#explaining linguistics

ok, so in my linguistics field methods class, we have to write up some part of our final research project as an explanation for non-linguists. This is due tomorrow, and I would GENUINELY LIKE SOME FEEDBACK about whether I’ve explained it comprehensibly enough.

We are all familiar (I hope) with the concept of grammatical tense. Future tense, present tense, past tense- these all tell the listener with when in time the sentence happens. Aspect is similar to tense, but it doesn’t tell the listener when the sentence happens, it tells the listener something about the event itself, and how the event relates to the passage of time, regardless of when it happens. In English, we have the progressive aspect. Verbs in the progressive aspect end in -ing. A verb ending in -ing, like walking, lets the listener know that the event is ongoing. The -ing doesn’t particularly care when the walking happens- it could be I am walking (present), I will be walking (future), or I was walking (past). The -ing tells us that, regardless of the tense of the verb, the act is ongoing as far as we are concerned. The progressive aspect is often paired with the completive aspect- a verb that is over and done with. For instance, I was walking in the park when a bear attacked. The walking was ongoing, but the bear attack was a one-time thing, and the form attacked lets us know that the attack is done with and we aren’t concerned with it anymore. If, on the other hand, you said I was walking in the park and a bear was attacking me, we would expect that your next few sentences would describe what was going on while the bear was attacking. Since you put attack in the progressive aspect, clearly you are planning to talk about the attack as an ongoing event.

English also has the perfect aspect, which shows up in the present perfect construction, which uses the verb have along with another verb- e.g. I have put it on the table, I have pissed off my mother-in-law, I have lost my wallet. While the progressive aspect means that we are discussing the event as an ongoing deal, using the perfect aspect means that we are discussing an event that is completed, but is somehow relevant in the current situation. I have put it on the table means both that, at some time in the past, I put the thing on the table, and that the thing is still there. If you ask me “where is it?” there is a subtle difference between a reply with the perfect aspect (I have put it on the table) and one without it (I put it on the table). If I have put it on the table, I expect that it’s still there and you can just go grab it. Now, imagine that we are standing in front of the table right now, and there’s clearly nothing on it. Since we can clearly see that the results of the action- the object being on the table- don’t actually hold true in the present situation, it would sound very strange if I told you “I have put it on the table”. I’m much more likely to not use the perfect aspect, and instead say “I put it on the table!” I don’t know who moved it, but clearly my past action isn’t relevant to the present, since the thing has subsequently been moved.

Similarly, if I say I have pissed of my mother-in-law or I have lost my wallet, the person I’m talking to assumes that I’m talking about how those past actions affect me right now. I have pissed of my mother-in-law, and now the whole family hates me. I have lost my wallet and now I’m broke. If my mother-in-law and I have since made amends and she’s not mad at me anymore, it would be misleading of me to say I have pissed her off, because I would be implying that she’s still mad at me.

The prospective aspect is sort of like the opposite of the perfect aspect. The perfect aspect means that we’re talking about a past event that’s relevant in the present. The prospective aspect means that we are talking about a future event that is relevant in the present. In English, we can express the prospective aspect with going to. We can say I’m going to be sick or my plane is going to leave. If you are at a party and have drunk a little too much, and you say I’m going to be sick, you imply that the event we’re talking about- being sick- is relevant right now. You are alerting the people around you to the fact that being sick is coming right up and something should be done about it. If you said instead I will be sick, you are simply making a statement about the future, and people might wonder why you would say that, since it sounds irrelevant. Using the prospective aspect, on the other hand, and saying I’m going to be sick means that being sick is very, very, relevant, and would send people around you scrambling out of the line of fire, or perhaps to fetch a trash can.

The sentence my plane is going to leave is similarly suggesting that the future event- the plane leaving- is relevant to the current situation. The speaker is probably implying that you should make your business with them quick so they don’t miss their flight.

Consider this situation: It’s the middle of winter, and a mother and her son are getting ready to go. The son appears downstairs in a t-shirt and shorts. Would the mother be more likely to say “you will freeze” or “you’re going to freeze?” Neither of these is incorrect, per se, but the mother is more likely to say “you’re going to freeze”- she doesn’t want to just state that, some time in the future, freezing will occur, she wants to tell her son to put on a damn coat. With the prospective aspect, she doesn’t have to mention a coat, or directly tell her son to do anything. She can to talk about the future event (freezing) using the prospective aspect (you’re going to freeze), and her son will infer that the future freezing is only important because of the present situation, and, since the present situation involves him being underdressed for the weather, he will understand that his mom wants him to go put on a coat.

If you pay attention to sentences you hear that use going to, and think about how the nuances of the sentence would change if the speaker instead used will, you can start to get a sense of the different ways that we talk about a future event having relevance in the present. For instance, I’m going to be a doctor isn’t relevant to the present in the same way that I’m going to be sick is. With I’m going to be sick, you are giving a warning about the impending future event to the people around you, but when you say I’m going to be a doctor you aren’t warning anyone about your impending PhD. Instead, your future doctorhood is relevant to the present because, in the present, you really really want to be a doctor. Or, perhaps you have just been accepted into medical school, and the sentence I’m going to be a doctor lets the listener know that the present situation now “sets you up” to be a doctor. Similarly, a woman saying “I will be a mother someday” is expressing a hope or conviction for her future, but a woman saying “I’m going to be a mother” will probably cause her boyfriend to panic and her girlfriends to start planning the baby shower.