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all the forms of the verb into finite and non-finite.
When speaking of the expression of time by the verb, it is necessary to strictly distinguish between the
general notion of time, the lexical denotation of time, and the grammatical time proper, or grammatical
temporality.
The philosophical notion of time exposes it as the universal form of the continual consecutive change of
phenomena. Time, as well as space are the basic forms of the existence of matter, they both are inalienable
properties of reality and as such are absolutely independent of human perception. On the other hand, like other
objective factors of the universe, time is reflected by man through his perceptions and intellect, and finds its
expression in his language.
It is but natural that time as the universal form of consecutive change of things should be appraised by the
individual in reference to the moment of his immediate perception of the outward reality. This moment of
immediate perception, or "present moment", which is continually shifting in time, and the linguistic content of
which is the "moment of speech", serves as the demarcation line between the past and the future. All the lexical
expressions of time, according as they refer or do not refer the denoted points or periods of time, directly or
obliquely, to this moment, are divided into "present-oriented", or "absolutive" expressions of time, and "non-
present-oriented", "non-absolutive" expressions of time.
The absolutive time denotation, in compliance with the experience gained by man in the course of his
cognitive activity, distributes the intellective perception of time among three spheres: the sphere of the present,
with the present moment included within its framework; the sphere of the past, which precedes the sphere of the
present by way of retrospect; the sphere of the future, which follows the sphere of the present by way of
prospect.
Thus, words and phrases like now, last week, in our century, in the past, in the years to come, very soon,
yesterday, in a couple of days, giving a temporal characteristic to an event from the point of view of its
orientation in reference to the present, moment, are absolutive names of time.
The non-absolutive time denotation does not characterize an event in terms of orientation forwards the
present. This kind of denotation may be either "relative" or "factual".
The relative expression of time correlates two or more events showing some of them either as preceding the
others, or following the others, or happening at one and the same time with them. Here belong such words and
phrases as after that, before that, at one and the same time with, some time later, at an interval of a day or two,
at different limes, etc.
The factual expression of time either directly states the astronomical time of an event, or else conveys this
meaning in terms of historical landmarks. Under this heading should be listed such words and phrases as in the
year 1066, during the time of the First World War, at the epoch of Napoleon, at the early period of civilization,
etc.
In the context of real speech the above types of time naming are used in combination with one another, so
that the denoted event receives many-sided and very exact characterization regarding its temporal status.
Of all the temporal meanings conveyed by such detailing lexical denotation of time, the finite verb
generalizes in its categorial forms only the most abstract significations, taking them as dynamic characteristics
of the reflected process. The fundamental divisions both of absolutive time and of non-absolutive relative time
find in the verb a specific presentation, idiomatically different from one language to another. The form of this
presentation is dependent, the same as with the expression of other grammatical meanings, on the concrete se-
mantic features chosen by a language as a basis for the functional differentiation within the verb lexeme. And it
is the verbal expression of abstract, grammatical time that forms the necessary background for the adverbial
contextual time denotation in an utterance; without the verbal background serving as a universal temporal
"polarizer" and "leader", this marking of time would be utterly inadequate.
Indeed, what informative content should the following passage convey with all its lexical indications of time
(in the morning, in the afternoon, as usual, never, ever), if it were deprived of the general indications of time
achieved through the forms of the verb - the unit of the lexicon which the German grammarians very
significantly call "Zeitwort" - the "time-word":
My own birthday passed without ceremony. I worked as usual in the morning and in the afternoon, went for
a walk in the solitary woods behind my house. I have never been able to discover what it is that gives these
woods their mysterious attractiveness. They are like no woods I have ever known (S. Maugham).
In Modern English, the grammatical expression of verbal time, i.e. tense, is effected in two correlated stages.
At the first stage, the process receives an absolutive time characteristic by means of opposing the past tense to
the present tense. The marked member of this opposition is the past form. At the second stage, the process re-