General Conceptual Model

Cambridge University Press eBooks, pp. 31–65

Abstract

The use of the present tense to refer to past events may depend on two conceptual scenarios. First, the speaker may be mentally displaced to the past. Second, the speaker may pretend that the past events are currently accessible in the form of a representation. This 'representation' scenario is generally the most economic conceptual explanation for the use of the present tense to refer past events. Examples are discussed to illustrate the argument: passages from the novels of Alexandre Dumas and from Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's schooldays ; narratives accompanying security camera footage; a narrative by a character in an episode of Seinfeld ; and passages from Thucydides. In all these cases the use of the present tense to refer to past events can be made sense of in terms of a conceptual representation scenario, where the difference lies in the exact nature of the representation. The more concrete the representation, the stronger the tendency for the speaker to use the present tense to designate the described events.

Authors 1

1. Arjan A. Nijk corresponding Aachen Rijksuniversiteit Leiden

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands