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• Teresa Pelka
• Dublin
• Ireland

Linguist,

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Language uses spatial notions with regard to time reference. This could be worth noticing when training/restoring language skills.

All languages spatialize. They use spatial expressions with reference to time. Orientation in space developmentally precedes that in time - children first learn where objects are, knowing when things happen comes later. Why not try to use prepositions for tense aspects in grammar?

You might say, 'OK, I can see that I say BEFORE here or there and I say BEFORE this or that hour. I can use the same word, BEFORE , to refer to time and space. And OK, I may believe that as a kid I first learned where objects were in space, only then I gathered what came after what. Yet, just four prepositions, ON, IN, TO, and AT - that's not enough to make the picture of American English. Ya ever see a grammar book?'

Another might shout, 'Not the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare!'

All grammar books say about the aspects and that there are four of them: Simple, Progressive, Perfect, and Perfect Progressive. These are the aspects that native English speakers use, not randomly assorted '-ing' or other endings. Unfortunately, most grammar books focus on the tenses, not the aspects.