ABSTRACT
Absolute tenses are therefore described simply as tense, and relative tenses as either tense or grammatical aspect, depending on their semantic properties. According to Comrie, 'the failure to distinguish between meaning and implicature is one of the main problems in working out an accurate characterization of the tenses'. A proper understanding of semantic and pragmatic properties allows tense to be semantically described as a temporal relation between a reference time (RT) and a center (C), the location of which is pragmatically implicated. In contrast, according to one definition used by Comrie, Relative Tense locates a RT with respect to one of several pragmatically determined times. Relative tense forms with variable temporal reference are therefore best analyzed as grammatical aspect. Relative tense forms which predicate uniform temporal relations between RT and C are assigned to the semantic category tense, with all the absolute tense forms. Comrie acknowledges that tenses may have both absolute and relative tense functions.
