they do not normally belong to the narrative clauses that move the
story forwards.
3.3.2 The historic present is actually only one tense in a special system, in
which T-anteriority is expressed by the present perfect and T-posteriority by
the future tense (or by a futurish form Ϫ see 2.9).
Do you know what John did to me the other day? Well, just as I was leaving for the
office, he comes in and tells me I’ve won on the pools and some big chap is going
to come and pay me over a million pounds. I nearly fainted on the spot. And two
minutes later he tells me it’s all a hoax and I haven’t won anything at all.
Well before going into the clothes I got this bright idea, I will go to the magazines
and get a hair style magazine first. So I did. Well I was looking at clothes, I sat the
magazine down on the rack. Totally forgetting about it. Well I got disgusted about
the clothing selection and just decided to leave. As I was walking out I reached in
my pockets to get my keys, so I was kind of standing just outside the doors. This
gentleman (if you want to call him that) approaches me, and says ‘Did you enjoy
178 3. The absolute use of the present tense
the magazines, miss?’ Baffled by his question, I turn to him and say ‘Excuse me?’
He grabs my shirt and starts searching me, and tells me the cops are on the way. I
am very mad at this point I swear a lot, jerk away and I leave crying. […] I go home
and decide that I am going to call Wal-Mart. So I call and demand to speak to a
manager. (www)
However, the fact (referred to in 3.3.1) that speakers sometimes alternate be-
tween present zone tenses and past zone tenses has the (very interesting) effect
that anteriority to a situation referred to by a clause with a historic present
tense form can be expressed by means of a past perfect form, and that posteri-
ority can be expressed by means of a conditional tense form:
So, Bob Dylan had just finished singing with The Byrds which was the back of the
Mr. Tambourine album Ϫ whatever that thing was called Ϫ and this girl and I are
talking and here comes Bob Dylan. So I figure I owe him a favour because he’

d fed
us, y’know, so I said to the girl, ‘Look over there! Isn’t that where he is? Ϫ he’s
going over there’. […] So she goes away with her baby and … (www)
Then he wanders away from the microphone and the other people on stage started
hugging and kissing him. So there I am, on stage, packed hall, TV cameras in my
face, singing with the band. I was thinking to myself “where the fuck is he, HELP!”.
But no, he wasn’t coming back to the mic, so I continue singing hoping that I
wouldn’t forget
the words to a song I
hadn’t heard
for years. I then went over to
the guitarist and got him to sing a few lines with me, and of course by then I was
really getting into it and took control of the stage. (www)
3.3.3 The use of the historic present is conventionalized in synopses of novels
or plays, in historical summaries, tables of date, references to publications, etc.
That night Cinderella goes to the ball in the clothes the fairy has given her.
It is then that David Copperfield decides to run away from his horrible stepfather.
The Book of Exodus relates how the Israelites leave Egypt, pursued by the Pharaoh,
and wander through the desert for many years.
May 1940 Ϫ Hitler invades Belgium and the Netherlands.
February 1944 Ϫ Belgium is still an occupied country.
In his review of my book, C.N. Smith writes that he fails to see the relevance of
3.4 The present tense expressing combined past and
present time reference
When a past situation is reproduced (visually or orally) at the zero-time, formulaic
usage may use the present tense to refer to the reproduction rather than to the original
II. The present tense as part of the ‘Special Present Time-sphere System’ 179
situation, while simultaneous reference to the past situation nevertheless takes place
via the reference to the reproduction.
3.4.1 There are some cases in which the speaker can use the present tense to

refer to a past situation because this situation is somehow made visible in the
present. Captions underneath a photograph or painting representing a histori-
cal situation form a typical example:
(caption underneath a photograph showing President Carter in Ireland) President
Carter meets the Irish Prime Minister in Dublin.
(caption) The Queen visits Saint Mary’s college in 1991.
This use of the present tense need not be analysed as a ‘shift of temporal
perspective’ from the past to the present because the situation described is in
a certain sense present in the reader’s here-and-now. (Remember that t
0
may
sometimes be the time of decoding the message rather than the time of coding
it Ϫ see 2.11.1.)
3.4.2 As another illustration, we can refer to cases where a TV sports commen-
tator is commenting on a replay of some event. Here too, the speaker may shift
between past time reference and present time reference, but the use of the present
is different from the ‘classic’ case of story-telling: the commentator may revert to
the present tense because he or she is referring to a scene effectively actualizing at
the present moment even if both commentator and viewers know it ‘really’ oc-
curred some seconds or minutes ago. The commentator’s shift from a past to a
present frame of reference in ‘
replay comment’(ϭ comment on a replay) does
not involve the representation of some past situation as if it were present. Instead,
television creates a set of conditions where the situation ‘really obtains’ both in
the past and in the present, and where the shifts back and forth from a past to a
present frame of reference are therefore warranted by the double location of the
situation on the ‘real’ time line.
3.5 The present tense as unmarked tense
In a few very clearly defined contexts, the present tense may be used when it is not
important to give explicit information about the temporal location of a situation.

In some cases the choice of the present tense is motivated by the fact that the
present tense is the unmarked tense in the English tense system, i. e. the tense
180 3. The absolute use of the present tense
with the simplest semantics and forms. A typical example of such a use of the
present tense as unmarked tense is to be found in a standard joke style:
Two atoms are sitting next to each other and chatting, and the first atom says “You
know, I lost an electron yesterday.” “Are you sure?” asks its friend. The first atom
smiles. “Yes,” it says. “I’m positive.” (www)
Newspaper headlines provide another illustration:
(Brighton) Man bites leopard. Both now in hospital.
Two gangsters escape from the Old Bailey.
Typhoon ravages East Malaysia.
It is typical of headlines that a simplified language is used: marked forms are
generally replaced by unmarked ones. The omission of articles (marking defi-
nite or indefinite reference) and of the linking verb be forms part of this pro-
cess, and so does the use of the present tense when the reference is really to a
past situation.
3.6 Pre-present situations represented as if present
When news has recently been received, the source of the news (e. g. the telling or the
hearing) can be referred to using a verb in the nonprogressive present tense.
The nonprogressive present tense can be used to refer to a pre-present speech
act that is still relevant at t
0
. This shift of temporal perspective is only possible
with verbs of communication, i. e. verbs referring to the encoding, the recep-
tion, or the mental decoding of the message.
I hear you’re going to buy a new car.
Gayle O’Connor, our division’s immediate past chair, writes that she will be pre-
senting two programs to the Legal Services Corporation-Access to Justice Founda-
tion. (www)

I learn from your letter that you are not happy with your position.
They tell me you’ve just been to Greece.
I am informed that your contribution is long overdue.
I see there’s been another earthquake in Turkey.
I{gather / understand} he left the firm rather suddenly.
This use of the present tense is conventionalized to the point that in most of
the examples above, a present perfect would sound decidedly odd, if not quite
II. The present tense as part of the ‘Special Present Time-sphere System’ 181
bizarre. In some cases the present tense has simply become standard. For exam-
ple They have told me … is hardly acceptable if they does not have identifiable
referents, because in that case They tell me … is formulaic.
The present tense has the following common uses to refer to the post present:
(1) The nonprogressive present may be used in a wh-question to suggest an action or
ask advice about a future action (What on earth do we do now?) Ϫ see 3.7.
(2) The nonprogressive present may be used to refer to a post present situation which
is predetermined (The funeral is on Friday) Ϫ see 3.8.
(3) The progressive present may be used to represent a situation as resulting from a
present plan or arrangement (I’m having dinner with them tonight) Ϫ see 3.9.
3.7 The nonprogressive present in wh-questions
expressing a suggestion
Some wh-questions using a nonprogressive present tense form either make or
ask for a suggestion concerning a post-present course of action. (The reference
may be to the near or more distant future.)
Why don’t we go home? (negative rhetorical question expressing a positive sugges-
tion)
Why don’t you have a little nap, [and you’ll feel better]? (id.)
Who do I ask for [when I get there?] (positive question asking for a suggestion)
What do we do [if this turns out to be true]? (id.)
3.8 The nonprogressive present referring to a
pre-determined post-present situation

3.8.1 Situations that are expected to actualize in the post-present (future) are
sometimes referred to in the present tense. In that case the choice of tense
represents a shift of temporal perspective: a situation time which is to be inter-
preted as a post-present situation time is represented as if it were a present
one. This shift of perspective has semantic import, which is slightly different
according to whether the present tense form is nonprogressive or progressive.
In this section we will deal with the former possibility.
What we will call the
nonprogressive present (ϭ the nonprogressive ver-
sion of a present tense form) is used when the post-present situation is felt