Abstract The historical present (HP) is the use of the present tense to refer to past events, usually as part of a narrative. Most work on this topic has dealt with the functions of English HP, mainly within the context of tense switching in conversational narrative. Relatively little work focuses exclusively on HP in Spanish, and most of it deals with the function of HP in conversational narratives. There is a gap in the literature regarding the specific interaction between the semantics and pragmatics involved in the use of HP, especially with respect to the formal representation of this interaction. In order to fill this gap, this paper analyzes the use of HP within the Parallel Architecture framework (Jackendoff 2002) and examines the implications for the semantic/pragmatic structure. Language samples produced by native speakers of Spanish and data from a large Spanish corpus are used as part of the basis for analysis. The present study also explores how the use of the preterite and imperfect in narrative in the past parallels the use of the simple present and the present progressive in narrative within the present timeframe, and shows how this can also be fruitfully analyzed employing the Parallel Architecture. The result is an original model that extends the formal apparatus of the Parallel Architecture to an area where it has not been applied before, the interface between semantics and narrative structure.

中文翻译：

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西班牙语的历史呈现和语义/语用结构

摘要历史现在（HP）是现在时用来指代过去的事件，通常作为叙述的一部分。关于此主题的大多数工作都涉及英语HP的功能，主要是在会话叙事中的时态转换的上下文中。相对而言，很少有工作专门针对西班牙语中的HP，而大多数工作都涉及HP在对话叙事中的功能。关于使用HP所涉及的语义和语用之间的具体交互作用，文献方面存在空白，尤其是在这种交互的形式表示方面。为了填补这一空白，本文分析了HP在Parallel Architecture框架（Jackendoff 2002）中的使用，并研究了语义/语用结构的含义。由母语为西班牙语的人制作的语言样本和来自大型西班牙语料库的数据将用作分析基础的一部分。本研究还探讨了过去在叙事中使用首字母和不完美如何与在当前时间框架内在叙事中使用简单当下和当下进行中叙事相平行，并说明如何使用并行体系结构也可以对其进行富有成效的分析。结果是一个原始模型，该模型将并行体系结构的形式设备扩展到以前从未应用过的区域，即语义和叙述结构之间的接口。本研究还探讨了过去在叙事中使用首字母和不完美如何与在当前时间框架内在叙事中使用简单当下和当下进行中叙事相平行，并说明如何使用并行体系结构也可以对其进行富有成效的分析。结果是一个原始模型，该模型将并行体系结构的形式装置扩展到以前从未应用过的区域，即语义和叙述结构之间的接口。本研究还探讨了过去在叙事中使用首字母和不完美如何与在当前时间框架内在叙事中使用简单当下和当下进行中叙事相平行，并说明如何使用并行体系结构也可以对其进行富有成效的分析。结果是一个原始模型，该模型将并行体系结构的形式装置扩展到以前从未应用过的区域，即语义和叙述结构之间的接口。