More on the Present Tense in English

Abstract

Edward Calver' offers an ingenious summary of the underlying meaning of the simple present tense in English as opposed to the present progressive: that it refers to 'the constitution of things (logical, physical, psychological, essential, etc.)', while the progressive is the tense of 'mere occurrence'. These observations will be an extension of remarks more than a criticism. Calver excepted one use, the historical present, from his formula, and there are two other types that in a very literal application of the formula would probably have to be excepted also; but I believe that his principle does, if we admit the possibility of metaphor,2 account for both the historical present and for one of the other types. The historical present usually has to do with action in sequence (Calver's example: She runs to the cop and grabs him by the arm); at such times there is none of that p-rduration or predestination that seems to characterize the other uses of the simple present discussed by Calver. Alongside of the historical present is the first of the two types mentioned above: constructions with adverbs in inverted order, such as Here comes the teacher! and Away they go!, reporting immediate occurrences and accordingly, on the surface, seeming to be closer to The teacher is coming and They are going away, i.e. to the progressive, than to other uses of the simple present. But both this and the historical present may be regarded as a figurative extension of.the 'constitution of things'. The speaker who uses She runs to the cop and grabs him by the arm is oblivious of everything but the occurrence. The setting is abolished, and she runs BECOMES 'constitution of things' by absorbing the attention completely. The extreme vividness of the historical present results from this metaphorical abolition of everything irrelevant to the process itself. But there is one use of the historical present which Calver would not have needed to except even from the literal interpretation of his principle, namely, when it is used in a context of past verbs, e.g. Jack said that his mother was very ill, and got me to go see what I could do for her. I had to leave my other patients and drive half the evening, which meant that all my plans were upset. And then he tells me that the whole thing was a hoax! Or this example, from Detective Tales: Yeah! You said he wouldn't live! In other words, you promised to kill him.