Present perfect In british and american

We went. – Мы шли. (The second form of the verb “to go”)

He forgot. – Он забыл. (The second form of the verb “to forget”)

Negative and interrogative forms are formed with the auxiliary verb "did" (the second form of the verb "to do") and the infinitive of the semantic verb.

Did you work yesterday? – Ты вчера работал?

I didn’t work yesterday. – Я вчера не работал.

We should draw our attention that the ending "-ed" of the semantic verb is only in the affirmative form of the Past Simple Tense! For simplicity, we can remember that “-ed” in questions and negation from the semantic verb moves to “did”:

I played golf in the morning. – Утром я играл в гольф.

Did you play golf in the morning? – Ты играл утром в гольф?

No, I didn’t play golf in the morning. – Нет, я утром не играл в гольф.

The use of the Past Simple Tense:

Pribytok states: “With the Past Simple can describe almost any past action, so all the other past tenses of English is often confused with it” [18]. But this tense has its own specific cases of the use which are presented below.

The Past Simple Tense is used:

For transfer of action in the past, that is not related to the present in the context. It can be a simple fact or a single complete action:

The Titanic sank in 1912. – Титаник затонул в 1912 году.

She spoke to him in a low voice. – Она тихо  говорила с ним.

We stayed in this hotel last summer. – Мы останавливались в этом отеле в прошлом году.

To transfer a sequence of actions that took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order.

I woke up, took a shower, got dressed and went out to have breakfast in a café. – Я проснулся, принял  душ, оделся и вышел, чтобы  позавтракать в кафе.

To transfer repetitive actions in the past. This action happened many times in the past, it was usual or permanent, but now it no longer occurs. (Thus, repeat that any action expressed by the Past Simple Tense, ended once and for all, and we may speak only as of the fact in the past.)

When we were friends, he came to me every day to discuss his ideas. – Когда мы дружили, он приходил ко мне каждый день, чтобы обсудить свои мысли. (we are no longer friends, he did not come to me)

I agree with the words of B. Ilyish, that “usually in the Past Simple in the sentence time is given when the action is finished. For this purpose we use such signal words, as yesterday, two weeks ago, last September, in 2010, on Monday, during my holidays” [19].

Now he’s a successful businessman, but he was a simple clerk many years ago. – Теперь он успешный бизнесмен, но много лет назад он был простым клерком.

Our team won the game last Sunday. – Наша команда выиграла игру в прошлое воскресенье.

We discussed many important matters during the meeting. – Во время встречи мы обсудили много важных вопросов.

Now we know how to use the Past Simple. Despite the fact that it has only three functions, it is one of the most popular times of the English language.

So, in this paragraph we considered the category of tense of English verb and basic qualities of the Perfect forms. Then we specified the peculiarities of Present Perfect Tense and Past Simple Tense. In particular, we marked out features of formation and use of these times

 

1.2 The development of tense system in British English and American English

 

In this paragraph we will examine the historical development of tense system in British English and American English. And we'll start with British English.

Arakin in his book claims: “At the end of the Old English period analytical forms of the perfect tense have already begun to emerge. But at that time, these forms were still in the process of grammatization and could still be regarded as free syntactic combinations.” [20]

During the Middle English period is finally grammatization of these forms.

This process should be thought of as follows:

1. Because of repeated use of verbs eop, habban, sculan, willan in combination with various other verbs, there is a gradual erosion of the lexical meaning of the verbs. This process culminated in the XIII, XIV centuries. For example, in the sentence ... The droughte of Marche hath perced to the roote - "... Drought March pierced to the root ..." verb hath wholly lost its lexical meaning is.

2. “Participle II, which is the second component structures with verbs eop and habban, due to the overall reduction of endings lose shape agreement in gender, number and case, and, thus, fully part of the complex verb forms.” [21]

As a result of these processes, there is a final transformation of these structures in the grammatical form of the verb of time.

For example, the verb to have and the verb to be are combined with semantic verb participle II acquire the grammatical meaning of the perfect tense. Thus, if they are used in the form of the time, they serve to form shapes Present Perfect and Past Perfect.

During the Middle English period forms the perfect tense formed in two ways: with verbs of motion and the state as an auxiliary verb used verb ben> be - to be, with transitive verbs and intransitive verbs that do not mark the movement and status as an auxiliary verb used verb to have.

However, in early New England period of gradual replacement of the perfect tense forms of the verb to be the perfect tense forms of the verb to have. This process could occur as a desire to differentiate and form the perfect tense forms of liability.

The forms of liability as finally formed in the Middle English period. In Old English texts are already a liability form with the verb to be. However, the widespread distribution of these forms are exactly in the Middle English period. As is known, a passive form may be formed only on the transitive verbs. Thus, the shape of the present passive formed with the verb to be and semantic verb participle II.

Forms of a perfect of verbs of motion were absolutely similarly formed at that time.

This similarity of morphological traits of two different forms, and was probably the reason that the perfect tense forms of verbs of motion and the state gradually became accepted as an auxiliary verb to have, and the verb to be permanently entrenched forms of liability. However the specified differentiation of forms came to the end only during the new English period.

During the Middle English period the firm order of components of the called verbal forms yet wasn't established, i.e. the auxiliary verb could stand just before the main verb, as, for example: ... that hem hath holpen - "... which helped them", or after the main verb, as, for example: "In alle mine live the ich iliued habbe." - "During all the life which I lived... ", and, at last, the auxiliary verb could be separated from the main thing by various sentence parts, as, for example: ... and the yonge sonne... hath in the Ram his halve cours ironne... - "... and the young sun in a sign of the Aries ran a half of the way... ".

Final formation of a firm order of components of these forms happened only during the new English period.

Survivals observed in the area of ​​grammar of American English, but here they are much more scattered and very isolated. This is understandable, since in the New England period of grammatical structure of the language has not undergone such major changes as its phonetic system. One cannot but agree with the Austrian linguist Karl Brunner, who believes that the modern Englishman's most difficult-to-understand pronunciation would have been his ancestors who lived in Shakespeare's era, while from the point of view of grammar, he would have found in their speech only a number of "errors" t . ie deviations from the norm today.

Such deviations may be, in particular, include the use of, gotten as the participle form of the verb II get. As the analysis of texts, Early Modern English period, gotten a regular basis and was used as a component of complex (analytic) forms. The following example is typical of the "glosses" Edward Kirk to "shepherd's calendar," Spenser [22]:

Flora, the Goddesse of flowres, ... having gotten great riches, made the people of Rome her heyre ...

As you know, in the British version of the modern English language accepted form have got. Communion gotten lost suffix-en in the XVIII century. At the same time the English settlers in America continued to use the old form.

As a participle of the verb II strike is also widely used form, formed with the suffix-en (stricken). See Shakespeare [23]:

Why, let the stricken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play.

Like gotten, stricken often encountered in the analytical forms:

The clock hath stricken three.

However, in this period the competition between this form and shape struck:

Not, being in the vaward, - placed behind

With purpose to relieve and follow them, -

Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke.

Gradually form a completely supplanted struck stricken from analytical constructions and almost negated its use as a verb participle II of the strike. Meanwhile, in the form of speech Americans stricken exhibits significantly greater stability.

In the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, one can find many examples of the use of synthetic forms of the subjunctive mood. These forms are often found in the verb-predicate various clauses (conditional, concessive, additional, temporary)

If the duke continue these favours towards you, Cesario, you are like to be much advanced.

Though it be pity to see such a sight, it well becomes the ground.

Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.

In British English, these forms have been under assault from the analytical form of the subjunctive mood (ie, a form should) and the forms of the indicative mood. A similar process is observed in the American version. Here, however, it occurs much more slowly.

Similar phenomena are encountered with different syntax. To take just one example. In Shakespeare's style design go do something without connecting to the Union and imperative sentences was in keeping with the literary norm:

Therefore, my lord, go travel a while ...

Why, let the stricken deer go weep… 

Go call her in ...

In such cases, the contemporary British literary norm requires the use of union and (go and call her in). In the U.S. there is the coexistence of both use of structures with known stylistic differentiation.

So, in this paragraph we examined the historical development of tense system in British English and American English. We discussed the periods of the formation of the Perfect tense in British English.

 

1.3 Stylistic potential of Present Perfect and Past Simple in English

 

In this paragraph we will present stylistic potential of Present Perfect and Past Simple in English.

Cognitive content of grammatical forms cannot be completely solved without analyzing their expressive and affective aspects, without that connotative information which the grammatical form can transfer [24].

Stylistic use of perfect forms is still a little studied.  The problematic nature of many questions connected with perfect forms, doesn't allow considering them settled as object of research.  Meanwhile for the correct use of these forms in foreign speech, for adequate perception of these forms in the literary text exact definition of a grammatical meaning and stylistic functions of perfect forms is extremely important.

Verb is the most capacious grammatical category. The semantic and stylistic capacity of the verb in large measure due to the coupling of the organic and the interaction of the categories of time and the type that characterizes his entire system as a whole. The logical consequence of these facts is a broad linguistic ability of functional transpositions of verbal forms, their metaphorical use in art-graphic purposes.

Stylistic features of verb forms are disclosed in the context in the relationship between the syntactic forms and grammatical categories.

Perfect closely associated with word categories prospection and retrospection.

It is well known definition of the perfect tense as a form of expressing the result of the previous action. Coastal effective when used explicitly or implicitly expressed by the condition of the subject or the object, which arose as a result of a completed action. The action side in perfect shape anticipates, determines the subsequent actions and personal incentive reader sharpens its focus on the cause and course of the unfolding of events leading to a particular result or outcome, and highlights the importance of the result. For example:

1. If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit ... [25].

2. I think Strickland knew it was a masterpiece. He had achieved what he wanted. His life was complete. He had made a world and saw that it was good. Then, in pride and contempt, he destroyed it. [26].

3. He could see that his hands had aged. [27].

From this we can identify with perfect form or prospective productive function. To implement performance needs a favorable context. It is realized in the limit verbs and verbs of the dual nature of the species that are lexically convey the action associated with the change of the subject or object of the action, for example, verbs make, achieve, etc.

Perfect score can also function as exposure, serve as an introduction to the subsequent situations:

The rain had ceased and there was a purplish gleam in the sky up above the huge humped roof of the Earls Court Exhibition Hall. [27]

When replacing the real results of the cognitive semantic nuance gives way to experience. In the following example, the past experience of the character determines its behavior in the present, drawing attention to its causes:

Sometimes she speaks of "the past" as people speak who have been in prison. But you never know whether they refer to the crime or the imprisonment or the whole experience. [28]

With the help of the perfect tense in experimental functions are set deep connections - conditionality "real" characters in the past, unity and continuity of the time stream.

However perfect and can perform the opposite function of a composite - a retrospective. Perfect shape helps to make the jump from the present to the past or from the past to the "pluperfect", creating a variety of associative links between them, twisting widely separated from each other in chronological plan of action and emphasizing their deep, inner relationship. Thus, in the following examples, the reader gets a glimpse into an earlier period of time prior to the events described in the book:

1. But man has far deeper habits than overwork. Through millions of years of evolution, he has developed all kinds of habits for survival. [29]

2. This long parenthesis has been necessary to explain why I thought I understood Karel Weissman's last request to me. I am an archaeologist, not a psychologist. But I was his old friend, and I had once shared his interest in the problems of the outerlimits of human consciousness. In his last moments, surely his thoughts had returned to our long nights of talk at Uppsala, to the endless lagers we had consumed in the little restaurant overlooking the river, to the bottles of schnapps drunk in my room at two in the morning?[29]

3. Bruno had done his best for the place. He had been born to it, for it, practically in it with the clack of monotype machines in his infant ears. But he had never felt at home with printers and their strange private language had always been for him a foreign tongue. He had been always a little afraid of the works, just as he had been afraid of the horses, which his father had forced him to ride, when he was a child. It was different for Danby who had no natural bent and no creative gifts and was not even an intellectual, and who had taken to printing when he married Gwen as if this were the most natural thing in the world. Bruno, who never got over thinking Danby a fool, had resented this calmness. Yet it was Danby who had turned out to be the business man. [27]

In the first two examples, the perfect form of injected single action hero dotted resurrects the past. In contrast, in the third example of the past perfect tense time shows a continuous flow of time, entirely takes the reader to a different time plane, which creates its own sequence of the described activity.

Of course, retrospect, the relationship between the individual layers of plot is not only grammatical form, and the interaction of the various elements of the context. In addition to the grammatical form of the perfect tense in the transfer involved retrospective lexical means. This adverbial groups Through millions of years of evolution, once, and other notes for the time and place of the action in the past: our long nights of talk at Uppsala, in my room at two in the morning, etc.

Perfect elapsed time is widely used in modern literature in the retrospective functions. The roots of this seems to be found in the tendency of the reconstruction of the inner world of the hero personality, to create multiple layers of time at work, combined in a special unique fusion, unity, caused by the human memory. The inner world of the character appears before us in his experience, and he was given through retrospection.

Retrospective perfect can focus on the completeness, perfection of action or state, a kind of sum it up:

Then his eyes fell on the bed of mats in the corner, and he went up, and he saw the dreadful, mutilated, ghastly object which had been Strickland. [26]

After analyzing a common ties of prospective and retrospective features perfect shapes together, you can select the third function - the tie or ties. Transphrastique unity, paragraphs, chapters, parts of literary texts can be integrated with perfect form. For example, the first paragraph of the third chapter may contain a perfect shape, which is used to express an action that took place in the second chapter of the novel. The author seems to "throw the bridge" between the two leaders and ensure their coherence. The action by which the reader may not have paid much attention to the process of reading becomes a bright and convex. Coastal forms combined as standing next to the components of the text and much distant text segments, and thereby participate in the coherence of the text. Similarly, the perfect form can express the reasons on the previous action followed, the logical connection between them.

Perfect forms also are stylistic means of linking the content of the story with the moment of speech. An example of such use is the following passage, in which the perfect present is included in the time series of the simple past [30]:

Those privileged to be present at a family festival of the Forsytes have seen that charming and instructive sight - an uppermiddle class family in full plumage. But whosoever of these favoured persons has possessed the gift of psychological analysis (a talent without monetary value and properly ignored by the Forsytes), has witnessed a spectacle, not only delightful in itself, but illustrative of an obscure human problem. In plainer words, he has gleaned from a gathering of this family - no branch of which had a liking for the other, between no three members of whom existed anything worthy of the name of sympathy - evidence of that mysterious concrete tenacity which renders a family so formidable a unit of society, so clear a reproduction of society in miniature. He has been admitted to a vision of the dim roads of social progress, has understood something of patriarchal life, of the saiarmings of savage hordes, of the rise and fall of nations. He is like one who, having watched a tree grow from its planting - a paragon of tenacity, insulation, and success, amidst the deaths of a hundred other plants less fibrous, sappy, and persistent - one day will see it flourishing with bland, full foliage, in an almost repugnant prosperity, at the summit of its efflorescence. [31]

In the preferred color of the modal verb forms based on the "contact" with the moment of speech, which is manifested in the author's thinking in his mind's appeal to the reader.

In opposition, the perfect present - simple past simple past form is neutral and perfect - stylistically colored. According to S.N. Plotnikova, "the use of a neutral, unified version of the text does not stop the reader's attention.

If the option is selected with connotative aspects of the matter, as a rule, there is a text selection of the fragment; it becomes a stylistic expression "[30].

It seems very interesting to analyze the cases of synonymous meetings present perfect tense and the simple past. Uses of the perfect tense markers with the exact elapsed time for the perfect tense are not quite typical and very rare:

"When I was about your age I was in the Creek uprising right after the Fort Mims massacre - yes," she said in a far-away voice, "just about your age for that was fifty years ago…And they dragged Mother out and killed her about twenty feet from where I was lying and scalped her too. Ah, well, that's been 50 years ago, as I said, and since that time, I've never been afraid of anybody or anything… [32]