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ceives a non-absolutive relative time characteristic by means of opposing the forms of the future tense to the
forms of no future marking, Since the two stages of the verbal time denotation are expressed separately, by their
own oppositional forms, and, besides, have essentially different orientation characteristics (the first stage being
absolutive, the second stage, relative), it stands to reason to recognize in the system of the English verb not one,
but two temporal categories. Both of them answer the question: "What is the timing of the process?" But the
first category, having the past tense as its strong member, expresses a direct retrospective evaluation of the time
of the process, fixing the process either in the past or not in the past; the second category, whose strong member
is the future tense, gives the timing of the process a prospective evaluation, fixing it either in the future (i.e. in
the prospective posterior), or not in the future. As a result of the combined working of the two categories, the
time of the event reflected in the utterance finds its adequate location in the temporal context, showing all the
distinctive properties of the lingual presentation of time mentioned above.
According to the oppositional marking of the two temporal categories under analysis, we shall call the first
of them the category of "primary time", and the second, the category of "prospective time", or, contractedly,
"prospect".
§ 2. The category of primary time, as has just been stated, provides for the absolutive expression of the time
of the process denoted by the verb, i.e. such an expression of it as gives its evaluation, in the long run, in
reference to the moment of speech. The formal sign of the opposition constituting this category is, with regular
verbs, the dental suffix -(e)d [-d, -t, -id], and with irregular verbs, phonemic interchanges of more or less
individual specifications. The suffix marks the verbal form of the past time (the past tense), leaving the
opposite form unmarked. Thus, the opposition is to be rendered by the formula "the past tense-the present
tense", the latter member representing the non-past tense, according to the accepted oppositional interpretation
The specific feature of the category of primary time is that it divides all the tense forms of the English verb
into two temporal planes: the plane of the present and the plane of the past, which affects also the future forms.
Very important in this respect is the structural nature of the expression of the category: the category of primary
time is the only verbal category of immanent order which is expressed by inflexional forms. These inflexional
forms of the past and present coexist in the same verb-entry of speech with the other, analytical modes of
various categorial expression, including the future. Hence, the English verb acquires the two futures: on the one
hand, the future of the present, i.e. as prospected from the present; on the other hand, the future of the past, i.e.
as prospected from the past. The following example will be illustrative of the whole four-member correlation:
Jill returns from her driving class at five o'clock.- -At five Jill returned from her driving class. I know that
Jill will return from her driving class at five o'clock. - -1 knew that at five Jill would return from her driving
class.
An additional reason for identifying the verbal past-present time system as a separate grammatical category
is provided by the fact that this system is specifically marked by the do-forms of the indefinite aspect with their
various, but inherently correlated functions. These forms, found in the interrogative constructions (Does he be-
lieve the whole story?), in the negative constructions (He doesn't believe the story), in the elliptical response
constructions and elsewhere, are confined only to the category of primary time, i.e. the verbal past and present,
not coming into contact with the expression of the future.
§ 3. The fact that the present tense is the unmarked member of the opposition explains a very wide range of
its meanings exceeding by far the indication of the "moment of speech" chosen for the identification of primary
temporality. Indeed, the present time may be understood as literally the moment of speaking, .the zero-point of
all subjective estimation of time made by the speaker. The meaning of the present with this connotation will be
conveyed by such phrases as at this very moment, or this instant, or exactly now, or some other phrase like that.
But an utterance like "now while I am speaking" breaks the notion of the zero time proper, since the speaking
process is not a momentary, but a durative event. Furthermore, the present will still be the present if we relate it
to such vast periods of time as this month, this year, in our epoch, in the present millennium, etc. The denoted
stretch of time may be prolonged by a collocation like that beyond any definite limit. Still furthermore, in
utterances of general truths as, for instance, "Two plus two makes four", or "The sun is a star", or "Handsome is
that handsome does", the idea of time as such is almost suppressed, the implication of constancy,
unchangeability of the truth at all times being made prominent. The present tense as the verbal form of gen-
eralized meaning covers all these denotations, showing the present time in relation to the process as inclusive of
the moment of speech, incorporating this moment within its definite or indefinite stretch and opposed to the
past time.
Thus, if we say, "Two plus two makes four", the linguistic implication of it is "always, and so at the moment