CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Grammar
1. Definition of Grammar
The knowledge of grammar is very important to what we want to say and interpreting correctly. It also enables us to make statements about how to use our
language. According to J. Donald Bowen in his book “Grammar is the rules by which we put together meaningful words and parts of words of a language to communicate
messages that are comprehensible”.
4
Richard 1985 wrote “Grammar is description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units such as words and phrases are combined to
produce sentence in the language”.
5
In grammar there are three interrelated dimension: form, meaning, and use. As Nunan said “Grammar is the study of how syntax form, semantics meanings, and
pragmatics use work together to enable individuals to communicate through language”.
6
4
J. Donald Bowen, TESOL Techniques Procedures, Cambridge: New Burry Publisher, 1992, p. 161
5
David Nunan, Second Language Teaching and learning, New York: Heinle Heinle Publisher, 1999, p. 97
6
Ibid., p. 101
From those definitions, grammar can be defined as the way words put together to make correct sentences. Thus, in English we are students is grammatical, while we
a students and we is a students are not. Besides that, grammar can teach us how to speak, to read, and to write correctly.
7
So, people can build up sentences and express their ideas for communication activities, and also will feel confident to use it in
communication activities.
2. English tense
The word “tense” derived ultimately from the Latin word “tempus” meaning “time”.
8
Tense commonly refers to the time of the situation which relates to the situation of the utterance or at the moment of speaking.
In talking about tense, it is not only focused on the time of the situation that is being described, but also “English marks tense by changes in the verb form”.
9
And some grammarians believe that tense must always be shown by the actual of the
verb, and in many language present, past, and future are indicates by changes in the verb form”.
10
Almost all verbs can show the difference between the present, past, and future time by change in the verb form. From this, tense can be also defined as “a way
7
A. J. Thomson and A. V. Martinet, A Practical English Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986, 4
th
ed., p. 1
8
Jhon Lyons, Linguistics Semantic an Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 312
9
www.humnet. ucla. Eduhumnetaflagaspect.html.hausa_online_grammartensestense.html.
10
L. G Alexander, English grammar, Longman, p. 150
of languages to express the time at which on event described by a sentence occurs. In English, this is a property of a verb form”.
11
Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik state that by tense we understand the correspondence between the form of the verb and our
concept of time past, present, or future”.
12
From the morphological’s point of view, there are, as is well known, only two tenses in English. These tense are “present” and “past”.
13
The present tense: how are you today? The past tense: fine thanks, but yesterday I felt awful.
All other tense forms such as present progressive, perfect, tense are verb phrases containing one or more auxiliaries. They are constructed by combining a tense
present, past with an aspect progressive and perfect. The progressive aspect: how are you feeling today?
The perfect aspect: I’ve never felt better, thanks. From those statements, tense can be defined clearly as Joyce M. Hawkins said
in the oxford paperback dictionary that tense is any of the forms of a verb that indicate the time of action.
14
11
http: www. Free. Encyclopedian.com.
12
Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik, A Communicative Grammar of English, London: Pearson Education Limited, 2002, 3
rd
ed., p. 415
13
Paul Roberts, Understanding Grammar, New York: Happer Row Publisher, 1954, p. 155
14
Joyce M. Hawkins, The Oxford Paperback Dictionary, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979, p. 678
B. Present Perfect tense
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