Tense and Aspect in English and Arabic

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Higher Education King Abdual Al. Aziz University Faculty of art and humanities English department Tense and aspect in English and Arabic By Aziza Attia Al. Zharani . Supervised : Dr. Salha Al. Qarni . 2011 objective methodology: Title of research : Tense and aspect in English and Arabic . Need for the study : the reasons that make to interest about the tense and aspect such as explain to definition and types in a tense and aspect in English and Arabic and structure the verb phrase in sentences in English and Arabic . The research will be includes: * Verb phrase in English . *tense and aspect in English . * Verb phrase in Arabic . *tense and aspect in Arabic . *conclusion . * bibliography. statement of the problem : tense and aspect in English and Arabic and some suggestion to solve the problem . disguise the difference in Arabic and explain the similar between two language . efinition of terms : tense :a morphological category so aorist tense means a particular form of the verb . aspect: a category used in describing how the action of a verb is marked. Verb phrase: Verb phrase consists of a verb and all the words and words groups that belong the verb and cluster around it. Hypothesis : -the research gives the students a brief glimpse of the theory and practice . -to explain the mistakes that most people felt in it ,a particular in tense and aspect and generally in much grammar. In the research try to solve some common mistakes. to study the difference structure in English and Arabic also tense and aspect . -the problem in a grammar make a problem in pronunciation and spelling so we need to treatment this point. Review of the related literature : -Abdullah ,a . Breaking The Arabic Code (verbs). The middle east . Palmwe, F . Apelican Original Grammer . 1971 . England . -Stageberg , n . An Introduction English Grammar. 1977. United states of American. -Tipping, L. (1927). A higher English grammar. Machillan & Co : London. -Tregi dgo, P. S. (1974). English Tense Usage: A Bull's-Eye View. ELT, 28, 97-107. -WWW. Vegasociety.Com/Arabicpast-Future Html Research methodology : Theoretical methods. Outline I. INTRODUTION . A . What is grammar . B. why to study grammar. II. Tense and aspect in English . 1- Verb phrase in English . 2-defination and examples tense and aspect in English . 3- types and examples tense and aspect in English. III. Tense and aspect in Arabic 1- Verb phrase in Arabic. 2-Definition and examples tense and aspect in Arabic . 3-Types and examples tense and aspect in Arabic . IV. A. Conclusion . B. references. Dedication Personally, I'd like to thank all those who have helped with their advice and efforts †¦I'd like also to thank all the English staff, especially my instructor, Dr. Salhah Al . Qarni . for her valuable advice. For my parents, friends and everyone, I dedicate my research. 1. Introduction 1. 1 What is Grammar? Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe gramm ar as the â€Å"rules† of a language; but in fact no language has rules. If we use the word â€Å"rules†, we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences.No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time . What we call â€Å"grammar† is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time. we don’t need to study grammar became many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children as well start to speak before they even know the word â€Å"grammar† . grammar can be thought of as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand the grammar (or system) of a language, you can understand many things yourself, without having to ask a teacher or look in a book . 1. 2 Why study grammar?If we learn ou r native language in the toddler years, then what's the point of learning about parts of speech and grammar in general? The answer to this question is simple . Firstly, it can help us in writing if we know how our language is correctly used. Conversation tends to be casual, but when we write letters, or job applications, or articles, it's important to know correct grammar if we are not to appear ignorant . Secondly, if you learn a foreign language when you're a teenager or adult, the grammar is likely to work differently. If you learn as a small child, you will understand this intuitively, as with a first language.But by the time we get to eight or nine, our brains have become somewhat hard-wired as far as language goes, and it's much more difficult to learn a new one. So it becomes important to see how the grammatical structure works – and unless we understand English grammar first, that's almost impossible. Thirdly, it's interesting to study grammar . 2. The Verb phrase in English : In linguistics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic structure composed of the predicative elements of a sentence and its function is to provide information about the subject of the sentence. stageberg1977 ) As with all phrases, a verb phrase consists of more than one word. In English, most verb phrases are phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs consist of a verb plus one or two particles (a verb or adverb) which combine to form a meaning greater than the two words individually. They are divided into adverbial verbs (He is looking up') where the meanings are always literal and the expression could be replaced with the simple verb (to look) without losing any real meaning; prepositional verbs (he is picking on his friend) where there must always be an object and the particle cannot be separated from the verb (i. . *he is always picking him on, is not grammatically correct); true phrasal verbs (he is going out tonight with his friends) which may or may not have an object and where the o bject may go intbetween or after the preposition though object pronouns can only go before the pronoun) and prepositional phrasal verbs (I hope he doesn't run out of gas before he gets here) where the three elements cannot be separated and there is always an object. Most phrasal verbs are idiomatic . ( stageberg1977 ) Other verb phrases are phrases which do not behave like phrasal erbs and they Can consist of much more that two or three elements. Any verbal phrase is where the combined words take on a greater meaning than the implied significance of each individual word (idiomatic), though all elements behave as one verb would in a sentence. My friend's work is â€Å"crossing the line†. While crossing a line may have a literal sense in some contexts, such as an athlete crossing a line to win a race, in other contexts, â€Å"crossing the line† signifies â€Å"to do something which most people would not consider proper†. As with most such verbal phrases their mean ings are almost always idiomatic.In English as in other languages, verbal phrases can be colloquial and regional. Other examples of such verbal phrases (non phrasal verbs) are: * You are driving me bananas. * He always takes the high road. * Your friend is going to get whats coming to him. * It was shattered to pieces. Most such verbal phrases are the combination of a verb plus adverbial phrase, though not always. The Verb phrase in English also shows consist of tense and aspect . 3. Tense and Aspect 3. 1 definitions : In English, verbs have different forms to indicate continuousness, completeness, and time.Time can be expressed by tense whether present, past or future. On the other hand, continuousness can be expressed by the progressive aspect of the verb whereas completeness can be expressed by the perfective aspect of the verb. Tipping (1927) points out that the word tense is derived from the Latin word tempus which means time. The word tense is used in grammar books to indicate certain â€Å"inflections† of the verb (125). According to Tregidgo tense refers to the â€Å"correspondence† between the form of the verb and time. Aspect is related to ‘the manner' in which the verb is considered â€Å"complete† or â€Å"in progress. (130) According to his, English has two simple tenses: the present and the past, and two â€Å"marked† aspects: the progressive and the perfective (305, 306). Pullum define tense as † a system where the basic or characteristic meaning of the terms is to locate the situation, or part of it, at some point or period of time. † On the other hand, he define aspect as † a system where the basic meanings have to do with the internal temporal constituency of the situation. † In fact, the features of tense and aspect are interrelated. Sometimes, we cannot separate the present and past tenses from the progressive and perfective aspects.As we have noticed, many grammarians exclude the f uture from their analysis of tense because it is usually indicated by the modals shall and will. Palmer indicates that the present and past are † comparable within the analysis, in that they exemplify the formal category of tense as established in the primary pattern† (36). However, the forms I shall and I will belong to â€Å"the secondary patterns. † . 3. 2 makers of tense and aspect : There are two tenses in English: past and present. There is no obvious future tense corresponding to the time/tense relation for  Ã‚  present and past. The future is  denoted y  means of modal auxiliaries as in (a), by simple present forms as in (b) or  Ã‚  progressive forms as in (c) and (d): a. I  will  go  to  school. (madal  auxiliary) b. He  leaves  for  London  tomorrow . (simple  present  ) c. c. It  is  going  to  rain. d. d. The  train  is  leaving  tonight. English has the following aspects: progressive, and pefective. Aspect is shown by the use of suffixes {-ing} and {-ed} and/or  auxiliary words be and have as in: a. are  running. b. has  played. English tense and aspect are summarized below. 3. 2 . 1The Present In the Simple Present, only the third person singular is marked for tense by the  suffix – S3}, e. g. :  I play, we play,  you play,  they  play, he plays, she plays, it plays. The morpheme {-S3} has the same allomorphs in the same distribution as the plural suffix {-S1} and  possessive suffix -{S2} of the noun. (Tregidgo 1974) /-s/, /-z/, /-iz/,as in sleeps,  brushes, changes, raises. The majority of modal auxiliaries are said to have tense. The auxiliaries Can ,may, shall, will , must  are used  in the  present tense. They precede the main verb and give it special shades of meaning like futurity, volition,  possibility, probability, permission, and necessity.The auxiliaries can, may, shall, will ,and must   are not inflected for tense, e. g. I can, we can ; you can; they can, he can, she can, it can. The three quasi auxiliaries be, do, have often function as auxiliaries. The  present  form  of   Have and do are only inflected for  third person singular nouns, and words for which the third person singular pronouns will substitute and word groups. I have, we have,  you have, they have, he has, she has, it has; I do, we do, you do, they do, he  does, she does,  it does. Be has three suppletive forms in the  present tense as follows:I am, we are, you are, they are ,he is, she is, it is. Quasi auxiliaries may precede the verb stem, the present  participle, and the past participle, e. g. I do insist; They are playing;  He has eaten. The quasi auxiliary do is used in questions, negative sentences, and emphatic affirmations. Do you know the  answer? She didn't do it. I did see him. 3. 2. 2 The Past The Simple Past form takes on two forms: regular and irregular. The regular form ends  with the suffix {-ed}  as in  played, walked, closed. The past  tense suffix  -ed is pronounced [t]  after a voiceless consonant as in stopped, possessed, marked; it s  pronounced [d] after a voiced consonant as in believed, closed,  played, and it is pronounced 4676 after another /t/, /d/ as in started, landed. The irregular past tense  takes on numerous forms:  some verb sremain the same, some form their past by a suppletive form, somere place their entire stem by a wholly different stem as in go, went, e. g. , went, ran, taught, wrote, smelt, took, made, said,  left, sent, spoke, met, drew, began, set. The past tense form of the verb is not inflected(marked) for the  first, second or third  person nouns or pronouns. (Tregidgo 1974)The past tense form of the modal auxiliaries can, may, shall, will, must are could, might, should, would, ought. Must  and ought (to) do not have  parallel forms, like the others. To express  the past tense of  must  , in the the sense of necessity, o ne says had to, e. g. : You ought to take the medicine. You ought to /should have  taken the medicine. The past tense form of the quasi auxiliaries be, do and have are: had; was, were; did  . These  past forms  may precede the  verb stem , the present participle, and the past Participle . The quasi auxiliary Do is used in questions, negative sentences, and emphatic ffirmations. Did you know the  answer ? She didn't do it. I did see him. These past tense forms are not marked in accordance with the subject. 3. 2. 3 The Progressive The present and past progressive consist of   be + present   participle   the   {ing}   form . Seven   suppletive   forms   of be – am, is, are, was , were, be , been are used as the first member of the verb phrases. e. only the first member of the verbal phrase is inflected in accordance with the subject. The second member being does not change . the present participle suffix {-ing} does not change as well.When auxiliaries are employed in groups of two or three, the following obligatory sequence is followed: be + present participle. 3. 2. 4 perpective The past and the present perfect consist of   Have+ past  participle. The past participle is the {-ed} form of the verb. Three forms of have -have, has, had- serve as the first member of the verb  phrase. The first member  has changes  in accordance with  the subject; the second member which consists of the past participle of the main verb does not. When auxiliaries are used in groups of two or three, the following obligatory sequence is ollowed : have + past participle. ————— 4. The verb phrase in Arabic Learning the  Arabic Verbs  is very important, because their structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Arabic language . But first we need to know what's the role of verbs in the structure of the grammar in Arabic. Arabic verbs are word s that convey action (bring, read, walk, run), or a state of being (exist, stand). In most languages a verb may agree with the person, gender, and/or number of some of its arguments, such as its subject, or objectArabic to has only 2 times, the perfect and the imperfect, but there is a difference, in the west people look at the points in time in where an action takes place, the Arabs however look at the aspect of a verb meaning they ask: Is the action finished or not (They don’t ask themselves when did it finish or not). Of course a finished action corresponds with the past as does a unfinished action with the present, but not necessarily so. Here are some examples: English Verbs| Arabic Verbs| Verbs | – alaaf'aal| Past| – almaatheee| I spoke| – tahadatht|Arabic verb conjugation is a bit complex, although very regular the so called semivowels alif, waw and ya and the glottal stop hamza cause irregularity in Arabic verb conjugation . The simplest Arabic verb consists out of three consonants like KaTaBa meaning hewrote or he has written. The past tense is conjugated by suffixes, the present tense by prefixes. The Arabs use the verb fa3ala (to do) to represent all possible forms a verb may have. The problem lies in the fact that any of those root consonants might be an hamza, the glottal stop or an alif, a waw or a ya, the so called semi-consonants.They might be retained or disappear according to certain rules. Arabic verbs have ten (even more) forms. To give you an example,third rule allama means to know, The second form allama with the second consonant doubled means to let know meaning to teach, the fifth form ta3allama means to let your self know meaning to study! The tenth form istaf3ala means in general to think to act out an action described by the verb, so istahhasana to think to be beatifull from hhasana to be beautiful . (Abdullah ) List of Verbs in ArabicBelow is a list of the conjugated verbs in the present , past and future in Arabic placed in table. English Verbs| Arabic Verbs| I can accept that| /iomkin an aqbalah| she added it| /waadaafat anah| we admit it| /nahn na'tarif bithalik| they advised him| /waashaarowa ‘alaih| he will go / sawfa yathhabu Verbs in the present past and future tense have a very important role in Arabic, therefore they need very special attention. 5. Tense and aspect in Arabic : . 1 Verb conjugation : In Arabic verbs take their infinitive form by using the past form of that verb and conjugate it to the third person singular â€Å"he†, to make it simple here is an example: to draw = rasama = (he drew), to write = kataba (he wrote) = . daraba (to hit)†¦ Most verbs in Arabic have a three letters root or stem, there are also verbs containing more than three letters in their root (stem) but we will start with verbs consisting of a three consonant stem, also called trilateral verbs, since the trilateral verbs (containing three consonant ) are the most common.In Arabic we use a â€Å"masdar† â€Å"source† to show how a verb is conjugated and what forms it takes, normally for a three letters verb we use: fa’ala = = to do (literally in Arabic it means â€Å"he did†), This verb is used as an example or model to help us know how to conjugate other verbs having the same characteristics. We take for instance the verb: to draw = rasama = as you can see it in Arabic it has only three consonant (R ? , S ? , M ? ), this verb sounds exactly like our model verbs (fa’ala when it comes to its vowels, and that’s all we care about, ignore the similarity or difference in the consonants, what matters is the similarity in the vowels and the number of letters, because you will replace the consonant in our examples and put your own there, to make it more simple we will take a random word phonetically similar to our verb â€Å"fa’ala† â€Å"lalala† sounds like â€Å"rasama† if you compare its vowels and the number of consonants, other examples are: dahaba (to go), haraba (to run away), kataba (to write), nasaha (to advise), daraba to hit), in fact most Arabic verbs are formed this way. They all seem to have the same tune. Now to form the present tense with this kind of verbs, we first take our stem from the verb, in other words, extract all vowels from the verb, for example the verb to draw = rasama, once weextract all vowels we will end up having â€Å"rsm† , now this stem is ready to be modeled. Look at the table below: 5. 2 Arabic Present tense: To form the present tense in Arabic you need to extract the stem from the verb in the infinitive first, for example: To draw = rasama Stem is rsm, now let’s look at the table below to see how this verb is conjugated in this tense: ———————————– Present Tense in Arabic| Singular| Dual| Plural| I draw = ar sumu you draw (singular masculine) = tarsumuyou draw (singular feminine) = tarsumeenahe draws = yarsumushe draws = tarsumu| you draw (dual male or female) = tarsumanithey draw (dual male or female) = yarsumani| we draw = narsumuyou draw (plural masculine) = tarsumunayour draw (plural feminine) = tarsumnathey draw (plural masculine) = yarsumunathey draw (plural feminine) = yarsumna| Each form of the verb rasama above contains:Blue font (that’s what you need to keep, the blue font shouldn’t be modified or removed from verb, it stays the same) Red font (that’s what you need to delete and add your own consonant of the verb you chose to conjugate: kataba ? ktb, haraba ? hrb†¦) Green font (you can keep that one too, but not all the time, sometimes it becomes â€Å"a† or â€Å"i† instead of â€Å"u† depending on the verb) We noticed that the â€Å"rs† of the stem â€Å"rsm† are always together, that’s the case with all tri lateral verbs (verbs with three consonants, which are the most frequently used verbs in Arabic) he first and second consonant go together, so you can use this table with other verbs as well by replacing the letters in red (the stem we used before) and put your own verb stem instead. The vowel in green may change to â€Å"a† or â€Å"i† depending on the verb, like for example for the verb nasaha (to advise) instead of using the â€Å"u† in green we have to change it to â€Å"a† I advise = ansahu, you advise = tansahu†¦(and not ansuhu .. tansuhu) and so on†¦ (Note that the stem here is â€Å"n. s. h† as we mentioned earlier), for the verb daraba (to hit) we use â€Å"i† instead, I hit = adribu, he hits = yadribu. and not adrubu)†¦ In case you think that this is too complicated, I will tell you that it’s not something unusual, and if you’re a native or learned Spanish, French, German or even English before, you will notice that the vowel in the middle of some verbs sometimes don’t really follow the rule . English: simply take the verb â€Å"to go† I go, you go, he gos? Of course not, the right form is he goes as you know. All these examples are not considered irregularities but semi irregularities, which means that they’re modified only for phonetic and synthetic reasons).If you don’t know how to extract the stem from a verb (even though it’s very easy) we will go through it now: by omitting all vowels from these verbs we will have: dhb = dahaba (to go), hrb = haraba (to run away), ktb = kataba (to write), nsh = nasaha (to advise), drb = daraba (to hit). Easy! The second person singular masculine â€Å"you† is conjugated the same way the third person singular feminine â€Å"she† does. Tarsumu = you draw (singular masculine) and also means she draws. 5. 3 The past Tense in Arabic: To form the past tense in Arabic you need to extract the stem from the verb in the infinitive first, for example:To write = kataba ? stem is ktb, now let’s look at the table below to see how this verb is Conjugated in this tense: (vegasociety. com/arabicpast-futurehtml) Past Tense in Arabic| Singular| Dual| Plural| I wrote = katabtuyou wrote (singular masculine) = katabtayou wrote (singular feminine) = katabtihe wrote = katabashe wrote = katabat| you wrote (dual male or female) = katabtumaathey wrote (dual male or female) = katabaa| we wrote = katabnayou wrote (plural masculine) = katabtumyour wrote (plural feminine) = katabtunnathey wrote (plural masculine) = katabouthey wrote (plural feminine) = katabna| This is very easy and simple!You can put almost all trilateral Arabic verbs in this table. First take the verb you want to conjugate, extract all its 3 consonants, put them in place of the 3 red consonant on the table above. As you may have noticed, look at how the three consonants are spread in the word katabtu, consonant+ vowel+ co nsonant+ vowel+ consonant†¦ I will make the same note I made before in the present tense, you will have to change the vowel n the green font into â€Å"i†, the only difference this time is that you won’t have to do it that often as the case with the present tense, because the â€Å"a† is more used. Do you remember the two verbs (to advise = nasaha, and to hit = daraba) that we conjugated differently in the present tense, in the past tense they can be conjugated the same way as rasama & kataba , like I said before many verbs will follow the general rules of the table above when it comes to the past tense unlike the present tense.To conjugate your own trilateral verb into the past tense go to the table and have your verb stem ready (don’t tell me you forgot how to make a stem from a trilateral verb)It should contain three consonant and no vowels, if you want to conjugate it in the paste tense then replace the first consonant on the table above in red à ¢â‚¬Å"k† with the first consonant of the stem you have of your own verb, then replace â€Å"t† with the second consonant you have, finally replace â€Å"b† with the last consonant you have, and that’s it!Example: I wrote = katabtu , if you want to use â€Å"I went† (1 step is to find the verb to go in the Arabic infinitive: the verb is dahaba = to go, 2: the stem is dhb, 3: omit the (k, t, b) stem in the table above and put yours, you will easily get ? dahabtu!! ) Note: in case you’re confused whether to replace the â€Å"a† in the green font with â€Å"i† or not, I would just tell you that if you’re a beginner just leave the â€Å"a†, because â€Å"a† is the most common, but I would also suggest to read more about the forms that most of verbs take so that you will easily decide whether to put â€Å"a† or â€Å"i† when conjugating verbs into the past tense in Arabic. . 4 Future Tense in Arabic: To form the Arabic future tense simply use: sa or sawfa + (the verb in present tense). Examples: sa aktubu (I will write), sa adhabu (I will go), or if you want to use sawfa: sawfa aktubu (I will go), sawfa adhabu (I will go). Isn’t that a piece of cake! There is no difference between sa and sawfa, to make it easy you can choose to use sa most of the time so that you won’t get confused. conclusion:At the end of this clarifying research paper, I can conclude that the tense and aspect in English and Arabic is different and similar in something . It is very important to notice differences between two language . Other conclusions are the following: -the research gives the students a brief glimpse of the theory and practice . -to explain the mistakes that most people felt in it ,a particular in tense and aspect and generally in much grammar. In the research try to solve some common mistakes. -to study the difference structure in English and Arabic. the problem in a grammar make a problem in pronunciation and spelling so we need to treatment this point. References -Abdullah ,a . Breaking The Arabic Code (verbs). The middle east . Palmwe, F . Apelican Original Grammer . 1971 . England . -Stageberg , n . An Introduction English Grammar. 1977. United states of American. -Tipping, L. (1927). A higher English grammar. Machillan & Co : London. -Tregidgo, P. S. (1974). English Tense Usage: A Bull's-Eye View. ELT, 28, 97-107. -WWW. Vegasociety. Com/Arabicpast-Future Html