Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

1.2.3.3 Primary temporal meaning for tense and aspect, with pragmatic extension
Fleischman acknowledges temporal determination as a basic (and the “primary”) function
of tense marking, but notes that is also has “expressive” (social, attitudinal) and discourse
pragmatic functions, and that in narrative contexts, “tense contrasts may be pressed into
pragmatic service” as discourse organizers (Fleischman 1985:851). For example, in Old
French texts, the Simple Past and the (Narrative) Present seem to alternate freely from
sentence to sentence. Both are used to describe “temporally ordered, punctual, past events
in the narrative foreground” (Fleischman 1985:870). However, closer investigation shows
that when a Simple Past interrupts a series of sentences given in Narrative Present, there is
also an interruption of the temporally sequential narrative flow to give or repeat background
information. Thus, tenses in narrative serve grounding functions, marking information
as foregrounded or backtrounded – i.e. more or less salient or unpredictable – within the
narrative. Fleischman stresses that grounding contrasts do not involve a simple binary
distinction between foreground and background, but operate on a “continuum” (Fleischman
1985:851).
Fleischman also notes the close connection between narrative grounding and expressive
functions of tense and aspect, in which speakers convey their attitudes and beliefs. In particular,
the expression of temporal distance is often metaphorically expanded to include “more
abstract conceptual and cognitive” distances (Fleischman 1989:2). This occurs, Fleischman
argues, because tenses that describe a time other than now have an inherent non-reality that
naturally lends itself to other expressions of irrealis situations and attitudinal or epistemological
distancing from the situation under discussion. For example, in both English (4) and
Spanish (5), markers of temporal distance have politeness functions. These examples are
ordered in increasing order of politeness. In both, the present version represents the most
direct, least mitigated request.
(4) a. Hello! I just want to ask you a question.
b. Hello! I just wanted to ask you a question. (more polite)
(5) (All sentences convey the speaker’s desire to speak with the addressee.)
a. Quiero
I.want
b. Quería
I.want
c. Querría
I.want
hablar
to.speak
con
with
usted
you(formal) (Present)
hablar con usted
to.speak with you(formal) (Imperfect)
hablar con usted
to.speak with you(formal) (Conditional/Future-of-Past)
d. Quisiera hablar con usted
I.want to.speak with you(formal) (Imperfect Subjunctive)(most polite)
(adapted from Fleischman 1989:9)
Fleischman (1989) gives many additional examples of expressions of temporal distance
used to convey reality status and personal distance, arguing that expressions of temporal
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