Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-tnzcf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T16:10:39.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The conversational historical present alternation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Nessa Wolfson
Nessa Wolfson*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The conversational historical present tense (CHP) occurs only in a specific type of narrative, here labeled a ‘performed story.’ In contrast to previous analyses of this feature, it is the thesis of this paper that CHP in itself has no significance. Rather, it is the switching between CHP and the past tenses which is the relevant feature. Two important constraints—that of sequence of tenses in coördinated sentences, and that of nonoccurrence of CHP in subordinate clauses beginning with when—support the theory that CHP alternation operates to separate events from one another. The fact that alternation is, in itself, an expressive feature, leads to speculation about the nature of other types of linguistic variation.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 1979, pp. 168 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 by Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bain, A. 1879. A higher English grammar. New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile. 1956. La nature des pronoms. For Roman Jakobson, ed. by Halle, M. et al., 34–37. The Hague: Mouton. [Reprinted in Benveniste's Problèmes de linguistique générale, 251–7. Paris: Gallimard, 1966.].Google Scholar
Brown, G. 1880. The grammar of English grammars. New York: Wood.Google Scholar
Charleston, B. M. 1941. Studies on the syntax of the English verb. Bern: Francke.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. 1966. Specification and English tenses. Journal of Linguistics 2. 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curme, G. O. 1931. A grammar of the English language. Boston: Heath.Google Scholar
Diver, W. 1963. The chronological system of the English verb. Word 19. 141–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friden, G. 1948. Studies of the tenses of the English verb from Chaucer to Shakespeare. Stockholm: Almqvist.Google Scholar
Home, H., Kames, Lord. 1867. Elements of criticism. New York: Mason Brothers.Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. 1957. Shifters, verbal categories and the Russian verb. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Russian Language Project. [Reprinted in his Selected writings, 2.130–47. The Hague: Mouton, 1971.].Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. 1929, 1931, 1940. A Modern English grammar on historical principles: Parts 3, 4, 5. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Joos, M. 1964. The English verb. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, P. 1968. Tense and mood in Indo-European syntax. Foundations of Language 4. 30–57.Google Scholar
Leech, G. 1971. Meaning and the English verb. London: Longman.Google Scholar
McKay, K. L. 1974. Further remarks on the ‘historical present’ and other phenomena. Foundations of Language 11. 247–51.Google Scholar
Palmer, F. R. 1965. A linguistic study of the English verb. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G.; and Svartvik, J. 1972. A grammar of contemporary English. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Sweet, H. 1892. A new English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Twaddell, W. F. 1960. The English verb auxiliaries. Providence: Brown University Press.Google Scholar