UNIT II
THE ORGANIZATION OF TIME IN THE TEXTUAL WORLD
In this unit we will look at verb tenses from a contextual approach; in other words, we will study
the interplay of various tenses in context, and the role they have in the construction of the
textual world.
The concepts that we will touch upon are the following:
Time Frames
Time-frame shifts in discourse
Tense shifts
The use of tenses in particular genres
In order to deal with these concepts, we need to refresh our memory of some basic verbal
properties like the difference between Tense and Time.
TENSE is the linguistic expression of time-relations that is realized by verb inflections. Tense
systems are language specific, that is, they vary from language to language. Some of the verb
tenses English uses are Present Simple, Present Perfect, Past Simple, Past Perfect, Present
Progressive, Past Progressive, etc. On the other hand, TIME is a universal concept, common to
all humankind and independent of language. It has only one dimension and can be represented
by one straight line, divided into three parts: past, present and future. In Grammar II we will
refer to these three parts as TIME FRAMES.
BEFORE NOW AFTER
(PAST) (SPEECH TIME/PRESENT MOMENT) (FUTURE)
TENSE is a way of expressing events as occurring at points situated along the linear flow of time.
Within the linear flow, a point of reference must be established, with respect to which past
events precede and future events follow. The normal, universal and therefore unmarked point
of reference is the moment of speaking or speech time.
At this point, it is important to note that the same tense may refer to different time frames. For
example, in Pam’s playing the guitar now, the Present Progressive TENSE is employed in the
present TIME FRAME, while in The band is playing at the Ordeal on Saturday night, the Present
Progressive TENSE is used to refer to the future TIME FRAME.
TIME-FRAMES AND TIME-FRAME SHIFTS IN DISCOURSE
When we speak or write, we typically circumscribe an event to the present, the past or the future
depending on when the event takes place, took place or will take place. This is what we call time
frame. Within the same time frame, we may need to use different tenses, but the time frame
remains the same. In this case we speak of Tense Shift.
Example of tense shift:
The Woodland Trust has recorded that the average date for the oak to show the first signs of
autumn colour is September 25, with full tinting appearing by October 30. Oaks are just showing
first tint now, but beech, maple, sycamore and horse chestnut have started already. September
2014 in the UK may be unseasonally warm but autumn is already here and there’s no better time
to go for a walk with your camera.
(extracted from [Link]
photographs)
In the example above we can see shifts in tenses -present perfect, simple present and present
progressive-, but the time frame remains the same: present.
Now, many times we need to change from one time frame to another, for example from present
to past. These Time-frame Shifts are generally signalled by an explicit time marker to guide the
reader or listener in terms of change of event or moment of focus.
The reasons why we change time frames might be of various nature. For example, we may need
a Time-frame shift from the present to the past to explain or support a general statement with
past description or elaboration on a topic (see example a). Another reason may be the need to
support a claim about the present with examples from the past (see b). Some other times we
want to provide background information about a topic (c) or support a general statement about
a change by comparing past and present situations (d). When we shift from the past time frame
to the present, we often do so to express a comment or an opinion about a topic (e) (Frodesen
& Eyring, 1997, p. 9).
(a) My family has many happy memories of this church. All of my brothers and sisters were
married there.
(b) Our school is helping to conserve natural resources. We recycled tons of aluminum last year
and we started using paper cups instead of styrofoam ones.
(c) The city of Wichita Falls has an interesting history. It became a town over a hundred years
ago when the railroad started a route through that area. The land that was to become Wichita
Falls was a prize in a poker game.
(d) The social connections of Americans have changed during the last century. In the past,
individuals depended on their extended families and neighborhoods for social activities. Today
many Americans live far from their extended families and often do not know many of their
neighbors.
(e) Last year our city witnessed an increase in the number of people who volunteered time for
organizations helping those in need. Donations to these organizations also increased. We need
to continue this assistance to others less fortunate than we are.
Activity 1
Read the passages to identify time frames. In the paragraphs where there are shifts in time
frame, provide the reason for the shift.
a) This kitchen is part of the old house. My great-grandparents bought the place around
1895 or somewhere in there. I´m fourth generation.
b) I think the American dream for most people today is just survival. When people came
here from the old country, it was for a better life, not just survival. I see that people that
come over today seem to prosper faster than the ones who were born here. Maybe it´s
because they know what it is to do without.
c) The marketplace has changed in another way. We have major class shifts in America.
The middle class, as traditionally known, is disappearing. You have a growing upper
class.
d) I´ve been arrested five times. I´m considered somewhat of a freak because I´m the
police chief´s wife. I would march with my placard, hoping that the police wouldn´t see
me. If I saw a policeman, I would hide behind my sign. But they always saw me and they
said, Aha there she goes, the crazy wife of the police chief. The police all hate my
husband, so they think I´m exactly what he deserves.
Adapted from Frodesen, J., & J. Eyring. (1997). Grammar
Dimensions: Book Four. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers (Unit 1)
The Use of tenses in particular genres
Certain text types and genres are often associated with the use of particular time- frames, and
thus certain tenses. In this section we will discuss the use of tenses and time frames in written
narratives, written descriptions and oral discourse.
WRITTEN NARRATIVES
The verb tense typically used in narratives is the simple past tense, but writers do not always
stick to it throughout their narrative piece. Writers often build a story line using action process
verbs (e.g., look, put, give, jump, run, etc.) to refer to various events or steps in the story. They
also resort to mental process verbs to express what the actors in the story or narrative see, feel,
or think. Besides the main story line, however, there may be a number of related actions and
situations that can provide background information and flesh out the main narrative. These
actions and situations are often expressed by means of past perfect and past progressive tenses;
the former is used to locate events that took place before the main events in the story, and the
latter is mostly used to locate events that were simultaneous with the events in the main story
line.
Writers may choose to begin a narrative by setting the scene for the reader, i.e., by establishing
a link to the here and now of the reader. They do so by using the simple present tense. They
may also use this tense in narrative to interrupt the basic story line when they find it fitting to
introduce a general statement.
From Berrone et al. (2010)
Activity 2
Keeping this introduction in mind, read the following passage, which is the beginning of a
novel, and answer the questions below:
Julia Stretton was late. The Tartan Army had planted a bomb at Heathrow, and Julia, who had
gone the long way round past the airport to avoid the usual congestion on the approach roads
to the M3, had been delayed for two hours by police and army checkpoints. When she finally
joined the motorway further down, she put thoughts of Paul Mason out of her mind, and
concentrated on her driving. She drove quickly for an hour, breaking the speed limit all the way,
and not particularly concerned about being spotted by one of the police helicopters.
She left the motorway near Basingstoke, and drove steadily down the main road towards
Salisbury. The plain was grey and misty. It had been a cool, wet summer in Britain, and, although
it was still only July, there had been reports of snow along the Yorkshire coast, and flooding in
parts of Cornwall.
A few miles beyond Salisbury, on the road to Blandford Forum, Julia stopped t a roadside café for
a cup of coffee, and as she sat on the plastic topped-table she had time at last for reflection.
It had been the surprise of seeing Paul Mason that had probably upset her more than anything
else; that, and the way it had happened, and the place…
(Adapted from A Dream of Wessex)
a) In what order do you think the five events happened?
___ Julia was stopped at army checkpoints.
___ Julia stopped for coffee.
___ Julia saw Paul Mason.
___ Julia joined the motorway.
___ The Tartan Army planted a bomb.
b) At which point in time does the writer choose to begin the story?
Activity 3
In the following newspaper reports, fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the verbs
in brackets (passives may be necessary). Refer to the dominant time frame and relevant shifts
in time frame and relate them to the purpose of the text (genre).
Report 1:
SKUNK WITH RABIES
Investigators ___________________ (1. find) another case of rabies-carrying skunk. According
to officials, this ____________ (2. be) the fourth case discovered this week. The animal's owner,
25-year-old Diana Scott, ____________________ (3. decide/ apparently) not to pay attention to
a warning county officials ____________________ (4. issue) two weeks ago. Officials
_________________ (5. caution) that animals arriving from a pet farm in Michigan
______________ (6. might/ be) rabies- carriers, and they _______________ (7. urge) their
owners to turn them over for testing.
According to John Crown, a veterinarian in the Health Division, rabies ____________ (8. be) an
infectious disease carried by dogs, cats, skunks and bats, among other animals. It ____________
(9. transmit) to humans by a bite of the infected animal and it _____________ (10. be/ almost
always) fatal.
It _____________________ (11. appear) that Mrs. Scott __________________ (12. decide/
finally) to give up her pet when she _______________ (13. notice) ___________________ (14.
there be) a drastic change in the animal’s behavior. She _______________ (15. bite) four or five
times before she ______________ (16. turn) her skunk over to county investigators. She
_______________ (17. receive/ now) treatment at Sussex Hospital. According to investigators,
three other people, Diana’s husband and their two children, _________________ (18. receive/
also) injections because they _________________ (19. expose) to the same animal. Their
treatment _________________ (20. go on)for at least another week.
Officials caution that 20 or 30 skunks from the same shipment _________________ (21. be /
still) alive somewhere in the country. Once again, they _________________ (22. issue) an urgent
appeal to owners of skunk to give up their animals for testing.
Report 2:
THE ICE GIRL WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
A girl of two _______________ ([Link]) doctors by surviving freezing temperatures which
_____________ (2. leave) her “like a block of ice”.
Karlee Burgess ____________ (3. be) in night-gown, coat and boots when she _____________
(4. wander) outside her Canadian prairie home and the door ____________ (5. lock) behind her.
For six hours, she ________________ (6. subject) to temperatures of -8F (-22C), plunging to -40C
in 25 mph winds.
When her mother Carrie _____________ (7. realise) she _______________ (8. miss) and
____________ (9. find) her, Karlee’s heart ________________(10. beat/ still) but her body
temperature ________________ (11. fall) to 25 degrees (14C) from the normal 98.6 degrees.
“She was practically dead when she _______________ (12. bring)into hospital,” said a doctor.
“Literally like a block of ice.”
Karlee _____________ (13. hook up) to a heart bypass machine for five hours as a medical team
of 30 _______________ (14. try)to warm her body while avoiding damage to frozen tissues.
Slowly, the girl ________________ (15. come)back to life.
Karlee, who is in intensive care, has severe frostbite and is in danger of losing her left leg to
hypothermia. But Mrs. Burgess, who _________________ (16. live) in the Saskatchewan town
of Rouleau, said: “She ________________ (17. sit) up in bed, grinning away. She has no idea
what she ___________________ (18. be)through but she _______________ (19. know) from all
the attention she ____________________ (20. get) that she’s a very special little girl.”
WRITTEN DESCRIPTIONS
Descriptions of objects, places and people typically include present tense forms. The simple
present tense often provides the basic time frame. Present perfect forms are also used in
descriptions, especially when writers want to indicate that an action that took place in an
unspecified time in the past has produced some effects in the present, and these effects are
relevant to the description in question. We can also find descriptions of things, places and
people in the past, and in this case the basic tense selection will be the simple past.
From Berrone et al. (2010)
Study the following two examples:
a) Primary Components of a Microcomputer
The keyboard/CPU (Central Processing Unit)
The brain of the microcomputer resides in the CPU. Through the keyboard, instructions and
data are entered into the computer system. The microcomputer keyboard is similar to a
standard typewriter keyboard. It is made up of keys that represent letters of the alphabet and
numbers, as well as special symbols such as @, $, %, and *. In addition to these familiar
characters, the microcomputer keyboard usually includes special function keys that instruct
the computer to perform specific tasks. The microcomputer keyboard is simple and
comfortable to use.
In some microcomputer systems, the keyboard is included in the same housing as the CPU. As
in larger systems, the CPU is made up of the control unit, the Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU), and
memory. The size of a microcomputer system’s memory is vital to the speed and efficiency
with which the system will operate. Some of the most impressive advances in microcomputers
during the last several years have been substantial increases in memory and, thus, in speed.
Bitter, G.G., Camuse, R.A., & V.L. Durbin (1993). Using a Microcomputer
in the Classroom, 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, pp. 25-26.
b) (From a student’s essay)
“A writer’s formed”
The woman at the front of the room hardly resembled my idea of an English teacher. Her
undershirt, heavy flannel jacket, disheveled pants, and braided, stringy hair gave her the
appearance of having just returned from a backcountry expedition. And she was huge, she
must have tipped the scales very well over two hundred pounds…
Ede, L. (1995). Work in Progress: A Guide to Writing and Revising. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, p. 23.
The simple present tense is typically used in the description of manufacturing and natural
processes. The present perfect is sometimes used in these descriptions to refer to an event that
is not that important to the process being described or to link a previous event to the new stage
in the process.
The following text is a short description of the steps a writer takes when he starts to write:
When I write, I first brainstorm for an idea. This may take only a few minutes or days, depending
on the kind of paper I’m working on. Once I have got hold of an idea, I then sit down and start
writing. This seems to be the best way for me to get started. After I’ve written the rough draft, I
then go back and do some major revision. I revise and have others check for mistakes I might
have missed, and then I type it out.
Ede, L. (1995). Work in Progress: A Guide to Writing and Revising. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, p. 31.
ORAL DISCOURSE
Conversations are instances of oral discourse that take place between two or more
interlocutors. Conversations can be part of everyday exchanges between friends, colleagues,
neighbors, relatives, etc.; they can also be inserted as dialogues in fictional works or in our own
narrations of events. A whole range of tenses can be used in conversations. Typically, we use
the present progressive to refer to future actions or actions that are occurring at the moment
of speaking, and the simple present tense to refer to mental processes. To narrate events and
describe situations in the past, however, other tenses are used. When we tell stories, jokes, and
anecdotes, for example, we often combine certain discourse segments with certain tenses and
certain aspects. We may begin narrating an event in the past (using the simple past tense) and
then suddenly shift to the present (“historic” present). The historic present, which is often used
to add more vividness to actions and events in the past, can include changes from the simple to
the progressive aspect. These changes often occur at crucial junctures to place emphasis on
certain actions and/or to indicate or signal suspense.
From Berrone et al. (2010)
Activity 4
What is the dominant time frame in the following text? Give possible reasons for the writer’s
choice. Is there any relevant shift in time frame? If so, what’s its function? Explain and
illustrate in a paragraph of 7-9 lines.
The big decision: should I take a gap year?
It may not be for everyone, but taking a year out can help you gain valuable experience – and
even make you change course.
When I applied to university, I thought seriously about taking a gap year. After a year at college,
I was utterly demoralised. I hated the early mornings, and felt that I wouldn't have the
motivation to attend university. I felt the best course of action would be to defer my application
and have a year of saving up, hopefully gaining more work experience – and maybe even fit in
some travelling. I applied for two universities: one for a 2013 entry, and one for a 2014 entry, so
that I could decide what to do at a later date.
In the end, I decided against taking a gap year – I wanted to study English literature, and thought
a year out would mean my essay practice would diminish. I also knew that I could still keep my
job at my local newspaper and my part-time job while I was there.
For a teenage student, the prospect of providing for yourself, miles away from home, can be
daunting. This is the primary reason many give for not ticking the deferred entry option box and
booking the round-the-world plane ticket. But with an increasing number of gap year companies
providing travel and trips abroad to suit any need, it is becoming easier to tailor a dream trip.
The company ‘i-to-i’, for instance, offers opportunities to teach English, work with wildlife,
volunteer with children and building projects in locations such as Australia, Costa Rica, China
and Cambodia. These programs give you the chance to volunteer for a worthy cause, as well as
to gain some valuable work experience. You can also find gap year companies, such as Real Gap
Experience, that cover everything from internships abroad to paid work and volunteering – all
in the same place. It offers ideas and inspiration to start your travelling dream.
But gap years don't have to be all about travel. You can have a beneficial year out of education
and stay right where you are. Stephanie Wood intends to be a mental health nurse, but with
allied health courses being some of the most exclusive and competitive around, she is taking a
year off from education in order to gain an edge through work experience: "My plan is to get a
job that directly relates to my course for the next few months, so I can really gain a deeper
understanding of the healthcare system. Working there over a stretch of time will both give me
an impression and insight into the working world of nursing – knowledge to help me through
university when I choose to go."
Choosing to take a year out can help you gain valuable experience as well as give you the
opportunity to save up some funds to help you with accommodation when you get to university,
living costs, food – or even just extra cash for freshers week. However, Gap years aren't for
everyone. Readjusting to an academic timetable after spending time abroad can be a shock. You
also need to consider the practicalities, from financing your gap year to surviving without home
comforts.
If you do discover that you want to see the world but still go back into education or work in
September, you're in luck - this summer holiday is an extra long one for school leavers, so there's
still plenty of time to book your ticket.
Excerpted and adapted from [Link]
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Activity 5
Read the following text carefully and then do the activities below.
Glacier lakes: Growing danger zones in the Himalayas
Mountain regions from the Andes to the Himalayas ____________ (1. warm) faster than the
global average under climate change. Ice turns to water; glaciers are slowly reduced to lakes.
When Sir Edmund Hillary ________________ (2. make) his successful expedition to the top of
Everest in 1953, Imja glacier lake did not exist. But it ________ (3. now/be) the fastest-growing
of some 1,600 glacier lakes in Nepal, stretching down from the glacier for 1.5 miles and
spawning* three small ponds.
At its centre, the lake is about 600m wide and up to 96.5m deep in some places. It ____________
(4. grow) by 47m a year, nearly three times as fast as other glacier lake in Nepal.
The extent of recent changes to Imja ______________ (5. take) glacier experts by surprise. One
of them is Teiji Watanabe, a geographer at Hokkaido University in Japan, who has carried out
field research at the lake since the 1990s.
Watanabe returned to Imja in September. He made a nine-day trek with 30 other scientists and
engineers on a US-funded expedition led by the Mountain Institute. The expedition allowed
them to perceive the shocking rapid changes to the moraine* which is holding back the lake.
spawn: to make something happen or start to exist
moraine: a mass of earth or pieces of rock moved along by a glacier and left in a line at the bottom of it.
Excerpted and adapted from [Link]
a) Complete the blanks with suitable verb forms.
b) Identify the time frames used and explain the writer’s choice. Refer to the use of time
markers that signal time frame shifts (7-9 lines).
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