DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR

OF ENGLISH
The First Dilemma
by
Leslie Simonfalvi
INTERNATIONAL TEACHER
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
COLLEGE
www.ilsgroup.hu
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The First Dilemma 1

The FIRST DILEMMA and Its SOLUTION –

ADVANCE ORGANIZING FOR TEACHERS,
TEACHER-TRAINEES, and TRAINERS

DILEMMA

Definition: In this context dilemma is a state of

uncertainty or perplexity especially as
requiring a choice between focuses either on the
form, i. e. the grammatical tense, or the
meaning.
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With an eye toward choosing the optimal approach to teaching

ENGLISH and ENGLISH GRAMMAR, the horns of the 1st
DILEMMA might be defined as follows:
 
(1) If the goal of the teaching / learning is to develop a schema for the
learner that is fundamentally about the COMPREHENSION of the
SITUATIONS and the TEMPORAL RELATIONS in the sentences,
then the teaching materials and the exercises should consistently and
unambiguously be about SITUATIONS and the TEMPORAL
RELATIONS in the sentences. If we can, in a second step, focus on
the GRAMMATICAL FORMS and TENSES that express already
understood SITUATIONS and their TEMPORAL RELATIONS, this
focusing will further develop our UNDERSTANDING of the
SITUATIONS.
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TIME

Definition: The continuous passage of

existence in which events pass from a state
of potentiality in the future, through the
present, to a state of finality in the past.
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TIME as a physical – chronological and philosophical
category is absolute and objective, but TIME as we
experience it in real life is subjective and the terms
FUTURE, and PRESENT, and PAST are totally
dependent on the time-scale we apply. This is the
reason why we will distinguish in our PEDAGOGICAL
GRAMMAR only two time-segments, namely PAST
TIME, i. e. any time before the time of speech, and
NON-PAST TIME, i. e. now and any time later than
now.

With this we can further magnify the big picture of our

TOP-DOWN APPROACH.
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PAST TIME

Definition: Any time before the time of speech.

NON-PAST TIME

Definition: Now and any time later than now.

TOP-DOWN APPROACH

Definition: An approach to teaching, learning, problem-solving

and innovation in which we start with the ’big picture’ and, for
the time being, we do not bother with the details
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(2) If the goal of the teaching / learning processes is to

maximize transfer from the COMPREHENSION of the
SITUATIONS and the TEMPORAL RELATIONS in the
sentences to the GRAMMATICAL FORMS and TENSES
we use for expressing these SITUATIONS, the materials
or content through which the teaching / learning processes
are developed should reflect as diverse and broadly useful
a range of problem types and content as is possible. If the
teaching / learning materials and the teacher’s intent are
divorced from real-world situations, the learnings they are
designed to instill will also be.
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The transfer from abstract or formulaic

GRAMMATICAL FORMS and
TENSES towards COMPREHENSION
of the SITUATIONS and the
TEMPORAL RELATIONS in the
sentences is very limited or nonexistent.
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TENSE

Definition: A category of the verb or

verbal inflections, such as present, past,
and future, that expresses the temporal
relations between what is reported in the
sentence and the time of its utterance.
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This looks all neat and tidy but there are some factors that can
and will make it somewhat more complicated and these are as
follows if we keep to the terms of traditional PRESCRIPTIVE
GRAMMAR:

∀ •       PRESENT or PAST or FUTURE related to TIME,

 
∀ •       PERFECT or NON-PERFECT related to PHASE, and
 
∀ •       SIMPLE or CONTINUOUS related to ASPECT.
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PHASE
 
Definition: The temporal relationship between an action or
happening and its result. If there is an immediate result for an
action or happening, then the ACTION / HAPPENING and its
RESULT are IN-PHASE. If, on the other hand, the result of an
action or happening comes only later with a specified or
unspecified time-lag, then the ACTION / HAPPENING and its
RESULT are OUT-OF-PHASE. It comes from physics where
phase is a particular stage in a periodic process or phenomenon.
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ASPECT

Definition: A category of verbs or verbal

inflections that expresses such features as the

• continuity,
• repetition, or
• completedness

of the action described.

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COMPLETEDNESS

Definition: Denoting an aspect of verbs in some languages,

including English, used to express that the action or event
described by the verb is or was completed:

‘I lived in London for ten years.’

is perfective;

‘I have lived in London for ten years.’

is imperfective, since the implication is that I still live in London.

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If we make simple combinations of these terms and then we arrange them

according to permutations, we will arrive at having 12 different tenses as follows:

•       PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE

•       PAST SIMPLE TENSE
•       FUTURE SIMPLE TENSE

•       PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE

•       PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
•       FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE

•       PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE

•       PAST PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE
•       FUTURE PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE

•       PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

•       PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
•       FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
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In closer analysis in the DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR

it will be very clear that there are no real future tenses
in English and the future temporal relation is expressed
either by an auxiliary, i. e. by SHALL or WILL or by a
present form.

This is the reason why we will use a different sort of

categorization for the tenses, namely we will put them
under two umbrella-terms: PAST TENSES and NON-
PAST TENSES. With this we can further magnify the
big picture of our TOP-DOWN APPROACH.
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COMBINATION

Definition: An arrangement of the terms in a set into

specified groups without regard to order in the group.

PERMUTATION

Definition: An ordered arrangement of the terms of a

set into specified groups.
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PAST TENSES

•   PAST SIMPLE TENSE

•   PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
•   PAST PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE
•   PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
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NON-PAST TENSES
 
•       PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE
•       FUTURE SIMPLE TENSE

•       PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE

•       FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE

•       PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE

•       FUTURE PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE

•       PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

•       FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
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The significance of the 1st DILEMMA lies in

recognizing that transfer between MEANING and
FORM is the primary goal of the teaching / learning
processes. Indeed, if the processes don't transfer, they
cannot even be called teaching and learning. They can
be called hard labour on either side or even on both
sides, but not teaching and learning. The purpose of the
present study-material is to enhance students' abilities
to face new challenges and to attack novel language
learning problems confidently, rationally, and
productively.
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In keeping with the first half of our dilemma,

evaluations of our efforts to teach ENGLISH
and ENGLISH GRAMMAR indicate that the
teaching and learning success is most readily
associated with the LANGUAGE SURGERY
SERIES and STARTER PACKS of the
DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR that include
explicit and consistent labeling of the principles
and processes along with direct instruction in
the whens, whys, and hows of their application.
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In keeping with the second half of our

dilemma, success is further associated with
those experiments that exercise taught
principles and processes across a diverse range
of content and problem types. It is especially
true for the combination of the TOP-DOWN
APPROACH with the BOTTOM-UP
APPROACH thus creating a ’HELICOPTER-
MIND’ work-mode for both the student and
the teacher.
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The FIRST DILEMMA and its SOLUTION – ADVANCE

ORGANIZING FOR STUDENTS

We can call the 1st DILEMMA the TIME – TENSE DILEMMA.

In English TIME and TENSE are two totally different ideas and
very often the GRAMMATICAL TENSE we use in a sentence
does not express a TIME that would be called logical by its name.
We only recognise it if / when we concentrate on the MEANING of
the sentence through a SITUATION first, and then we identify the
GRAMMATICAL TENSE that expresses the MEANING.
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Section #1 would contain sentences in which PAST

TIME is expressed in a PAST TENSE. In other
words, there is a CONCORD between TIME and
TENSE.

• Examples:

Yesterday we went to the market to buy a cow.

Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603.

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Section #2 would contain sentences in which NON-

PAST TIME is expressed in a PAST TENSE. In other
words, there is a LACK of CONCORD between TIME
and TENSE.

• Examples:

I wish you were here!

[i. e. here and now]

If I were you, I would take a short holiday.

[i. e. any time from now on]
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Section #3 would contain sentences in which PAST

TIME is expressed in a NON-PAST TENSE. In other
words, there is a LACK of CONCORD between TIME
and TENSE.

•  Examples: The President Meets the Bishop.

[i. e. well, it was yesterday]

Lady Di Dies in Accident.

[i. e. late last night]
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Section #4 would contain sentences in which NON-

PAST TIME is expressed in a NON-PAST TENSE. In
other words, there is a CONCORD between TIME and
TENSE.

•  Examples:

My train leaves at 7.

I like this coffee.

[i. e. here and now]
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You are now invited to come and join us

and learn ENGLISH GRAMMAR in a
different way and try to reach a nearly
full UNDERSTANDING.

GOOD LUCK!
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