THE VERBAL CATEGORIES OF TENSE ASPECT VOICE Tense

THE VERBAL CATEGORIES OF TENSE, ASPECT & VOICE

Tense Verbs exhibit tense distinctions. That is, they have different forms that denote semantic notions such as past and present time.

(i) English Morphologically, English has two tenses: past and present. The present tense inflectional suffix is -s which appears with the third person singular regular verb, e. g. , write-s, play-s, watch-es. The past tense inflectional suffix is -ed, e. g. play-ed, like-d.

(ii) Arabic has two tenses: ﻣﺎﺿﻲ past or perfect and ﻣﻀﺎﺭﻉ present or imperfect. The past verb is marked by suffixes, whereas the present verb is marked by both prefixes , suffixes and internal vowel change

Perfect: katab-a ﻛﺘ (ADDING A SUFFIX) 2. Imperfect: ya-ktub-u ﻛ 1. ADDING A PREFIX INTERNAL VOWEL CHANGE 3. ADDING A SUFFIX

CONTRAST First: both English tenses are marked by suffixes, whereas Arabic imperfect tense is marked by prefixes , suffixes and internal change. Second: the English present tense suffix is added only to third person singular verbs, whereas the Arabic imperfect prefixes and suffixes are added to all forms of verbs in their person and number distinctions.

Verbs also exhibit aspect distinctions. These are semantic distinctions that relate the verb action to the moment of speaking.

English has two aspects: perfective and progressive. The perfective indicates "anterior time" and portrays the action as being complete, whereas the progressive indicates "simultaneous time" and portrays the action as being in progress at a given time.

The perfective is marked by the auxiliary HAVE plus the -ed/-en participle of the verb, e. g. , I have seen John. The progressive, on the other hand, is marked by the auxiliary BE plus the -ing participle form of the verb, e. g. , He is writing a letter.

Morphology of Arabic Tense and Aspect The ancient Arab grammarians divided verbs into three types on the basis of morphological formation: (1) ﻣﺎﺿﻲ past /perfect: kataba ﻛﺘﺐ He wrote (2) ﻣﻀﺎﺭﻉ present /imperfect yaktubu ﻳﻜﺘﺐ He writes (3) ﺃﻤﺮ imperative: uktub ﺃﻜﺘﺐ write

*The Arabic verb has two tenses: ﻣﺎﺿﻲ 'perfect' and ‘ﻣﻀﺎﺭﻉ imperfect’ *The perfect refers to past time while the imperfect can typically refer to present or future time. *The two tenses, together with particles, express the various aspectual meanings

*Perfect tense indicates perfective aspect and imperfect tense indicates imperfective aspect. *Perfective aspect indicates a completed action, e. g. , ﺗﻜﻠﻢ he talked, while imperfective aspect indicates non-completed action, e. g. , ﻛﺎﻥ ﻳﺘﻜﻠ he was talking.

Arabic has two aspects: perfective and imperfective. These are realized by the perfect and imperfect tenses, respectively. ● • Perfective: ● ﻭﺻ ﺍﻟﻤﻌﻠ ● `The teacher arrived. ' ● • Imperfective: ● ﻳﺪﺭ ﺍﻟﻮﻟ ﻛ ﻳﻮﻡ ● 'The boy studies every day. ' ● The perfective can also be realized by the particle qad ﻗﺪ followed by the perfect, e. g. , ● ﻟﻘﺪ ﻛﺘ ﺍﻟﻮﻟ ﺍﻟﺪﺭ ● `The boy has written the lesson. ' ●

CONTRAST First: the English perfective is realized by have+ed participle, whereas the Arabic perfective is realized by either the perfect form of the verb or qad+perfect. Second: the English progressive aspect is rendered in Arabic by the imperfect form of the verb.

THE VERBAL CATEGORY OF VOICE

(i) English has two voices: active and passive. The passive is realized by a complex verb phrase that consists of be+ed participle. • Active: She typed the letter yesterday. • Passive: The letter was typed yesterday. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive counterpart, and the auxiliary verb BE and the passive participle are added to the passive sentence.

(ii) Arabic verbs have active and passive forms. The passive forms are formed from the active forms by internal vocalic change. For example, the active verb ﺗﺐ he wrote becomes was written in the passive. Other examples are: • ﻗﺎﻝ He said ﻗﻴ It was said • ﺩﻋﺎ He invited' ﻋﻲ He was invited

CONTRAST In Arabic the active form of the verb is made passive by internal vocalic change, whereas in English the active form of the verb is made passive by changing it into the -ed participle and by introducing the appropriate form of "be".