CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Tenses refer to the form of a verb in English Language that clearly indicates time. We use Tenses to show clear time specification. In this sense, it is seen that without verbs, there will not be Tenses as tense in grammar does not only refer to time but also the action of the verb or state of being at a given moment. Tense is a way of making us know that a thing has happened at ‘present’ (present tense), a thing happened some moments in the ‘past’ (past tense) and a thing will happen in ‘future’ (future tense).
Communication is the process or act of expressing ideas and feelings to one another or a process of giving out information to people.
Language as a medium of human communication, socialization, civilization and development has been given a full-length treatment by linguists. Language is quite complex and for this reason, linguists had to devise ways of making it easier to analyze and describe so as to present a true and full structure of any definition given. However, the attempt to describe and study language gave rise to a number of schools of linguists. All of them developed from the same root of traditional grammar.
Sidney Greenbaumdefines grammar as “a general theory of language description” In this sense, grammar refers to the properties and processes that underlies the use of language. By implication, the speakers are expected to be equipped with the knowledge of the rules of the language they intend to speak and apply them properly when using them.
Traditional grammar precedes what is now regarded as a scientific approach to the study of language. Its approach is one that is normative, definition-oriented and prescriptive in nature. It represents an attempt to prescribe rules for language use. It prescribes rather than merely describe language. Emphasis is on correctly usage that is what speakers should say rather than what speakers actually say. Indeed, it is the attitude to correctness of the traditional grammar that has made it to always prescribe what sort of language ought to be used. Such terms as noun, verb, adverb, preposition, object, subject, etc. and of course, tenses are derived from the traditional grammar and are used to analyze sentences today.