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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Semantics of tense in narrative
Lately, I've been questioning if there really is enough of a semantic importance with tense in a present flowing narrative. An example:
There was a house, set in a forest amassed with foliage. Around that house, a fury of ornaments decorated it colorfully, and made it striking in appeal. A game of cards was being played within the interior, with a group of aged men occasionally pulling and trashing cards with little chance.
There is a house, set in a forest amassed with foliage. Around that house is a fury of ornaments decorating it colorfully and making it striking in appeal. A game of cards is being played within the interior, with a group of aged men occasionally pulling and trashing cards with little chance.
To me, since the narrative is flowing from one "occurrence" to another in a very linear manner, it feels like both are being told about the same moment in time, just that the tense of some of the descriptions is different. I tend to go with past tense since it sounds more natural to me when writing, and since the narrative is flowing in a present tense manner, the past tense kind of seems to just meld into unnoticableness. Now this may well be individual, but is there really enough semantic difference between the two?
There was a house, set in a forest amassed with foliage. Around that house, a fury of ornaments decorated it colorfully, and made it striking in appeal. A game of cards was being played within the interior, with a group of aged men occasionally pulling and trashing cards with little chance.
There is a house, set in a forest amassed with foliage. Around that house is a fury of ornaments decorating it colorfully and making it striking in appeal. A game of cards is being played within the interior, with a group of aged men occasionally pulling and trashing cards with little chance.
To me, since the narrative is flowing from one "occurrence" to another in a very linear manner, it feels like both are being told about the same moment in time, just that the tense of some of the descriptions is different. I tend to go with past tense since it sounds more natural to me when writing, and since the narrative is flowing in a present tense manner, the past tense kind of seems to just meld into unnoticableness. Now this may well be individual, but is there really enough semantic difference between the two?
Top answer
I don't really understand what you mean by " enough semantic difference". Enough for what? In a narrative whose setting in time is unknown or unimportant, there is, to me, no semantic difference.
- I don't really understand what you mean by " enough semantic difference".
- Enough for what?
- In a narrative whose setting in time is unknown or unimportant, there is, to me, no semantic difference.
- It's purely a stylistic choice.
- I find long present-tense narratives tiresome to read, but that's just my personal opinion.
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3 Answers
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I don't really understand what you mean by "enough semantic difference". Enough for what?
In a narrative whose setting in time is unknown or unimportant, there is, to me, no semantic difference. It's purely a stylistic choice. I find long present-tense narratives tiresome to read, but that's just my personal opinion.
In a narrative whose setting in time is unknown or unimportant, there is, to me, no semantic difference. It's purely a stylistic choice. I find long present-tense narratives tiresome to read, but that's just my personal opinion.
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Mr WordyI find long present-tense narratives tiresome to read, but that's just my personal opinion.
It's mine, too. It's exhausting to the reader, somehow, to be dragged along in present tense. This sounds like the opening paragraph in a script, setting the scene for the play. In something that short, it's fine.
I'd also question the "fury" part
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Thanks for the answers both. Quells my doubts over me missing something in my natural acquisition of English.
Mr WordyI don't really understand what you mean by "enough semantic difference". Enough for what?I guess the missing context here is "enough of a semantic difference" when translating. I run into non-english authors and even though some of the n
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