The basic values of the tense grammateme are represented in Table 5.14, "Values of the tense grammateme".
Table 5.14. Values of the tense grammateme
sim |
simultaneous event |
ant |
preceding (anterior) event |
post |
subsequent (posterior) event |
The tense grammateme is relevant for:
semantic verbs (sempos=v; see Section 6.4, "Semantic verbs").
The tense grammateme is a tectogrammatical correlate of the morphological category of tense. One of the listed values is assigned to every node representing a finite non-imperative form of a verb or transgressive (gerund).
The difference between the absolute and relative tenses is not captured by the value of the tense grammateme - it follows from the position of the given node in the tree, whether the tense is absolute or relative. Nodes representing a verb form referring to an event that takes place at the moment of utterance (absolute tense) or at the moment (time span) simultaneous with another event (relative tense) are assigned the sim value; nodes representing a verb form referring to an event that took place before the moment of utterance (absolute) or before another event (relative) are assigned the ant value; nodes representing a verb form referring to an event that is going take place after the moment of utterance (absolute) or after another event (relative) are assigned the post value.
Examples:
Píše dopis. [tense=sim] (=He is writting a letter)
Psal dopis. [tense=ant] (=He was writting a letter)
Bude psát dopis. [tense=post] (=He will write/be writting a letter)
Napíše dopis. [tense=post] (=He will write/will have written a letter)
Napsal dopis. [tense=ant] (=He wrote a letter)
Nodes representing imperatives and infinitives are assigned the nil value (in the tense grammateme).
For more details, see Section 6.4.5, "Values of the tense grammateme".