Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

parts of it. English can indicate different parts of the
continuum, as follows:
I used to go swimming, when I was little.
I had been swimming before I went there.
I went there yesterday.
I am here now.
I will have my lunch at 1 o’clock.
After I have had my lunch I will go on working.
By 8 o’clock I will have been working for two hours.
There are many such continua which language treats as
distinct units for communication purposes. They range
through (i) aspects of the world around us, e.g. time, place,
quantity; (ii) activities we are involved in, e.g. action,
assertion, commitment and (iii) our own moods, emotions
and attitudes, e.g. belief, anger, concession. On any of these
dimensions there is in fact a gradient, but language imposes
divisions in it. Thus, the gradient of anger is divided, in
English: irritation…annoyance…anger…exasperation…
rage…fury…blind fury…