8.2. PRACTICE FOR ALL ASPECTS

Exercise 45. We can warm up, merging our symbolic cues. As for our MIND PRACTICE, we may just think and visualize.

Example:
The plain arrow symbolizes the variable {ON}. Pointed up or down, it cues for the grammatical FUTURE or PAST. Horizontally, it indicates the PRESENT. We may refer to SUBCHAPTER 5.1.

We can merge the plain arrow, let us say for the variable {IN}, within the same grammatical time. Here, it is going to be the PRESENT.

Answer:
A. Before the merger:
Jemma smiles.

{ON}, the PRESENT
the Present Simple

B. After the merger:
Jemma is smiling.

{IN}, the PRESENT
the Present Progressive

*****

We are not practicing behaviorist reflexes. We are working on flexible habits. We may think about Jemma, as well as Bob or anyone, including ourselves, and with various verbs. It is important that we learn to merge features for grammatical variables and time.

*****

THE TASK

Exercise 46. We merge features as above and think about Expression. We just think and visualize.

Answer:
A. Before the merger
Does Bob worry?

{ON}, the PRESENT
the Present Simple

B. After the merger
Is Bob worrying?

(His dad is wearing a horrible tie.)

{IN}, the PRESENT
the Present Progressive

Exercise 47. Let us practice deciding {ON} our cognitive extents. We complete the structures and arrow cues.

Not everyone fancies speaking about feelings and thoughts. However, it is important that we try to represent them in language. We may think about time and change.

*****

When we are able to put words together well, our words represent our notions and thoughts in language. We can name this ability representation, as there is always more than one way to put words together and make sense.

*****

Example: I love …

Answer: I love language.
(We can answer without telling anyone;
we remember the MIND PRACTICE.)

1. I hate …

2. I thought that … was pretty.

3. I remembered … then.

4. I considered … important.

5. I want …

6. I hated … when I was a child.

7. I think that … is stupid. [TABOO]

8. I remember …

9. I consider … important.

10. I wanted … when I was a child.

Exercise 48. It is natural to follow what is good for us. Therefore, let us try to “trade” language features. We merge the features in the wording with symbolics.

Example: I love …

Answer: I have (always) loved language.

Again, we can give our answers in our thoughts, envisioning situations for which we might use the phrases.

1. I think (about) …

2. I concluded …

3. I like …

4. I keep …

5. I sensed …

6. I thought (about) …

7. I feel … (always, that)

8. I was thinking (about) …

9. I learned …

10. …means a lot to me.

Exercise 49. The Perfect Progressive Aspect makes three tenses, PRESENT, PAST and FUTURE. It has an open time frame.

Let us practice our linguistic gravitation: we close the time frame, when we are {ON} a cognitive ground (please compare SUB-CHAPTER 6.1).

We have part the mapping cues and stay with the Affirmative. We may not want much to do, in one go.

Example 1: have breakfast
EVERY DAY, 8:00 ― 10:00 A.M.
TIME NOW: 18:00 P.M.

Answer: I had breakfast.

Example 2: have breakfast

EVERY DAY, 8:00 ― 8:30 A.M.
TIME NOW: 8:15 P.M.

Answer: I have been having breakfast.

1. work

MONDAY ― FRIDAY, 9:00 ― 17:00 A.M.
TIME NOW: Monday, 10:00 P.M.

2. work
MONDAY ― FRIDAY, 9:00 ― 17:00 A.M.
TIME NOW: Saturday, after 19:00 P.M.

3. read

EVERY DAY, 22:00 ― 24:00 A.M.
TIME NOW: 23:00 P.M.

4. read

EVERY DAY, 22:00 ― 24:00 A.M.
TIME NOW: 00:15 P.M.

5. go to the gym
TUESDAYS 19:00 ― 20:00 A.M.
TIME NOW: Wednesday, after 21:15 P.M.

Exercise 50. Let us practice our earthling proper egoism (please compare SUB-CHAPTER 8.1). In conversation, we cannot merely follow on grammar.

We decide {ON} our language extents. We ignore the cue that would not be properly egoistic.

Example: She (cherish) her friends.

Answer: She has cherished her friends.

1. The book set (consist) of five parts.

2. She (sound) like under a bad impression.

3. Yesterday afternoon, he (recall) his school years with friends.

4. She just (recognize) the handwriting now.

5. He (agree) to the new conclusion just now.

6. Now, she (appreciate) the ancient manuscript for an hour.

7. He (want) to go to the Arctic before he went to the Antarctic.

8. The house (belong) to the family for 10 years.

9. He usually (respect) other opinions, but not that time.

10. This time tomorrow, she (see) her brother.

*****

From the key: example 7 shows we always should consider the entire utterance, to make out the grammatical time. The verb form “went” places the stretch of speech in the PAST.

We also can think about the alternate language forms.

In example 3, a phrase as “*yesterday afternoon, he will recall his school years with friends”, could not work with our cognitive map for YESTERDAY.

In example 8, a phrase as “*the house will have been belonging to the family for 10 years”, would go against natural human possessiveness: we place property {ON} cognitive maps.

Grammar is not only about style. It is also about logic and sense.

*****

Exercise 51. In natural language, our real-time present allows combining the time reference. We can talk about events that took place TODAY with a PAST grammatical reference. For events that are to take place, we can use the FUTURE.

We remain with our healthy egoism: we stay {ON} cognitive extents, for hearts and minds, regardless of any cues.

Example:
TODAY, PRESENT; he, know the answer

Answer: He knows the answer. {ON}
(We ignore the dot, the Progressive symbolics.)

1. YESTERDAY, the PAST; she, believe it

2. TODAY, the PRESENT; she, work

3. TODAY, the PAST; they, see each other

4. TOMORROW, the FUTURE; he, live here for ten years

5. YESTERDAY, the PAST; she, speak with them

6. YESTERDAY, the PAST; he, write for an hour

7. TOMORROW, the FUTURE; you, work here for five years

8. TODAY, the PAST; we, hike in the mountains

9. TODAY, the PRESENT; she, exercise for an hour already

10. TOMORROW, the FUTURE; he, watch television, at this hour

Exercise 52. SAMSON THE AGONIST is a story of a hero who had magic hair that gave him power. Naturally, we do not have to believe everything we read, online either.

Our “Observations as by a grain of sand” are to help us keep grammar even against unusual wording, like in EXERCISE 42. We have only part the cues: we practice independent language skill.

We first put our verbs into the grammatical PAST, and then into the PRESENT. We mind our Expression: the Affirmative, Negative, and Interrogative.

Example: The grain of sand, with its power to stay on the shore and in the sea, 1. (think) about a proper measure for own composition.

Answer: The grain of sand, with its power to stay on the shore and in the sea, was thinking about a proper measure for own composition.

A. Length N 2. (seem) to give granularity the right proportion. A modicum N 3. (be) the argument to the grain of sand: it 4. (bring) to mind limitation rather than weight.

B. The grain of sand 5. (think) about wisdom. What wisdom 6. (be) ?

C. It 7. (may be) a grain of wit and manhood well resolved, but the grain of sand N 8. (consider) going into a drama like that of Samson the Agonist really necessary.

D. The grain usually 9. (rest) close to the shoreline, not entirely by own will, but by the way of life it 10. (practice) since its earliest years.

E. Owing to this lifestyle, it 11. (decide) to devote part its time to necessities of cognition.

F. Thinking about own format as a potentiality by another, it 12. (deliberate) whether it 13. (be), as a grain of sand, a fruit of ability or mere industriousness.

G. It 14. (can be) up to itself to conclude on own structuring. For that chance, it 15. (spend) half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening, to ponder on composite phenomena strictly.

H. It 16. (do) its daily dose of reckoning for about fifteen minutes, when a westerly 17. (arrive) to the shore. Its habitual way, the wind 18. (make) a little eddy on the shoreside.

I. The grain of sand 19. (think) if that 20. (be) wise.

*****

Obviously, wits cannot be something we grow on our heads.

Let us now put the story into the grammatical PRESENT. Our grammar journey has had some dramatic narrative already, in EXERCISE 44.

Answer: The grain of sand, with its power to stay on the shore and in the sea, is thinking about a proper measure for own composition.

A1. Length does not seem to give granularity the right proportion. A modicum is not the argument to the grain of sand: it brings to mind limitation rather than weight.

B1. The grain of sand thinks about wisdom. What is wisdom?

C1. It may be a grain of wit and manhood well resolved, but the grain of sand does not consider going into a drama like that of Samson the Agonist really necessary…

*****

Our sense for distance and time may encourage altering the word “that” from the grammatical PAST into the word “this”, for the grammatical PRESENT.

Modal verbs can challenge our logic. Feel welcome to CHAPTER 9.

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6.5. THE TARGET TIME AND FRAME

Berry target, photo by Brigitte Tohm from Pexels.

With goals, purposes and targets, the matter is to have what we want, where we want it, and when we want it, like a bowl of berries in the picture above.

For language skill, we need to practice linguistic targets.

Exercise 37. We have our time frames for our guidance. We choose between the Simple and the Perfect, in the PAST.

Please put the verb in the form for the grammatical PAST and give the arrow cue along with the mapping value. In language, we can seek inspiration with words. Let it be a simple chair this time.

Example: His parents (surrender) □ his place in the kindergarten. When Ms. Duncan (suggest) □ playing the musical chairs, Art (throw) □ in three right hand gloves. One of them (belong) □ to Ms. Duncan.

If we feel we could be better off writing entire answers, we can do so without looking to others. Writing belongs with human fine motor behavior. It is important in integrating language skills.

Answer: His parents surrendered his place in the kindergarten. When Ms. Duncan suggested playing the musical chairs, Art threw in three right hand gloves. One of them belonged to Ms. Duncan.

We can only think about the logical cues and mapping values, as in MIND PRACTICE 1.2.
Answer: {ON}

1. Despite his early predilection for challenge, he (get) □ himself a chairborne job. His chair (have) □ an advantage, however. He (design) └┘ it for use by one person exactly

2. Originally, he never (expect) □ of a woman to fill a chair. He (change) □ his mind when he (perceive), □ at about 26, that the strategy almost (reduce) └┘ him to his local club armchair, for dialogue.

3. He (marry) Jin in summer. They (spend) □ their countryside honeymoon mostly bringing the chairs from the garden. His friend Jalen (persuade) □ him to go on a vacation, in a better weather. They (choose) □ Amtrak to journey. Art and Jin first (meet) □ in a parlor car. Face to face with their notebooks, they (realize) □ they were actually chatting with each other over the Unlimited (!)

4. He soon (begin) □ developing his son-in-law attitude. Eva, his mother-in-law, (love) □ to say nobody should let predecessors set the measure for the chair. Art (have) □ a reservation. His job (be) └┘ by principle like trying to keep someone on the edge of the seat with soft overboiled noodles. Jalen Seges (agree) □ that office routines (take) □ some time.

5. Art (know) □ that contending Eva’s arguments (be) □ suggestive of trying verbally to captivate a moving rock. Incontrovertibility (belong) □ with the Seges family ethos. A Yale graduate married to a Harvard grad, Ms. Seges (be) └┘ a woman of resolve, throughout her life. She (talk) table and chairs right when junior (begin) □ preschool. Her grandchildren would go to best schools, to fill their grandparents’ walnut bobbin chairs.

*****

Art is thinking about a new job. Routines of predetermined beginning and end are not his nature. With language work, we also can learn to negotiate: we contend the arguments and not the people, for that.

Could we look up the Amtrak Unlimited, Yale, and Harvard over the Internet? Can we comprehend words like “incontrovertibility”, if our dictionary does not have them? There are sample hints down this page.

Exercise 38. Please tell the time frames and map values (ON, IN, or TO), along with the grammatical time (PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE). We have the arrow cues with every task, if we need them.

Example: Her father 1. (be) a nibmeister. She 2. (have) a clear taste for good quality since she 3. (be) a little girl.

CUES

Again, we can think about the frames and variables, minds first or only.
Answer:
(1) □ was, {ON} PAST;
(2) └┘ has had, {TO} PRESENT;
(3) □ was, {ON} PAST.

A. When she was in her early teens, she 4. (make) a miniature book. It 5. (be) three inches square.

B. She 6. (keep) the book for her thinktionary. She still 7. (happen) to add words to it, though she 8. (make) many more such books.

C. A young girl, she 9. (put) her miniature book in her jacket pocket and 10. (go) to sit by the river. Whenever a word 11. (come) to her mind, she 12. (write) it in with her miniature fountain pen.

D. Her handwriting 13. (change) a little, since then. By and large, she 14. (adjust) her letters to the size of her notebook. One day, she 15. (engross) her future husband’s name in her thinktionary. His name 16. (remain) the only word to take a page entire, out of the alphabetical order.

E. Chantelle 17. (have) a collection of pens. Her favored inkwells 18. (be) glass, silver, and pewter. Her first book 19. (tell) about a girl’s language of the heart.

*****

Form (16) also might be “his name remains”: there are no universal rules to govern contexts, and we are free to decide on our own, dependent on our cognitive mapping.

Miniature books belong with arts. Their scopes may be the same as of standard volumes. They are smaller because they are miniaturized. Chantelle’s miniature book is one of the biggest sizes ― it is three inches square.

The “thinktionary” is a coined word. We can compare it with the word “dictionary”. Everyone can have own thinktionaries. Have we met Chantelle already?

HINTS FROM THE KEY

We do not have to use Past Perfect forms whenever anything happened earlier or preceded something else. We would need millions of past tense forms to speak about Old English, thinking only about the days and years since those times.

Amtrak Unlimited is a forum for Amtrak passengers.

Harvard and Yale are two very prominent and competitive American universities.

*****

How do we interpret words as incontrovertibility?
Here is how we can interpret information about words. We do not need to memorize it.

Just browsing and reading dictionaries, we might get even surprised with how much we remember and “intuitively” use.

We can interpret incontrovertibility by the word build.

The American Heritage online will show the word in•con•tro•vert•ible and explain that the verb to con•tro•vert may mean “to raise arguments against; voice opposition to”.

We look up the parts in– and –ibility. The particle in– may negate. The particle –ibility can work with a noun and connote “an ability, inclination, or suitability”.

However, the particle in– may also mean “having the function of”. We can look up words such as “inbound” or “incant”. Inflammable materials or substances can be highly flammable.

The verb “to controvert” derives from the noun controversy. The noun consists of the particles contro– and versus.

Contro– or contra– can connote “against, opposite, contrasting”. The particle in– does not work in the sense “into” or “within” with the particle con–.

The American Heritage dictionary can tell that incontrovertibility relates to the adjective incontrovertible, meaning “impossible to dispute, unquestionable”.

In•con•tro•vert•i•ble•ness is another, probable form.

We can guess that Art Veltall’s mother-in-law may be a person difficult — but not impossible — to persuade or influence. His wife Jin is some personality, too.

READ HOW TO USE THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY

Feel welcome to further journey.
CHAPTER 7. STATIVE USE OF VERBS

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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.

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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

*****

6.1. OUR LINGUISTIC GRAVITY: THE NOTIONAL GROUND

As we saw in CHAPTER 6, concepts of a time frame and a cognitive ground can help comprehend the difference between the Simple and Perfect Aspects.

The Simple Aspect would have a closed time frame.

We could say,
5b. He loves to hear about Jim’s little cousin. He met the kid last summer.

We close the frame when we have the cognitive ground, as we saw also with example 2, in CHAPTER 6.

5a. He met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

In example 5a, the phrase “last summer” gives the cognitive ground for the verb form “met”. The verb form precedes the phrase, we yet always know what we want to say before we say it.

Our closing the frame does not mean we have to view the PRESENT for strictly separate from the PAST or FUTURE. We could say,

5c. He says (that) he met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

The Perfect Aspect would have an open time frame. We do not close this time frame on any particular real-time extent. It always tells about a span.

We could not say,

5d. *He has met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

(An asterisk can mark an incorrect expression. Informally, we may name a mistake a serious blunder.)

We also could not say,

5e. *He says (that) he has met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

To speak about the present and the past or future, we keep one time reference for one sentence or clause head.

We have those heads marked in ink blue, in all our examples here.

If we put both closed and open time frames with one sentence or clause head, our syntax will be broken.

5f. *He (says that he) has met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

*****

The open time frame may suggest effects, highlights, 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 any more; his writing belongs with a closed time frame in the PAST.)

Let us now think about our cognitive ground as with gravity. Let us say we speak about last year. The time reference, last year, gives us the notional ground.

6b. He wrote the book last summer.

(It does not matter, if his writing belongs with the PRESENT or PAST. We have the notional ground and this makes our gravity work.)

To respond to 6b, many classic grammar books might advise to use the Present Perfect.

6d. I have/haven’t seen the book.

Pragmatically, we would be making quite a broad open time frame with that, however. The frame would emphasize the time span. This is why in everyday American we happen to get forms as here.

6d. I never read / saw the book.

Language allows to pool the cognitive information and say we never saw or read the book the author wrote last year.

It is for the sake of the cognitive ground that most people would add some circumstance, to affirm.

6e. I saw it at our book fair/ that year, etc.

*****

It is not just a concept that human brains can do logic. The sooner we begin to work on it, the better.

Feel welcome to further language journey.
6.2. ASPECT COGNITIVE VARIABLE AND TIME FRAME

*****

CHAPTER 6. WE CAN CHOOSE OUR PATHS ABOUT TIME

There are no universal principles for choosing between the Present Perfect and the Past Simple. We may learn many classic rules, yet the truth is going to be that we need own resolves, in context.

Imagination can help shape language skill that works also real-life. Let us imagine a small office. A man is entering it. His name is Jim. He is asking about a woman who works there.

Real-life, we would notice some characteristics and qualities about Jim. Is he in a hurry? Is he anxious or relaxed? What is his manner of speaking ― fast, swift, steady?

We probably would perceive the time of day and the weather. Is it morning or afternoon? Is it warm and sunshiny, or cold and somber? Would we fancy raindrops on the windowsill?

Could this be Jim?

We may visualize the person in the office. Let us say she is a woman and her name is Jin. How could we describe her? We might use a dictionary to find at least five words about Jim and Jin.

Could this be Jin on her break?

Jim is looking for Jill. He meets Jin. He asks her about Jill (sound-alike and look-alike names really happen). Jin could say,

1. Jill left a few minutes ago;

or,

1a. Jill has just left.

We pictured the Simple and the Perfect with mapping values {ON} and {TO} in Chapter 4.

1. Jill left a few minutes ago;
{ON, a PAST ground in time};
GRAMMATICAL LABEL: Past Simple.

1a. Jill has just left;
{the variable TO, the PRESENT ground in time};
GRAMMATICAL LABEL: Present Perfect.

How do we tell the difference?

Expression 1, “Jill left a few minutes ago”,
refers Jill’s departure to the PAST.

Expression 1a, “Jill has just left”,
connects Jill’s departure with the PRESENT.

Importantly, Jin could choose her way to speak about the same fact, Jill’s leaving the office, let us say, at 5 p.m. sharp.

We do not always need meditation, to make language choices.

Do expressions 1 and 1a narrate on divergent perceptions of the same real time? Not necessarily. Let us consider a concept of a time frame. We may think about a famous American park, Yellowstone.

The Steamboat geyser in Yellowstone.

2. Have you ever been in Yellowstone?

2a. Did you go to Yellowstone?

The time frame in example 2 is open. It embraces time to the PRESENT. The question asks if we have visited the park ever in our lives.

We could imagine a 50-year-old man asked if he has ever been in Yellowstone. The time frame would embrace 50 years of his life (!)

In example 2a, the time frame for the Simple Past is closed on a reference to the PAST.

The PAST does not have to be distant, or — whatsoever — irrelevant. We close the frame, when we have the cognitive ground for it.

In conversations, people usually seek a cognitive ground in common. To comprehend this, we can picture surfaces. This is how we could imagine our talk before 2a:

2b. Have you met your Yellowstone friend?

2c. He moved to Treasure ― yes.

Yellowstone and Treasure are neighboring American counties. Our friend introduces a PAST reference in time. We can try the same cognitive ground. We may ask,

2d. Did you go to the park?

A cognitive ground also can be a notional ground. A notion may be a thought or a word. A notional ground is not any surface actually to stand on, but we can take stands ― express our views and opinions ― using our cognitive or notional grounds.

We could consider saying,
2e. Did you go to the Yellowstone National Park, when you met your friend?

However, when we know our cognitive or notional ground, we would be more likely to hear or say 2d. Example 2e might have linguistic redundancy, that is, say needlessly.

After all, making a conversation is about having something to talk over, not about saying as many words as possible.

*****

Theories happen, that American English “generally is getting rid of” the Perfect tenses, and they are much less in use in American than in British. Let us reflect on the language information for what we say.

What is language information? When we speak or write, our contexts and circumstances, along with our memories and language styles, can make entire scopes of language features or elements come together as in information pools.

The star symbol below can stand for an information pool. We can think about the symbol as showing various language features and elements pooling together.

*****

What if Jin only would be telling that Jill just left, knowing that Jill is still in the office? Could we think about language information, if Jin would be lying about Jill?

Let us reckon on truth conditions. For example, many people know and believe that water boils at about 100 degrees Celsius, 212 degrees Fahrenheit, or 373 Kelvin.

There could be circumstances on Earth or in the outer space in which this would not be true, however.

We do not need to travel the outer space to learn American, but we are free to imagine even miscellaneous worlds.

Saying, “At 100 centigrades”, could be the truth when telling how to set a kitchen oven. It could be a lie on a spaceship or another planet (!)

Someone saying that water always boils at the temperatures quoted above might not have knowledge of the world enough to tell other circumstances. He or she would not be lying. Telling a lie takes the intention to deceive.

Please mind that Americans use the Fahrenheit scale to tell temperatures. If an American says that our temperature is 100 degrees, it does not mean that we are boiling. In Fahrenheit, normal body temperature is about 97 to 99 degrees.

The Fahrenheit scale tells the freezing point of water as 32 degrees, and the boiling point as 212 degrees at one atmosphere of pressure.

*****

It is mostly grammar to have the language information. Let us think about a few examples.

Could we imagine a jealous husband?

3. Where have you been?

{TO, the PRESENT}, Present Perfect

3a. I’ve been to the movies.

{TO, the PRESENT}, Present Perfect

3b. Did you enjoy it?

{ON, the PAST}, Past Simple

The wife could say, especially if she does not want to answer too many questions,

3c. Actually, I didn’t like it much.

{ON, the PAST}, Past Simple

We do not have to look suggestive of portraits to tell the truth.

The wife could be preparing a surprise birthday party for her husband. She could be lying about the cinema. The husband does not know it. Still, they would use their language knowledge to progress into a closed time frame.

They close the frame on a cognitive ground: they know they are speaking about the same time span.

3b. Did you enjoy it?

{ON, the PAST}, Past Simple

3c. Actually, I didn’t like it much.

{ON, the PAST}, Past Simple

*****

We do not always rely on clocks and watches, using the information that life brings.

WHEN? WHEN WE WERE THERE.

Let us imagine we are on a countryside vacation. We are staying at a motel. For a few days, we have our breakfast at the motel, before we go hiking.

We may know U.S. Route 66 as the Will Rogers Highway, or the Main Street of America. Part the original highway is now a National Scenic Byway. Will Rogers was a famous American media personality of the 1920s and 1930s.

4. Have you had breakfast?
{TO, the PRESENT}, Present Perfect
(We are still at the motel. The motel belongs with
the PRESENT).

4a. Did you have breakfast?
{ON, the PAST}, Past Simple
(We are out in the open. The morning in the motel belongs with
the PAST).

Obviously, time is good to reckon on time, too.

4. Have you had breakfast?
(It is morning, still; the time frame is open.)

***

4a. Did you have breakfast?
(It is afternoon; the time frame is closed.)

***

Choosing our time frame, we can think about effects of something. We also may highlight our regards.

5. He has met Jim’s little cousin.
(He can tell the kid is very curious about the world; we are highlighting the personal impression that holds also in the present time.)

***

5a. He met Jim’s little cousin last summer.
(It was when he last went to visit Jim; we are highlighting the time and closing the frame on it.)

Our language information does not belong with information technology. No computer could do our human thing: begin, learn, and think on basis of our indeterminate.

*****

Let us return to our office conversation. Importantly, an American really could say in the context,

2. Jill just left.
(This is what our Jin tells Jim.)

The word “just” effectively marks the recency. There is no language information missing from example 2, when we compare it with 1a.

1a. Jill has just left.

To consider how we gather from experience, we can expand our phrases. Jin might say,

1b. She left a few minutes ago ― what a pity you did not come a little earlier. Probably she has gone out of the building by now.
(Jin perceives that Jill’s presence belongs with the PAST; Jill was in a hurry to leave.)

Jin also could say,

1c. Jill has just left ― why don’t you ask at the front desk, she still may be somewhere around.
(Jin links Jill’s presence with the PRESENT; Jill might be in the building.)

Finally, asking questions in Perfect tenses ― as “Have you ever been in Yellowstone?” ― is natural in American. It is not true that American is the kind of English to delete the Perfect Aspect.

Feel welcome to some reasoning on our linguistic time frame and gravitation.
6.1. THE TIME FRAME AND THE NOTIONAL GROUND

*****

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WHEN? WHEN WE WERE THERE.

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