Tense

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The tense [ ˈtɛmpʊs ] ( Latin for time span , time , period of time , plural tenses [ ˈtɛmpɔra ]) is a grammatical category which - relative to a real or assumed speaking time S - indicates the temporal position of the situation that is denoted by the sentence. Many languages ​​differentiate between the tenses past , future and present , but there are also systems with fewer or more distinctions. The tense usually appears as the inflection form of a verb , the tense . The anchoring in the speech situation ( deixis ) is characteristic of the tense category and forms the main difference to the aspect category (which is about temporal properties of the situation in itself, such as completion).

theory

Tense as a grammatical category only versus time in the physical sense

Of Tempus is called in grammar in the sense of a grammatical category. The tense is to be distinguished from the time in the physical sense . The grammatical tense can also express modal aspects (cf. future tense ).

Tense as a grammatical form and the meaning of the tense

A distinction must be made between the tense as a grammatical form and the meaning, the function of the tense. The Duden recommends that the terms in German taken from the Latin grammar should only be "understood as pure names".

In German, the future is actually expressed more through the grammatical form of the present tense than through the grammatical form of the future tense I (cf. future tense ); Nevertheless, the present tense is prototypically considered the present and the future I as the future form.

Relativity to the individual language time system

The meaning of the times depends on the time system of the respective language. We should therefore warn against simply transferring the usage in German to other languages .

The time of speaking as the decisive time reference point

The time of speaking is a dimension of deixis . The deictic expressions refer to the individual dimensions of the perceptual space in which the speaker and the listener who are engaged in a speech act are included. The speaker and listener involved in the communication (personal deixis) are reciprocally at a speaking location (local or local deixis) in which a speaking time (temporal or time dexis) can be derived from the sequence of events and the objects to which reference can be made are embedded (object deixis). Temporal deixis means a deictic expression that relates to the temporal dimension of the speech situation, e.g. B. now , then , today , yesterday .

While the personal deixis or local diaxis have a spatial effect, the temporal pointing function is linear, whereby the action time or time relation in relation to the speaking time can be premature , simultaneous or late . The "time axis" required for the temporal display function can be explained with three further reference points; these are the speaking time, English point of speech S , i.e. the moment of the utterance, the event point , English point of event E , i.e. the situation of the event which is to be designated on the time axis and the reference point, English point of reference R , i.e. the Point from which the event is situated.

Time deixis, person deixis and place deixis. The time or temporal deixis shows itself in a linear pointing function, as a sequence of events. Explanatory terms (not entered in the figure) are the time of speaking, S , the moment of utterance, the point of the event, E , the situation of the event and the reference point, R the point from which the event is situated.

The tense as a temporal reference to the time of speaking

The now the speaker (writer) will talk time point S called. It is the point of reference for linguistic expressions that deictically relate to time. It is also the basis for the division into the past, present and future time levels.

Immediate (main times) and indirect reference (off-peak times)

The tense is usually always set relative to the "now", that is, in relation to the time of speaking. In theory, three absolute time levels , the so-called main times or time levels, can be distinguished:

Indirect temporal reference is expressed by further forms, the classification of which as tenses is disputed, they are also referred to as relative tempora or secondary times , and are sometimes analyzed as a combination of a tense with an aspect . With their help, time relationships can be specified: the prematurity and the post-temporality :

  • Example:
Past tense - e.g. B. " So he ordered the car."

Relative times for this:

Before-past ( past perfect) - e.g. B. "Back then he had already ordered the car ."
Post-past (past tense or auxiliary verb construction) - e.g. B. "(At that time he had not yet ordered it), he would / should only order it later ".
  • Analogous:
Pre-present (perfect)
Present tense
After-present (present tense)
Before-Future (Future II)
Future (future tense I)
Post-future (future tense I)

With the pre-past, one can indicate that something has already passed during a certain point in time in the past, or with the pre-future that something will already have passed during a certain future time. This refinement can be continued in purely theoretical terms. But there are only a few languages ​​that express a pre-pre-past etc. The scheme is of course greatly simplified; the present tense can express all three time levels, as the present historicum even the past: "In the year 800 Charlemagne will be crowned emperor." or the future: "Tomorrow I will leave." The perfect can - especially in oral use - also the Expressing the past: “He laughed.” The future tense II can be replaced by present tense or perfect tense.

Overview of the tenses

In German grammar a distinction is made between (verb, intransitive verb, auxiliary verb)

  • the present tense : see - I see; go - i go, be - i am
  • the simple past ( past tense ): see - I saw; go - I went; be - I was
  • the perfect : see - I have seen; go - i went; to be - I have been
  • the past perfect : see - I had seen; go - I was gone; to be - I had been
  • the future tense I : see - I will see; go- I'll go; be - i will be
  • the future tense II : see - I will have seen; go - I'll be gone; be - I will have been

and colloquially in the spoken, sometimes also written, language

implementation

The time levels (or time levels) are grammaticalized in most languages ​​of the world using tenses, but implemented in very different ways.

In the Indo-European languages, verbs often express the time stage: the inflection of the verb by changing the stem (I see, I saw) or adding affixes (I kill, I kill-te). Using auxiliary verbs , times can also be expressed, e.g. B. "I will go" or "I have seen".

In some languages, the time stages are not a grammatical property of the verb. These languages ​​use (optional) tense adverbs such as “now”, “today” or “then”, or adverbial clauses to indicate the time frame of an action instead of changing the verb itself. The Chinese is an example.

Which tenses are available at all is generally very different; In many languages, some tenses do not exist at all or only in a tolerable form. The post-future in German, for example, would theoretically mean “In a year they will be married and he will be happy”, which sounds ugly to many Germans. Instead, an adverbial paraphrase is preferred: "In a year you will get married / will you marry / have you married, and he will be happy."

Under certain circumstances a language has several different forms for a single time level, which are largely interchangeable with one another and / or are only given for special cases. German knows two past tenses: perfect and past tense . On the other hand, many tenses have been developed elsewhere that cannot be classified into the theoretical scheme and expand it. Italian knows a tense for a very distant past.

There is often a tendency to misuse the real meaning of times. The German “I brush my teeth (he gets up and goes to the bathroom)” actually expresses the future from contextual knowledge, but grammatically the simpler present is used. Such a use of the present is particularly common in Finnish, which has no future tense.

A phenomenon in the Indo-European languages is that the grammatical categories aspect and tense are very much intertwined, to remember at such "times" as imperfect or perfect , even though it is basically two different properties of the verb.

As an example of a time system, see the traditional scheme of tenses (tenses) of German grammar listed below.

German name Latin-German mixed name example
active passive
(simple past Past tense ( past tense ) I asked I was asked
perfect past past continuous I asked I was asked
(simple present Present I ask I am asked
perfect present Perfect I asked I was asked
(simple) future Future tense I. I will ask I will be asked
perfect future Future tense II I will have asked I will have been asked

Descriptive approaches to linguistic research and description find - especially as colloquial , regional and dialectal phenomena - other tenses in German that are not taken into account in the system described above and are considered incorrect in the standard language:

Present tense
Present tense ("I forget it")
Perfect ("I forgot")
Double perfect ("I forgot")
Past tense forms
Simple past ("I forgot")
Past perfect ("I forgot")
Double past perfect ("I had forgotten")
Future forms
Future I ("I will forget it")
Future tense II ("I will have forgotten")
Double future II (future III) ("I will have forgotten it")

The double perfect and double past perfect are described inconsistently in the literature. The simple forms are expanded to include the past participle of the auxiliary verb. This is an additional aspect (aspect): The speaker can use this extension when the subject is closed. The stylistic evaluation of this extension is controversial.

See also

literature

  • Duden. The grammar. 7th edition. 2005, ISBN 3-411-04047-5 .
  • Kessel / Reimann: Basic knowledge of contemporary German. Fink, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-8252-2704-9 .
  • Paul Kremer, Detlev Nimtz: German grammar. 7th edition. Neuss / Münster 1989, ISBN 3-486-03163-5 .
  • Michael Rödel: Double perfect formations and the organization of Tempus in German. (= Studies on German Grammar, 74). Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86057-465-2 .
  • Harald Weinrich: Tempus: discussed and narrated world. 6. rework. Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47876-X .

Web links

Wiktionary: Tempus  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. According to Hans Reichenbach , more than two points in time or time intervals are necessary to describe the tense. Reichenbach introduced the following categories:
    • S or H point of speech , punto de habla the speaking time , it refers to the moment of speaking, in some cases it is also defined as a possible time span,
    • E point of event , punto del evento the event time , is the time interval in which the verbal state applies, or the expressed action takes place, it can be both a point in time and a period of time,
    • R point of reference , punto de referencia the reference time , it is a time interval different from the speaking time. It points to an event, for example through a time adverb, or it refers to an event in order to localize it in time.
    • Under the talk time distance is the distance between the opening time S or H and the event time E .
  2. ^ Hans Reichenbach: Elements of Symbolic Logic. Macmillan Co., New York 1947.
  3. ^ Kessel / Reimann: Basic knowledge of contemporary German. P. 80.
  4. a b Duden. The grammar. Marg. 706
  5. Patzig: Language and Logic. 2nd Edition. 1981, p. 105.
  6. Christian Rohrer: Time systems and their application to natural languages. Pp. 36-50
  7. Rolf Eberenz: Tempus and text constitution in Spanish: an investigation into the behavior of the tense on sentence and text level. Volume 153 of Tübingen Contributions to Linguistics, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-87808-153-7 , p. 44
  8. ^ Hans Reichenbach : Elements of Symbolic Logic. Macmillan Co., New York 1947.
  9. 1. Basic concepts: tense, aspect, type of action, constitution of time. Wolfgang Hock, Manfred Krifka: Aspect and Constitution of Time. WS 2002/3, Institute for German Language and Linguistics, Humboldt University Berlin, October 30, 2002.
  10. Duden, The Grammar. Marg. 708
  11. In fact, the references can sometimes be moved, e.g. B. in the "historical" present tense, in which a past is portrayed as if one were just experiencing it.
  12. ^ Wolfgang Klein: Time in Language. Routledge, London 1994. Chapter 6.
  13. ^ Paul Kremer, Detlef Nimtz: Deutsche Grammatik. P. 124 ff.
  14. The examples come from Kremer / Nimtz, pp. 68 ff.
  15. Michael Rödel: Double perfect formations