АНАЛИЗ ВРЕМЕННЫХ ФОРМ ГЛАГОЛА В ГАЗЕТЕ «KOHA DITORE»

Introduction

Emile Benveniste [4, P. 57] divides texts into two large groups: discourse (speech) and history (narration), terms used later by Weinreich.

German linguist Weinreich is one of the first scholars to make the analysis of the forms of tenses in the text. He treats the speaking attitude and the viewpoint. The first division makes the distinction between the “commented” and the “narrated” world, while the second division makes the division of the first and the second level. The first division clarifies further on the relations between the sender (narrator) and the subject sent from him (narration). This relation may be more intimate, more direct, more detached, and more commented.

In the first case, the sender (and with him also the receiver) is directly related to the narration events (a narrative tense). In the second case, the sender chooses to comment about what has happened, so he puts a distance between himself and the narration (commentative or narrative tenses) [7, P. 190]. According to Weinreich, in contrast to the narrative tenses, the commentative tenses bring to the listener or the reader a tensed attitude of reception and the opposition between these two groups. He marks the group of tenses of the worlds of comment and narration with the above-mentioned concept, “speaking attitude”. Weinreich presents another two features of the system of tenses: the speaking perspective and highlighting (relieving). According to the speaking perspective, the tenses of the two groups (comment and narration) represent the relation between the tense of the text (the trunk of a spoken or written text in its flow/course) and the tense of the act. The pieces of pre-information and post-information lead to the determination of the tense of the text. Both these pieces of information express the relation between the tense of the text and the tense of the act. In regards to text relieving (highlighting), Weinreich distinguishes the tenses that provide the first level and the tenses that provide the background [10, P. 171]. The past perfect and pluperfect tenses are tenses of background. Based on the first criterion, he divides the verb tenses of a language into commentative and narrative tenses. According to this division, the past perfect and present perfect are part of the first group, whereas the pluperfect, past simple, and imperfect belong to the second group.

Weinreich [13, P. 133], as we mentioned above, defines the viewpoint as an integral unit of the text, as a physical or mental attitude from which the sender conveys the message to the receiver in a communication process and against which he relates (connects) all his references of action. The verb categories, such as the person, number, mood, tense, aspect, and the voice, are units expressing the viewpoint of the sender within the text in the context. Weinreich, considering units beyond the sentence that play a role for the tense category, says that the tense is an aspect of the viewpoint that has an impact on the choices of the sender related to the way he observes the phenomena in relation to the moment of orientation in the time continuum which his act of speech enables.

The grammar tenses have multiple meanings, and they are not always temporal. In addition to the temporal meanings, the tenses may also have modal, aspect meaning, as well as text functions. Alone, they have their semantic meaning and functions, but together in cooperation with other tools, they represent different meanings of time, which is done to express temporality. In addition to the importance of Reichenbach’s linguistic analysis of the tenses about the temporal ranging of the events, he proposes three points of linkage: the moment of speech, tenses of action, and the tense of referral. A special role is also held by the adverbs of time, temporal prepositions, and temporal conjunctions. The accomplished temporal meaning depends on the context and on the kinds of text. The aim of the text, which is related to the aim of the sender who chooses the tools to accomplish it, is important. According to Rexhep [6, P. 162-163], the harmonizing of different means (tools) together with the tenses to express coherence is to be made, and therewith is achieved the desired aim of the sender to the receiver.

A temporal reference is called the relation of language means (tools) to express temporal relations of different events. The temporal reference is considered a cohesive means (tool) through which the text coherence is achieved. According to Vater (1996), its grammar means (tools) are the grammar tense and aspect, whereas the lexical ones are adverbs and adverbial phrases. If we ask, “What time is it?”, and the answer is, “A quarter past 12”, then we react to the meaning of the question in our answer. Here, the verb tense does not have any role to play, because it is given at the same time as the question, but the time is given with other temporal determiners. In “What time is it?”, the verb indicates only the deictic moment for the orientation of a certain time. As can be seen, other grammar and lexical tools play a role in temporal orientation.

As we mentioned above, the choice of temporal forms does not depend solely on the possibilities they bring in communication, as well as on the speaker’s attitude, but also on the text structures and on the text kinds and types. Their use differs from one text to another. A tale, a non-literary scientific text, a request, a cooking recipe, etc., have other temporal forms. Therefore, a multitude of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors influence the use of temporal forms.

Since the temporal forms are grammar units and main elements in the construction of a sentence, as well as of their reciprocal liaison (conjunction), then it can be said that the verb tense is an element of cohesion. Reichenbach (1957), Weinreich (1964), and others have stressed that the cohesion is not supported by the tense and aspect. However, if we use tenses and skip from one to another without any order and continuity of thoughts, then we would not have a semantically proper text, so the tense is also an element of coherence. Then, the temporal forms are important also for the connectivity of the text. Through them and the temporal determiners, the temporal reference, the continuity of the events and of thoughts, the replacement, the change of the viewpoint, the situational presentation, narration, and description can all be accomplished. Since the use of temporal forms is seen together with the observation of other factors, the situative and cognitive senses are meant. In cognitive factors, general knowledge of the producer is important, but the acceptance of the text depends also on the general knowledge of the receiver. Among the important criteria of the textuality to present the function and the use of tenses is situationality and acceptability [6, P. 161].

Results

For an analysis of the studies of verb tenses, we are going to use the daily newspaper “Koha Ditore” (The Daily Time). Out of 1,270 verbs (in about 9,000 words), 63 verbs (4.96%) are in the past perfect tense, and 4 verbs (0.31%) are in the pluperfect tense.

The texts of the newspaper are of the informative part, and as such, they are objective (realistic). They are narrative reports in which the author leaves himself outside of the world he has spoken of.

Example:

(Zharku was sentenced to 3 years. Arsim Kloshi was also sentenced to 3 years for the criminal act of forcing and a fine of 1,500 euros for illegal weapon possession.)

Zharku ishte dënuar me 3 vjet. Me tri vjet ishte dënuar edhe Arsim Kloshi për veprën penale të detyrimit dhe 1,500 euro gjobë për armëmbajtje pa leje.

(Koha Ditore/The Daily Time, Zharku is getting ready to address to the constitutional court, 28 December 2012, page 3)

Out of 71 verbs in the article, 7 are in the past perfect tense, and 1 is in the pluperfect tense.

The use of the commentative tense (…was sentenced…) puts the author at distance with the communicated unit. In another sentence of the same article, the approach is different.

Example:

(Also, Zharku was sentenced to a fine of 1,500 euros for weapon possession, from whom the police had confiscated almost a lorry of weapons at home.)

Me 1,500 euro gjobë për armëmbajtje armësh ishte dënuar edhe Zharku, të cilit policia ia pati konfiskuar gati një kamion armë në shtëpi.

The sentence is affirmative, compound, and coordinated. When the journalist uses the past perfect or the pluperfect tense (was sentenced; had confiscated), he is relating that this has happened in the past. In addition to the distance he creates when he uses the commentative tense in this example, with the first verb, he relays that he learned of the truth about Zharku’s fine of 1,500 € from another source, whether from the court, from a respective lawyer of the event, etc. With the second verb, he relates that the confiscation of a lorry of weapons at Zharku’s home took place when the journalist was present and had watching from nearby. Otherwise, if it were the past perfect “had confiscated”, then it would be a reinterpretation of what the police had told him. That means that with the first one, he listens to, and with the second, he sees.

In the daily newspaper, “Koha Ditore” (The Daily Time”, the past perfect and the pluperfect tense are also used. The latter, as we mentioned above, has found use in only 4 sentences, whereas the past perfect was used 63 times. From the previous research of Rugova [7, P. 194], out of the overall background of verbs in indicative, “Koha Ditore” (The Daily Time) uses verbs in the present perfect tense 35.2% of the time. Meanwhile 13.6% of the verbs are in the past simple tense, 9.3% in imperfect tense, and 6.3% in the past perfect tense. Also, Rexhep [6, P. 205] has given statistics regarding the study of past tenses in the language of newspapers. He analyzes 30 different texts in the newspaper “Koha Ditore” (The Daily Time) and 30 others in the newspaper “Kosova Sot” (Kosova Today). From this analysis, he found the following percentages regarding the past tenses of the indicative mood in the newspaper, “Koha Ditore” (The Daily Time): present perfect 49.48%, past simple 2.77%, imperfect 1.04%, past perfect 0.69%, and pluperfect 0.35%. In the newspaper, “Kosova Sot” (Kosova Today), Rexhep relays the following statistics of the use of past tenses: present perfect 35.61%, past simple 11.51%, imperfect 1.80%, and past perfect 3.96%.

Conclusions

We link a more frequent use of the commentative tense opposite the narrative tense in the newspaper, “Koha Ditore” (The Daily Time), with the following issues:

1. The first has to do with the attitude of the sender. By means of the past perfect, a distance is formed regarding the narrated event, and it is not treated as an attitude of the sender but of the journalist narrating in this case.

2. The past perfect is used when the journalist speaks of an event that happened in the past, and he narrates it based on the pieces of evidence he has collected in different manners, either through people, media, a verbal or written method, etc.

3. When the pluperfect is used, the journalist expresses his speaking attitude, becoming part of the direct narration himself. This is used sometimes to tell about his presence in the event or to remind of an event that has happened earlier, about which also the reader could have heard of or read of earlier.

In this newspaper, the past perfect tense was used only four times in direct speech when the ones who were cited spoke about a past event. The pluperfect is never used in direct speech. The past perfect tense is used most frequently in indirect speech, whereas the pluperfect is used only once. The indirect speech put the journalist under control of the focus of writing, offering him a combination of pieces of information out of the collected pieces of an interview.