英语动词过去时态的认知解读

Exploration of Past Tense from the Perspective of Cognition

英语的过去时态与自然时间存在不一致的现象。文章试图从认知语言学的角度出发,探讨英语动词过去时态的非过去时间用法。隐喻在人们的认知过程中扮演重要角色,使英语过去时态的初始意义得到扩张,过去时态从单纯表示过去时间发展到表示现实距离,又进一步映射到心理距离,从而揭示了认知视野下英语过去时态的本质和意义。

English verbs used in past tense do not always refer to the past time. This paper ties to study the nonpast time use of past tense from the perspective of cognition. From the metaphorical point of view, past tense does not only refer to the past time, but it develops to project to real distance, and further to psychological distance, which reveals the nature of past tense from cognitive perspective.