PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TENSES

279. When we speak of an occurrence as past, etc., we must have some point of time from which to measure it. When we measure the time of an occurrence from the time when we are speaking, that is, from the present, the tense which expresses the time of the occurrence is called a primary tense. The present, preterite, future, and perfect are primary tenses. A secondary tense, on the other hand, is measured, not from the time when we are speaking, but from some past or future time of which we are speaking, and consequently a sentence containing a secondary tense makes us expect another sentence containing a verb in a primary tense to show the time from which that of the secondary tense is to be measured. The pluperfect and future perfect are both secondary tenses. [...]

COMPLETE AND INCOMPLETE TENSES

281.It is evident that an occurrence of which we speak in the present must be incomplete at the time, for if it were completed, it would no longer belong to the present. Thus the clock is striking twelve implies that it is in the middle of striking and that we know beforehand that there ought to be, and probably will be, twelve strokes. As soon as the last stroke has sounded, we are obliged to use the perfect, and say the clock has (just) struck twelve. Here the perfect denotes completion in the present: it is a complete perfect. So also in I have lived my life meaning ‘the active part of my life is over’, I have lived is a complete perfect. But in I have lived here a good many years, I have lived is an incomplete perfect, for the speaker is necessarily implied to be still living in the place referred to. [...]

282.When we distinguish between complete and in complete secondary tenses, we mean, of course, complete or incomplete with reference to the accompanying primary tenses. Thus in I had written ray letter when he came, the action of writing is represented as being finished at the time denoted by the preterite came, so that I had written is here a complete (pluperfect) tense. In I was writing a letter when he came, on the other hand, the action of writing is represented as going on at the time shown by the preterite came, so that I was writing is here an incomplete (definite preterite) tense.

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 895