Mapping tense form and meaning for L2 learning – From theory to practice
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Agneta Marie-Louise Svalberg
Abstract
English tense presents second/foreign language learners with considerable cognitive challenges and, it will be argued, grammars and textbooks are generally inadequate sources of knowledge of the tense system as system. A modified version of Reichenbach's (1947. Elements of Symbolic Logic. New York: Macmillan) tense model is then presented. The original model has been criticized for its inability to deal with temporal relationships in natural text (e. g. Declerck, R. 1986. From Reichenbach (1947) to Comrie (1985) and beyond. Towards a theory of tense. Lingua 70. 305–364; Declerck, R. 2015. Tense in English. Its structure and use in discourse. London: Routledge; Carroll, M., C. Von Stutterheim & W. Klein. 2003. Two ways of construing complex temporal structures. In F. Lenz (ed.), Deictic Conceptualisation of Time, Space and Person, 97–134. Amsterdam: Benjamins). It is argued here instead that speakers employ the limited choices the system provides creatively, to express a wide range of temporal and interpersonal relations in the real world. The tense - aspect and tense - modality interfaces are briefly discussed. A pedagogical Language Awareness approach (Svalberg, A. M-L. 2007. Language Awareness and Language Learning. Language Teaching 40(4). 287–308) is then illustrated, with the theoretical model as mediating artefact providing visual and metalinguistic scaffolding, allowing learners to investigate tense use in context while drawing on both intuitive understanding and conscious knowledge.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Any remaining shortcomings are entirely my own.
Appendix A: Explanations of key terms and abbreviations
| Aspect | The simple/progressive/perfect distinction |
|---|---|
| Direct | The metaphorical use of present tense form for past situations |
| Distant | The metaphorical use of past tense form for present situations |
| Event Time (E) | Here: Sequence point |
| Moment of Speech (S) | The time of utterance; the speaker’s present |
| Reference Time (R) | The time (past, present or future) to which a situation is oriented |
| Sequence | The temporal relationship of a situation to R; the before/at/after R distinction |
| Situation | Event or state |
| Speaker | The person (actual or fictional) making the linguistic choices |
| Tense | Semantically: The past – present reference time distinction Formally: Specific verb forms signalling this distinction |
Appendix B: The reference and sequence points encoded by English tense grammar (notation adapted from Reichenbach 1947)
(…)=Reference Point/R
S=Moment of speech/Speaker’s present
E=Event/situation
X(Y)=X at Y
X^Y=X before Y, or Y after X
| Notation | Sample realization | Temporal interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| E(S) | take | at present |
| E^(S) | has taken | before present |
| (S)^E | will take | after present (future in the present) |
| E(E^S) | took | at past |
| E^(E^S) | had taken | before past |
| (E^S)^E | would take | after past (future in the past) |
| E(S^E) | will take | at after-present (future) |
| E^(S^E) | will have taken | before after-present |
| (S^E)^E | ?will be going to take | after after-present |
| E((E^S)^E) | would take | at after-past |
| E^((E^S)^E) | would have taken | before after-past |
| ((E^S)^E)^E | ?would be going to take | after after-past |
(Table adapted from Svalberg 1991).
Text sources
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Directionality and complexity of L1 transfer in L2 acquisition: Evidence from L2 Chinese discourse
- Mapping tense form and meaning for L2 learning – From theory to practice
- Am I perfect enough to be a true bilingual? Monolingual bias in the lay perception and self-perception of bi- and multilinguals
- Teaching stylistic inversion to advanced learners of English: Interaction of input manipulation and individual difference variables
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Directionality and complexity of L1 transfer in L2 acquisition: Evidence from L2 Chinese discourse
- Mapping tense form and meaning for L2 learning – From theory to practice
- Am I perfect enough to be a true bilingual? Monolingual bias in the lay perception and self-perception of bi- and multilinguals
- Teaching stylistic inversion to advanced learners of English: Interaction of input manipulation and individual difference variables
