Abstract The paper discusses the role of tense and time from a cross-linguistic perspective by comparing English (a tensed language) and Mandarin (a language without formal tense marking). Multiple translations of the same literary piece are used to test the correspondence between the tense, the perfective aspect and temporal adverbials. In English, tense marking is found to work with at least two language-specific stylistic means, clause interpolation and inversion, to create a mixed narrative viewpoint. In Mandarin, neither the perfective aspect nor temporal adverbials, i.e., constructions that invoke time, are systematically used across the renditions, which shows the Mandarin system’s overall indifference to time in managing viewpoint in discourse. The Mandarin renditions, in addition to an overall indifference to time, feature consistent and frequent use of reduplication as the system’s distinctive viewpoint strategy. The paper concludes with a discussion of the cognitive consequence of a language using an obligatory marking system to piggyback the function of viewpointing narratives.

中文翻译：

---

时间，时态和视点在各种语言之间的转移：一种多平行文本方法以无时态的语言“时态转移”

摘要本文通过比较英语（一种紧张的语言）和普通话（一种没有正式时态标记的语言），从跨语言的角度讨论了时态和时间的作用。同一文学作品的多次翻译被用来测试时态，完成式和时态状语之间的对应关系。在英语中，时态标记被发现与至少两种特定于语言的风格手段（子句内插和倒置）一起使用，以创建混合的叙事观点。在普通话中，既没有完美的方面也没有时间副词，即调用时间的结构，在整个演绎形式中都没有被系统地使用，这表明普通话系统在话语管理中对时间的整体漠不关心。普通话的表现形式除了对时间的整体漠不关心外，一致且频繁地使用重复作为系统独特的视点策略。本文最后讨论了使用强制性标记系统来搭载观察性叙事功能的语言的认知后果。