Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 2. For you and I are past our dancing days.-Id. TENSE. 72. Tense (Lat. tempus, time) is that form which a verb assumes to indicate (1) the time of the action or state denoted by the verb, and (2) the completeness or incompleteness of the action or state. As Time is divisible into Past, Present, and Future, and every action may be considered as perfect or imperfect in each of these three divisions, we get a sixfold classification of the tenses, viz. 1. That the only simple tenses, i.e. the only tenses formed by inflexion, are the Present Imperfect and the Past Imperfect Active. 2. That the perfect and future tenses, the progressive forms active, and the whole of the passive voice are compound, the perfect tenses consisting of the verb 'have' and the perfect participle, the future consisting Verbs of 'going and 'coming,' 'rising' and 'falling,' form their perfect tenses with 'be' as well as 'have,' but with a slight change of meaning. Compare 'He is gone' with 'He has gone.' The perfect formed by means of 'be' is used to denote the state of the subject, the perfect formed by means of 'have' to denote the completeness of the action, of shall' or 'will' and the infinitive, the progressive forms consisting of the verb 'be' and the imperfect participle, and the passive voice of the verb 'be' and the perfect participle. 3. That the distinction of Perfect and Imperfect is independent of time, and relates to the completeness or incompleteness of the action or state as conceived in the mind. We can think of an action or state as completed in the past, present, or future. Compare: I had written the letter before you arrived (Past Perf.). I shall have written the letter before you arrive (Fut. Perf.). In the progressive forms the distinction of Perfect and Imperfect does not relate to the action or state denoted by the principal verb, but to the state of the subject of the verb as indicated by the auxiliaries. Thus: = I have been writing I have been engaged in writing. I had been writing = I had been engaged in writing, and so on. 73. The Present Imperfect Tense is employed (1) to describe something going on now, e.g. 'He loves me;' (2) to describe something that goes on regularly, e.g. He goes to school;' (3) instead of the future, e.g. 'He leaves for Paris to-morrow; (4) instead of the past tense, as when we describe some past occurrence as though it were happening under our eyes, e.g. 'Towards noon Elector Thuriot gains admittance; finds De Launay indisposed for surrender; nay, disposed for blowing up the place rather. Thuriot mounts with him to the battlements: heaps of paving-stones, old iron, and missiles lie piled,' &c. (Carlyle's 'French Revolution'). The Present Perfect Tense is used to denote that an action or state is completed at this present time, e.g. 'I have done the deed,' 'He is gone.' The Past Imperfect Tense is used to denote that an action or state was going on at some past time, e.g.— I lived at Paris I used to live at Paris. I was reading while he was playing. Here the notion of futurity is expressed not by the verb alone, but by the adverb and verb together. The Past Perfect Tense denotes an action or state that was completed before some other past action or state, e.g.— I had written my letter before you commenced yours. He was gone before we arrived. The Future Imperfect Tense denotes an action or state that will occur or be going on at some future time, e.g.-— I shall go to Paris. I shall be going to Paris. He will be happy. In O.E. there was no distinct future tense, the present being generally used as a future. The auxiliaries 'shall' and 'will' were originally principal verbs, shall' meaning to be under an obligation, and 'will' meaning to will. 'Shall' is now used exclusively as an auxiliary, but still carries with it a sense of obligation in the second and third persons, e.g.— Thou shalt not steal. He shall do it. 'Will' is still occasionally used as a principal verb, e.g. 'He does what he will;' 'whosoever will be saved' (Quicunque vult salvus esse); 'The lusts of your father ye will do' (éλETE TOLEîv)—John viii. 44; 'Be it unto thee even as thou wilt' (Oéλeis)—-Matt. xv. 28; 'I will (Oéλw) that thou give me,' &c.-Mark iv. 25. The auxiliary 'will' is used to express determination in the first person, but mere futurity in the second and third. These distinctions will be remembered by means of the following doggrel rhymes : In the first person simply shall foretel's, It follows that we cannot use either 'shall' or 'will' to form the future tense in all three persons. The proper future tense runs as follows: 1 We occasionally, however, find the compound future as in modern English, e.g. 'Ge nyton on hwylcere tide eower Hlaford cuman wyle' [Ye know not at what hour your Lord will come]Matt. xxiv. 42; The mannes Sunu wyle cuman' [The Son of man will come]-Matt. xxiv. 44. In interrogation, however, we use 'shall' in the second person, for 'will' would then appeal too strongly to the determination of the person addressed. Comp. Shall you go? Will you go after what I have said? There is another peculiarity connected with the use of 'shall' which ought to be noticed. Shall is used to express absolute certainty on the part of the speaker. Hence it is used in the predictions of Holy Writ, and in the statement of the necessary truths of geometry, e.g.— Heaven and earth shall pass away.-Bible. The two sides shall be equal The Future Perfect Tense denotes an action or state which will be completed before some other future action or state, e.g. We shall have departed before you will arrive. In colloquial English we often use the Future Imperfect for the Future Perfect, as we use the Present Imperfect for the Future Imperfect :— We shall go before you arrive = We shall have gone before you will arrive. NUMBER. 74. The Number of a Verb is that form which it assumes to indicate whether its Subject is singular or plural, e.g. 'I am,' 'we are;' 'thou art,' 'ye are;' he is,' 'they are;' 'I was,' 'we were,' &c. Many of our distinctive plural forms are now lost. Thus we say, 'I write,' 'we write,' 'I wrote,' 'we wrote,' making no difference in form between the singular and plural. It is customary for sovereigns, editors, and preachers to use the plural of the first person when speaking of themselves in their respective official capacities, e.g. Rich. We are amazed; and thus long have we stood Shakspere, Rich. II., iii. 3. Given under our hand and seal. PERSON. 75. The Person of a verb is that form which it assumes to indicate whether its subject is the person speaking (the first person), or the person spoken to (the second person), or the person or thing spoken of (the third person), e.g. I am (1st pers.); thou art (2nd pers.); he is (3rd pers.). The person-endings of verbs were originally pronouns which, instead of being placed before the verb, as our present subject pronouns are, were placed after it. The ending of the first person singular was originally -m, of which the only trace surviving in English is found in a-m. Cp. Lat. sum (I am), amem (I may love), Greek eimi (I am). This m was undoubtedly connected with the m in our existing pronouns of the first person, me, my, mine. The ending of the second person singular is now -st, but was originally -t, e.g., thou hast, thou writest, thou lovedst, &c. This termination, which has been lost altogether by the subjunctive, is probably a degraded form of a pronoun of the second person. Cp. the th in thou, the t in the Latin pronoun tu, and the s in the Greek pronoun su. Traces of the original ending are to be found in art, wilt, and shalt. The ending of the third person singular is -th, of which -s is a softened form, e.g., 'He prayeth best who loveth best,' 'He loves me.' It represents a pronoun of the third person. Compare the th in that and this. In O.E. the indicative present plural ended in -th in all three persons; the plurals of the past indicative and the subjunctive tenses ended in -on. In M.E. the termination -en was used in the plural of all the tenses, e.g.— But whanne the bischopis and mynystris hadden seen hym thei crieden and seiden, Crucifie, crucifie hym.-John xix. 6, Wiclif's Version. Ye witen not whanne the tyme is.-Mark xiii. 33. Ben Jonson says: 'The persons plural keep the terminations of the first person singular. In former times, till about the reign of Henry VIII., they were wont to be formed by adding -en: thus,— loven, sayen, complainen. But now (whatsoever is the cause) it hath quite grown out of use, and that other so generally prevailed, that I dare not to presume to set this afoot again: albeit (to tell you my opinion) I am persuaded that the lack hereof, well considered, will be found a blemish to our tongue. For considering time and person be, as it were, the right and left hand of a verb, what can the maiming bring else, but a laming to the whole body?' |