Ways of expressing the future tense in modern English

Theme: Ways of expressing the future tense in modern English

Способы выражения будущего времени в современном английском языке

Table of Contents

Introduction        1

Chapter 1. Future Tense in the Tense System of English        1

1.1. Tense System of the English Language        1

1.2. Future Tenses in English        1

1.3.  Other Ways of Future Tense Expression        1

Chapter 2. Expression of the Future Tense in R. Galbraith “The Cuckoo's Calling”        1

2.1. Expression by Future Tense Forms        1

2.2. Expression by Present Tense Forms        1

2.3. Frequency Analysis        1

Conclusion        1

References        1

Appendix        1

Introduction

This study is devoted to the problem of future tense expression in the modern English language. The problem of futurity and its expression is today of great importance. Many grammarians and linguists investigate traditional and nonstandard means of its expression. Nevertheless, in the modern science the future tense expression is not fully investigated. There is still a question of separation of future tense as a tense form of the English language. Means of its expressing in texts and speech are also not fully defined. Consequently, the theme of the present work is topical today.

The main objective of the paper is to analyze the ways of expressing the future tense in modern English.

The tasks of the research are the following:

1. To examine tense system of the English language.

2. To study future tenses and other ways of future tense expression in the English language.

3. To reveal examples of expression of futurity by future tense forms, present tense forms and other ways.

4. To make a frequency analysis.

The theoretical basis of the study is represented by the works of R.I. Binnick, M.Y. Blokh, R. Declerck, A. Downing, S. Greenbaum, V.V. Gurevich, M. Hilpert, I.P. Ivanova, O. Jespersen, M. Joshi, V.L. Kayshanskaya, G.N. Leech, H.C. Wekker, and others.

The material of the present research is the novel of famous British writer R. Galbraith (J. Rowling) “The Cuckoo’s Calling” (2013).

Methods of the research:

- method of description;

- method of classification;

- method of quantitative analysis;

- method of sampling.

Theoretical and practical relevance of the present research consists in the fact that we have systemized the material consenting the ways of expressing the future tense in modern English and revealed percentage of these ways.

Structure of the work: the research consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion, references and appendix.

Chapter 1. Future Tense in the Tense System of English

Tense system of the English language and any other language expresses the people’s attitude towards the notion of time. Time is an integral part of human self-awareness. People conceive of themselves as being located with the present moment (such as moment of speech). This moment is the point from which people observe and experience time. In fact, time does not exist as a tangible object. It results from the people’s capacity of integrating every present state of affairs with experience has left imprinted on their memory or with the happenings that can take place in the future. So, the conceptualization of time is one of the basics of human cognition. People divide time into discrete spheres such as the present functioning as a threshold, the past reflecting what happened earlier, and the future that shows what will happen after the moment of speech.

1.1. Tense System of the English Language

The main means to experience the concept of time is grammatical category of tense. Tense as a grammatical term is defined as “one of the typical functions of the finite verbs … because the meaning of process, inherently embedded in the verbal lexeme, finds its complete realization only if presented in certain time conditions” [Blokh 2000, p. 137].

I.P. Ivanova defines the notion of tense as a relation of an action to the moment of speech [Ivanova 1981, p. 52]. The moment of speech is thus the present tense which can have different length: from the period measured by minutes, for example, in the direct speech till the infinite time space. The past tense is a time that precedes the present time and does not include the moment of speech. The future tense is a time that is expected after the present time and also does not include the moment of speech.

In the tense system of the English language there are four absolute tenses and three relative tenses.

Absolute tenses are tenses that express a direct temporal relation with the temporal zero-point (moment of speech). They are:

1) present tense: It is hot outside;

2) past tense: He thought about his future;

3) present perfect tense: Have you ever been here?;

4) future tense: She will retire in a month [Declerck 2006, p. 25].

Relative times express the following temporal relations:

1) relations of anteriority – the time of the situation is represented as preceding the orientation time: He said he had got up earlier;