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Milky Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Tense is used for more than just time.

0 Two texts with different tense, but giving the same information. 02br
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001. Fortuneteller: I see a great future in front of you. You pass your exam, go to university and do well. Then, you marry into money and become businesswoman of the year before 2012. 02br
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002. Fortuneteller: I see a great future in front of you. You will pass your exam, go to university and do well. Then, you will marry into money and become businesswoman of the year before 2012. 02br
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00Proposition: 02br
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00I say that the speaker has chosen the present simple in the first text because she/he wants to bring the predicted events (psychologically) closer (give them immediacy) and to make them appear more possible/factual. In the second text, the choice of "will" give less immediacy/factuality and the possibility is weaker. 02br
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00What do you think? 02br
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00NB: Remember that the graphic present is used to give the past more immediacy. I think that the present simple is working in a similar way in text 1. above. 0-
  

Top answer

0 Hi milky. ) 02br 01blockquote 00 Tense is used for more than just time 12blockquote 12br 00I think it's a good point. Quine once said: 02br 01blockquote 00 Our ordinary language shows a tiresome bias in its treatment of time.

— Roro

  • 0 Hi milky.
  • ) 02br 01blockquote 00 Tense is used for more than just time 12blockquote 12br 00I think it's a good point.
  • Quine once said: 02br 01blockquote 00 Our ordinary language shows a tiresome bias in its treatment of time.
  • ).
  • This bias is of itself an inelegance, or breach of theoretical simplicity.
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25 Answers
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0 Hi milky. (Have you given up our discussion on modal auxiliaries?) 02br
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00 Tense is used for more than just time 12blockquote
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00I think it's a good point. Quine once said: 02br
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00 Our ordinary language shows a tiresome bias in its treatment of time. Relations of date are exalted
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0 Exapmle 1: this usage of simple present tense is similar to its usge for 00. 02br
00(Have you ever seen any scenarios which are not written in simple present tense?) 02br
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00That's good. I hadn't thought of scenarios. Thanks. 02br
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00Love the quote. 0-
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0Good. 050010id1
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0 Just found this: 02br
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00The present tense is what you should use to sell your story to an editor. Authors use it to write their synopses; critics and essayists write about great historical personas and events in it; and centuries after playwrights have passed on, we still speak of their characters using it. The present tense lends authority, importance, life. Use it to
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00This is one way of interpretation of your argument? 02br
00I'll check this site, seems interesting. Thank you. 010id1
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0 I don't think Cathy Witlox's description is a good one, to be frank with you. 02br
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00We should distinguish the 00 usage of simple present from its 00 usage, in the first place. 02br
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0 01<00> 02br
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00Doesn't she go part way to that? 02br
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001. Use it to tell facts, regular (i.e., repetitive) action, 02br
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002. and to show i
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0 It's too 00. 02br
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00On one hand we use it to tell facts, regular (i.e., repetitive) action. 02br
00We use it also to show in-the-moment action deictically, as if reporting some event, on the other. 02br
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00In 1 there's 01u00no02u00 reference to any particular event. 02br
00In 2 there is. 0-
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0 ... but I don't know which one applies to your first example, 02br
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00 1. Fortuneteller: I see a great future in front of you. You pass your exam, go to university and do well. Then, you marry into money and become businesswoman of the year before 2012. 12blockquote
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00I have to say, we should apply 1. I'm not
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0 This is the deictic expression that carries us (distal action) first into the future: 02br
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00I see a great future in front of you. 02br
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00Then, IMO, this use of the present tense carries us back again to bring the future (distal) to the present (proximal) and make it immediate and inevitable. 0-
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