English and German Tense-Aspect Systems: A Comparison

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2003 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Komparatistik, Note: 1,00, Freie Universität Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), Veranstaltung: Understanding English-German Contrasts, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Within the last two decades many attempts have been made to define a generally accepted concept of universal temporal and aspectual systems. There are comprehensive studies about the grammatical functions of tense and aspect, their categories and their meaning. In regard to their tense systems, English and German show amazing parallels in the inventory of forms but there are major differences in their use and function.

The following paper gives an overview of English and German tense and aspect systems and presents traditional and current theories and controversies on them. Moreover, an attempt will be made to discuss in detail function and use of the perfect, future and progressive construction in these two languages.