Tense analysis in History texts

Abstract

This work analyzes the temporal localization of events in texts produced by historians. We observe in these texts there is a tense variation: the verbs are in the past, in the present and in the future too, although the reference is always events that have happened in the past. The aim of this work is to explain this phenomenon. For this, we use the time-denoting expressions from Móia (2000) and Móia (2003) and Link’s (1998) model. We sustain expressions like names of individuals and complex events localize events in time. We conclude this localization, made by individuals and complex events, allows tense variation.