Abstract

The English tense system has always been one of the main subjects for linguists and grammarians. This paper adopts the metaphorical approach to study the English tense. By analyzing the prototypical uses of the present tense and the past tense, the author gives a convincing and reasonable explanation of these various uses of the English tense. The metaphorical approach used in this paper provides a new perspective for the study of the English tense. The metaphorical mapping processes of the past tense and the present tense reflect the universal cognitive mechanism of human beings, that is, learners acquire knowledge from known to unknown. The last but not least, the new interpretations of the different uses of the English tense offers a practical help for the teaching and learning of tense.

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