10.3. WORKOUT FOR REAL-TIME TALK

Envisioning language study as travel in a dimension, we could think about our skill as guarding us against steep slopes. Let us warm up, for some workout.

Exercise 60. We do the exercise in our thoughts, as in the MIND PRACTICE. The arrow cues show the target grammatical time. We regard our linguistic Form Relativity.

Example: If you learned, you knew.
The forms “learned” and “knew” together show there is no linguistic relativity here. Our target grammatical time is the FUTURE.

Answer: If you WILL learn, you WILL know.

1. If you learn, you know.

2. If you WERE ABLE TO learn, you WERE ABLE TO know.

3. If you learned, you WOULD know.

4. If you HAD learned, you WOULD have known.

5. If you learn, you WILL know.

6. If you learned, you WOULD know.

7. If you HAD learned, you WOULD have known.

8. If you learn, you WILL know.

Exercise 61. Let us try “jumping” time extents, as in EXERCISE 55. We provide the arrow cues for the target grammatical time. Our “jumping” symbols are:

“One time extent forward”;

“One time extent backward”.

We can present the flow of time as on a symbolic line.

We can place the question mark, for the Interrogative Expression.

Example: If you learned {?}, you knew.

Answer: DO you learn, if you know?

Example: If you learned, you knew {?}

Answer: If you learn, DO you know?

We can place the letter N for our Negative Expression.

Example: If you learned {N}, you knew.

Answer: If you DON’T learn, you know.

Example: If you learned {N}, you knew {N}.

Answer: If you DON’T learn, you DON’T know.

Example: If you learned, you knew {N}.

Answer: If you learn, you DON’T know.

*****
TASK

1. If you learned, you knew {?}

2. If you learn {N}, you know.

3. If you learned, you WOULD know {?}

4. If you HAD learned, you WOULD HAVE known {N}.

5. If you learn, you WILL know {N}.

6. If you learned, you WOULD know {N}.

7. If you HAD learned, you WOULD HAVE known {?}

8. If you learn, you WILL know {?}

9. If you learned {N}, you WOULD know.

10. If you HAD learned {N}, you WOULD HAVE known {?}

Exercise 62. We can be back with someone we met in EXERCISE 37. Ms. Seges appeared already in Part One of our grammar course.

We were learning about personal pronouns, then (CHAPTER 1). Now we may think about our time frames, real-time and Modal. We can think about time frames also when the story is fictional.

It is weekend, late morning. Mr. Seges ― he never appeared in our grammar story before ― returns from a literary meeting.

Example: Ms. Seges is home, in her study. Though she had worked most of the night on her new book, she would be analyzing some old papers, now.

Answer: Ms. Seges is home.

Though she had worked most of the night on her new book,

she would be analyzing some old papers, now.

We can view Modal structures as modified real-time phrases
(SUB-CHAPTER 10.1).
Here, the phrase is not about a theory.
In our story, Ms. Seges is in her study, analyzing some old papers.

Let us compare a theory:
There is something very interesting about the old papers.
Otherwise, she would be sleeping.

*****

TASK

1. MR. SEGES: Honey, I’m back. What are you doing?

2. MS. SEGES: I’d be reading horoscopes.
(Ms. Seges never reads horoscopes.)

3. That is…?
(Mr. Seges does not believe she would ever read horoscopes.)

4. This looks like a calligraphic copy of Vespucci’s letters. It was slipping out of our backyard hedge, no covers or front matter.

5. “Hadn’t it sure taken a lot to make such a book, I’d suspect that Babbitt next door.

6. You remember, Bill wrote the book I was looking for was as likely to be obtained as a calligraphic of Vespucci’s originals.

7. And it was the title the Babbitt gave me. It was completely a fairy-tale, Bill even checked with the Freeman’s.”

8. About legends, my favorite Chicago blend is…

9. Honey, I would have remembered about the coffee; but I was so preoccupied…

10. I’m putting that with my records. The coffee is not a fairy-tale. It continues to exist somewhere in Chicago.

*****

From the key: Let us remember about text rich interpretation, as in EXERCISE 55. Babbitt is a character by Sinclair Lewis, an American writer. The Freeman’s is a famous auction house to specialize also in books.

Amerigo Vespucci described his voyages in letters to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici. Calligraphic copies were still quite a habit for most important documents, in Vespucci’s times.

*****

Skimming can encourage effective learning; feel welcome to have a peek into EXERCISE 64, before doing this one.

Exercise 63. Let us focus on Form Relativity with the Progressive. We remember about the earthling proper egoism (please compare SUB-CHAPTER 8.1).

We have the value {IN} next to the verb to go with the Progressive. However, we can stay {ON} our cognitive grounds for qualities, hearts and minds (CHAPTER 7).

Example: {PAST}, he, N 1. (be) extremely busy, 2. (remember) {IN} to bring that brand coffee.

Answer: If he had not been extremely busy, he would have remembered to bring that brand coffee.

Our symbolics:
A CLOSED MODAL FRAME, AND GRAMMATICAL TARGET PAST.

Please think if to use FORM RELATIVITY in example 2. A non-relative form will show a number of activities different from the relative. We can use Modals other than WILL, too.

*****

1. {PRESENT}, she, N read {IN} the calligraphic, she, sleep {IN}.
(She worked on her new book all night.)

2. {PAST}, he, N write {IN}, he, read or talk {IN}.
(The colloquium was very engaging.)

3. {PAST}, he, N hear {IN} from Bill then, {PRESENT}, he, write {IN} him a letter now.

4. {PRESENT}, it, N be {IN} such a good quality, she, think it a mere prank.

5. {FUTURE}, it, N sustain {IN} the quality throughout, it, compare {IN} with the Bodleian Horace and Francis Crease talent.

6. {FUTURE}, they, look in the library, they, get the Medici print.
(Someone most probably made it from the Medici print.)

7. {PRESENT}, it, N be so conscientious, he, throw it in that Babbitt’s garden next door.

8. {FUTURE}, it, prove necessary, she, have it carbon dated.

9. {PRESENT}, it, be as good as it looks, it, M be of worth even as just a calligraphic.

10. {PAST} it, N deprive of the front matter, {PRESENT}, it, be {IN} easier to find out who made it.

Feel welcome to some more exercise. We are gradually getting independent of cues. Real-time, we people speak without them.
10.4. MORE WORKOUT FOR REAL-TIME TALK

*****

10.1. THE UNREAL PAST OR CONDITIONAL: REAL TIME

Let us try a few more quotes.

More than that, and breaking precedent once more, I do not intend to commence any sentence with these words ― “If George Washington had been alive today”, or “If Thomas Jefferson”, or “If Alexander Hamilton”, or “If Abraham Lincoln had been alive today…”
Theodore Roosevelt, American President

PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Grammar resources might label the quote from Theodore Roosevelt as the 3rd Conditional, Unreal Past, or even the Past Unreal Conditional, dependent on the grammar approach solely.

Some of those resources would tell we build the 3rd Conditional of the Past Perfect and the Future in the Past.

We would have to recognize the Past Perfect for a potentially Unreal form, then.

Worse still, our “Unreal Past Perfect” would be as good as merely a fancy. Please compare a quote from Gerald Ford.

If Lincoln were alive today, he’d be turning over in his grave.

PRESIDENT GERALD FORD.

It is not only for our pension plans that we might be unwilling to have the Past Perfect for merely a fancy.

With Perfect tenses overall, our syntactic HAVE helps tell about real time. It has an open, real-time frame. To compare physical space, we might think about paths or routes on real ground.

{TO} is our cognitive variable.
We have the variable to render duration and time spans.

With the Unreal grammatical time or Conditional, HAVE brings hypothetical time. It is not part the real map, then.

It comes with an auxiliary compass for relative time, and closes the frame for the theory. We attach the auxiliary compass to the Modal.

Our cognitive variable is {ON}.

Duration and time span become generalized.
We have called it our Modal Net.

Whether our verb would be to read, to speak, to run, to stop, or to jump, duration becomes non-essential, with a theory closed frame.

The matter is exactly the same with the anchor HAVE in Theodore Roosevelt’s quote. The phrase, “had been alive”, is not concerned with longevity or shortness of life.

The phrase narrates about being alive generally, and we could quote Gerald Ford’s wording, “were alive” for an exact paraphrase.

Naturally, we might note that live people would not be likely staying in their graves, but our thing here is to work grammar for language uses as they are, even if absolutely abstract or humorous.

We may recur to CHAPTER 10. Our example was
“If you HAD eaten the cookie, you WOULD NOT HAVE had it (at some later, but still PAST time)”.

Again, the anchor HAVE pays no heed to the length of time it takes to eat a cookie. It helps mind if the cookie remains, or has been consumed in the course of events.

The syntactic role is narrative, not factual.
We may compare SUB-CHAPTER 9.2.
I thought the handle MIGHT HAVE / COULD HAVE broken off.
(It turned out it was still in place.)

However we know the theory was against fact, we can tell our story with the anchor HAVE.

About stories and their telling, the Conditional or grammatical “unreal time” are often backtrack logic: we look to the consequent, to speculate on the premise.

Let us think if language might transfer features.

We can view the phrase had eaten as a transfer of the syntactic anchor from the consequent.

We may think about a similar transfer for the Passive, where the object becomes the subject and the predicate adapts.

We do not need to view the anchor HAVE as the real-time Past Perfect. For speculation as “had been alive” or “were alive”, the choice is purely stylistic.

Let us try another president quote.

*****

“If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me, I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.”
Calvin Coolidge, American President

CALVIN COOLIDGE IN 1910, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Grammar resources might label the above as the 2nd Conditional, or view the phrase “I WOULD have made progress” as a Modal modification of a real-time “I HAVE made progress”.

The argument might be, the words definitely refer to a time span, between some time PAST and PRESENT, in which progress has been made.

Let us consider two views to our syntactic structures. We began building our language structures joining the grammatical Person, Time, and Aspect.

Modal verbs have brought form relativity and auxiliary grammatical time. Let us picture these language components.

Let us think where the verb TO HAVE might occur, as an auxiliary or head verb.

For the auxiliary time, we may compare SUB-CHAPTER 9.1.
Modality is not indispensable:
We can have auxiliary time without it, too.
I am happy to have exercised;
I was happy to have exercised;
I will be happy to have exercised.

Let us change the verb “to exercise” into the verb phrase “to make progress”.
I am happy to have made progress;
I was happy to have made progress;
I will be happy to have made progress.

Let us modify our infinitive with the Modal form MAY.
I am happy I may have made progress;
I was happy I might have made progress.
I will be happy I may have made progress.

We can view phrases as modified, as well. Our view is likely to depend on the context and word sense, namely, if a phrase looks a theory, or not.

The progress in Calvin Coolidge quote is not a theory.
I cannot see any way in which I would HAVE made progress.

Our symbolics is to help comprehend.
For Calvin Coolidge quote, we can use
MODAL MEDIATION, REAL-TIME OPEN FRAME.

For a theory, we may compare,
But the obstacles, she WOULD HAVE made progress.
But she has not made any progress.
The symbolics to help see the difference can be
A CLOSED MODAL FRAME.

*****

Let us think how the Modal frame closes. With our modified infinitive above, Modality is attached as a subordinate clause. It does not make the main grammatical time.

Let us compare Modality for our main or head, real time.

If someone asked,
“What HAS she BEEN doing?”
An answer as,
“She MAY HAVE BEEN working”,
would close the hypothetical time on the grammatical and real-time PRESENT, just as the question.

Saying, “She MAY HAVE finished by tomorrow”, or “She WILL HAVE finished by tomorrow”, we would close our hypothetical time on tomorrow.

We can use our auxiliary time extent with all grammatical time, but we need to mind the form of the Modal verb alone, for the main time.

PRESENT Modal forms tend towards the grammatical PRESENT or FUTURE.

If we say we CAN or MAY work, the hypothesis goes into the FUTURE a little. Our Modal frame remains open.

Modal shapes we class as PAST tend towards the PAST or PRESENT. It is only with the open frame that we can use PAST Modal forms for the grammatical FUTURE.

We might say,
“We COULD do this tomorrow,”
but without auxiliary HAVE.

For our main time, we would not produce forms as
*She COULD HAVE / MIGHT HAVE finished by tomorrow.

The only exception would be the Modal WILL itself, but it is our regular mapping word for the FUTURE.
She WOULD HAVE finished by tomorrow.

The form “CAN” is quite special. We use it to tell what we are really able to do; we have the skill, or even mastery and finesse. Many grammar resources discourage closing the frame on it in the Affirmative, whatever the grammatical time.

If we are tentative about a future result, we can say
“Maybe it WILL HAVE ended by tomorrow”.
We may view the structure as the real-time Future Perfect, with an open real-time frame.

*****

Language is not a record or chronicle. It does not require absolute certainty about things coming true, or confirmation in events, for the thought to be real and for the structure to be grammatical.

*****

Do we need to resolve between labels as “Unreal Past” or “Conditional”? Let us mark individual verbs for grammatical form, in these words by Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

“No group and no Government CAN (FORM: PRESENT) properly prescribe precisely what SHOULD (FORM: PAST) constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is (FORM: PRESENT) concerned.”

It is obvious there must be a relative interpretation for grammatical from, and the extent for this relativity embraces the verb phrase.

A verb phrase can be one verb, or a verb structure, as with auxiliary HAVE.

Classing entire stretches of language as Conditional or Unreal Past, we might feel lost for the main time. We can stay by terms as “a relative verb form”, or “verb form relativity”.

Verb forms would be relative to the main grammatical time, the reference we make for the real time.

*****

Well, we may have worked out some logic. If we were lazy, we would have been doing something else for the past hour.

For a competent insight into our syntax, let us consider the Progressive. Feel welcome.
10.2. FORM RELATIVITY: THE PROGRESSIVE

*****

9.2. THE MODAL TIME FRAME

Neither the Modal verb form alone, as COULD or MIGHT, nor Modal syntax alone, as COULD HAVE or MIGHT HAVE, is capable of telling the target grammatical time.

However, in all natural languages, we always speak or write in context. This means that our linguistic activity always has a cognitive ground.

We may recur to SUB-CHAPTER 6.2. Our example was Madame Règle, coming to lunch between 1.00 and 2.00 p.m., or not showing up at all.
At 1:30, Latimer Sauf might say,

7. I haven’t seen her today.

At 2:30, Monsieur Sauf might say,
7a. I didn’t see her today.

It was his knowledge of the context to give him the cognitive ground.

So far, our verbs have been regular or irregular, but the patterns they made showed the grammatical PRESENT from PAST or FUTURE directly.

We have had green extents to symbolize their target grammatical time.
Very often, the target grammatical time in what we say is the same as real time.
We may recur to SUB-CHAPTER 5.1.

Modal patterns are not so clear. We might say,
46. We have the time, we COULD go for a walk today;
46a. We are going to have the time, we COULD go for a walk tomorrow;
or
46b. We had the time yesterday and we COULD go for a walk.

The pattern alone, “We could go for a walk”, does not tell the target grammatical time and makes no difference for the real-time today, tomorrow, or yesterday.

We can grant Modal forms an extent of a different color. Let it be tea rose.

Let us try a different color also for our time frames. To see how the frames could work with Modal verbs, let us think up a possible context.

Let us say, Jill lives on the West Coast. Her place has a large lounge with a view to the ocean. When you come to visit, you can sit down and look to the Pacific.

Madame Règle has visited Jill a few times so far. We may think about her most recent visit.

47. “You could sit down in the lounge, Chantelle. I‘ll make us some tea”, says Jill, greeting Madame Règle.

(Chantelle is Madame Règle’s first name. We may know she is not a systematic person, also from SUB-CHAPTER 6.2)

*****

The USA is not a monolingual country. Millions of people speak Spanish, Chinese, French, German, and other languages, in America. French is widely spoken in Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, for example. Could Chantelle Règle be an American?
(Names do not prescribe on personalities or citizenships.)

*****

Our Modal time frame is open, though we are not using the auxiliary HAVE, in the phrase “you COULD sit down”.

For our real time, only Perfect tenses have an open frame, and they always use the auxiliary HAVE. We can compare our example above,
7. I haven’t seen her today.

Why have an open frame for the Modal form “COULD”?

We have an open frame for Perfect tenses, as they always make more than one reference to time.

If we have written, the activity started some time before our speaking about it. If we will have written, we expect the activity will be taking place some time before a FUTURE moment.

Modal verbs also make more than one reference to time. Let us focus on the Modal verb CAN.

I CAN see.
(The ability does not belong with the PRESENT, only.)

I CAN see an opportunity for this to be actually working.
(The specific instance does belong with the PRESENT, but the ability to see opportunity does not.)

The Modal form COULD is capable of all grammatical time, as we have noted above:
We COULD go for a walk today, or tomorrow;
If we were able to find some time yesterday,
We COULD and DID go for a walk.

Let us view the real-time and Modal frames together. The main time is the PRESENT. Our green frame is closed on the PRESENT.

We can think about the open Modal frame for things generally offered, allowed, or possible, also in the PAST.

48. When you visited Jill, you always could sit down in the lounge and look to the ocean.

The Modal form is the same for the PRESENT and the PAST.

Let us focus on the auxiliary HAVE and the frame, open or closed.
We can think about a phrasing as,
“You might have learned”.

We might view the above as correspondent with the Present Perfect,
Maybe you have learned;
our open time frame.

Our theory would look the same about a phrase as
Maybe you learned,
a Past Simple form,
our closed time frame.

There is no difference in the Modal form,
“You might have learned”,
whether we view it as corresponding with the phrase,
“maybe you have learned”
(PRESENT Perfect),
or the phrase
“maybe you learned”
(PAST Simple).

Modal forms do not tell what actually happened, has happened, happens, or is going to happen. They give theory, guesswork, or hypotheses. Their time is not the real-time. It is the theory time.

To compare the Perfect Aspects, the auxiliary HAVE can help map and talk like about real paths and environments.

For theory, we do not have to come up with “theoretical paths”. We can think about the hypothesis open or closed time frame. The syntactic HAVE can work as a time anchor, then.

49. I thought the handle MIGHT HAVE / COULD HAVE broken off.
(I was not there. It turned out it was still in place.)

The time frame for the hypothesis is closed.

Our syntactic HAVE will look still more of a device, when we think about knowledge of what happens.

50. You COULD HAVE been more careful with the handle.

We could be looking at a broken handle and hear,

50a. I was. Someone else MUST HAVE broken it off.

To recur to our examples with a walk: if we close a Modal frame, we may suggest that something did not happen.

51. We had the time yesterday, and we COULD go for a walk; it was lovely.

51a. We COULD HAVE gone for a walk yesterday, we had enough time, but Jim came in, and we stayed to study.

However, we cannot have Modal syntax for merely equivalent with the Negative, and there is no universal rule for Modal frames.
We also could say,

51b. We had plenty of time yesterday, and we COULD go to the movies, we COULD go for a walk, or we COULD go see Jill.

But Jim came in and brought those books we didn’t have, and we stayed in to study. Jill joined in.

*****

Modal verbs do not tell what really happens, has happened, happened, or is going to happen. Their forms may not differ for real-time today, yesterday, or tomorrow.

We can say their time is relative to real time, and economize on our real-time cognitive variables.

52. Maybe we HAVE learned something good. {TO}

52a. Maybe we learned something good. {ON}

A Modal phrase as
52b. We MIGHT HAVE learned something good,
does not tell between the real-time variables {TO} and {ON}.

Modal phrases yet will tell our value {IN}.

53. Maybe we were learning something good. {IN}
53a. Maybe we HAVE been learning something good. {AT}

We can make a hypothesis:
53b. We MIGHT HAVE been learning something good.

The Modal phrase retains the variable {IN}.

For relative time, we may just balance the variables {ON} and {IN}, and mind if our relative time frame is open or closed: hypothetical time anyway cannot the same as real duration.

We can call this our Modal net. We net (nullify as non-essential) the Perfect, our variable {TO}, for Modal forms. Our Modal phrases will become much simpler to make, and we remain correct according to classic grammars (!)

This is why we had all the practice with the word “handle”, in SUB-CHAPTER 9.1. We cannot be “fixed” on word forms. We need to learn to net them, sometimes.

Part Four has the nodi of time. Jemma says it is vital to have good gimmicks to make those, and the Modal net with relative frames is such a good gizmo.

Please note that our devices are linguistic tools. We do not follow the term of the “language acquisition device”, for human brains. We stay with human language faculties.

We keep our auxiliary HAVE always green, whether it brings an open or closed time frame. We retain only the basic distinction between auxiliary and head verbs. Grammar anyway requires thinking, and it would not be a good idea to get dependent on crayons.

Let us get to a few details on Modal structures, before we exercise.
9.3. DETAIL ON MODAL STRUCTURES

*****

CHAPTER 9. TO TELL THE FASHION IN VALUABLE TIME

With Modal verbs, our view on time may become as with two hour glasses. Modal verbs do not narrate the real time. Their manner is relative to real time.

We also could say that Modal verbs mediate between the grammatical Time and Aspect. The name “modal” comes from the Latin word “modus”, meaning an extent or measure.

In CHAPTER 2, we viewed the verb form “will” in our Fields of Time. The form did not belong clearly with the grammatical PRESENT, PAST or FUTURE. The same is true about all Modal verbs.

The PRESENT form of the verb WILL can map on the FUTURE.

The PAST form can tell about the PRESENT, as well.

“We will be hiking” (FUTURE);
“We would like to have some tea now” (PRESENT).

Some grammars will have Modals for defective verbs. They do not have all the three forms. Let us compare other verbs.

REGULAR VERB: TO TRAVEL
INFINITIVE to travel
1ST FORM travel 2ND FORM traveled 3RD FORM traveled
DYNAMIC PARTICIPLE traveling STATIVE PARTICIPLE traveled

IRREGULAR VERB: TO WRITE
INFINITIVE to write
1ST FORM write 2ND FORM wrote 3RD FORM written
DYNAMIC PARTICIPLE writing STATIVE PARTICIPLE written

MODAL VERB FORMS:

MAY
1ST FORM may 2ND FORM might

CAN
1ST FORM can 2ND FORM could

SHALL
1ST FORM shall 2ND FORM should

NEED
1ST FORM need 2ND FORM (needed) 3RD FORM (needed)

MUST
1ST FORM must 2ND FORM (must)

WILL
1ST FORM will 2ND FORM would

*****

Modal verbs can be truly unlike other verbs.

They do not have infinitive forms.
We do not say * “to may”.

They do not have participle forms.
We do not say * “mayed” or * “maying”.

They do not use will for their grammatical FUTURE.
We do not say * “will may”.

Their forms can have more than one grammatical time reference.
We could say,
“You might think about reading this all”.
MIGHT is the PAST form of the verb MAY, yet it refers to the grammatical PRESENT here.

We also could say,
“As children, they loved the old library,
where they might read as well as play.”

MIGHT is the PAST form of the verb MAY,

and it refers to the grammatical PAST.

We may envisage Modals in logical categories.

POTENTIALITY PROBABILITY CONTINGENCY CERTAINTY

POTENTIALITY:
Our potential is what we are actually able to do, or something we have real prospects to become able to do. Something potential is something that actually might come into existence.

PROBABILITY:
It belongs mostly with guesswork. Humans happen to consider probability in theory making. Possibility is a close synonym. We can have it for equivalent with probability, in grammar.

Let us think about Madame Règle. She has the potential to have lunch at Latimer Sauf’s restaurant every day. He always has a table for his friends, and she has enough money.

However, her work with Paris haute couture designers happens to keep her over the lunchtime. Her coming to lunch is probable, but not certain.

CERTAINTY:
It requires both potentiality and probability. Let us think about Monsieur Sauf’s birthday. Madame Règle WILL come to meet him. It is certain.

CONTINGENCY:
Some books will have something contingent for something likely, and some will say it is something unlikely to happen. We tend to tell likelihood by how often something takes place.

Madame Règle has a resolve here. Words have etymologies. The adjective “contingent” comes from the Latin words “tangere, tangens”. The words meant “to touch”, “touching”.

Madame Règle has contingency for something touching on, dependent on something else. Let us mind that cause and effect may not depend on simple factors.

*****

Contingency needs a potential for something to happen. What is certain has to be probable.

When we speak about own POTENTIAL, we mostly say what we are able to do. To tell own resolves, we most often use the verbs CAN or MAY.

We are able to do things only in probable circumstances, even if our abilities are outstanding. CAN and MAY are our most prominent words for PROBABILITY, too.

MAY is going to sound a bit more formal. CAN is going to be more colloquial. CAN happens to express probability greater than MAY.

CONTINGENCY may require that we adapt own resolves to circumstances. Our Modal verbs to express the extent of that requirement are NEED, SHOULD, OUGHT TO, and HAVE TO.

We always use OUGHT TO with the infinitive: “we ought to learn”, “we ought to work”.

American English differs from British much, on the verb SHALL. In American, the verb serves to prefigure resolves for potential circumstances:

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

Feel welcome to
GRAMMAR NOTES ON THE US CONSTITUTION.

We are not likely to use the Modal verb WILL for CONTINGENCY, if we love independence (!)

We people yet can be CERTAIN about own perception and volition. The Modal verbs WILL and MUST can express a strong prediction or resolve.

*****

Let us now think about Modal verbs and the grammatical time. So far, all our contexts allowed second forms, as COULD or MIGHT, to work for the PAST grammatical time.

However, is it enough to put a Modal verb into its second form, to express the grammatical PAST?

21. You MIGHT use the phone;
(a tentative suggestion in the PRESENT.)

21a. You COULD use the phone;
(a tentative suggestion in the PRESENT.)

Modal second forms may express polite offers and yet stay in the grammatical PRESENT.

*****

Modal forms generally, PAST or PRESENT, influence the language register. The register concerns the styles we use when we speak or write on various occasions. In simple words, it has a lot to do with being polite.

CAN is very colloquial in its register for suggestions. It could be rude for a suggestion, when we directly address someone we do not know.

Let us imagine we ask,
22. CAN I open the window?
The answer might be
22a. You certainly are capable of that,
but you are not allowed to.

CAN is not offensive when we simply state on POTENTIAL or provide information — in other words, we talk about an objective circumstance, rather than a subjective resolve.

23. Bald eagles CAN fly above clouds.

We might use the verb can as in example 23, during formal talks. Modal mediation is important in American English.

If we want to negotiate or provide guidance, we should not misinterpret Modal verbs for uncertainty or passiveness.

Modal verbs are a matter of good style, tact, and logic, not only in business talks. When we say something would not work for us, we are as assertive as when we say it is not going to work.

Please mind, content as here is not a form of address: I am not writing specifically to any person or persons.

Let us see how Modal verbs can make us sound more objective.

23a. Bald eagles fly above clouds.
(We would be likely to say this about a specific area where bald eagles live and fly above clouds, and most likely when we are in that area.)

24. Modal verbs CAN express varying degrees of potential, probability, contingency, and certainty.
(The guidance applies generally, about whatever Modal context).

In American as well as British English, we mind the Negative Interrogative. Requests with forms as CAN’T or COULDN’T imply that consent is expected.
(We would not readily assume approval from someone like a never-possibly-happy-person, would we?)

25. COULDN’T I use your car?
(I expect you are going to allow it.)

When someone is not a never-possibly-happy-person, we can ask,
26. COULD I use your car (please)?

*****

PAST forms may change the degree of Modality we express. Let us mark this degree in cubes. We can think about mountaineering.

27. Careful with this handle, it MAY break.

27a. Careful with this handle, it MIGHT break.

28. Careful with this handle, it CAN break.

28a. Careful with this handle, it COULD break.

*****

We could name the handle in the picture above a quickdraw. We yet can use the examples here to learn flexibility. Modal forms will require that we are flexible.

We can begin with simple words. There are multifarious handles in this world. We may need one to break a can of food open, when hiking.

A can, the noun, may mean a metal container. The verb to can may mean putting goods in cans. The auxiliary can is a Modal verb form.

Words always can have more than one meaning.

*****

Let us compare other Modal verbs for their degrees of CONTINGENCY or CERTAINTY, respectively.

29. The can WILL / HAS TO / MUST break open.

30. The can SHOULD / OUGHT TO break open.

31. The can NEEDS to break open.

*****

Modal forms HAVE TO and MUST differ in sense, not in degree of Modality.

32. You HAVE TO take care of the handle;
(such are the circumstances).

33. You MUST take care of the handle;
(my common sense says so).

Colloquial American English has phrases as
GOTTA TO
HAVE GOT TO
or
HAS GOT TO,
for CERTAINTY as well as CONTINGENCY.

Let us remember that colloquial uses are colloquial because they depart from the standard. We have a note on human mental lexicons in SUB-CHAPTER 6.3. We keep away from informal uses in official contexts.

If we are not in a formal situation, and we want to talk common sense, we can say,

34. You GOTTA take care of the handle.

Common sense does not mean we should not have any sense of humor.

34a. That HAS TO / GOTTA be the handle.

Colloquial language is mostly banned from schools. We may need some acquaintance with it to comprehend everyday speech, however.

Informally, the word “stuff” may mean “talk”, “matter”.

34b. We HAVE TO / GOTTA learn to handle the Modal stuff.

*****

Much of the above is a strong challenge on our arrow cues: how do we use them with Modal verbs?

We can think about the target grammatical time.
35. Alice COULD read when she was five.

36. Ten years ago, he got a loan, and COULD start his new business.

For the target grammatical time, we think about the context, not only the language forms. Linguistically, our time reference can be tacit.
Please compare SUB-CHAPTER 6.2.

7. I haven’t seen her today.

7a. I didn’t see her today.

The time reference is tacit, as the word “today” does not decide on grammar.

*****

American English, as any natural language, allows paraphrase. Let us see our target time and frame with paraphrased Modal verbs.
35a. She was able to read.
36a. He was able to open his new business.

*****

What strategy can we develop for the Modal PAST? We can use syntactic structures. Feel welcome.
CHAPTER 9.1. MODAL SYNTAX, GRAMMATICAL PRESENT OR PAST

*****

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.

*****

CHAPTER 8. ALCHEMY OF TIME FOR BEGINNERS

Most grammar resources agree that we have four Aspects in English, the Simple, the Progressive (or Continuous), the Perfect, and the Perfect Progressive (or Perfect Continuous).

By the label, we can say the Perfect Progressive should have features of the Perfect and the Progressive.

We extracted general patterns for the Simple, Progressive, and Perfect in SUB-CHAPTER 3.1.

We can compare Perfect Progressive examples, as online or in books, and note a general pattern for it, too.
FUTURE:
I will have been reading.

PRESENT:
I have been reading.

PAST:
I had been reading.

Let us think how to build this pattern. We can reckon the verb to be from the Progressive takes the place for the head verb in the Perfect pattern.

The verb to have in the Perfect attracts the third form. The Progressive auxiliary be takes on the third form, within the Perfect pattern.

We can have the Perfect Progressive for a merger of the Perfect and the Progressive. Our alchemy makes room for the head verb in the merged, Progressive pattern.

We have correlated the Simple, Progressive, and Perfect Aspects with cognitive mapping values, {ON}, {IN}, and {TO}.
Please compare CHAPTER 4.

We can use the Perfect to say what has progressed TO a time.

We can use the Progressive to tell what is progressing IN a time.

The two combined, the Perfect Progressive can help tell what has been progressing IN a stretch of time we refer TO another time.

What language marker (preposition) could we choose for our merged variable? We could think about “into”, to join the “in” and “to”.

However, “into” may mean the same as “in” or “to” alone, dependent on the context. The westerly wind frolicked into eddies, in exercise 44 (SUB-CHAPTER 7.1).

“Into” may make an impression more formal or emphatic than “in” or “to” on their own.

Let us think about the preposition AT.

Something has been progressing AT this time.

If our moment in time belongs with the FUTURE, we can say,
AT a time, something will have been progressing.

If our moment belongs with the PAST, we can say,
AT a time, something had been progressing.

Some grammar books will associate our feature {TO} with the Aspect we also can name the Perfect Simple. Some may have the name Perfect Continuous, for our variable {AT}.

Psycholinguistics says that naming processes do not change the ways language forms can work for brains. Book authors are people, and people happen to differ in approaches. Language forms can work regardless of grammar labels.

Our visualization is not to fix a picture for language. We do not have to stay with the same visuals for all time. We can present our mapping on one extent, as well as a few extents.

We can merge our Progressive and Perfect arrow cues (please refer to SUB-CHAPTER 5.1).

Perfect tenses have an open time frame: they connote another, simultaneous reference in time.

Let us think about the Perfect Simple. The PRESENT Perfect Simple can embrace some time with reference TO the PRESENT.

17. Madame Règle has lived in Paris for fifteen years.

The open frame here looks TO the PRESENT, regarding a time fifteen years ago.

The PAST Perfect Simple can refer one time in the PAST TO another time in the PAST.

17a. Before moving to Paris, Madame Règle had lived and worked in Lyon, the silk capital of France, for five years.

The open time frame looks TO the PAST, regarding a time five years before.

The FUTURE Perfect Simple may look to a time span from the PRESENT TO the FUTURE. Our basic or nodal time reference is the PRESENT, but we can think about the PAST as well.

17b. Tomorrow, Madame Règle will have lived and worked in France for twenty years.
(Altogether, in France, she has lived in Lyons and Paris.)

Madame Règle is an avid reader. She never really reads one book only. She usually has a small book with her, tied to her bag with a colorful scarf like with a string. She says that actually being able to look at a book makes it more present to her mind. At the same time, there is always another, bigger book she reads at home.

The practiced school habit of stringing books together might have had its advantages. Jill shares the behavior sometimes.

The Perfect Progressive makes a dual time reference and has an open time frame, the same as Perfect Simple. The Perfect Progressive can highlight a process, its time span or dynamism.

Let us think about the verb to read. We write the verb to read identically in the first, second, and third form. We say it differently.

1st form 2nd form 3rd form

read read read

[rI:d] [re:d] [re:d]

The verb to have takes the third form.

17c. Madame Règle has read [re:d] a book about a French thinker, René Descartes.
(She has finished.) {TO}

When we merge the Perfect and the Progressive, our pattern has room for the head verb in the Progressive.

17d. She has been reading [rI:dI Ƞ] a series of philosophical commentary books.
(Her reading is still in progress, she has not finished yet.) {AT}

We do NOT use the third form twice, and we do not add the ING to it. The following example shows the potential error.

17e. She has been * [re:dI Ƞ].

Let us return to our variable {ON}. Could we have it for our basic cognitive reference? Feel welcome to further journey.
8.1. EARTHLING BASIC VARIABLE

*****

CHAPTER 7. TIME IN THE MIND AND HEART

When it comes to talk about hearts and minds, we might picture the difference between the Simple and the Progressive as above, one face being joyous, the other unhappy.

Saying, “I am hating you”, could be a joke.
Saying, “I hate you”, could declare hatred.

Most grammar books tell about “stative” or “static verbs”. The books enumerate such “stative verbs” to remember and never to use with the Progressive.

According to those books, we should never come across phrases as “I am loving you”, or “I am hating you”.

The fact is such phrases do occur, and we cannot expect of life to be as a grammar book.

Let us try things the classic way. Most grammars group the “stative” or “static verbs”. We may collect a few samples and reckon.

Our senses:
to feel, hear, look, perceive, see, sense, smell, sound, taste.

Our feelings:
to admire, adore, appreciate, cherish, cost, desire, detest, disdain, dislike, esteem, fear, feel, hate, like, loathe, love, prefer, regard, relish, respect, revere, want, wish.

Our minds:
to admit, appreciate, appear, assume, believe, belong, choose, cost, disapprove, esteem, expect, feel, hope, know, mean, object, perceive, prefer, realize, recall, recognize, recollect, regard, relish, remember, see, sense, stipulate, suppose, think, understand.

Property (things or animals owned):
to belong, charge, have, hold, owe, own, possess, retain, vest.

Properties (characteristics, attributes, features):
to appear, appertain, befit, concern, consist, contain, emerge, hold, inhere, keep, matter, seem, show, signify, sound.

We may be happy with own notes on words.

When we want more words, we can use a thesaurus, as at the THESAURUS.COM.

Let us compare the Simple and the Progressive, using our cognitive variables. We can maintain the infinity symbol for the Simple.

The infinity is not eternity or uncertainty. It is to mind that natural language is not a finished set.

We can begin with our senses. We have correlated the Simple with the variable {ON}, and the Progressive with the variable {IN}.

8. She feels cold. {ON}
Her body feels cold. {ON}

We can use ING when we use our sense of touch:

8a. She is feeling her temperature. {IN}
She is using palpation to feel the temperature. {IN}

We may reflect on our sense of touch:

8b. The wind feels cold (right now). {ON}

Our moods happen to be dynamic. We could ask,

8c. How are you feeling? {IN}
(How are you taking your own condition, mood?) {IN}

To convey the same meaning as in 8c, we also could ask,
8d. How do you feel? {ON}
(How are you taking your own condition, mood?) {IN}

The form may not refer to the sense of touch and well, the way we feel about answering can depend on who asks the question.

Our feelings are worth thinking about. We can use introspection.

We probably never say about someone shivering,
8e. She / he *is feeling cold. {IN}

This could sound hard-hearted, as if we would be saying someone is just exercising his or her senses, when his or her body temperature is low.

People naturally develop group language use. Our language may vary, dependent on who we speak with: a close friend or a stranger, for example. Grammars usually do not prescribe on group language use. However, we mostly say,

8f. She / he feels cold. {ON}
8g. She / he is cold. {ON}

In everyday language, we often use the Modal verb can, to tell about our senses. It may not change the meaning at all,

9. I can feel something strange. ~ I feel something strange. {ON}
9a. I can see something. ~ I see something. {ON}

The Modal yet may bring another connotation,
9b. Things can look better. {ON}
(They do not; it needs to stop raining.)

Verbs may become phrasal verbs. Their meanings may change then, as with to see about, or to look for.

Contemporary American English uses phrasal verbs extensively. We have a few phrasal verbs in our grammar guidance.

We can say we catch on a bit of language, when we get to hear or see it. We may catch on to a bit of language and learn it.

If we come across something or someone, we meet or find them, often by chance. When we look up dictionaries, we read them. If we look to something, we consider it.

We can get to know phrasal verbs better in Part Four.

Let us give some more time to eyesight.

10. What are you looking at? {IN}
(What are you viewing?) {IN}

10a. What are you looking for? {IN}
(What are you seeking?) {IN}

10b. She is seeing him tomorrow. ~ She is meeting him tomorrow. {IN}
10c. She is seeing about getting the new house. ~ She is arranging the purchase of the house. {IN}

Let us look to a few more examples about our senses. The meaning may change, if we change the variable.

11. I can hear some strange noise. ~ I hear some strange noise. {ON}
11a. They are hearing new candidates now. {IN}
(They are interviewing or auditioning them.)
11b. You are hearing things. {IN}
(Your nervous system is producing delusions.)

The meaning will always depend on the context and the speaker’s intentions. We can call it the locutionary intent, in linguistics.

12. You look great now! {ON}
(I like your appearance now.) {ON}

English is as honest as any other language ― in fact, it terms an innocent lie a “white lie”. Imagine a boss wearing a horrible suit. What might others say?
“Interesting, boss”. “Chic.”’

“White lies” are usually brief utterances. There is always the hazard of praising the boss while he or she would be deliberately wearing something awful, to tell friends from foes.

We can speak about our senses with an open time frame (please compare CHAPTER 6),

13. I have not heard from him in years. {TO}
(He hasn’t contacted me in years.) {TO}

Please compare,
13a. She has never seen anything like this. {TO}
(This is the first time she can see such a strange thing.) {ON}
13b. He has never felt so good. {TO}
(He is now very comfortable.)

Our noses are quite a regular sense. We can speak about smell with an open time frame, use the verb can, as well as balance our variables.

14. She has never smelled anything more portending savor. {TO}
(An irresistible scent is coming from the kitchen.) {IN}
14a. I can smell something nice. ~ I smell something nice. {ON}

Fresh herbs can make food healthier and irresistible.

14b. The roses smell beautiful. {ON}
14c. She is smelling the roses. {IN}
(She is using her sense of smell.) {IN}

How could 101 roses smell?

Psycholinguistics says there is always an emotional component in human learning and thinking.

Naturally, learning something does not mean automatically loving or hating it. However, if we choose to learn something, it is good to think about the advantages.

We humans remember pleasurable experiences much better than unpleasant impressions. Our senses are not our feelings directly, yet human emotionality may require some diplomacy about perception.

However tolerant to the verb can, our noses happen to be delicate. We may say,
15. It smells here. {ON}
Actually, we are going to be close to saying,
15a. It stinks here. {ON} TABOO

As this could be an ugly and unpleasant thing to say, we can mark this socially uncertain expression as TABOO.

We may be more socially agreeable, if we take some responsibility for our perception,
(as liable as we get to be).

15b. I (think I can) smell something. {ON}

We may want our taste buds to make sense, too:
16. I can taste some nice flavor in this. ~ I taste some nice flavor in this. {ON}

Same as with other senses, we can use ING to say that we are using our taste buds. When it is our sense of taste to be telling us something, we can simply stay ON our cognitive extent.
16a. The drink tastes sweet. {ON}
(This is what our taste buds are telling.) {IN}
16b. He is tasting the drink. {IN}
(He is trying it.) {IN}

Let us think about our variables and recur to CHAPTER 4. If we select part an extent for our view, we may mark we do not mean an entire extent.

When we use our senses or act on appearance, we can have this for an activity in progress, the same as any other actions we take or carry out. We can follow the dynamic use of verbs, that is, use –ING.

When we perceive, feel, or think, we may want our linguistic gravitation (compare SUB-CHAPTER 6.2). Our senses, feelings, and thoughts belong with our cognizance. We can stay ON our notional grounds.

Let us compare two forms,
What are you hoping for? {IN}
What do you hope for? {ON}

The latter form, hope for, would make an impression broader than the form hoping for. To discuss this, we need to talk about…

FEELINGS!

We cannot really speak a language if we are unable to speak about our feelings in it. We can present a few stative uses of verbs for feelings, in pairs of antonyms, that is, words of opposite meanings.

Thesauruses (or thesauri) mostly abbreviate antonyms as ant, and synonyms as syn.

Psycholinguistics says we are all language users. We can use words without carrying out any action about them. Never leaving home, we can speak about space flight, climbing Mount McKinley, or diving in the Milwaukee Deep.

Mount McKinley (or Denali) is the highest peak in the USA and North America entire. It is about 20,300 feet above the sea level. Denali is the third most prominent summit in the world. It neighbors on the Wonder Lake.

The Milwaukee Deep is the most profound depth in the Atlantic. It belongs with the Puerto Rico trench and is about 27,500 feet. USS Milwaukee discovered it. The USA has borders on the Atlantic Ocean in the east and on the Pacific in the west.

Language users as we are, we can present words about feelings in antonyms, without any emotional disturbance or distress.

admire, adore, cherish ~#~ detest, disdain
appreciate, esteem ~#~ disregard
benefit, favor ~#~ cost
dare ~#~ fear
desire, relish ~#~ abhor, reject
like ~#~ dislike
love ~#~ hate, loathe
prefer ~#~ reject
respect, revere ~#~ disparage
want, wish ~#~ have no relish in / taste for

Could the value ON be our earthling basic variable?
SUB-CHAPTER 8.1 has an idea.

We can try pairs of synonyms with our stative uses for thinking. Synonyms are words close in meaning. We yet cannot always use synonyms interchangeably.

accede, agree ~#~ admit, consent
appreciate ~#~ realize
assume ~#~ presume, stipulate
believe ~#~ consider, suppose
expect ~#~ think likely, count upon
feel ~#~ hold, think
forget ~#~ become oblivious of, overlook
know ~#~ be aware of, remember
mean ~#~ intend
object ~#~ disapprove
perceive, sense ~#~ consider, recognize
see ~#~ comprehend, understand
think ~#~ cerebrate

Human potential for language is inborn. However, ― with each and every language ― we all need to learn speaking and writing. Chatting with minors can be a clever thought (!)

We people are language users with regard to thinking and other processes, activities, or experiences. We can speak about Benjamin Franklin, the wave theory of light, or a Pulitzer Prize author, never getting to all the details of the lives, theories, and works.

Let us put our words for property together with synonyms and antonyms for us, sometimes rich and sometimes not-so-affluent people who learn.

belong ~#~ be part of, pertain to ~#~ be exclusive of
have, hold, own ~#~ possess, retain ~#~ be devoid of
owe ~#~ be indebted ~#~ be creditor to
vest ~#~ charge ~#~ cost

Properties happen to come and go. Let us put our stative uses for properties together with their synonyms. When a property (feature, characteristic) is gone, we can use negation.

appear ~#~ look, seem
concern ~#~ be of interest to, relate to
consist ~#~ be composed of, be made up of
consist ~#~ exist
contain ~#~ hold or include within
hold ~#~ remain (valid, true)
matter ~#~ be of importance
signify ~#~ imply, mean
sound, look ~#~ convey an impression

*****

The above provides quite a thorough analysis of verbs for feeling and thought. To feel is a very interesting verb.

We might say, “I feel fresh”, to speak about our senses. We could say, “I feel love”, to speak about our emotions. We also could say, possibly in another context, “I feel this is stupid” [TABOO], to say what we think.

Natural language does associate feelings and thoughts with spatial variables. “High on emotion” or “in the deepest of our thoughts”, we require some of the notions for space, to think about time and feelings.

Cognitive variables naturally can help manage our expression on that.

The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated,
James Madison, the 4th President of the United States.

We can find resources about American presidents at WHITEHOUSE.GOV, the website of the President’s home. It is enough that we type “presidents” in the search field.

*****

Classing verbs as stative and grouping them in categories befits behaviorist analyses more. Our perspective is psycholinguistic: we stay with cognitive variables.

We can agree there might be stative uses of verbs, but we do not list special verbs never to use with the Progressive.

If we go WORDNET.PRINCETON.EDU, we get a project with the US National Science foundation, WordNet. It is free to download and use, according to the license. Resources like WordNet help view vocabulary in a connected way.

Feel welcome to the practice for the mind and the heart.
7.1. EXERCISES: THE SIMPLE OR THE PROGRESSIVE

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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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6.4. MORE GRAMMAR AND WORD PRACTICE

Boutique d’bonheur, photo by Brigitte Tohm from Pexels.

It is natural to wish someone good luck, with tests and exams. Grammar exercises can “buy” us some luck. They do not have to be difficult, for that. Good luck (!)

Exercise 34. All verbs in parentheses will have a closed time frame, and remain {ON} a PAST cognitive ground.

1. The kitten (spill) all the milk by the mill down the hill.

2. The hedgehog (hide) the apples from the bird in a good jar with a lid.

3. The rabbit (strew) the cashews for the jabiru and (go on) making his debut callaloo.

4. The gades (lay) a fair-trade plan for a decade.

5. The corn-fed chick (flee) the shed for some strick.

6. The adept turtle (keep) his hep by the skep except when the bees (sweep).

7. The little bat always (cut) the coconut a bit imprecise, cooking the rice to suffice all sojourning mice.

8. The mountain cat usually (sit) on his mat to chat with the standpat spat on habits and repast.

9. The southern wind (heave) the sea and (sheave) the tides to incline a span unsized in eyes.

10. The butterfly (weave) in a cove; the dove taut (think) about a courtly lot.

*****

For spoken American English, please find the Voice of America at VOANEWS.COM. There is worthwhile, standard American English along with materials for learners. The LEARNING ENGLISH site has slow and clear readouts of news.

*****

Exercise 35. Let us try our time frames and logical cues with mapping values. Our pieces of thought are longer, more proportionate to everyday language.

We can be very serious about grammar and keep a sense of humor: when we humans learn, we happen to be very formal, and this may burden our learning and language styles.

Good American English does not have to be gravely serious (!)

WE CAN FIND THE LYRICS ONLINE
We also can visit the official website
THE OFFICIAL SIMON & GARFUNKEL

Example: Right after he (1) had fought his dependence on the game of Monopoly, he (2) fell for spinnakers completely. A born and bred Alaskan, he (3) went to cruise the Antarctic with a chute.

1. He (4) sold his vintage Chevy and nearly (5) bought a Jeep, when he (6) thought that his vehicle (7) approximated an expression of his ego. A Jeep almost (8) portended a personality change.

2. A newspaper article on alpha and beta males seriously (9) disappointed him. He (10) was neither.

3. Many years, he (11) has looked for a role model. Nobody (12) has met his expectations on both personality and body build, however, and he (13) gave up trying to have body and mind for separate, on Earth.

4. He (14) has pursued some philosophy. At the present, he (15) is pessimistic on a resolve between existence and matter. He (16) thinks he (17) will resort to stoicism.

5. His friend (18) says he (19) needs some sense of humor, if he (20) wants to put up with a woman in his life. The woman always (21) is another Self.

Could this be Jim?

Exercise 36. We are staying with the Simple pattern {ON} a PAST time extent. We try some syntax for the Negative, too.

Example: Consciously pragmatic, Jill (decide) that tidying on her own (be) N too traditionalist. At least she (remember) where her things usually (be) before she (put) them somewhere completely else.

Answer: decided, was not (N, the Negative), remembered, were, put

In the beginning, we may care to write up entire answers. Our human memories can learn with writing habits. It is up to us to choose (!)

Full answer: Consciously pragmatic, Jill decided that tidying on her own was not too traditionalist. At least she remembered where her things usually were before she put them somewhere completely else.

1. She never (get) totally honest with anyone, on favorite comedy episodes.

2. An article on family roles in kite flying (incline) her towards psychoanalysis for a while. She yet soon (conclude) that she (need) N another grammatical person to be herself. Being herself anyway (happen) to her all the time, and she simply (like) to hold the strings. The West Coast had the weather.

3. Disputes on Sandburg and Creeley (bring) her to the belief it (be) never possible to think about one poet strictly, although it (make) no sense sometimes to try talking about two at the same time.

4. After some study of a number of concepts on the cosmos, she (picture) the humanity as an odd kind of fish in a series of still larger fish tanks. Early in the series, there (be) N any point to try bringing another fish tank to imagination. It anyway (require) adding more fish tanks.

5. She (tolerate) pop music well and (watch) American football with friends, but she always (choose) her fountain pens on her own and (keep) them just for herself.

Could this be Jill?

Feel welcome to some more exercise, on the open or closed time frame and the PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE.
6.5. EXERCISES

*****

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.

*****

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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