Tense in English: Its Structure and Use in Discourse (Germanic Linguistics)

Tense is one of the most controversial areas of grammar. The problems and interest in the subject have led to an impressive number of books and articles. Yet, despite the amount of work produced, nothing approaching a consensus has emerged, merely a series of conflicting theories and analyses. According to the author, this follows from the fact that until now there has been no theoretical instrument to enable the linguist to interpret the data correctly. This book attempts to provide such a framework. It is not written from the viewpoint of any particular linguistic theory and does not presuppose any knowledge of tense theory.