English Semantics II Department of English Linguistics

Submitted on 19 June 2019

Tense, Aspect, and Mood

Classification of Cognitive and Perception Verbs

Nazia Shah
Id: 201830057

Abstract

Tense, aspect, and mood (TAM) are the grammatical categories denotes time and reality. English
mental verbs can be categorized into two kinds, perception and cognition. Perception verbs
express physical, tangible, visible or sensory input experience (e.g., see, look, watch); cognitive
verbs refer to mental experience or some abstract properties of the proposition (e.g., think, know,
wonder). TAM, perception verbs, and cognitive verbs have been discussed with different
viewpoints, but relationship among these three principal terms has not been elaborated yet.
Therefore, the present study aims at bridging this gap by classifying perception and cognitive
verbs under the head of TAM. The multiple senses (Polysemy) and concepts of the verbs will be
interpreted by focusing on their tense (present and past), aspect (perfective and imperfective),
and modality (epistemic, deontic). The objective of the study is to explore the place of cognitive
and perception verbs in three grammatical categories time, aspect, and mood with their multiple
interpretations. Moreover, the constructions of cognitive and perception verbs in relation to TAM
will be compared and contrasted, so that we can find appropriate results regarding the types of
verbs that can be used or may not be used with specific category of TAM.
Keywords: TAM, classification, Cognitive verbs, perception verbs.
 1. Introduction

In English there are three grammatical paradigms Tense, Aspect, and Mood that
conceptualize domain of time and reality. Tense indicates the time of the situation in relation to
reference point; aspect is the internal temporal structure of the situation; mood expresses
speaker’s commitment to the truth, likelihood, or necessity of the situation. Tense, aspect, and
mood concern events, not just verbs. But verbs are significant elements of events, so these
categories are marked as morphemes of central verbs, or expressed by auxiliary verbs.
Perception and cognitive verbs are not been explained and elaborated within TAM categories,
which are also commonly used verbs in all kinds of discourse. Perception verbs are related to
physical or figurative properties whereas cognitive verbs are not tangible because they are
concerned with abstract mental processes.

Few studies have discussed perception verbs within the category of tense. Kubota (2016)
describes perception verbs usage within cognitive linguistic and contextual domain. Though
most studies discuss perception and cognitive verbs in relation to polysemy, syntax, and
semantic. Hence, till date no study has argued and elaborated their multiple meanings or senses
within TAM categories. The present study is designed to fill this gap, and aims at finding the
relationship of cognitive and perception with time, aspect, and mood.

2. Literature Review

Most of the studies on perception verbs analyze and argue their functions in the
languages of the world. Some studies have discussed their multiple senses by using the domain
of polysemy and have investigated the polysemy of perception verbs in daily conversations in
relation to their semantic and pragmatic functions. Examples have been extracted from multiple
languages and findings suggest that the perception verbs play a pivotal role in social interactions.
Roque (2018) compared English and Lithuanian perception verbs and deduced that such
semantic difference was found due to the structural differences in the compliment of the verbs.
Perception verbs (e.g., see, seem) have been discussed in terms of their use in first, second, and
third person with their relevancy to present, past, and future tense. But unlike our study analysis
are more syntactic based (e.g., complementation, transitivity). Semantic elaboration has also
been made from two viewpoints, such as experiencer verb: “I can see” and stimuli verbs : “the
dog look/seem sad” (Usonlene, 2003) . Perception verbs also serve the purpose of evidentially
and inter-subjectivity as they denote sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Whitt (2008) proposed
that auditory perception verbs (e.g., hear and sound); are evidential markers both in German and
English. He also suggested their subjectivity and inter-subjectivity (stance and engagement)
mechanism through their usage in different complementation patterns (Whitt, 2011). Further, the
verbs have also been categorized to show direct and indirect evidentially in Romanian language.
The author concludes that direct evidentially uses reduced CP; whereas indirect evidentiality
uses full-fledged CP (Alboiu, 2013).

Studies on Tense, Aspect, and Mood demonstrate different approaches; numerous verbs
types have been observed under the head of TAM except cognitive and perception verbs.
Lusekelo (2016) reported that Kiswahili durative and stative verbs occurs with all TAM
formatives: tenses (past-present-future) and aspects (perfective, progressive, habitually). Stative
verbs use in progressives has been unmarked grammatically; though, their progressive use has
been discussed in functional semantics. Expressions such as Be loving and Be knowing can be
used in in progressive construction, specifically in spoken language, their use in written English
is still open for debate (Garanath & Wherrity, 2014). Tense, aspect, and mood have also been
discussed within the frame work of cognitive strategies like polysemy, metaphor and metonymy.
These three categories can be used to express speaker’s construal to report on objective reality
(Janda, 2004).

3. Proposed Study
The aim of the present study is to classify perception and cognitive verbs as tense, aspect,
and mood makers. By examining the use of cognitive and perception verbs as the categories of
tense, aspect, and mood, we can demonstrate the verbs that can be used and cannot be used as
TAM markers. The investigation of perception and cognitive verbs have been divided into three
main units tense, aspect, and modality; with the sub-division of each main unit. The data has
been used in the study is extracted from CQweb, a corpus collection of American and British
English. The verbs under investigation are the following: Perception Verbs (PV): see, look,
listen, hear, taste, and smell; Cognitive verbs (CV): understand, believe, remember, think, and
know.
As per the objectives of the present study, the research questions have been divided into three
complementary parts:
o Can cognitive and perception verbs indicate present and past time?

o Can cognitive and perception verb describe situation within perfective and imperfect
aspectual domain?
o Can cognitive and perception show different modalities such as epistemic and deontic
modality?
4. Tense, Aspect, and Mood
4.1 Tense

Tense reflects the meaning of the verb to time scale, whereas time has three divisions, past,
present, and future and morphologically English has two tenses. Time is a universal
phenomenon, can be used independently of grammatical categories. This section will categorize,
perception and cognitive verbs within two time domains, the present and the past.

Present Tense. The present form usually refers to present point of time or period of time.
Almost all the cognitive and perception verbs can be used within present time domain,
specifically simple present tense, but few can be use be in progressive tense. There are different
ways to express present time.

Simple present tense. Simple present tense form of verb tense refers indefinite, habitual,
and repetitive actions. Sentences (1a) and (1b) both show present time. But from the above
analysis it can be deduced that cognitive verbs are more static in nature. In contrast, perception
verbs can show dynamicity such as repeated action in the present time. On the whole both verbs
show states such as thinking, believing, listening or smelling, which show repetitive actions with
no end point and suits best simple present category.

1. a. I think/believe/understand/remember/know it is a good initiative. (CV)

b. I see/listen/hear/taste/smell them every day. (PV)
Present progressive tense. Present progressive shows an action of limited duration or
immediate present. This tense unlike states shows action and duration unlike, so only verbs
thinking or listening can be used in such constructions which describe continuous activity. Other
activities i.e. hearing, seeing, looking, knowing cannot show duration of an action. For instance,
I can believe someone is honest as a repetitive thought but I cannot believe for a particular
duration that someone is honest such as he is honest now or for four minutes. Like Some studies
(Garanath & Wherrity, 2014) attest these verbs use in spoken language but these constructions
do not suit formal written text.

2. a. *I am hearing/seeing/looking/tasting somebody is crying. (PV)

b. *I am knowing/believing/remembering that I am honest. (CV)

3. a. I am really thinking about the offer. (CV)

b. *I am understanding what you mean. (CV)

4. a.. I am listening or We are listening you. (PV)

b. *The food Ann is cooking is smelling delicious. (PV)

The progressive use of some PV and CV is clearly unacceptable in progressive forms, as

they purely reflect states i.e. sentence (2a) & (4a). The verb thinking and listening are the only
verbs that can be used in progressive forms as they both show duration of an action rather than
state. On other hand, sentences (3b) & (4b) show complex results, sometimes they are allowed to
be used in progressive constructions instead of understand or smell, but grammatically there use
is not marked.
Past time. Past time can be expressed through simple past and past progressive. Simple past
expresses an action that has been completed; past progressive refers an action that has not
completed yet or is in progress. Almost all the PV and CV can be used to show past actions
which describe state or completed action or situation. They have their regular or irregular forms
to show past actions.

5. a. I saw and heard many important things. (PV)

b. I tasted the truly delicious British beef.
c. It simply smelled/smelt good.
d. She listened quietly while I spoke.

6. a. Maggie believed/thought that children literatures should be innovative. (CV)

b. She understood/knew it.
c. He remembered something worst.

7. a. we’ve/’d seen the tip of iceberg. (PV)

b. *He has/had heard his upstairs neighbors yelling.
c. Anna has/had tasted her pie.
d. * I have/had looked her.
 e. *He has/had smelled the rose.

8. a. He has/had also thought big. (CV)

b. I have/had always believed in in the honesty
c. She must have understood.
d. The country has/had ever known to him
e. Few politicians are remembered for god deeds.

Sentences (5) and (8) reflect that PV and CV are not common constructions with present and
past perfect tense. Present perfect show the past time action relevance with the present time
situation and past perfect describes an activity that took place within a period of time in the past.
Both past and present perfect tense denotes duration, and PV and CV are not suitable for
constructions demonstrate activity. The PV seen is the only verb that best suits these both tenses.
Others are used with modals or adverbs ‘always’ or ‘ever’ to complete the sense. But those
constructions are also unmarked.

Past progressive denotes two or more activities or states continuing at the same time or
occurrence of another activity when one was already going on. We examine the use Cognitive
Verbs such as thinking, believing, looking, or listening within such constructions:

9. a. They were thinking about retiring. (CV)

b. * We were correct in believing. (Gerund form)
c. *This was the understanding that guided me.

From the above examples, we can come to the conclusion that only CV thinking show past
time meaning, other verbs can be used as a gerund form only.

10. a. I was hearing, in other words. (PV)

b. We were looking for other options.

PV seems to be more active in past progressive tense than CV. By nature, PV are more
durable than CV. But all PV does not come within the paradigm of past progressive such as
taste, smell, and see, these physical activities do not describe any duration they occur for a
limited period or a moment.
 CV PV
Present think, See,listen,hear,taste,smell Simple present
believe,understand,remember,know Listening Progressive
thinking
Past Believed,thought,understood,remembere Saw,smelled,tasted,listened,hear Simple past
d d Progressive
thinking Hearing
Table 1: Summary of CV and PV as time domain verbs

4.2 Aspect

Aspect is a grammatical category describes the viewpoint from which the situation or action
is seen: in progress, duration, beginning, ending, or repeated. Traditionally it can be defined as
what Comrie (1976) calls “different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a
situation”. English has two aspects perfective and progressive; verbs those cannot reflect aspect
are called simple aspect verb.

The imperfective aspect is used when we focus on the internal structures of activity,
states, and events; whereas perfective aspects express activity, states, and events as a whole i.e. a
complete bounded events. Activity verbs denotes an action that can be continued incessantly
over an extended, or infinite, period of time; accomplishment verbs describe a situation that can
last for a certain period of time but have a clear endpoint with an end result. In contrast,
achievement verbs express instantaneously completed action and imply change in state, and
states (non- dynamism: e.g., believe) are roughly described as verbs that refer to atelic conditions
with no definite beginning or end.

Achievement and accomplishment: Achievement and activities are telic which a natural
stopping point, movement of the end point. Vendler (1957) describes seeing as an achievement
whereas look cannot be used as achievement verbs because looking does not provide an account
of change in situation, the situation cannot be interpreted intelligibly. On the other hand, see
show change in state, the situation is interpreted in its whole:

11. a. I have seen it. (achievement/accomplishment)

b. *I have looked. (not completive)
 c. We heard Mr.Smith’ s impassioned speech. (achievement/*accomplishment)

Verb see can show inceptive and durative meanings, so it expresses both achievement and
accomplishment. Verb hear does not describe any change in state; for instance, they just heard
Mr. Smith speech, they did not listen it till the end or they might not have understood it. Hence,
the whole scenario defines the meaning of (11c) as an achievement not accomplishment. Verbs
look, taste, touch do not have inherent property of aspect such as punctual or completive.
Moreover, unlike see, CV know, think, understand, believe, and remember neither refer
achievement nor accomplishment, because they do not have any durative meaning, for example:

12. a. * The truth was known to/by me. (no end point or change )
b. *I understand the matter. (no change in state)

States and Activities. States and activities have atelic properties because they do not refer
to event type that has natural end point or process of the event without any specific endpoint. CV
and PV indicate thoughts, feelings, wishes and senses, which purely refer to states. Though, in
some instances they can be used in activities or dynamic situations such as:

13. a. I am thinking of two important aspects here.

b. We are hearing that everything is ready.
c. We saw the immense damage.

Among other verbs know, taste, touch, remember, look all expresses states. The most
common property of all PV and CV is that they are atelic therefore does not refer end point. For
instance, in (13a-c) all the situations do not denote any point of the situation that how long
thinking, hearing, and seeing lasts, their meaning can be interpreted as regardless of beginning
and end point. For further understanding of this context see the examples below:

14. a. we knew that there was proposal at the back of a drawer.

b. I taste the pie.
c. I remember the day we submitted our recommendation.
d. I look to the new President to bring about the new restructuring.
e. I believe it to be really essential.
f. ‘We can smell Italian food,’ they said
 CV PV

Achievements - see Telic

Accomplishments - See, hear Telic
States Remember,know,believ taste,touch,look Atelic
e
Activity Thinking hear, saw Atelic
Table 2. Summary of CV and PV as aspectual verbs

4.3 Modality

Mood refers to the way the speaker express his attitude towards his utterance (Victoria,
2005). Mood or modality expresses degree of necessity, obligation, probability, ability including
evidentially through inflections or by use of auxiliary verbs. PV and CV demonstrate evidential
reading; as the former focuses on visible, known, actual aspect and later pertains to non-visible,
unknown, and non-actual modal dimension.

Epistemic Modality: Epistemic modality refers to indicate the extent to which the speaker is
committed to the truth of the proposition (Bybee, 1985). The most common attitudes describe
through epistemic modality are possibility, probability, and inferred certainty. It is observed that
perception and cognitive verbs can express epistemic modality. Sentences (15a-b) show that
think and believe can indicate subjunctive mood.

15. a. I think he has put all the books in shelf. (Possibility/Probability)

b. I believe that he has put all the books in the shelf. (Possibility/ Probability)

Sentences (15a-b) define the possibility of the situation, which is expressed through CV such
as think and believe, because it is my assumption instead of confirmation that he might have put
all books in the shelf. Sentences (16 a-d) demonstrate probability with greater likelihood that the
proposition is truer than sentences (15 a-b). The PV seen, listen, and hear shows physical ability
to show the certainty of situation, the approaching of train is certain because it is deduced
through physical experience. So, it can be concluded that PV denotes certainty of event or
situations, and CV indicate possibility of the action or situation.

16. a. I hear the sound of train; it seems approaching towards main station. (certainty)
b. I know that he has put all the books in the shelf. (Certainty)
 c. I listen to the sound of train approaching towards the main station. (Certainty)
d. I have seen the train is approaching towards the main station. (Certainty)

The PV know can also add subjective epistemic reading as they are interpreted as relative to
a speaker knowledge of state at the time of utterance, an explicit epistemic possibility.

17. a. I do not know the answer.

b. Only God knows what future holds for us.

Deontic modality. Deontic modality indicates ability, desire, and intention of the speaker.
CV and PV can express ability of the speaker but they cannot be used to express permission
(e.g., may), obligation (e.g., should), necessity (e.g., must), and desire (e.g., wish). Cognitive and
perception verbs can also denote ability such as the following sentences illustrate the ability of
the person:

18. a. I understand what you mean. (Mental ability)

b. I know how to speak English. (Mental ability)
c. I smell beautiful fragrance of the rose. (Physical ability)
d. I see a light flashing at the end of the street. (Physical ability)

The most appropriate verb for showing ability is the perception verb know: ‘to know’ or ‘to
know how to’. It can be used to show both physical and mental ability, therefore, it signifies
ability in general (19a).

19. a. I know how to shoot a cross bow. (Mental+ physical ability)

Realis and Irrealis. Mood can also define realis and irrealis proposition; it distinguishes
between actual and non-actual events, as occurring or not occurring in the real world (Chunk &
Timberlake, 1985). As a statement of fact, realis expresses what the speaker considers to be a
known state of affairs. Irealis indicates certainty of situation or action which is not known to
have happened at the moment of speaking. We can examine through the following sentences the
use of CV and PV as realis and irrealis mood.

20. a. People think/assume/believe teachers are off for the summer. (irrealis)
b. People know teachers are off for the summer. (realis)
c. It is good to see that justice is being served. (realis)
 From the above examples it can be deduced that CV expresses irrealis mood. As they
signify mental states instead of something tangible or real, so they do not illustrate certainty of
the situation, whether it actually happened. On the other hand, PV can be used to utter real
situation due to their tangible and physical interpretation.

Evidentiality: Evidentiality is defined as speaker’s source of information encoded in

language (Chafe & Nicolas, 1986). PV and CV can be categorized as direct (i.e., perceptual or
visual) and indirect (i.e., cognitive) evidential types. They both express close relationship
between information (PV) and knowledge (CV), as close relation between evidentiality and
epistemic modality. In CV, the referent is hidden or foregrounded or the evidential meaning is
not confirmed but rather as assumption (20 c-d). Linguistic knowledge is compatible with
knowledge involved in vision, where objects are and where they can be locate in space (as in 20
a-b). Almost all PV and CV indicate evidence-type of information; i.e. I hear that, I see that, I
think that, as I can see, it seems to me, as far as I understand, it looks like etc.

21. a. I can see a back garden path where roses grow.

b. I hear that voice twice in a day.
c. I think the community dynamics are changing
d. I understand her legs are smashed.

CV PV
Epistemic know hear, listen, see Certainty
think, believe - Possibility
Deontic know, understand - Mental ability
smell, see Physical ability
Realis/Irrealis think assume, believe - Irrealis
know See Realis

Evidentiality think, understand see, hear

Table 3. Summary of CV and PV classification of Modality.

5. Discussion

Cognitive and perception verbs directly refer to human experience of situation. Cognitive
verbs refer to human activities and states such as to think, to understand, to know etc. Perception
verbs define human sensory system in terms of visual, aural, and touch. Hence, sensory
perception and mental reasoning are interconnected phenomenon, but still the line is drawn
because the former provide sensory input and later describe mental system.

Time domain: PV and CV can denote simple present and simple past time. Their use in
progressive tenses is still seems unmarked, because all verbs more closely denote states instead
of activity. Verbs such as thinking or listening refer to duration of an activity, other PV and CV
use in progressive is not attested yet. For instance, I am knowing, believing, remembering cannot
denote duration or continuous action. Though, in past progressive tense, few of the verbs like
thinking, listening, or looking make some sense of progressive activity. They best indicate
habituality in present tense such as verb know, think, or believe; similarly, perception verbs see,
smell, hear, or listen describe habitual or repetitive actions. Similarly, all the above mentioned
verbs can be used in past time due to their stationary or tentative nature i.e. heard, listened,
believe, or knew. Furthermore, in perfective tenses these constructions are uncommon, because
perfect tenses refer incomplete or continuous action. For example, had heard, have smelled, have
looked do not indicate continuous sense of an action, because sensory actions are temporal.
Only, verb see can be used with such constructions, due to their semantic extension of durable
meaning. On the other hand, CV can be used in these constructions, but with the help of
adverbials or modals, regardless fulfilling perfect tense demands.

Aspect: From aspectual point of view, Cognitive and perception verbs are the class of verbs
that do not fit within aspectual domain, because aspect denotes action in progress with its
duration, beginning, and ending. Few PV like see and hear can be used as telic verbs: as seeing
something refers to durative meaning with clear ending and change of state, because something
is understood or concluded through the experience of vision. Whereas hear demonstrates
achievement it can have clear end point, but does not account for change in state. CV know,
think, understand, believe, and remember neither refer achievement nor accomplishment,
because they does not have any durative meaning with change in state and they express mental
states only. We have found that PV and CV are best aspectual markers when it comes to explain
states and activities. These states and activities are atelic, without clear inherent ending point,
and CV and PV show mental state and sensory experience, where limited time duration is hard to
achieve. For instance, one cannot say, I saw/heard/though/understood him for twenty minutes, no
clear start and end point. Instead, one can say ‘I saw him’, ‘I am thinking’, or’I knew him’ with
clear sense of state and activity regardless of particular duration.

Modality: CV and PV best fit to serve the purpose of mood or modality. CV and PV
indicate evidentiality: possibility, probability, and certainty like epistemic modality, though
unlike epistemic modality evidentially have to add source of information. From the above
discussion, it is concluded that CV show indirect evidentiality because of expressing mental
knowledge and PV express direct evidentiality which refer to seeing, smelling, and listening. PV
see or look (Sweetsor, 1990) are the best example of evidentiality, because they give and account
of visual information. Though, auditory verbs listen and hear also provide information, but they
degree of authenticity is less certain than visual evidence. Verbs such as think and believe are the
best examples of epistemic and evidential modality. It is extracted from above discussion that
CV and PV show ability as TAM markers. Verbs like know, think, understand, hear, see, listen,
smell notably denote mental and physical ability, as both seems to be interconnected in
performing acts. Furthermore, we have observed that verbs differ in their degree of emphasis.
For example, I know indicates greater certainty than I think, and can be used as stronger source
of epistemicity and evidentially. The verb think shows mental operation of human mind which
refer to opinion and verb know indicate direct confirmation and certainty of information.
Moreover, we examined that most of the CV indicate polysemy, and one verb can replace
another to show epistemic markers i.e. believe, know and think. Hence, CV are more
semantically related than PV.

6. Conclusions
This study explored perception and cognitive verbs from the perspective of tense, aspect,
and mood. We have observed that these verbs can function within the paradigm of time and
modality, but their use as aspectual category seems to be unmarked. The study has also
elaborated some comparative analysis of cognitive and perception verbs, which has helped to
deduce that every verb has its own property and attribute, regardless of their types.
Consequently, it is observed that each cognition and perception verb cannot be fit within all the
classes of tense, aspect and mood.
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