Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of TESOL

Approaches to English Grammar

Stephen van Vlack

Notes and comments on Chapter 3, Tense and Aspect from Yule Explaining English Grammar.

       In this unit Yule challenges the basic idea that tense systems in English are based on linear time. This is quite a feat and a major blow to traditional grammarians. The simple system Yule comes up with revolves around two simple concepts; factuality and remoteness.

       The simplest distinction he makes is between situations that are factual and non-factual. This distinction is used to differentiate between future on the one side and past and present on the other. What traditional grammar calls future are, according to Yule, in fact non-factual situations. That is, the speaker is not sure what they are saying is true. The opposite of this is, of course, that when using the present or the past tense, the speaker is sure that what they are saying is true or is at least presented as the truth.

Factual -vs- Non-factual

α. That is the worst haircut I have ever seen. (Fact)

β. That fat dog ate my lunch. (Fact. It already happened.)

γ. My best friend will get married tomorrow. (Not a fact. It didn`t happen yet.)

       This basic distinction in factuality is further broken down by the concept of remoteness. Remoteness works in two ways. There is remoteness in time which distinguishes past and present tense and remoteness in possibility which makes a distinction between future and subjunctive tense. Look at the examples below.

Remoteness in time

α. The hippo walks to work every morning to stay healthy.

β. The hippo walked to work before it got in a car accident and lost the use of its legs.

Remoteness in possibility

α. I will move to Singapore next year.

β. I would like to move to Singapore within the next few years.

       Aspect, according to Yule, is divided into two types; lexical and grammatical. The basic distinction in lexical is whether the situation is stative or dynamic. Stative situations are situations in which there is no real action. They revolve around mental states, emotions and relations and are not usually associated with the progressive aspect (BE + ing verb) . Dynamic situations are situations involving a change or an action that creates a change.

Stative -vs- Dynamic Situations

α. The armadillo likes mud. (Stative, It does now, did in the past, and always will.)

β. The bear ate the armadillo. (Dynamic, The armadillo is now dead and gone. It`s state has certainly been changed.)

       Dynamic situations can be further broken down into Punctual and Durative. Punctual dynamic situations take place in an instant. They are also called non-durative. Durative situations, on the other hand, take place over a period of time. They do not happen instantly.

Non-durative -vs- Durative Dynamic Situations

α. The elephant stepped on my foot. (Punctual)

β. The Han River flows into the Yellow Sea. (Durative)

       Grammatical aspect is shown by two forms marked on the verb; the progressive (BE Verb + ing) and the perfect (HAVE Verb + en/ed). The progressive, according to Yule, is viewed from the inside while to process is still going on. The perfect, however, is viewed from the outside and in retrospect because the process is over. This difference is reflected below.

In -vs- Out

α. The elephant is falling down the steps. (Progressive, Inside)

β. The elephant has fallen down the steps. (Perfect, Outside)

       Verbs used as acts also have different meanings based on whether they are used in the progressive or perfect. This difference is best explained along lines of completion as in the example below.

α. John is cooking pork for dinner.

β. John has cooked pork for dinner.

       If a verb is, however, not dynamic then this meaning difference does not apply.

α. The porcupine has liked chicken for a long time.

       Verbs associated with a stative situation are not usually used in the progressive but can be to denote that the situation is only temporary.

α. Although that is not always the case, the teacher is acting like an idiot today.

       Believe it or not, all this comes together to form one simple system. Aspect, according to Yule, serves to add a little more information to the basic meaning, which is given by the tense.

Look at the following list of sentences. Try to describe them using Yule`s system. What observations can you make?

α. He has been learning a lot.

β. He had been learning a lot.

γ. He had learned a lot.

δ. He has learned a lot.

ε He learned a lot.

θ. He is learning a lot.

π. He will learn a lot.

φ. He would learn a lot.

χ. He would have learned a lot.