Arabic and English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide

59 | P a g e TENSE AND TIME TENSE AND ASPECT MOOD AND MODALITY CHARTS SENTENCE TYPES 7 NOTES 1 This is a semantic, or meaning-based, definition. For structural definitions of verbs, see Martha Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects (New York: MacMillan, 1991) 217-18; Joseph Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace , 4 th ed. (New York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1994) 239-40. In English and Arabic, verbs denote action with reference to, but not necessarily by, a subject (the subject is not necessarily the doer). For example, in the passive sentence, “The book was purchased,” the subject receives the action; the purchaser is not identified. 2 Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum, A Concise Grammar of Contemporary English (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973) 26. 3 There are other primary auxiliaries, such as ﺑَﺪَأ ، ﻋَﺴَﻰ ، ﻛﺎدَ . Also, ﻛﺎنَ and ﻟَﯿْﺲَ have “sisters,” words whose subjects and predicates take the same case endings as those governed by ﻛﺎنَ and ﻟَﯿْﺲَ , but these sisters often have different syntactic functions (such as the adverbial ﻻ ﯾَﺰالُ , “still”). 4 Jeanette S. DeCarrico, “Tense, Aspect, and Time in the English Modality System,” TESOL Quarterly 20:4 (Dec. 1986) 667; Roderick A. Jocobs, English Syntax: A Grammar for English Language Professionals (New York: Oxford UP, 1995) 189 ff . In many grammar books, tense and time reference are not clearly differentiated by form vs. meaning. This distinction is used here for clarification rather than classification, as changes in form usually signal changes in meaning. Tense and aspect refer primarily to form but do affect meaning within context. 5 Unless the English will and shall are considered future tense forms. They consistently indicate future time, but that is not sufficient reason to call them future tense, as it would leave no reason for designating as past or present other forms such as would and should , which do not consistently indicate past and present time. See Quirk & Greenbaum, Grammar 57.