Preface 1 Some theroretical and methodoalogical preliminaries 1.1 Scope of the work 1.2 Time and language 1.3 Location in time 1.4 Tense as grammaticalised location in time 1.5 Tense and deixis 1.6 Basic and secondary meanings 1.7 Meaningand implicature 1.8 Tense,grammar,and discourse 2 Absolute tense 2.1 Preaent tense 2.2 Past tense 2.3 Furure tense 2.4 Binary tense systems 2.5 Tenseless languages 2.6 Combinations of absolute tenses 3 relative tense 3.1 Pure relative tense 3.2 Absolute-realtive tense 4 Degrees of remoteness 5 Tense and syntax 5.1 tense neutralisation 5.2 Sequence of tenses 5.3 Indirect speech in English and Russian 5.4 Future time reference in English subordinate clauses 6 Conclusion:Towards a formal theory of tense 6.1 Absolute tense 6.2 Relative tense 6.3 Cmbined absolute-relative tense 6.4 Degrees of remoteness 6.5 Tense combinations 6.6 Conclusion References Index of languages Index of names Index of subjects