Tense
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In the UNLarium framework, the attribute tense is represented by the following hierarchy, where lower levels subsume upper levels: | 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| | + | {{#tree:id=nl_tense|openlevels=0|root=Tense (TNS)| |
*absolute tense (ATNS) | *absolute tense (ATNS) | ||
**present (PRS): in the present | **present (PRS): in the present | ||
Revision as of 16:25, 15 January 2010
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.
Contents |
Natural language
In the UNLarium framework, the attribute tense is represented by the following hierarchy, where lower levels subsume upper levels:
- 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
- English
- Relative and absolute-relative tenses are indicated by combining absolute and relative tags through "&"
- English:
- past perfect (= past of the past): PAS&RPAS
- future perfect (= past of the future): FUT&RPAS
- French:
- passé antérieur (= past of the past): PAS&RPAS
- future antérieur (= past of the future): FUT&RPAS
- 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
- French
Examples
List of grammatical 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:
- 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:
