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by thaumasiotes
618 days ago
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We can say a little more; in traditional grammar, aspect is not a recognized category. Thus, while it is very clear that Latin has a system of three tenses, two aspects, and three moods (counting imperative), traditional grammar assigns it six "tenses": +---------+-----------+------------------+
| tense | aspect | traditional name |
+---------+-----------+------------------+
| present | imperfect | present |
+---------+-----------+------------------+
| past | imperfect | imperfect |
+---------+-----------+------------------+
| future | imperfect | future |
+---------+-----------+------------------+
| present | perfect | perfect |
+---------+-----------+------------------+
| past | perfect | pluperfect |
+---------+-----------+------------------+
| future | perfect | future perfect |
+---------+-----------+------------------+
This is the reason for calling perfect a "tense": it's traditional. But this model won't stand up to analysis. Interestingly, the Romans themselves do not seem to have used it; where we refer to "pluperfect tense", they referred to the "past perfect-er tense", identifying both tense and aspect (admittedly, both under the name "tense", or rather "time"). I don't know when the conceptual distinction was lost. |
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