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historical present

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Examples
  • On 1 September 1939, the Nazisinvade Poland, and two days later Britain and Francedeclare war on Germany.
  • Yesterday this blokestops me in the street andoffers me a Rolex watch for ten quid.
  • Mr and Mrs Treaclelive in a little gingerbread cottage. Mrs Treacleworks in a pudding factory, while Mr Treacleis a gooseberry polisher.
  • "And, behold, therecometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name [...]"

Noun

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historicalpresent (uncountable)

  1. (grammar) Thepresent tense as used when referring to realpastevents, to addimmediacy to what is being said or written.
  2. (grammar) Thepresent tense as used when writing afictionalnarrative.
    • 1972,William Labov,Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English, page47:
      In most dialects, thehistorical present is used quite freely to convey the sense of more vivid narrative, to retell dreams, plots, tell jokes, etc.
    • 2001, Daniel E. Collins,Reanimated Voices: Speech reporting in a historical-pragmatic perspective, page91:
      Cross-linguistically, thehistorical present tends to be used to increase vividness by substituting the perspective of the ongoing speech situation for that of the narrative.
    • 2016, Leo Katcher,The Big Bankroll: The Life And Times OfArnold Rothstein:
      Mr. Rothstein comes in," Scher said, "it must have been about none o'clock. Every night he comes in here [Scher, like so many Broadway habitués, spoke most often in thehistorical present, rather than the past, tense. Damon Runyon faithfully reproduced this patois.] Regular as clockwork he comes in here.

Usage notes

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A distinction may be made between thehistorical present used in narratives and theliterary present used when writingabout narratives, e.g. explaining plotlines. However, this distinction is not universally observed.

Synonyms

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Translations

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tense

See also

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Further reading

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