Definition and Examples of the Habitual Present Tense

Definition and Examples of the Habitual Present Tense In English grammar, the habitual present is a verb in the  present tense  used to indicate an action that occurs regularly or repeatedly. It is also known as the present habitual. Typically, the habitual present employs dynamic verbs, not stative verbs, and it may be accompanied by an adverb of frequency such as always, often, or  seldom. Examples and Observations He  runs every morning in  New York. Twice around the reservoir. I know, because I go with him. I dont run, but I go.  (Wil Haygood, Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson. Knopf, 2009)In the movie 50 First Dates, Lucy Whitmore wakes up every day with no memory of the previous day as a result of an automobile accident that has virtually eliminated her short-term memory.His wife buys daily the food for that day in a permanent market of small stores and booths in the plaza in quantities so small as to astound and amaze an American housewife.(May N. Diaz, Tonal: Conservatism, Responsibility and Authority in a Mexican Town. University of California Press, 1966)Joshua Stillman must be old but nobody ever thinks of what his age might be, he is so very much alive. He goes to the city every day and comes back early every afternoon. As he so seldom talks about himself nobody knows exactly what he does except that it has to do with books and small print.(Katharine Reynol ds, Green Valley. Grosset Dunlap, 1919) Adverbs of Frequency with the Habitual Present Present tense is also used with active verbs to describe something that happens routinely or habitually. Like the present tense that is used for general statements of fact, the habitual present tense does not limit routine or habitual activities to a particular time span. Instead, it suggests a timeless quality; that is, the habit or routine that happens regularly also did so in the past and will do so in the future. Hurran uses his truck to carry food and water to his familys tent camps in the desert. When the present tense is used to describe a habitual or routine activity, it may have an adverb of frequency with it. Each Saturday, Hurran drives into town to get food and water supplies. He washes and waxes his truck each week. (Linda Bates, Transitions: An Interactive Reading, Writing, and Grammar Text, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2005) The Habitual Present and the Present Progressive The habitual present . . . is used with dynamic verbs to encode situations that occur habitually over time, even if the action is not being carried out at the moment of speaking. For instance, referring to the following examples, Tim may not actually be working, nor the leaves falling at the moment of speaking. Nevertheless, the recurrent situation holds as the normal course of things and is appropriately referred to by the present tense. Tim works in an insurance company. Many trees lose their leaves in autumn. Again, it must be pointed out that the plain present tense used for habitual and other meanings contrasts with the present progressive, which encodes an actual occurrence of a dynamic action observed in the process of happening, as in Tim is working late today. The trees are already losing their leaves. (Angela Downing and Philip Locke, English Grammar: A University Course, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2006)

Nonce-words, For the Nonce, and Nonce

Nonce-words, For the Nonce, and Nonce Nonce-words, For the Nonce, and Nonce Nonce-words, For the Nonce, and Nonce By Maeve Maddox Cine Cynic posits a question about the word nonce in the expression nonce-word: Reading about Lewis Carroll, I stumbled upon the concept of nonce words. What surprised me the most is that nonce is also slang for paedophile in Brit. How did that come about? Is it related to the allegations about Lewis Carroll? The word nonce has been kicking around in English since the Middle Ages. There was a phrase for à ¾e naness (c.1200) which meant for a special occasion, for a particular purpose. This phrase was a misunderstanding of an earlier phrase, for à ¾an anes, which meant for the one. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the phrase for the nonce was used from the early 14th century as an empty filler in metrical composition. The phrase for the nonce as now used can mean for the occasion, for the time being, in the meantime. Nonce-word was coined in 1884 for the purpose of providing a descriptive label in the N.E.D. (New English Dictionary, original title of the Oxford English Dictionary) by the great editor James Murray. It was used to describe Words apparently employed only for the nonce. The phrase for the nonce, meaning for the occasion, is used by Claudius as he and Laertes plan to murder Hamlet: When in your motion you are hot and dry As make your bouts more violent to that end And that he calls for drink, Ill have prepared him A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venomd stuck, Our purpose may hold there. The expression for the nonce is still going strong on the web: Sticking with Firefox rather than Chrome for the nonce Tide of Creationism Stemmed for the Nonce Here’s a factoid to take into account, the wholly different cultural context (for the nonce) Moss donned a string bikini bottom for the nonce and skated on. You know how they sometimes ask you, â€Å"What’s your biggest fear?† It may not be that clichà ©d a question, but one still hears this phrase ‘biggest fear’ more than a few times in one’s life. I don’t want your answers, so you can hold your horses for the nonce. That many of these people appear to be completely bonkers has not prevented them from bringing the feds to a crashing halt for the nonce. (I have no idea how long a nonce is, so dont ask me.) The other kind of nonce, a person convicted of a sexual offense, esp. child abuse, is a more recent usage. Various fanciful acronyms have been offered to explain the origin of the slang word nonce. One of the more plausible etymologies connects it to a Lincolnshire dialect word nonse, meaning good-for-nothing. The earliest example in the OED (1971) is spelled nonse and is from a work about prison slang. In the second OED example (1975), the word occurs as the plural nonces. The third example (1984), extracted from Police Review, states that the word nonce was derived from nancy-boy. I rather doubt that the chaps who came up with the slang term knew anything about the allegations against the creator of Alice in Wonderland (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson [1832-1898], aka Lewis Carroll). The allegations that Dodgson was a pedophile began to surface in academia in the 1930s and 1940s. Dramatist Dennis Potter brought the idea into the mainstream with his 1965 play Alice, and the 1985 screenplay Dreamchild. Several recent biographies of Dodgson have continued to speculate. The only connection that can be drawn between the word nonce and Lewis Carroll is the fact that Carroll invented several nonce-words. Many nonce-words are portmanteau words in which two words are telescoped to create a new word. Most fade into oblivion, but a few, like brunch (breakfast+lunch), and electrocute (electro+the ending of execute) find a lasting place in the language. Two of Carrolls portmanteau words are: chortle (snort+chuckle), and snark (snake+shark). You can find an overview of the evolution of the allegations against Dodgson on the Tate Publishing site. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Slang Terms for MoneyDifference between "Pressing" and "Ironing"What the Heck are "Peeps"?