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Contrastive Grammar
Contrastive Grammar
mood
Ways of expressing time
reference.
Present tense. Past tense.
There are several ways of expressing time in speech. One
of the grammatical expressions of time is tense. Tense is
the subject of the following chapter. The famous British
linguist Bernard S. Comrie defines tenses as
grammaticalised expressions of time. However, there are
languages that did not grammaticalize time as tenses, such
as Chinese, Mandarin. These languages are called
tenseless.
There are many sources that affirm the fact English has
three tenses but there are a lot of opinions that English has
got only two. In this chapter we are going to focus on the
version that English has got two tenses. These tenses are
past and present tense.
The grammatical means of expressing
present, past and future events in both
Polish and English.
(ATELIC VERBS) I have been living / lived in this house since 2001.
Mieszkam w tym domu od 2001 roku.
Examples:
.London is a large city.
Londyn jest ogromnym miastem.
The activity or state occurs in the present but it began in the past
and will
continue in the (near) future.
Adverbial collocability: No time specifier
Tense/ Aspect: English: Present Simple
Polish: Present
Examples:
Examples:
Examples:
Examples:
Example:
E. There was a suggestion that Brown should be dropped from the team.
Colloquial:
E. There was a suggestion to drop Brown from the team.
P. Sugerowano, eby wyrzucic Browna z druyny.
Formal:
E. We ask that every citizen should watch closely any developments in
this matter.
Colloquial:
E. We ask every citizen to watch closely any developments in this
matter.
P. Prosimy kadego obywatela, eby ledzi wszelkie posunicia w tej
sprawie.
Conditional clauses
Theoretical meaning is expressed in
conditional sentences if the speaker has a real
condition in his mind, i.e. if he does not know
whether the event of the subordinate if-clause
occurred, occurs, will occur or not. The time
reference can be to past, present or future. In
both English and Polish real condition is
expressed by means of the indicative mood in
both the main and subordinate clauses.
Reference to past time:
English: Past tense is used in both clauses
Polish: Past tense is used in both clauses
Examples:
E. If John went to school, he met my sister.
P. Jeeli Jacek poszed do szkoy, to spotka
moj siostr.
Reference to present time:
English: Present tense in both clauses
Polish: Present tense in both clauses
Examples:
E. If Jane goes to school every day, she has
little time for babysitting.
P. Jeeli Janka chodzi do szkoy codziennie, to
ma niewiele czasu na opiek nad dzieckiem.
Reference to future time:
English: Shall/will + infinitive in the main clause,
Present Simple in the subordinate clause
Polish: Future tense in both clauses
Examples:
E. If Jane goes to school every day next year,
she will have little time for babysitting.
P. Jeeli Janka bdzie chodzia do szkoy
codziennie w przyszym roku, to bdzie miaa
niewiele czasu na opiek nad dzieckiem.
Hypothetical meaning (negative
truth commitment)
Unreal condition may be expressed with
reference to the event in the present time or in
the past time. In both cases the meaning of the
conditional clause is that the event described in
this clause is not true. There is a difference,
however, between unreal condition in the past
and in the present. In the former case the
meaning expressed is contrary to fact,
whereas in the latter, the meaning is contrary
to assumption. Two different modal forms are
used in both English and Polish to express
these meanings.
Events contrary to assumption
(concern the present time)
In English in the main clause Conditional
Mood I is used and in the subordinate clause
the verb is in Simple Past. In Polish the verbs in
both clauses have the form of Conditional Mood
I:
E. If you really loved me, youd buy me
everything I want. (I assume you dont love
me)
P. Gdyby mnie kocha naprawd, kupibys mi
wszystko czego zapragn.
Events contrary to facts (concern
the past time)