6.1. Our linguistic gravitation

We people happen to share history as well as novelty — without a glimpse to the hour. Language time extents, PRESENT and PAST, do not depend on commas or other marks for language written shape we may know as punctuation. They do not depend on the Aspect, Simple or Perfect, either.

To continue our choosing between the Simple Past or Present Perfect, let us have a look at a few examples.

The Perfect Aspect may be of choice to highlight regards.

5. Jim hasn’t seen his little cousin in a year; he spoke with her last summer, and he loves to hear from her — Aspects Perfect and Simple.
5a. Jim loves to hear from his little cousin. He met the kid last summer — Aspect Simple.
5b. Jim loves to hear from the little cousin he met last summer — Aspect Simple.
5c. Jim says (that) he met his little cousin last summer, and he loves to hear from her — Aspect Simple.

The Perfect always invokes a span of time, and has an open frame. To close the frame, we need a cognitive ground. We could say,
5d. He says (that) he met his little cousin last summer.

The phrase “last summer” gives a cognitive ground in time. The ground works like gravitation; we no longer use the open frame. It would be non-standard to say,
5e. *He has met Jim’s little cousin last summer.
In linguistics, an asterisk usually marks an incorrect expression.

It is worth thinking that phrases are non-standard or incorrect only when their language shape is confused with regard to the reality in mind. We do not speak or write merely to comply with tastes, or to follow someone who says this, and does not say that. We think about own regards, and when we are on a cognitive ground, there is no need for an open time frame.
This thought may motivate us better to meet the language standard. It is not just a stylistic invention. People all over the world have developed language standards to be intelligible, especially when there are many people, minds, and regards involved.

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The open frame may suggest highlights or effects, as well as prospects.
6. He has written ten books.
(He is likely to write more; his writing belongs with the PRESENT.)

6a. He wrote ten books.
(Maybe he is not going to write more; his writing belongs with a cognitive frame closed on a ground for the PAST.)

With a ground, our linguistic gravitation may bring a highlight.
6b. He wrote two books last year.
We do not consider if his writing belongs with the PRESENT or PAST. We have the notional ground about the time (last year), so the focus is on how many the books: those were two books he wrote.

To compare,
6c. He has written two books.
The focus is on the time span: so far, until this day, he has written two books; the years may have been many.

Classic grammar books might advise the Present Perfect in response to contexts as 6c:
6d. I have/haven’t seen the books.

Everyday American yet is likely to bring some cognitive ground:
6e. I never read / saw the books, and I was at the fair…
6f. I was reading one that summer, when…

The cognitive ground is a human natural variable. We can have evidence from an unrelated language, about language shape and reality in mind.

In Polish, the language shape will be the same, to answer a question as what do you do (usually), as well as what are you doing (now); but the reality in mind will be as if Polish had the Simple or Progressive Aspects.

Let us imagine someone walks into another room and asks,
What are you doing?
The person in that other room answers,
Czytam, and this would translate as I’m reading.
To say it is usually the time to read, the person would likely say, Jak zawsze | Wiesz przecież, że czytam — As always | You know that I read (at this time of day).

The verb shape would remain the same, czytam; the cognitive ground would render it as one or the other Aspect, Progressive or Simple, also in sworn translation.

We may conclude, the language standard is to help the language shape express the reality in mind. Feel welcome to further language journey.
6.2. THE COGNITIVE VARIABLE AND TIME FRAME

■This text is also available in Polish.

Book format in preparation.

In the first part of the language journey, feel welcome to consider a picture for
■ the grammatical Past, Present, and Future;
■ the Simple, Progressive, and Perfect;
■ infinitive, auxiliary, and head verb forms;
■ the Affirmative, Interrogative, Negative, and Negative Interrogative;
■ irregular verbs and vowel patterns: high and low, back and front.
Third edition, 2024.

The world may never have seen her original handwriting, if her skill was taken for supernatural. Feel welcome to Poems by Emily Dickinson prepared for print by Teresa Pelka: thematic stanzas, notes on the Greek and Latin inspiration, the correlative with Webster 1828, and the Aristotelian motif, Things perpetual — these are not in time, but in eternity.
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