ABSTRACT
Thefunctionoftenseandaspectinnarrativetextshasgivenrisetoan extensiveliteratureinwhichtwomainlinesofthoughtcanbedistinguished.Thefirstmakesuseofaspatialmetaphortodescribethe temporalstructureof(narrative)texts:"foreground"versus"background"or"figure"versus"ground"(Weinrich1973;Hopper1982; Fleischman1985;and,forasurveyofthequestion,Waughand Monville-Burston1986).Inthisapproachthediscoursefunctionof theperfectiveaspect,thesimplepastinRomancelanguages,isto indicatewhicheventsbelongtothemainplot-lineofthestory(the foregroundorfigure).Sentenceswithimperfectiveaspect,theimperfectivepast,servetodescribestatesofaffairswhichconstitutethe backgroundofthestory(theygiveinformationaboutthesettingin whichthestorytakesplace,containcomments,etc.).
