The tense-aspect system in Mental Spaces Theory
According to Mental Spaces Theory, the tense-aspect system participates in dis course management. Before we can look in detail at the Mental Spaces Theory analysis of tense-aspect systems, we need to establish some additional new terms: viewpoint, focus and event. These terms relate to the status of mental spaces in discourse. While the base represents the starting point for a particular stage in the discourse to which the discourse can return, the viewpoint is the space from which the discourse is currently being viewed and from which other spaces are currently being built. The focus is the space where new content is being added, and the event represents the time associated with the event being described. While the focus and event spaces often coincide, as we will see, they can sometimes diverge. As discourse progresses, the status of mental spaces as base, viewpoint, focus or event can shift and overlap. In order to illustrate these ideas, consider the following text, in which the verb strings are underlined:
We will construct a Mental Spaces Theory representation of this text beginning with the base (B). The base space is also the initial viewpoint (V) and the focus (F), as we add new information to the base, namely that Jane is twenty. Time reference is now (E), as signalled by the present tense ‘is’. This is illustrated in Figure 11.15, which represents the first space constructed by this text (space 1). In this section, we simplify the mental spaces diagrams by missing out the dialogue boxes, since our objective here is not to illustrate the establishment of elements, links, properties or relations, but to work out how the sentences in the discourse set up mental spaces that shift the status of previously constructed spaces with respect to base, viewpoint, focus and event.
The second sentence, She has lived in France, keeps the base in focus, as it adds new information of current relevance. This is signalled by the use of the present perfect has lived. The present tense auxiliary form has signals that we are building structure in space 1 which thus remains the focus space. However, the structure being built relates to an event that is complete (or past) relative to space 1, signalled by the past participle lived. This is set up as space 2. In this way, perfect aspect signals that focus and event diverge. Put another way, the present perfect has lived signals that knowledge of a completed event has current relevance. Because the focus space, ‘now’ (space 1), is also the perspective from which we are viewing the completed event, the focus space (space 1) is also the viewpoint. This is illustrated by Figure 11.16.
The third sentence, In 2000 she lived in Paris, contains the space builder in 2000. This sets up a new space, which is set in the past with respect to the viewpoint space which remains in the base (space 1). This new space (space 3) is therefore the event space. Because we have past tense marking, the focus shifts to the new space. This is illustrated in Figure 11.17.
The fourth sentence, She currently lives in Marseilles, is marked for present tense. This returns the focus to the base space (space 1). The base also remains the viewpoint, because this is now the perspective from which the lattice is being viewed. Because the time reference relates to this space, this is also the event space. This is illustrated in Figure 11.18.
The fifth sentence, Next year she will move to Lyons, is marked for future tense. Together with the future tense, the space builder next year sets up a new space which is the current focus space (space 4). The event described in this space is future relative to the viewpoint, which remains in the base (space 1). This is illustrated in Figure 11.19.
In the penultimate sentence, The following year she will move to Italy, the space builder the following year sets up a new space which is the current focus space containing the information that Jane will move to Italy (space 5). The future tense signals that the event is future relative to the base (space 1). However, the space builder the following year also shows that the new event space (space 5) is also future relative to space 4, from which the current space under construction is viewed. Hence, the viewpoint shifts from the base to space 4. This is illustrated in Figure 11.20.
In the final sentence, By this time, she will have lived in France for five years, the use of the future perfect auxiliary will have signals that the space in focus is the future space, space 5. However, the structure being built relates to a completed event, signalled by the past participle form lived. The future perfect will have lived therefore establishes an event space (space 6) that relates to a completed event: an event that is past with respect to the focus space. Thus the time of the event space diverges from the time of the focus space with respect to which it is relevant. This means that the focus remains in space 5 where structure is being added. The viewpoint remains in space 4 because it is from the perspective of her time in France that this sentence is viewed. At this point in the discourse, as Figure 11.21 illustrates, the base, viewpoint, focus and event all relate to distinct spaces.
The use of the future tense in this final sentence shows that the current space is still connected to the base space to which the discourse could return. For instance, if the discourse continued with the sentence But at present Jane is happy in Marseilles, this would return viewpoint, focus and event to the base.
As this discussion reveals, the tense-aspect system ‘manages’ the perspective from which an utterance is made. In particular, we have seen that while temporal adverbials like in 2000 set up new spaces, it is the tense-aspect system that signals the perspective from which a particular space is viewed. Before completing this discussion of the tense-aspect system, we briefly mention progressive aspect. As noted earlier, this is signalled in English by the progressive auxiliary be and the progressive participle, ending in -ing (e.g. Lily is writing a letter, which illustrates the present progressive). As with perfect aspect, progressive aspect signals that event and focus spaces diverge. While the perfect signals that a completed event has current relevance in the focus space, progressive aspect signals that the focus space occurs during the event space. In other words, the focus space for the sentence Lily is writing a letter contains a schematic event that receives its complete temporal profile only in the event space. (For full details, see Cutrer (1994), a doctoral thesis that develops the Mental Spaces Theory account of the tense aspect system.)
Table 11.1 summarises the functions of tense and aspect in terms of discourse management. In this table, X refers to a given mental space and the term ‘simple’ means that the relevant sentence that builds the space is not marked for aspect.
