6.3. EXERCISES: THE ASPECT AND THE TIME FRAME

Camille Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre, Morning, Cloudy Weather, Wikimedia Commons

Exercise 32. For our warm-up, let us practice the time frames. We can do the exercise in our minds solely, as in the MIND PRACTICE. Our head verb is to work.

Example 1: Monsieur Sauf had worked.
Answer: {TO}, a PAST cognitive ground.
(a time frame open to a reference mark in the PAST)

Example 2: Madame Règle will work.
Answer: {ON}, a cognitive ground for the FUTURE.
(a time frame closed on a FUTURE time reference)

Please mind that our grounds for the PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE are the grammatical time. We do not need insight greater than for classic grammar, to talk about what happened, or to predict on our real-time future.

1. Monsieur Sauf worked.

2. Monsieur Sauf will have worked.

3. Madame Règle has worked.

4. Madame Règle works.

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One of the worst mistakes in language work is to keep vocabulary practice apart from grammar exercise. We are about avoiding it here.

Big dictionaries should not scare us. We do not have to memorize them. We can learn by referring to them.

It is good to use monolingual dictionaries and select on word sense. A monolingual dictionary has words and definitions in the same language.

Our brains can get the habit to choose on word sense. For example, the AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY has about 10 senses for the verb TO BE.

The word MAN has about 20 senses, and one of them is “a human being, a person”.

Women also belong with this sense of the word, as in all men are created equal, a phrase we may know from the Declaration of Independence.
FEEL WELCOME TO READ ABOUT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

We may not want to worry about getting the money to buy expensive dictionaries, especially if we are just beginners. There are free dictionary resources, available over the web and in libraries.

For American English, there also is THE FREE DICTIONARY, or MERRRIAM-WEBSTER.

“Jumping into deep waters” is yet no good strategy for language, and Hispanic learners may like to compare the Spanish DICCIONARIO. People with French or German might like to use LAROUSSE or PONS, respectively.

All the websites have extensive free contents.

Our Travel in Grammar has a mirror in a Slavic language, Polish.

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We may look up dictionary definitions, but we people naturally build own, mental lexicons for meaning. The word “mental” means “of the mind”.

It comes from the Latin word “mens, mentis”, signifying the mind, disposition, feeling, character, heart, as well as soul. Reading dictionaries can help us build own lexicons in our minds.

American English ― the same as any other language ― has formal and standard, as well as colloquial language uses. To be colloquial, a use may depart far from the standard, or even go opposite to it.

Colloquially, the word “mental” may refer to insanity. By standard, a “mental lexicon” is a “vocabulary of a mind”. We can decide how we use words. Free speech cannot require that we blindly follow, especially colloquial uses.

Let us try to reckon on word sense. The AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY says that stollen is a rich yeast bread containing dried fruit, as raisins, and candied fruit, as citron; chopped nuts, and spices.

In other words, stollen can be full-bodied sweetbread with fruit sweetmeats, grated or milled nuts, as well as marzipan or citron.

Obviously, own lexicons cannot be always a piece of cake. Let us think about COSMOS, as in the American Heritage dictionary:

1. The universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious whole.
2. An ordered, harmonious whole.
3. Harmony and order as distinct from chaos.
4. pl. cos•mos•es or cosmos Any of various mostly Mexican herbs of the genus Cosmos.

We do not have to agree. Human civilizations have had ideas as a “cosmogonic strife”, and the outer space observably clashes, sometimes.

The cosmos flower grows also in the USA, up to the Olympic Penninsula in Washington (WIKIPEDIA).

Here is my idea for the word “cosmos”:
1. space to include the planet Earth ― we can compare the “outer space”;
2. spatial reference to be mapped on itself, as in stereometry, mathematics, information technology, and philosophy
(we can refer to the cosmos and give it attributes, we yet do not include the cosmos in any larger space, to map it);
3. American colorful garden flower to attract birds, also similar to gillyflower in color.

(Do not underestimate juniors learning, and please remember that the word “dude” is TABOO in official situations.)

There are a few kinds of the cosmos flower. The word “cosmos” comes from Greek. Also originally, it happened to refer to the outer space.

If we want to find out about the position of the Earth in space, we can visit NASA.GOV. NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of America.

A good idea is to read a dictionary “until we get it”. If we are not sure what the “solar system” means, we open the dictionary at “solar” and “system”.

Sooner than later, we are going to be able to flip pages and read big dictionaries just like books. Let us try our linguistic natures with real words and big dictionaries.

Exercise 33. Natural languages do not have fixed connotations. A “squid” can be a marine animal. It may be a bird toy. “A bit of cosmos” may be a garden stretch grown with cosmos flowers to attract birds.

Let us mind our time frames.
Example: The goldfish awoke, hearing a croak.
Answer: a/wake, {ON} the PAST ground

1. The motmot had completely befallen for a piece of fresh stollen.

2. The skylark found nothing to outbid the bit of cosmos with a squid.

3. The soybean alone outshone the legumes fair in Bayonne.

4. The hornbill had overlooked the rook by the brook.

5. The golden frog behind the chilidog overslept and wept.

6. The windflower withstood the rude mood in the wood.

7. The woodpecker has custom remade the pasquinade to treat his clade.

8. The spotted redshank bachelorette did reset her buret for the bouncing bet.

9. The kinkajou understood that honey was for feel-good.

10. The kittiwake has shaken and partaken in casing bacon in Macon.

Feel welcome to further practice.
6.4. EXERCISES:
THE TIME FRAME AND THE VARIABLES, ON OR TO

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6.2. GRAMMAR COGNITIVE GROUND

Camille Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre, Morning in Spring (Le Boulevard de Montmartre, Matinée de Printemps), Wikimedia Commons

The picture above is part a CITYSCAPE SERIES by Camille Pissarro. The series shows Boulevard Montmartre at different times of the year, day, and in varied weather.

We can think about grammar as allowing varied views on time.

Let us imagine an American in Paris (George Gershwin did). The American we imagine could be a young woman. She could be the Jill from the office, the Jill Smith that Jim wanted to meet.

Jin was not lying.
Jill is on her vacation.

Could this be Jill?

Jill is a reedy yet energetic figure, her rebellious and dark, almost black hair flying in the mid-September Paris wind. Jill is a very resolute person, one to walk big steps and to breathe deep.

Jill is entering a French restaurant ― a place deliberately prudent in its fine interior. She is looking for her friend, Madame Règle. Madame Règle often has her lunch there.

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Monsieur Sauf is not the stereotype, for a man to make his living gratifying taste buds. But the large apron knotted on his left hip in a kind of ― Jill, though learned, would never be sure ― stevedore or half hitch, you could think that he is some athlete, here about a plate of Moules Marinière himself. He is the restaurateur.

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This is not the first time Jill meets Monsieur Sauf. Still, she feels minute in his presence. She asks Monsieur Sauf about Madame Règle. Monsieur Sauf can say, reliant on his knowledge,

7. I haven’t seen her today.

He also can say,

7a. I didn’t see her today.

Madame Règle is not a systematic person at all. The only regularity about her would be a small book she always carries fastened to her bag with a scarf or, actually, a variety of scarves of many colors and textures.

The book is not the same book every day, and the choice of the scarf sure depends on some totally unpredictable factor, just as the exact time for lunch, for which you might want to assume the broad time frame of about sixty minutes to commence or not to happen altogether.

Madame Règle comes to lunch between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. or does not show up at all. Let us check on the time. It is 1:30.

Monsieur Sauf can use expression 7. The expression has an open time frame. Madame Règle still may emerge in the door.

7. I haven’t seen her today.

Now let us think the time is 2:30. Monsieur Sauf can use expression 7a. The expression has a closed and PAST time frame.

Monsieur Sauf knows that Madame Règle is not coming today. The knowledge is part the context.

7a. I didn’t see her today.

What if Jill asks whether Madame Règle was there, let us say, half an hour earlier? Monsieur Sauf may follow his linguistic gravity,

7b. I didn’t see her.
(On the cognitive ground: She was not here at the time in the PAST you are asking about.)

Jill is a grindstone to turn about good food. There is no telling her that good food could be bad and she esteems the French cuisine.

She usually visits Monsieur Sauf’s restaurant when she is in Paris. If she meets Madame Règle, she sure will join her for a meal by a table looking to the Quai de Seine (!)

There is an anecdote associated with Benjamin Franklin. A man asked a smith to make his ax especially sharp. The man ended up turning the grindstone himself.

We can find plenty of facts and trivia about America at ARCHIVE.ORG, a free internet resource.

Let us practice our more and more METICULOUS natures in exercises.
6.3. EXERCISES: THE ASPECT AND THE TIME FRAME

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5.3. PRACTICE: REAL SYNTAX AND MORE WORDS

All verbs here can be irregular. Feel welcome to APPENDIX 2: it marks American English forms as AE, when they differ from British forms, BR. We continue practicing abbreviated verb forms, as in EXERCISE 28.

’m: am
’re: are
’s: is
’ve: have
’s: has
’d: had

We can tell abbreviated “is” from “has” only by their contexts, as both get shortened to ’s.

Example: They ‘ve clung.
Answer:
cling, clang, clung.

1. We ’re swimming.

2. It’s shone.

3. You’d gainsaid.

4. She’s eaten.

5. They’d woken.

6. He’s heard.

7. They’re working.

8. She’d spun.

9. It’s crowing.

10. You’ve spoken.

Exercise 30. We provide the 2ND and 3RD verb forms. Not every verb in this exercise is irregular. We can write REG next to a regular verb.

Example: She ‘s read.
Answer: TO, the PRESENT; read, read, read

1. We’re drawing.

2. She’s sung.

3. You’d written.

4. You’ve colored.

5. They’ve painted.

6. She’s swinging.

7. It’s ringing.

8. She’s left.

9. I’m dreaming.

10. We’ve played.

Feel welcome to the second part of the language journey.
PART TWO, CONTENT

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5.2. PRACTICE: SYMBOLIC CUES AND REAL SYNTAX

Exercise 22. Ability to use symbols is very important at school tests and exams. Let us combine the Aspect and Time, to exercise our logical arrows. We try to form our answers solely in our minds: this is where true learning takes shape.

Example:
generally {ON} the map in the PAST,
{ON} a PAST time extent
Answer:

1. IN a spot within the FUTURE time extent

2. TO a time within the PAST time extent

3. ON the PRESENT time extent

4. TO a time within the FUTURE time extent

5. TO a time within the PRESENT time extent

6. ON the FUTURE time extent

7. IN a spot in the PAST time extent

8. IN a spot in the PRESENT time extent

Exercise 23. Let us now gather from elements, as in PRACTICE 4.2. Let us focus on our symbolic cues.

Example: {TO}, 3RD, the PRESENT
Answer:

1. {IN}, ING, the PAST

2. {TO}, 3RD, the PAST

3. {ON}, the FUTURE

4. {IN}, ING, the PRESENT

5. {ON}, the PAST

6. {TO}, 3RD, the FUTURE

7. {ON}, the PRESENT

8. {IN}, ING, the FUTURE

Exercise 24. Let us try our language natures another way round. We begin with our arrow cue, to think about language elements.

Example:

Answer: be, ING, in the PAST

Exercise 25. We can think about Bob and Jemma, along with the task from the previous exercise. Our head verb can be to learn.

Example:

Answer: Jemma was learning.

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Please mind, we are not practicing behaviorist reflexes. We are about developing flexible habits. It does not matter in the exercise here, if we say Jemma learns, or Bob learns. It matters to mind we say Bob and Jemma learn, if we want to speak about both of them.

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Exercise 26. Let us now try our arrows with Expression. We can mark negative questions as ? N. We leave the affirmative unmarked.

Example 1:

Answer: Will Bob and Jemma not have earned their credits?

Example 2:

Answer: Bob and Jemma will have earned their credits.

Exercise 27. Let us try our language logic for the Interrogative and Negative, within the PAST time extent only. To learn may remain our head verb. We also can choose to visit APPENDIX 2 or APPENDIX 3, and try other verbs.

Answer: Was Jemma learning?

We are staying in the PAST Field of Time.

Exercise 28. Let us focus on our cognitive values for grammatical time. We use the symbolic cues, too.

If the same head verb, to learn, brings monotony, let us remember that APPENDIX 2 or APPENDIX 3 can give us plenty of other verbs.

Example: Had Bob learned?
Answer:

Everyday language has abbreviated forms as doesn’t, hadn’t, and won’t, in everyday language. Let us think about the full forms, for our answers, exercising as in the MIND PRACTICE.

1. Jemma doesn’t worry.

2. Bob and Jemma hadn’t worried.

3. Is Jemma smiling?

4. Hasn’t Bob learned?

5. Bob didn’t worry.

6. Will Bob and Jemma have earned their credits?

7. Will Bob and Jemma smile?

8. Was Bob learning?

9. Bob won’t have failed.

10. Will Jemma be smiling?

Please mind, our arrow cues have no reference to weapons. They are the symbols people widely use for guidance. Feel welcome to some more guide exercise.
REAL SYNTAX AND MORE WORDS

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CHAPTER 5. LET US MAKE OWN PATHS ABOUT TIME

Let us visualize the logic we have worked so far. We have combined our core verbs (be, have, do, will), the grammatical time (PRESENT, PAST, FUTURE), and tense patterns (Simple, Progressive, and Perfect).

Visuals can help mindwork. We may picture colorful extents. One extent may convey the Aspect — Simple, Progressive, or Perfect.

In CHAPTER 4, we gave the Aspect cognitive mapping values, for the sake of a better language economy:
Simple: {ON}
Progressive: {IN}
Perfect: {TO}.

Another extent can symbolize the grammatical Time — the PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE.

We need one more logical quality in our picture, to be able to affirm, deny, or ask questions. With the regard, grammars recognize the Affirmative, Negative, and Interrogative. The can make our third logical capability, Expression.

We yet do not visualize Expression as one extent.

Why is it we can picture the Aspect as one extent? Our mapping values work together, as we saw in CHAPTER 4. We cannot be {IN} an area of a cognitive map, without being {ON} it. CHAPTER 8 shows we can combine the values {IN} and {TO}, and make our fourth mapping variable, {AT}.

Why is it we can visualize the grammatical time as one extent? We can never work the PAST or FUTURE without our PRESENT. Part 4 of the grammar journey shows how to make the nodi of time.

The word nodus comes from Latin. It also could mean the knot we make, as when we tie our shoes.

However, there are no “Affirmative Interrogative” structures, or syntax for a “Negative Affirmative”. We only may join the Negative and Interrogative, into the Negative Interrogative.

Our visuals can combine extents.

We can set our third logical effect in the foreground of our picture.

Let us now have a look at the making of language patterns, for the Affirmative, Interrogative, Negative, and Negative Interrogative.

We can talk about Bob and Jemma.

We are within the PRESENT time compass now.

Simple: Jemma learns.
Progressive: Bob is reading.
Perfect: Bob and Jemma have worked on language.

We are remaining in our PRESENT time extent, and look at the Interrogative.

Simple: Does Jemma worry?
Progressive: Is Bob reverberating?
Perfect: Have Bob and Jemma failed?

Let us make observations. In our human and logical potential for asking questions, the elements move. Grammars name it the inversion.

Jemma is helping Bob.
Is Jemma helping Bob?

To grasp inversion, let us think about verbals and nominals. Verbals can make verb phrases, as in tense patterns. Nominals can make noun phrases.

Language forms as to play, to be playing, is playing, or having played are verbals. Verbals can tell what there is, happens, or what someone or something does.

Language forms as a game, a card game, or the game of the Sound are nominals. Nominals can answer the question Who or What?
(We can learn the game in Part 4 of our journey).

The nominal and the verbal are roles. Let us see them marked for a phrase as
The verb “to be” is an irregular verb:
NOMINAL (What?): The verb “to be”
VERBAL: is
NOMINAL (What?): an irregular verb.

Our color code works those roles, not isolated words.
I am a learner.
I am learning.

American English (the same as any English) is an SVO (SUBJECT―VERB―OBJECT) language. To affirm, we begin with the subject and follow up with the verb, which we may complement with an object.

If we agree to make subjects from nominals, we can have word movement generally for a highlight.

In the famous To be or not to be, that is the question, by Shakespeare, the nominal, the question, is the SUBJECT, only the order of words is changed, for the sake of style. This is why generative grammars recognize language deep structures.

The question is, to be or not to be.

Otherwise, we might have difficulty, in telling the verb from the name for it:
Is the verb “to be” an irregular verb?
To be or not to be, that is the question.

Stylistic movement of words is not anything extraordinary. We may compare Exercise 14 in SUB-CHAPTER 4.2. The auxiliary can take a feature, as –ES, and go before a nominal, or after a pronoun.
The orchard has a little nut tree.
A little nut tree, does the orchard have.
A little nut tree, it does have.

The matter is not in formal or colloquial styles. We could say that language has pronouns for shorter nominals.
For emphasis, the Simple Aspect also allows saying,
Do read this all, please.

When we ask questions, auxiliaries move to places before subjects. Dependent on the grammar approach, we may view the word order as VSO then, or basically SVO, still.

We can play the Sound.
SUBJECT: We
AUXILIARY: can
HEAD VERB: play.

Can we play the Sound?
AUXILIARY: Can
SUBJECT: we
HEAD VERB: play?

In the question, “to be playing” remains the verb phrase, and the verb “to play” its head. Our mauve head verb does not move.

Dependent on the context and style, we also might ask a question, saying
“You can play the Sound?”
The deep structure would be
{Can-you-play-the-Sound}.
There is no syntactic marker for such questions, however, and we cannot show Expression entire as one extent.

Anyway, good language means making many extents.

Let us now have a look at patterns that help deny, in the PRESENT time extent.

Simple: Jemma does not worry.
Progressive: Bob is not reverberating.
Perfect: Bob and Jemma have not failed.

We often abbreviate our patterns, in everyday speech.

Simple: Jemma doesn’t worry.
Progressive: Bob isn’t reverberating.
Perfect: Bob and Jemma haven’t failed.

We can combine the Interrogative and Negative extents, to ask negative questions.
We could ask, “Isn’t Jemma smiling?”
(We really say that Jemma is smiling).

Simple: Doesn’t Jemma travel in grammar?
Progressive: Isn’t Bob traveling in grammar?
Perfect: Haven’t Bob and Jemma traveled in grammar?

Let us compare formal American English, as for school. Formal syntax does not follow abbreviated auxiliaries.

Simple: Does Jemma not travel in grammar?
Progressive: Is Bob not traveling in grammar?
Perfect: Have Bob not traveled in grammar?

To focus on word movement and language elements, we can use the Simple Aspect. The verb to do has the auxiliary role here. It takes the ending ‒(ES for the third person singular (he, she, or it), also in the role of the head verb.

The Affirmative: Jemma smileS.
The Interrogative: DoES Jemma travel in grammar?

Our logical capacity for denying has the negative element, not. This element can join the auxiliary.
The Negative: Jemma doES not worry.
The Negative Interrogative: DoES Jemma not earn her credits?

In everyday language, the forms are most often abbreviated.
The Negative: Jemma doESN’T worry.
The Negative Interrogative: DoESN’T Jemma earn her credits?

Appendix 4 has patterns for all aspects, also with abbreviations.

What happens, if we change our PRESENT time compass to the FUTURE time extent?

Our Expression retains all qualities.

Simple: Jemma will smile.
Progressive: Bob will be smiling, too.
Perfect: Bob and Jemma will have earned their credits.

The logic for the FUTURE is likely to bring the auxiliary WILL into our scopes. The auxiliary be stays to its basic form (be). PRACTICE 2.1. has notes on verb base forms.

Simple: Will Jemma smile?
Progressive: Will Bob be smiling, too?
Perfect: Will Bob and Jemma have earned their credits?

The negative element, not, joins the auxiliary WILL, for the Negative.

Simple: Jemma will not worry.
Progressive: Bob will not be reverberating.
Perfect: Bob and Jemma will not have failed.

The phrase will not becomes won’t, in everyday American.

Simple: Jemma won’t worry.
Progressive: Bob won’t be reverberating.
Perfect: Bob and Jemma won’t have failed.

Again, formal American English will not follow abbreviation.

Simple: Will she not smile?
Progressive: Will he not be smiling, too?
Perfect: Will they not have earned their credits?

Feel welcome to APPENDIX 4

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4.2. LANGUAGE MAP PRACTICE

Exercise 13. If we never imagined anything, we would be unable to prefigure on things, to predict what happens, before we do something. Imagination is an ability to envision, to form an image.

Let us draw concept maps for our physical whereabouts, our every day, and our lives. Our maps do not have to be exact.

We only move gradually from a space concept into a time concept. Maps for physical whereabouts would be mostly about space. Maps about lives would focus on time more.

We have a few examples here. Please do draw your own maps, put on them as many associations as possible, all in English.

A. My physical whereabouts: the map does not have to be exact. It should only show physically nearest objects.

B. My everyday life: the places do not have to be physically close; it is important we associate them with our routine and preferred experiences. This makes them psychologically close.

C. My life: we may feel like going into the future a little.

Exercise 14. We can recognize language content and inner framework. The framework is not about style only. It helps put thought into comprehensible patterns.

We use the verbs to be and to have, to build the Progressive or Perfect Aspects. When be and have help build a pattern, they map on time and activity.

The mapping is usually an approximation; it even cannot be 100% exact, as there happen to be differences among people, on how to view things.

When they map, to be and to have belong with the language framework.

When they bring talk about existence (being) or ownership, to be and to have are head verbs. They can head verb phrases, and belong with the content.

APPENDIX 1 has more about verbs.

Let us decide, where be and have belong with the framework, and where with the content. In the example, the answer is underlined.

F: language framework
C: language content

Example:
I have brought this for you.
This is a chart for our journey.
have F or C
be F or C

Answer:
have F or C (framework)
be F or C (content)

1. Mary’s lamb was white as snow.
have F or C
be F or C

2. As I was going to St. Ives, I was talking with a man of seven wives.
have F or C
be F or C

3. An exquisite, little nut tree I do have, it has borne silver nutmeg and golden pears.
have F or C
be F or C

4. The north wind has blown, we will have snow.
have F or C
be F or C

5. The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown.
be F or C

Exercise 15. Let us exercise our symbolics for time. In our minds, we match a language marker (ON, IN, or TO) with a picture. The simple activity may help more advanced brainwork.

Example: Variable {TO}, the PRESENT Field
Answer: have

Our purely symbolic behavior might be illustrated as follows.

We may view or print the picture below (click to enlarge), and think about the answers, simply looking at the picture.

1. Variable {IN}, the PAST Field
2. Variable {ON}, the PAST Field
3. Variable {ON}, the FUTURE Field
4. Variable {TO}, the FUTURE Field
5. Variable {IN}, the FUTURE Field
6. Variable {ON}, the PRESENT Field
7. Variable {IN}, the PRESENT Field
8. Variable {TO}, the PAST Field

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We are about to progress into verbal guidance more. Language Mapping does not require that we abandon classic grammar books.

We may want to talk about grammar, and classic grammar terms can be useful in this. Exercises 16-21 are to help the ends meet.

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Exercise 16. We do not have to feel bound to fields and land travel, to think about grammatical time. We can imagine an eagle route.

Our eagle route has four mapping forms. All English languages in the world (American, British, Irish, or any other) have four Aspects: Simple, Progressive, Perfect, and Perfect Progressive.

The fourth mapping form is have been ING (the variable AT). We can think about it more in Part Two of our journey.

Our inner language does not need to be “fixed”. We do not have to stay by the connotation from exercise 15. It can be “PAST reference” now. Our head verb can be to live.

Example: have, PAST reference, he

Answer: He had lived; the Past Perfect.

We work minds first: we think the entire exercise over, and we write the answers only if we decide to do so.

Grammatical time	Aspect
	The Simple	The Progressive	The Perfect
The Future
The Present
The Past

1. ∞ , PRESENT reference, they

2. be, FUTURE reference, you

3. ∞ , PAST reference, we

4. have, PRESENT reference, it

5. be, PAST reference, she

6. ∞ , FUTURE reference, we

7. have, FUTURE reference, I

8. be, PRESENT reference, he

Exercise 17. Time for some work after all the leisure (!)

Grammar books may differ on Aspect labeling: some will have Progressive tenses for Continuous tenses. Travelers in Grammar stay by the name Progressive.

Our connotation now can be “in the Field of the FUTURE.” Our head verb can be to guide.

Example: Perfect in the Field of the FUTURE, she

Answer: She will have guided. (Future Perfect)

Minds first (!)

1. Progressive in the Field of the PRESENT, I

2. Perfect in the Field of the PRESENT, you

3. Progressive in the Field of the FUTURE, he

4. Progressive in the Field of the PAST, she

5. Progressive in the Field of the PRESENT, it

6. Perfect in the Field of the PAST, you

7. Progressive in the Field of the PRESENT, we

8. Perfect in the Field of the PRESENT, she

Exercise 18. Let us put our skills to an ultimate test. We can try to gather our verb forms from pieces. Speaking with someone in a noisy room happens to require such “gathering from pieces”.

Again, we may remain by thinking the answers, without writing them or saying. Our head verb may be to continue.

Example: ING, it, the PAST Field

Answer: It was continuing.

1. 3RD, he, the FUTURE Field

2. ING, she, the PAST Field

3. ING, they, the PRESENT Field

4. 3RD, we, the PAST Field

5. 3RD, you, the FUTURE Field

6. ING, I, in the PAST Field

7. 3RD, it, the PRESENT Field

8. ING, we, the PRESENT Field

9. 3RD, I, the FUTURE Field

10. ING, you, the PAST Field

11. 3RD, she, the PRESENT Field

12. ING, he, the PAST Field

13. 3RD, they, the FUTURE Field

14. ING, we, the FUTURE Field

Exercise 19. We can have various head verbs. All verbs here refer to moving about. Let us remember there are many more verbs, in APPENDIX 2 and APPENDIX 3.

Example 1: walk, HAVE in the PRESENT

Answer: Present Perfect, have/has walked

We “gather from pieces” as above, we only include the Simple Aspect. We mark it as the indeterminate or infinity.

The infinity symbolizes that it is impossible to calculate all words, phrases, and sentences we humans can make.

There is no way to count irregular verb uses alone. They may vary from one geographical area to another, from person to person, or even the same people may change in verb regularity.

The Simple pattern can use head verbs to map on grammatical time. Progressive and Perfect patterns use auxiliary verbs for that.

Example 2: go, ∞ , in the PAST

Answer: went, Past Simple

1. hike, BE in the PRESENT

2. trek, ∞ , in the FUTURE

3. stride, HAVE in the PAST

4. ramble, HAVE in the FUTURE

5. move, BE in the PAST

6. stroll, ∞ , in the PAST

7. tread, ∞ , in the PRESENT

8. step, BE in the FUTURE

9. roam, HAVE in the PAST

10. rove, BE in the PRESENT

Exercise 20. Now our head verbs all refer to thinking. Let us use the Aspects, the Simple, Progressive, and Perfect, with the grammatical person (I, you, he, she, it, we, they).
We may fancy our BIG CHART FOR THREE PERSONS AND PATHS.

Example 1:
think, Progressive, in the PAST Field

Answer:
was thinking (I, he, she, it),
were thinking (you, we, they)

Example 2:
consider, Simple, in the PAST Field

Answer:
considered (I, you, we, they, he, she, it: all persons)

1. reason, Perfect, in the FUTURE Field

2. imagine, Simple, in the FUTURE Field

3. expect, Perfect, in the PRESENT Field

4. figure, Perfect, in the PAST Field

5. reckon, Progressive, in the PRESENT Field

6. surmise, Simple, in the PAST Field

7. mediate, Simple, in the PAST Field

8. cogitate, Perfect, in the PRESENT Field

9. review, Progressive, in the PAST Field

10. anticipate, Perfect, in the PRESENT Field

Exercise 21. Our thinking and inner language are the fastest and most capable to manage our inner grammars.

Linguistically, abstract thinking is not about anything unreal. It extracts from experience. It integrates the essentials.

Let us try a few hat tricks. The hat, ^ , is a symbol we may use for our language notation. Let us see, if we can take language tasks “at the drop of the hat”, that is, fast and without effort. Below, we can see an extract or essence for our observations so far.

In this exercise, all verbs relate to comprehension and learning. We can have our language note, TO^PRESENT, for saying, TO a moment with a PRESENT reference. Everyone may write up own notation.

Example: gather, TO^PRESENT, she

Answer: She has gathered.

1. understand, ON^PRESENT, I

2. learn, IN^FUTURE, we

3. notice, TO^FUTURE, he

4. think, IN^PAST, you

5. study, ON^PAST, they

6. interpret, IN^PRESENT, he

7. discern, TO^PRESENT, she

8. comprehend, ON^FUTURE, we

Our language markers ON, IN, TO (and later also AT) grammatically are prepositions. We can have these function words for cognitive variables in inner management of integrated patterns of language.

We do not need to be ashamed of the idea in front of school professors (!)

Let us mind, we use our markers for the language inner framework. We can compare classic grammars: we do not have to say we are using the Present Simple, whenever we speak or write with the Present Simple pattern.

Matters are the same with Language Mapping: we do not have to say or write the prepositions, to use them for mapping.

Another way round, we do not have to employ the Progressive, Simple, or Perfect tense patterns to use the words progress, simple, or perfect. Likewise, we can use prepositions for our content regardless of the mapping framework.

An exquisite, little nut tree I do have, says example 3 in exercise 14. Our Simple pattern can have an auxiliary. Feel welcome to CHAPTER 5.

*****

3.4. PRACTICE FOR THE CHARACTER AND TIME

Exercise 7. To get along with our language patterns at school, we need to be able to use grammar labels. We learn to make the labels, rather than to memorize them: merely memorized, they may get “mixed up”. Linguistic confusion can result as in the picture above.

Example: pattern 1
Answer: the Present Progressive

Grammatical time	Aspect
	The Simple	The Progressive	The Perfect
The Future	5	6	7
The Present	4	1	8
The Past	3	2	9

Our next exercise works on a very important level in language learning. The level is metalinguistic.

Metalanguage is the style to talk about language, as about nouns or verbs.

It is metalanguage to let tell if a form that ends in ―ED is 3RD or 2ND. Most of us know metalanguage from school or individual study; we only might be not used to the specialist term, “metalanguage”.

Exercise 8. Let us practice associating the auxiliary and the Aspect. We “say” the answers in our thoughts, as in the MIND PRACTICE. When we think analytically about language sound and shape, we conceptualize words.

Example: had
Answer: the third form, the Past Perfect

1. was

2. is

3. have

4. were

5. has

6. will be

7. will have

8. are

9. am

Exercise 9. The verb forms BE or HAVE can build Progressive or Perfect patterns. They are auxiliary then.

The forms BE and HAVE also can be head verbs.

For the match they make with personal pronouns, there is no difference if the BE or HAVE is an auxiliary, or a head verb.

Let us practice BE and HAVE for the grammatical time (PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE) and all grammatical persons. In simple words, we are back with the Fields of Time, for the forms BE and HAVE. We can use our GRAMMAR VISUALS.

Similarly to EXERCISE 3, we can sum up, verbalize “all persons”, where our important language forms remain the same. It is not wrong to have own language work for an important activity.

In this exercise, we have work for a noun (What? Work), with BE and HAVE as head verbs. We have it for a verb (To do what? To work), with BE and HAVE as auxiliaries.

Example: have in the PRESENT
Answer: I, you, we, they have work (work is a noun);
I, you, we, they have worked (work is a head verb);
he, she, it has work;
he, she, it has worked.

We verbalize and visualize the patterns in our thoughts, as in the Mind Practice. The true learning is in the mind, not in keeping many notes.

1. be in the PRESENT

2. have in the FUTURE

3. be in the PAST

4. be in the FUTURE

5. have in the PAST

Exercise 10. Let us think the patterns from exercise 8 one more time, with the verb to learn. It is a regular verb and makes the second and third forms with ―ED. We choose on the grammatical person on our own.

Example: had
Answer: learned

Exercise 11. Let us get back with all grammatical persons. In our thought, we place them last, to exercise flexibility in the language habit.
Minds first (!)

Example: be in the PRESENT
Answer: am working, I;
are working, you, we, they;
is working, he, she, it.

1. have in the PAST

2. have in the FUTURE

3. be in the FUTURE

4. be in the PAST

5. have in the PRESENT

Exercise 12. We also can consciously think Time-first, or Aspect-first. In this exercise, let us tell the core word and label the pattern, Aspect-first.

Please mind, we recognize core words only with regard to tense patterns. The words are the verbs TO BE, TO HAVE, TO DO, and WILL.

Our purpose is to mind the words that can help make our reference to time. We do not intend to limit our vocabularies.

Example: am / is / are learning
Answer: be, Progressive in the PRESENT

1. have / has learned

2. was / were learning

3. will be learning

4. had learned

5. will have learned

With all natural languages, we people first learn to tell where things or persons are, and the ability to tell the hour comes after.

Time and place remain an association in our human minds throughout lifespan. We can use this association for grammar. Let us see more detail in CHAPTER 4.

*****

3.3. THE BIG CHART FOR THREE PERSONS AND PATHS

Let us picture the Simple, Progressive, and the Perfect with all personal pronouns.

We can view the verb phrase as the room we make for grammatical time. Verb phrases mostly have a few verbs, but in the Simple Aspect, one verb may be enough.

We begin with the FUTURE. Our head verb is to learn.

THE SIMPLE

will learn
(I, you, we, they, he, she, it)

THE PROGRESSIVE

will be learning
(I, you, we, they, he, she, it)

THE PERFECT

will have learned
(I, you, we, they, he, she, it)

NOTES

Our verbal forms do not change for the grammatical person, in the FUTURE Field. All Aspects, the Simple, Progressive, and the Perfect, take on the auxiliary WILL.

THE SIMPLE

I, you, we, they learn
he, she, it learns

THE PROGRESSIVE

I am learning
you, we, they are learning
he, she, it is learning

THE PERFECT

I, you, we, they have learned
he, she, it has learned

NOTES

The feature S keeps company to the third person singular, he, she, it. We have the forms learns, is learning, and has learned.

THE SIMPLE

learned
(I, you, we, they, he, she it)

THE PROGRESSIVE

I, he, she, it was learning
you, we, they were learning

THE PERFECT

had learned
(I, you, we, they, he, she it)

NOTES

The feature S remains with the Past Progressive singular, for the 1st and 3rd persons: I, he, she, it was learning.

The form LEARNED looks the same for the Simple, where it is the 2ND form, and the Perfect, where it is the 3RD form. The matter is going to be the same with all regular verbs.

We tell 2ND or 3RD forms by the syntax, by the way we put words together.

If our syntax has the auxiliary HAVE, we use the 3RD form, for the FUTURE, PRESENT, as well as the PAST.

The PAST Simple pattern uses the 2ND form of the head verb.

We know patterns, when we know how to use them. CHAPTER 4 has a picture for this.

We also can practice the forms a little, before we think about further grammar guidance.

3.4. ASPECT PATTERNS IN EXERCISES

*****

3.2. THE PERSON ‘YOU’

It is naturally easy, in a standard conversation, to tell if we speak with one or more persons. However, the pronoun you has the same shape, whether it refers to one person, or even quite a few people.

Language grammar also does tell, if we talk about many or one, person or another object of thought.

The grammatical singular tells about one person, thing, or another object of thought. The plural tells about two or more objects of thought.

	Singular	Plural
First person	I	we
Second person	you	you
Third person	he, she, it	they

Words as I, you, we, they, he, she, or it grammatically are personal pronouns.

The Latin name for a pronoun was “pro-nomen”, which meant “in the place of a noun”. Pronouns can take the same places as nouns, in written or spoken language.

Why is it we have the same word shape, you, for one person as well as two or many, in English? Common sense, if we say we are “beside ourselves”, we use a figure of speech.

Let us look to our core verbs, to be and to have, to view personal pronouns as evolving around the first person singular, the pronoun I. We can interpret the personal pronoun “you” as more or less — “not me”. Everybody is always own self.

We can think about the grammatical person we as made of the persons you and me. The pronoun we happens to be used for a personally neutral figure of speech, by authors. It can help avoid speculation on differences between you and me.

In grammar guidance, it might feel cumbersome to tell or read, You need to think about this, or You need the exercise.
(How could I even know you?)

We could describe the third person singular — he, she, and it — as “not you and not me” in the singular. This third person singular is the most different from the first, the pronoun I, which has had uses in literature.

Both the verbs, to be and and to have, differ for the third and first person. By the way, other people would say he or she about us, especially if not in touch. Ourselves, we always say I, as everyone is own best permanent company.

We can think the third person plural they means “not you and not me”, in the plural. It is less marked for difference, as we never literally think about ourselves in the plural. We only use figures of speech.

Further, we could say, “She told me”. We also could say, “I told her”. The forms “me” and “her” are the objects of the verb. All personal pronouns have the grammatically objective uses.

	Singular	Plural
First person	me (I)	us (we)
Second person	you (you)	you (you)
Third person	him, her, it (he, she, it)	them (they)

English also has the “generic you”. The form means anyone or everyone, then:
If you eat a cookie, you don’t keep it.
However, in contexts as exams (when we are one side of the conversation and the examiner or examiners are the other), or when we chat with one person only, the “generic you” is likely to be interpreted as the second grammatical person. This further supports the thought that the pronoun “you” connotes a sense as “not me”.

Everyday Englishes also have forms as youse, yous, or you’s. Dependent on individual speakers, the forms youse, yous, or you’s can put the form “you” in the plural, as for nouns, or combine the verb singular feature ―s, when directed to one person.

Feature transfer already has happened, in the history of English languages. For example, the Progressive can be derived from the Middle Ages gerund, as in
He was on reading;
(the word “reading” is a nominal, it is a gerund).
›››
He was reading;
(the word “reading” is a verbal, it makes a Progressive pattern).

Please mind, forms yous, youse, or you’s are informal. Feel welcome to our big chart for all persons and three paths.

*****

3.1. THE FIELDS AND THE RIVER OF TIME

If we take the patterns of the River of Time separately, they become quite many. If we focus on their regularities, they are just a few patterns. Let us return to the picture of the River of Time.

We can isolate two patterns easily. Grammar books name them the Progressive and the Perfect.

What do the names, Progressive or Perfect, tell in grammar? We most often think about the character of activity or faculty, when we think about its time. Grammars call this character the Aspect. The Progressive and Perfect grammatically are Aspects.

An activity in the Progressive Aspect is something in progress. Progress may be a changing condition, state, or activity. It may mean betterment, but it not always does.

An activity in the Perfect Aspect is something regarded to a point in time. The name “perfect” comes from Latin. For grammar, it has nothing to do with faults, flaws, or their absence. It tells about effects to a time.

To use a Progressive or Perfect pattern, we adapt the be or the have for the PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE. The verbs to be or to have are then auxiliary verbs, or auxiliaries, in short.

The word “auxiliary” comes from Latin. It meant “helping”, “accompanying”. The be and the have as in the Progressive or Perfect help build the patterns. They keep company to head verbs. Our head verbs are words to tell faculties or activities, as to learn, to read, or to write.

Together, the auxiliary and the head verb make the verb phrase. Auxiliaries help tell “where” we are in our thoughts about time, when we use grammatical patterns. The “where” is a figure of speech.

There is no single or specific brain area for thoughts. Own language activity is the strongest single factor to unite the working of the human brain entire (!)

Let us try the Perfect pattern. It takes the third form. The third form has the ending –ED, for regular verbs. For irregular verbs, the ending can be –EN.

The River of Time has one more pattern, the Simple. It can work without auxiliaries.

What does the name Simple tell, in grammar? An activity or faculty in the Simple Aspect does not take on boundaries, as to tell to what time we regard a matter, or whether we have it for something in progress.

The name of this Aspect comes from the Latin word simplus. The form is “simple”, because it may work without an auxiliary.

An activity or faculty may be not simple at all, and we might use the Simple Aspect, still:

I love grammar
(though it is not an easy feeling).

We capitalize, that is, use big letters, to write Aspect names. We use the words “simple”, “progressive”, or “perfect” as parts of noun phrases where the noun ― Aspect ― is a proper noun.

We do not use the words Simple, Progressive, Perfect, or Aspect in any sense other than grammatical.

To perceive the Simple Aspect, let us try the verb to learn. In American English, it is a regular verb. We can begin with the PAST.

Regular verbs take the ending ―ED, in the Simple Aspect.

I, you, we, they, he, she, it
learned.

within the the run of the River through the PRESENT field.
The singular has the feature (―E)S.
We say,
he, she, or it
is, has, or does.

I, you, we, they
learn;

He, she, it
learns.

CHAPTER 2 shows the verb will can map on the FUTURE already in its PRESENT form.

It does not take the feature S. We can say it does not belong with the PRESENT field only.

I, you, we, they, he, she, it
will learn.

Well, we do not know all the way yet, but we are on the other side of the River of Time (!)

*****

The verb to learn is regular. Both to read and to write are irregular verbs. Appendixes 2 and 3 have irregular verbs listed with regard to their speech sound patterns.

*****

It can be any verb, to map the grammatical time in the Simple. We can present the Simple with the infinity symbol.

The symbol is to mean that something cannot be exactly calculated, similarly to the Pi, π. It is impossible to calculate natural languages mathematically.

We can present extracts for the Progressive, Perfect, as well as the Simple.

Where is the verb phrase, in the Simple pattern? We might think it takes at least two words, to make a phrase. Phrases yet can work well, if we have them as room we make in our language. Verb phrases are the room for grammatical time.

In the Simple Aspect, a single verb may do for this room in the PRESENT or the PAST, if we affirm on something. For the FUTURE, the Simple Aspect takes the auxiliary will. CHAPTER 5 shows the Simple for questions and negatives.

When the Simple pattern works without auxiliaries, it is the head verb to map the grammatical time. Let us see our mapping underlined, for all the Aspects so far.

Some grammars use the label “Continuous” for the “Progressive”. They mean the same Aspect, that is, they make the same reference for the character of activity or faculty, and time.

There is one more pattern. Grammars name it the Perfect Progressive. We can get to know it better in our further journey. Feel welcome.
3.2. THE PERSON “YOU”

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