Historical present

In linguistics and rhetoric, the historical present or historic present (also called dramatic present or narrative present) is the employment of the present tense when narrating past events. It is widely used in writing about history in Latin (where it is sometimes referred to by its Latin name, praesens historicum) and some modern European languages; in English it is used above all in historical chronicles (listing a series of events); it is also used in fiction, for "hot news" (as in headlines), and in everyday conversation.[1] In conversation, it is particularly common with "verbs of communication" such as tell, write, and say (and in colloquial uses, go).[2] "Historic present" is the form recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary, whereas "historical present" is the form in Merriam Webster.

More recently, analysts of its use in conversation have argued that it functions not by making an event present, but by marking segments of a narrative, foregrounding events (that is, signalling that one event is particularly important, relative to others) and marking a shift to evaluation.[3]

Examples

In an excerpt from Dickens' David Copperfield, the shift from the past tense to the historical present gives a sense of immediacy, as of a recurring vision:

If the funeral had been yesterday, I could not recollect it better. The very air of the best parlour, when I went in at the door, the bright condition of the fire, the shining of the wine in the decanters, the patterns of the glasses and plates, the faint sweet smell of cake, the odour of Miss Murdstone’s dress, and our black clothes. Mr. Chillip is in the room, and comes to speak to me.

"And how is Master David?" he says, kindly.

I cannot tell him very well. I give him my hand, which he holds in his.

— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter IX

Notable novels written entirely in the historical present include John Updike's Rabbit, Run and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

In describing fiction

Summaries of the narratives (plots) of works of fiction are conventionally presented using the present tense rather than the past tense. At any particular point of the story, as it unfolds, there is a now, and hence a past and a future, so whether some event mentioned in the story is past, present, or, future changes as the story progresses; the entire plot description is presented as if the story's now is a continuous present. Thus, in summarizing the plot of A Tale of Two Cities, one may write:

Manette is obsessed with making shoes, a trade he learned while in prison.

Other languages

In French, the historical present is used in journalism, and in historical texts for reporting events in the past.[4]

See also

Sources

  • Brinton, L. J. (1992). "The historical present in Charlotte Bronte's novels: Some discourse functions". Style. 26 (2): 221–244.
  • Huddleston, R; Pullum, G. K. (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43146-8.
  • Leech, G. N. (1971). Meaning and the English Verb. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-52214-5.

References

  1. ↑ Huddleston & Pullum 2002, p. 129–131.
  2. ↑ Leech 1971, p. 7.
  3. ↑ Brinton 1992, p. 221.
  4. ↑ Revaz, Françoise (2002). "Le présent et le futur historiques : des intrus parmi les temps du passé ?" [The historical present and future: intruders among the past tenses?]. Le Français aujourd’hui (in French). Paris: Armand Colin-Dunod. 4 (139): 87–96.
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