Tense Selections in Different Types of Discourse
This paper is intended to explore tense phenomena in different types of discourse, i.e. narrative, descriptive, report, informative and argument within the framework of Systemic Functional Grammar. The research question is: What tense selections characterize the five types of discourse? Through illustrations of specific passages, we find that different types are usually characterized by different tense selections. Narrative and descriptive discourses involve a default tense; report, informative and argument enjoy much freedom in the selection of basic tenses, and the shifting of tense is not uncommon in these types. Accordingly, different types of discourse do not advance in the same way. Narrative discourse progresses with bounded events together with explicit temporal circumstances; descriptive discourse develops with unbounded events; report discourse moves forward with the change of sub-topics; and informative and argument discourse advance with logico-semantic relations.
tense types of discourse selections progression
HE Wei
School of Foreign Studies, University of Science and Technology Beijing
国际会议
The 36th International Systemic Functional Congress(第36届国际系统功能语言学大会暨第十一届全国功能语言学研讨会ISFC36)
北京
英文
35-39
2009-07-14（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）