Two problems connected with the category of Tense are considered: the difference of time as a philosophical notion from the grammatical notion, and also the asymmetry of tenses in the English language. From a philosophical point of view, time is abstract and there is no real time. From a grammatical point of view, time is such a grammar category which defines relations between an action and a moment of speech. There is no unambiguous correspondence between grammar time and objective time. The relevance of this problem is in differentiating these notions. In contrast to the names of verb forms in the modern English grammar, these forms can be used in speech to denote time of the action different from the one given in the names. The novelty of the given approach is an effort to solve the problem caused by the linguistic analysis of the English language and define the grammar system as an interrelation of grammar meanings, rather than an interrelation of grammar forms. According to this approach, asymmetry is an important characteristic of the English language's tense system; this asymmetry testifies to instability of some of the system's elements and points to the direction of the system's development.
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