Abstract This paper first develops a theoretically motivated view of narrative as a special form of inferential, cooperative human communication, of the role that the past tense plays in the intersubjective coordination of narrators and readers, viz. that of ‘curtailing’ the immediate argumentative applicability of the represented situation, and of its relation to viewpoint management. In three case studies, it is subsequently shown how this helps to elucidate certain effects of present and past tense alternations in stories. While these effects are multi-faceted and highly text-specific, there is a common denominator of the use of the past tense in the dimension of narrator-reader communication in the narratives. The analysis supports an independently motivated conception of intersubjectivity that assigns a special status to ‘coordination with other minds’, apart from senders and addressees.

中文翻译：

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时态，观点和叙事交流的本质发生变化

摘要本文首先发展了一种理论驱动的叙事观点，认为叙事是推理，合作式人际交流的一种特殊形式，它体现了过去式在叙事者和读者的主体间协调中的作用。“削减”所代表情况的直接论证适用性及其与观点管理的关系。在三个案例研究中，随后显示了这如何帮助阐明故事中当前和过去时态交替的某些效果。尽管这些效果是多方面的，并且是高度特定于文本的，但在叙事中的叙述者与读者交流的维度上，过去时的使用存在一个共同点。