Sunday 25 June 2017

Primary Tense [Defined]

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 144):
Primary tense means past, present or future at the moment of speaking; it is time relative to ‘now’. A proposition may become arguable through being located in time by reference to the speech event. (There is no primary tense in proposals; cross the road! doesn’t embody a choice of past, present or future relative to the now of speaking.)