A contrastive look at the present perfect/preterite opposition in English and Norwegian

2001 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Elsness
Keyword(s):  
Zero Point ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Past Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
The Difference

This article deals with the opposition between the present perfect and the preterite in English and Norwegian from a contrastive point of view. The use of these verb forms is very similar in the two languages, and markedly different from that in closely related languages such as German and French, where the present perfect is used much more widely. In English and Norwegian the preterite is the norm if the reference is identified as being to past time which is clearly separate from the deictic zero-point, for instance through adverbial specification, while the present perfect is used of situations extending from the past all the way up to the deictic zero-point, and of situations located within such a time span. In many intermediate cases, where the reference is to a loosely defined past time, either verb form may be used in both languages, although several writers have claimed that the present perfect is more common in Norwegian than in English in such cases. The difference between the two languages is more distinct if the reference is to what can be seen as unique past time, in which case the present perfect is usually blocked in English but very common in Norwegian. Also, the so-called inferential perfect in Norwegian is not matched by any similar perfect use in English. These claims are amply confirmed by an investigation of the English–Norwegian Parallel Corpus (ENPC), where the present perfect is more frequent in the Norwegian as compared with the English sections, at the expense of the preterite. Moreover, there is found to be a marked difference between the original and the translated texts of the ENPC: the ratio between the present perfect and the preterite is generally higher in Norwegian than in English but not quite so high in Norwegian texts translated from English as in Norwegian original texts, and somewhat higher in English texts translated from Norwegian than in English original texts. This difference is ascribed to interference from the source language in the translated texts.

Smart Estimation Ver-H.1.0

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigit Haryadi
Keyword(s):  
Sample Size ◽  
Confidence Level ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Regression Equation ◽  
Weight Factor ◽  
The Past ◽  
Level Of Confidence ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Value ◽  
The Difference

We cannot be sure exactly what will happen, we can only estimate by using a particular method, where each method must have the formula to create a regression equation and a formula to calculate the confidence level of the estimated value. This paper conveys a method of estimating the future values, in which the formula for creating a regression equation is based on the assumption that the future value will depend on the difference of the past values divided by a weight factor which corresponding to the time span to the present, and the formula for calculating the level of confidence is to use "the Haryadi Index". The advantage of this method is to remain accurate regardless of the sample size and may ignore the past value that is considered irrelevant.

Immediacy and certainty: factors in understanding future reference

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Harner
Keyword(s):  
Future Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Remote Past ◽  
Future Reference

ABSTRACTSeventy-five children, 3, 4, and 5 years old, were interviewed about: (a) toys they had played with just a few minutes earlier, (b) toys they had played with on the preceding day, (c) toys they would play with in a few minutes, and (d) toys reserved for use on the following day. Verb forms indicating past and future time were used as well as the adverbials before and after. The past verb form was understood equally well in reference to the immediate past and the more remote past. However, the future verb form was better understood in reference to the immediate future than in reference to the remote future (the following day). The difference is discussed in terms of the intersection of time and mood in future verb forms. Immediacy of action and certainty of occurrence are suggested as early meaning components of future verb forms.

scholarly journals Child in Time. Autobiographic Battles of Vladimir Nabokov

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-363
Author(s):  
S. S. Avanesov
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Vladimir Nabokov ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Ordinary Objects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mutual Transition ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Autobiographical Work ◽  
To Come

This article is devoted to the analysis of autobiography as a form of anthropological practice of yourself. The autobiography of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Other Shores” has been investigated from this perspective in connection with his other works. The philosophical side of Nabokov’s memoirs is considered here. This made it possible to formulate the main problems of the writer’s autobiographical work: the ratio of memory and imagination when plotting, the difference between fact and event in the structure of memory, the degree of individual freedom from coercion of objective historical circumstances, the possibility of discerning the meaning of one’s own biography long before the end of physical life. As a result of the study, Nabokov’s autobiography is characterized as a struggle against time for personal immortality. In this struggle, the writer is not so much expressing as creating yourself. He takes an active position in the act of remembrance, directing memory into the mainstream of the search for the meaning of his past, starting from early childhood. A person who remembers himself gets the opportunity to break out of the linear course of time, to distinguish repetitions in the past and read them as signs of his biography. Finally, reconfiguring biographic optics allows the author to come to a point of view from which he, through ordinary objects, begins to see not only the past and the future in their mutual transition, but also eternity. Thus, the writer avoids the main threat hanging over the mortal creature – the prospect of its annihilation.

scholarly journals Forest Wood through the Eyes of a Cultural Conservator

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1001
Author(s):  
Angeliki Zisi
Keyword(s):  
Time Span ◽  
Human Intervention ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Human History ◽  
Past Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
Degradation Processes ◽  
Human Creativity ◽  
Natural Degradation

If prehistoric and historical time were placed into the time span of the existence of our universe, then the act of archaeology could be defined as the act of digging up what was only buried yesterday. So, conservation is about preserving a moment that has just become past time, yet significant. It is a moment of human creativity and ingenuity. It is not strange that forest wood has become the material to convey such moments. Forest wood is a living, everlasting source growing without human intervention, within reach, easy to use and shape thinking both great and small. It does not have to be a wooden ship; it can be a mere piece of charcoal. For it is what surrounded humans in the past which archaeologists seek and use to weave human history, and what conservators bring back to context by reviving it. This work presents forest wood as an artefact and its preservation challenges as such. It touches on its natural degradation processes through burial, compromised properties and eventual conservation. Both dry and waterlogged wood are included. The overarching aim of this paper is to pay tribute, preserve and inspire the long-standing, open dialog and fruitful collaboration between cultural conservators and forest and wood scientists.

scholarly journals Swoiste sposoby określania czynności przy ich powtórnym opisie

2019 ◽  
pp. 259-272
Author(s):  
Marina J. Glovinskaja
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Time Perspectives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Previous Statement ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Cultural Texts ◽  
Stage Directions

The article is devoted to a separate variety of statements: statements reporting the content of other statements. The author refers to this type of speech as ‘retelling’ (Russian: pereskaz) and points to its use in presenting the content of literary works, journalistic texts, various cultural texts (film, opera, ballet, etc.) and, less frequently, also spoken statements. One typical where these forms occur are headlines reporting on the content of the following text and stage directions. ‘Retelling’ is characterized by specific ways of using the forms of the perfective and imperfective aspects of the verb and the use of temporal forms of the verb, different from the usual dependence of tenses (such as ‘future in the past’). This is justified by their metatextual function. In these cases, there is a transition to the second or even third level of temporal deixis, when events are not presented (as opposed to a simple statement) from the point of view of the ‘here and now’ of the current sender but, instead, presented as elements of the reality already presented in the previous statement and reported from the perspective of its author or recipient/interpreter (who may assume different time perspectives vis-à-vis the content of the presented text). A thorough analysis of the material illustrating the ‘retelling’ in the article reveals specific cases of synonymy between different tense-aspect verb forms.

The evolution of the “hot news” perfect in English

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-152
Author(s):  
Xinyue Yao
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Past ◽  
Contextual Influence ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
English Verb

This paper deals with the “hot news” use of the English present perfect. Previous research has suggested that this use marks the end point of the perfect category, paving the way for further grammaticalisation to a perfective or past tense. To examine its historical development in Modern English, verb forms in the leads of hard news reports in the New York Times and the Sydney Morning Herald were examined, with comparison made between two time periods, 1851–1900 and 1951–2000. Attention was given to contextual influence on the choice between the present perfect and the past tense for expressing hot news meanings. The quantitative findings show that the hot news perfect has not taken over the ground of other tense forms, but has become increasingly associated with unspecified, recent past time. The evolution of the English present perfect in general is characterised by register-mediated functional specialisation.

scholarly journals Functional verb specificity in the report

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-417
Author(s):  
Vladimir I. Kon’kov ◽  
◽  
Huejcin’ Chzhan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Functional Identity ◽  
Past Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
Information Reporting ◽  
Russian Verb ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Media

The work analyzes the functionality of the Russian verb in the genre of information reporting. The use of the verb in the form of this actual (real reportage) is considered one of the main features of the genre of reporting. However, the analysis shows that along with the forms of the present topical in the report are actively used forms of verbs of the past time of imperfect kind. The authors pay attention to the functional identity of these verb forms. The present reportage (real topical) can only be formed from the verbs of an imperfect kind. It is the imperfect ap pearance of the verb that gives the reader a sense of inclusion in the event, which is mentioned in the report. It does not matter whether the verbs of an imperfect kind are in the form of the present or the past. The functionality of the verb in the text of the report is described in close connection with the nature of the media text, in particular with the category of social space time. The concept of the communicative status of the media library is introduced — the degree of relevance of the media text for society, due to the nature of its connection with the coor dinates of social space-time. There are three communicative statuses. The actual mediatext is such at the time of publication, when it is part of the general practical activity of the society. The mediatext is being created for here and for now. Texts of the past time lose direct connec tion with the present topical society, but do not lose their importance. They store important information, experience acquired by society. Mediatexts that have lost touch with society be come artifacts of a bygone era, acquiring the status of a cognitive text. The ability to describe a mediate based on the chronotop category is analyzed. The use of the category of chronotop in the understanding of M. M. Bakhtin can be considered correct only in relation to the study of the essay and reportage of a large volume with a developed visual and analytical beginning.

Agents and their Actions

Philosophy ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIA ALVAREZ ◽  
JOHN HYMAN
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Philosophy Of Action ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
The Past ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
The Difference

In the past thirty years or so, the doctrine that actions are events has become an essential, and sometimes unargued, part of the received view in the philosophy of action, despite the efforts of a few philosophers to undermine the consensus. For example, the entry for Agency in a recently published reference guide to the philosophy of mind begins with the following sentence:A central task in the philosophy of action is that of spelling out the differences between events in general and those events that fall squarely into the category of human action.There is no consensus about what events are. But it is generally agreed that, whatever events may prove to be, actions are a species or a class of events. We believe that the received view is mistaken: actions are not events. We concede that for most purposes, the kind of categorial refinement which is involved in either affirming or denying that actions are events is frankly otiose. Our common idiom does not stress the difference between actions and events, at least not in general terms, because it has no need to. Perhaps it sounds a little odd to say that some events are performed; but if we balked at describing, say, the abdication of Edward VIII as one of the politically significant events in Britain in 1936, it could not be for metaphysical reasons. And since actions, like events, are datable — though often, as we shall see, only imprecisely — actions are said to take place and to occur. But an important class of actions consist in moving something; indeed, according to many philosophers, every action consists in moving something. And when we consider actions of this sort from a theoretical point of view it becomes imperative to distinguish between actions and events. Or so we shall argue.

Perfect grams in Lithuanian and Latvian: A comparative analysis based on a typological questionnaire

2021 ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Peter Arkadiev
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comparative Investigation ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
The Past ◽  
Separate Category ◽  
Perfect Form ◽  
Special Variety ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Difference

This article presents a first detailed comparative investigation of the semantics of the perfect verbal forms in standard Lithuanian and Latvian. A typological questionnaire filled by five Latvian and seven Lithuanian informants reveals the difference in the degree of grammaticalization of the present perfect between the two Baltic languages. The set of contexts available for the present perfect in Latvian is wider and more reminiscent of the perfects in English and Scandinavian languages in comparison to the Lithuanian counterpart. While in Lithuanian the present perfect is restricted to the experiential and the resultative contexts, where it is also often substituted by the simple past, Latvian also employs the present perfect to convey the meanings of ‘hot news’, current relevance and persistent situation. The past perfect, on the contrary, is more frequent in Lithuanian and appears to be a separate category rather than a past tense version of the present perfect. The article also discusses the use of the future perfect and of a special variety of the perfect with the auxiliary in the evidential form, as well as the use of ‘bare’ participles formally coinciding with the second component of the analytical perfect form but used without the auxiliary.

Association and Disassociation in Storm's Novellen: A Study on the Meaning of the Frame

PMLA ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-404
Author(s):  
R. M. Browning
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Narrative Art ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Past ◽  
Actual Experience ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Excellent Article

It has not escaped the notice of students of Storm's novelistic art that many of his Novellen employ the device known as the “frame,” nor have explanations been lacking as to its purpose. Most attention has not unnaturally been paid to the frames of the stories laid in the comparatively distant past—the so-called “Chroniknovellen” and the Schimmelreiler. The first systematic investigation of the use of the frame by Storm and his contemporaries is the study by Hans Bracher, Rahmen-erzahlung und Verwandtes bei G. Keller, C. F. Meyer und Th. Storm (Leipzig, 1909). This monograph examines the problem chiefly from the standpoint of the kind of frame encountered in these writers and the technical uses to which it is put. The question of the inner necessity of the frame is left largely unanswered, a fact of which Bracher himself is well aware. Georg Baesecke in a review of the book by H. Eichentopf, Th. St.s Erzdhlungskunst—in Zeitschrift f. deut. Philologie, XLI (1909), 520–531—has advanced the interesting theory that the frame is for Storm a means of freeing his hand and his conscience; the ego thereby shoves the responsibility for the truth of the epic material upon a third person. Baesecke arrives at this point of view by proceeding on the assumption that Storm's novelistic art grew out of his lyrical art, as the poet himself indeed asserted, though it has never been satisfactorily explained just what he meant by this dictum. Baesecke implies that in the lyrical production the ego is free to speak in its own right out of actual experience. That part of Thérèse Rockenbach's study which has been available to me, Th. St.s Chroniknovellen (Diss., Braunschweig, 1916), hardly throws new light on the “why” of the Stormian frame, though the author calls attention to interesting parallels between Storm's technique and that of others, especially Brentano, Stifter, and Raabe. Walter Brecht—“Storm und die Geschichte,” Deut. Vierteljahrss.,iii (1925), 444–462—remarks that the difference between Storm's frames and those of other writers lies not so much in the technique itself as in the “Flut von Stim-mung, die in dem meist unausgesprochenen Nebeneinander in Rahmen und Erzählung steigt.” Storm's central concern, Brecht feels, is the “relation between Then and Now.” The gap between the past and the present is nothing less than the gap between life and death, which is itself a “mysterious connection.” In the frame, which is the instrument by means of which Storm “perspectively elongates” the present into the past, this relationship becomes particularly evident. Franz Stuckert, in his excellent article, “Th. St.s novellistische Form”—Germ.-Roman. Monatss., 27. Jhg. (1939), 24–39—seeks the origins of Storm's narrative art in the oral tradition of storytelling and finds that the frame fulfills for the poet an inner need by creating a situation analogous to that of audience and story-teller.

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