Compound Tense

A Compound Tense is grammatical tense that is composed by an auxiliary and a lexical verb.

• • …
• Example(s)
  • Conditional Tense.
  • Conditional Perfect Tense.
  • Passé composé (French Language).
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Future Perfect Tense.
  • Future Tense.
  • Past Perfect Tense.
  • Past Tense.
• See: Compound Verb, Tense, Complex Tense.

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References

2017

• (Glottopedia, 2017) ⇒ http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Tenses_of_English Retrieved on 2017-06-04
  • Conditional Tense - The English conditional tense (as defined by Declerck 1990, 2006) is a compound tense which is composed by the verb will in the past tense + the infinitive of a main verb (22).

(27) [I promised that] I would do it.

A speaker uses the conditional tense when s/he refers to a situation time that is posterior to an orientation time which lies in the past time sphere. The use of the conditional tense does not specify whether the situation time is anterior, simultaneous or posterior to t0. Thus, in a sentence like John said he would pray for her it is not clear whether John has already prayed, is doing so right now or will pray in the future.

Conditional Perfect - The English conditional perfect is a compound tense which is formed by combining the verb will in the past tense + the perfect infinitive of a main verb (28).

(28) [I promised that] I would have done it by 5 p.m.

A speaker uses the conditional perfect when s/he refers to a situation time which is anterior to an orientation time, with the latter in turn being posterior to some orientation time in the past time-sphere. In a sentence like Bill promised that he would have finished by the end of the day, the finishing is interpreted as anterior to the end of the day, which in turn is posterior to the time Bill made his promise.

2008

• (Crystal, 2008) ⇒ David Crystal. (2008). “A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th edition." Blackwell Publishing.
  • compound (n.) A term used widely in DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTIC studies to refer to a linguistic UNIT which is composed of ELEMENTS that function independently in other circumstances. Of particular currency are the notions of compound found in 'compound WORDS' (consisting of two or more free MORPHEMES, as in such 'compound NOUNS' as bedroom, rainfall, and washing machine) and 'compound SENTENCES' (consisting of two or more main CLAUSES); but other application of the term exist, as in 'compound VERBS' (e.g. come in), 'compound TENSES' (those consisting of an AUXILIARY + LEXICAL verb), 'compound SUBJECTS/OBJECTS', etc. (where the clause elements consist of more than one noun PHRASE or PRONOUN, as in the boys and the girls shouted) and 'compound PREPOSITIONS' (e.g. in accordance with). See also BAHAVRUIHI, DVANDVA.

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