Английского

§ 2. The category of primary time, as has just been stated, provides 
for the absolutive expression of the time of the process denoted by 
the verb, i.e. such an expression of it as gives its evaluation, in the 
long run, in reference to the moment of speech. The formal sign of 
the opposition constituting this category is, with regular verbs, the 
dental suffix -(e)d [-d, -t, -id], and with irregular verbs, phonemic 
interchanges of more or less individual specifications. The suffix 
marks the verbal form of the past time (the past tense), leaving the 
opposite form unmarked. Thus, the opposition is to be rendered by 
the formula "the past tense — the present tense", the latter member 
representing the non-past tense, according to the accepted opposi-
tional interpretation. 
The specific feature of the category of primary time is, that it di-
vides all the tense forms of the English verb into two temporal 
planes: the plane of the present and the plane of the past, which af-
fects also the future forms. Very important in this respect is the 
structural nature of the expression of the category: the category of 
primary time is the only verbal category of immanent order which 
is expressed by inflexional forms. These inflexional forms of the 
past and present coexist in the same verb-entry of speech with the 
other, analytical modes of various categorial expression, including 
the future. Hence, the English verb acquires the two futures: on the 
one hand, the future of the present, i.e. as prospected from the pre-
sent; on the other hand, the future of the past, i.e. as prospected 
from the past. The following example will be illustrative of the 
whole four-member correlation: 
Jill returns from her driving class at five o'clock. 
At five Jill returned from her driving class. I know that 
Jill will return from her driving class at five o'clock. 
I knew that at five Jill would return from her driving class. 
An additional reason for identifying the verbal past-present time 
system as a separate grammatical category is provided by the fact 
that this system is specifically marked by the do-forms of the in-
definite aspect with their various, 

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but inherently correlated functions. These forms, found in the inter-
rogative constructions (Does he believe the whole story?), in the 
negative constructions (He doesn't believe the story), in the ellipti-
cal response constructions and elsewhere, are confined only to the 
category of primary time, i.e. the verbal past and present, not com-
ing into contact with the expression of the future.