The most difficult and, therefore, most interesting grammatical category of English is that of tense and aspect. The choice of the Present Perfect vs. the Simple Past, of the will-future vs. the going to-future, and of the Simple Aspect vs. the Progressive Aspect is among the most important learning difficulties for foreign learners of English. In this course we will approach the English tense and aspect system from a comparative point of view. The system will be compared to that of German and any other language represented in the course (e.g. Russian). In order to understand the use and semantics of tenses, we will also deal with the most important theories of tense and aspect, and proceed to specific comparisons on this basis.
Examination format: written exam or term paper
Written exam:
1st attempt: 12 July 2023, 14:00-16:00 Uhr
2nd attempt: 27 September 2023, 14:00-16:00 Uhr
term paper:
1st attempt: 29 September 2023
2nd attempt: 10 November 2023
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