How to parse. ...

53

TENSES AND

[Par. 73, 74.

73 In old English, it was more easy to see that "I have
caught" was a present tense: for they used to arrange it
thus, "I have the salmon caught," clearly shlowing that the
Time of the Verb was Present (as is shown by " I have " i.e.
" I possess ") and that " caught " was only a Participle or
Adjective telling you what had happened to the salmon.
But it is not so easy to see this in Intransitive and Passive
Verbs, e.g. "I have run."
Each Tense has three States, the Indefinite, the
Complete, and the Incomplete.
The Passive Tenses are formed by placing the
Passive Participle after the different Tenses of the
Verb " to be."
74 Some of the Passive Tenses are rarely or never
used, owing to their lengthiness; and there is one
"state" that is found in the Present, Past, and
Future of the Active, but not of the Passive.
(1) "I have been
(2) "I had been catching."
(3) "I shall have been
This "state" denotes an action completed, after
being continuous. It may therefore be called the
Complete Post Continuous.
Hence all the Tenses may be arranged as follows: