Re: Rating Languages

In a message dated 9/26/01 2:31:43 PM, DigitalScream@AOL.COM writes:

<< << If you do it to yourself, use the reflexive. If you're doing it for

yourself, use the reflexive. It's as simple as that. Now, teach me the

English tense-aspect system ;o) >> >>

    Okay, now I have more time, and I've actually thought about it, so I'm
going to change some of the things I originally wrote.  Here's my rundown of
the tense/aspect system.

Action Verbs:
1.) I eat (present habitual): "I eat from time to time, though I try not to
make a habit of it."
2.) I'm eating (present/present progressive): "What are you doing?" "I'm
eating; what's it look like?"
3.) I'll eat (promisary): "You're going to eat your vegetables, right?" "Yes,
mom, I'll eat them."
4.) I'm gonna eat (future): "You busy at seven?"  "Yeah, I'm gonna eat."
5.) I ate (simple past): "What did you do yesterday?" "I ate, I slept, I
walked around..."
6.) I was eating (imperfect): "What were you doing from three to four
yesterday?" "I was eating."
7.) I've eaten (pres. perfect): "Have you eaten already?" "Yes, I have"  (The
act is important still.)
8.) I'd eaten (pluperfect): "I'd already eaten by the time she arrived."
9.) I'd eat (negative hypothetical): "I'd eat if I weren't so lazy to go and
make myself something."
    (The connotation is always that the action isn't going to take place.)
10.) I'll eat (conditional): "I'll eat if you get me something." (Here the
emphasis is on the action taking
    place if something happens, as opposed to it not taking place because
something doesn't/didn't
    happen(s))
11.) I eat (past iterative): "So I eat this big sandwich and I get this awful
stomach-ache afterwards!"
    (This is used when relating a story.  I didn't know what name to give
it...)
12.) eat! (command): "Eat!"  "Uhh...okay..."
13.) I was going to eat (past interrupted): "I was going to eat when I was
struck down by the Lord."
14.) I will've eaten (properfect): "Don't worry, Ma.  By the time your asleep
I will've eaten."  (This
    seems to be a common phrase from me to my mother.  Oh, and "properfect"
is something I
    made up.  Makes sense, don't it? ;) )
15.) I'd have eaten (perfect interrupted): "I'd have eaten that steak but I
was suddenly overcome with
    sympathy for the poor beast!  I just couldn't do it."
16.) I'd have been eating (imperfect interupted): "If it weren't for this
lousy speech, I would've been
    eating by now!"  (Also: I would have eaten.)
17.) I've been eating (perfect continuous): "I've been eating since I was a
wee tot, and I don't plan on
    stopping now."
18.) I keep eating (continuous): "I want to stop, but I can't!  I just keep
eating and eating and eating…"
19.) I just ate (immediate past): "Want to grab a bite?" "Sorry, I just ate."
20.) I'm about to eat (immediate future): "Hey, can you help me with this?"
"I'm about to eat; can it
    wait?" (Can be strengthened by adding "just", so "I'm just about to eat".
 Also, "like", rendering:
    "I'm, like, just about to eat".)

    At this point, I don't know whether to keep going, or to list facts such
as "eat" can always be replaced with "be eating" and "eaten" replaced with
"been eating" in every one except the following numbers: (1), (11) and (12).
And even (12)'s debatable, I suppose...  And, there are some varieties that
use things like "I be eating".  This is standard, though, we're talking.
Anyway, I should also point out that "would" can always be exchanged for
"might"; it's just that "would" can be shortened and "might" can't.  ;)  Now,
as to the aspects...
    Usually you just throw them in front.  One of my favorites, though, is
when I get the privelege of using the following phrase: "I will have had to
have..." or, even better, "I will have had to have been...".  Usually the
context is something like, "You're going to be finished with that report,
right?"  "Are you joking?!  In order to have it finished, I will have had to
have been writing for for the next twelve hours without sleep and without
getting up to go to the bathroom!"  More common is exchanging "would" for
"will".  Example: "Why haven't you finished reading the book I leant you?  I
gave you a whole weekend?" (Example: Book is War and Peace.)  "In order to
have finished that book in one weekend I would have had to have been reading
every hour of every weekend without food, sleep or blinking!"  I love that
"would have had to have been" phrase.  :)
    The last thing to mention is that there's a different, simpler system for
modals and experiencer verbs.  The present is, in fact, just pronoun + verb
in present tense.  You say "I can", not "I'm canning" (unless you mean
putting things into cans or firing someone).  You can say things like "I'm
loving", but it's odd to think of it as an emotion and not an action.  One
example I've seen of emotion though is in Led Zeppelin's "Thank You": "If the
sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you".  Yet I found it odd the
first time I heard it.  So, if you go through that list and delete all the
progressives, and...the perfects, too (you can say "I've loved", but it's
more common to say "I've been in love".  Usually there's a way to distance
the verb from the perfect), and...that should be it.  Not that complicated,
really.  I like it.  Of course, I looooooooooooove English, so maybe I'm
biased.
    I wonder what other native English speakers will think of my little
list...?

-David

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