ABSTRACT
InhiscommentaryonCamus'L'Etranger,whichofferedaradical departurefromFrenchnovelisticprotocolbycastingnarrationalmost entirelyinthepassecompose,Jean-PaulSartre(1947)suggestedthat itisinthetenseofatextthatthesecretofitsspecialstrangenesslies. Thebasicreferential(grammatical)functionoftense,mostlinguists wouldagree,istheestablishmentoftimereferenceinasentenceor discourse.Morespecifically,tenseinvolvesthedeicticlocationof eventsrelativetothemomentatwhichanutteranceisproducedorto aninterveningreferencepointwhosetemporallocationispredicated inturninrelationtothemomentofutterance.Innarrativediscourse, timereferenceisnormallyestablishedattheoutsetofthetext,and sinceittendstobeapropertyoflargestretchesofdiscourse,oreven ofentiretexts,itneednotinprinciplebereiteratedineachsuccessive clause.However,thegrammarsofmanylanguagesrequirethattense informationbeencoded(redundantly)oneveryfiniteverb-astateof affairswhichlinguisticeconomistsmightwellviewasaprofligateuse ofgrammaticalresources.Fortunatelyforlanguageconsumers,the laissez-faireeconomiesofnaturallanguagestendtomakemoreefficient useofavailableresourcesthantheircontrolledcounterpartsinsociopoliticalinstitutions.Oneresultisthatinthenarrativegrammarsof manylanguagestenseisinlargemeasurefreedfromitsprimary referentialfunctionoflocatingeventsintime,andtheavailable morphologyispressedintoserviceforother,notablypragmatic, purposes.2InthischapterIproposetoexploreoneparticularpragmatic functionoftenseoppositions:theirusetomarkwhatistraditionally referredtoas"pointofview"innarrative.3
