The category of tense

Time is an unlimited duration in which things are considered as happening in the past, present or future.
Time can be expressed in language in two basic ways: 1) lexically; 2) grammatically.

According to one view, there are only two tenses in English: past and present. Most British scholars do not recognize the existence of future.
The modal verbs “shall” and “will” preserve their lexical meaning of “wish, volition”. For example, I shall be nineteen next Tuesday
He will die in a week

Provided that the situation is realistic, in these contexts lexical meanings of “shall” and “will” are not present. These elements render only grammatical meanings, therefore they serve as auxiliaries and such combinations must be regarded as analytical structures.

The future-in-the-past does not find its place in the scheme based on the linear principle since it does not show any relation to the moment of speaking, hence this system is considered to be deficient, not covering all lingual data. For example, we wondered if the train would arrive in time.

According to the concept worked out by Prof. Blokh, there exist two tense categories in English. The first one – the category of primary time – expresses a direct retrospective evaluation of the time of the process denoted. The second one – the category of “prospective time” – is based on the opposition of “after-action” and “non-after-action”, the marked member being the future tense

Блох М.Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка (на английском языке) Учебник. Для студентов филол. фак. ун-тов и фак. англ. яз. педвузов. М.: Высшая школа, 1983. — 383 c. Blokh M. Theoretical grammar of the English language.
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