The document discusses tense and definiteness in English grammar. It defines tense as the linguistic indication of the time of an action, distinguishing between past, present, and future tense. Definiteness refers to whether a referent is known/familiar to the speaker (definite) or novel/unfamiliar (indefinite). The document provides examples to illustrate the uses and expressions of tense (e.g. walked, will go) and definiteness (e.g. the book, a book) in English.

1. Tense and Definiteness
By: Ana Isabel Alzate Rodas

2. Tense:
This category is related to the verb; is the linguistic indication of the time of an
action.
Tense establishes a relation: it indicates the time of an event in respect to the
moment of speaking.
Past Now Future
e.g.:
I went to the park. I will go to the park.
She worked outside. She will work outside.

3. The only tense distinction expressed inflectionally in English is that between present
and past, as in walk/walked or sing/sung, even though it is conventional to talk about a
three-way distinction between past, present, and future tense.
Present tense: the present is used for the expression of a number of other types of
temporal and non temporal situations.
e.g.: I walk to work every morning, she likes seafood.
Past tense: the uses of the past tense are more unified; it denotes a past time distinct
from the present moment.
e.g.: My uncle visited Spain last summer, I went to the store yesterday.
Future tense: the future tense is expressed by a variety of periphrases as well as by the
inflected simple tense.
e.g.: I will cook rice tomorrow, I will be moving next week.

4. Definiteness:
The concepts of definiteness an indefiniteness are simple:
Definite denotes a referent which is known, familiar, or identified to the speaker and
hearer.
e.g.: define article the
For something previously mention: yesterday, I read a book, the book was about
religion.
For a unique or fixed referent: the Prime Minister.
For a generic referent: I like the house.
For something which is part of the immediate socio-physical context or generally
known: the phone, the head, the sun.
For something identified by a modifying expression either preceding or following
the noun: the white horse, the big house.
For converting a proper noun to a common noun: the England he knew, the
Shakespeare of our times.

5. Indefinite denotes a referent which is novel, unfamiliar, or not known.
e.g.: indefinite article a/an
For something mentioned for the first time: I´ve got a car, I eat an apple.
For something which cannot or need not be identified: (I want) a friend.
For a generic referent: (He is) a teacher.
Equivalent to ‘any’ : a (any) good book.
Equivalent to ‘one’ : a week or two.
For converting a proper noun to a common noun: a virtual Mozart, a real Einstein.

6. Reference:
Brinton, L. J., & Brinton, D. (2010). ‘Grammatical categories and word classes’,
Chapter 5 in The Linguistic Structure of Modern English. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins Publishing Co. pp. 113-142. Recovered
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