Chapters 3 to 7 deal with the meaning and use of the four 'absolute' tenses — roughly speaking, those tenses which relate the time of a situation directly to speech time. Chapters 3 to 5 address, respectively, the present tense, the past tense and the present perfect, and Chapter 6 examines some of the differences between the past tense and the present perfect. In Chapter 7 | 504 9. Temporal subordination in the various time-zones John left at five. John will no longer be there at six because he will have left at five. John has already left. By then John will already have left. In the same way as left in John left at five establishes a past domain will have left in the second example creates a pseudo-past subdomain in a post-present domain. And in the same way as has left in John has already left establishes a pre-present domain will have left in the last example creates a pseudo-prepresent subdomain in a post-present domain. Pseudo-past and pseudo-pre-present subdomains are expanded in exactly the same ways as true past and pre-present domains see and . This is clear from a comparison of the sentences in the following pairs a Tim gave a fiver to whoever had paid I paid I would be paying a visit to his mother in hospital today. The head clause establishes a past domain. b By tonight John will be broke. He will have given a fiver to whoever had paid I paid I would be paying a visit to his mother in hospital today. The head clause establishes a pseudo-past subdomain. a Has the mayor ever been able to claim that he had helped I was helping I would help us The head clause establishes an indefinite pre-present domain which is expanded as if it were a past domain. b I doubt that by the end of his office the mayor will ever have been able to claim that he had helped I was helping I would help us. The head clause establishes an indefinite pseudo-pre-present subdomain which is expanded as if it were a past domain. a Tom s father has known for some time that Jane and Tom are married. The head clause establishes a continuative pre-present domain the that-clause establishes a present domain of its own. b Once Jane and Tom are married and have gone off to Angola we ll let Tom s father know that they are married. By the time they come back he ll have known for several months that they are married and with luck he ll have got used to the .
