[*] 464.
The number of possible Tenses is very great. For in each of the three
times, Present, Past, and Future, an action may be represented as
going on, completed, or
beginning; as habitual or
isolated; as defined in time or
indefinite (
aoristic); as
determined with reference to the time of the speaker,
or as not itself so determined but as relative to some time
which is determined; and the past and future times may be near or
remote. Thus a scheme of thirty or more tenses might be devised.
But, in the development of forms, which always takes place gradually, no
language finds occasion for more than a small part of these. The most
obvious distinctions, according to our habits of thought, appear in the
following scheme:—
|
1. Definite (fixing
the time of the action) |
2. Indefinite
|
|
INOOMPLETE |
COMPLETE |
NARRATIVE |
|
Present: |
a. I am
writing.
|
d. I have
written.
|
g. I
write.
|
|
Past: |
b. I was
writing.
|
e. I had
written.
|
h. I
wrote.
|
|
Future: |
c. I shall be
writing.
|
f. I shall
have written.
|
i. I shall
write.
|
Most languages disregard some of these distinctions, and some make other
distinctions not here given. The Indo-European parent speech had a
Present tense to express
a and
g, a Perfect to express
d, an Aorist to express
h, a Future to
express
c and
i, and
an Imperfect to express
b. The Latin, however,
confounded the Perfect and Aorist in a single form (the Perfect
scrīpsī
), thus losing all distinction of form between
d and
h, and probably in
a great degree the distinction of meaning. The nature of this confusion
may be seen by comparing
dīxī
,
dicāvī
, and
didicī
(all Perfects derived from the same root, DIC), with
ἔδειξα, Skr.
adiksham,
δέδειχα, Skr.
dideça. Latin also developed two new
forms, those for
e (
scrīpseram
) and
f (
scrīpserō
), and thus possessed six tenses, as seen in § 154.
c.
The lines between these six tenses in Latin are not hard and fast, nor
are they precisely the same that we draw in English. Thus in many verbs
the form corresponding to
I have written
(
d) is used for those corresponding to
I am writing (
a) and
I write (
g) in a slightly
different sense, and the form corresponding to
I had
written (
e) is used in like manner for that
corresponding to
I was writing
(
b). Again, the Latin often uses the form for
I shall have written (
f) instead
of that for
I shall write (
i).
Thus,
nōvī,
I
have learned, is used for
I know;
cōnstiterat,
he had taken
his position, for
he stood;
cōgnōverō,
I shall have learned, for
I shall
be aware. In general a writer may take his own point of view.
TENSES OF THE INDICATIVE
INCOMPLETE ACTION: PRESENT TENSE
