Memory and Past Tenses

Abstract

The paper investigates a possible link between the way we use different past tense categories and the way our memory recollects events from the past. The basic idea is that when it is contextually obvious that an utterance communicates an output from the episodic memory, a module gets activated which analyses whether the recollection followed a definite task or whether it acted spontaneously. Some verb tense categories would indicate specifically one of these two modes of recollection. But the module would also check also whether the utterance points to the same mode of recollection as the verb. The paper shows how this hypothesis works with the past tenses in French. A connection is proposed on one hand between imparfait and the spontaneous mode of recollection and on the other hand between passé simple and the goal-oriented mode of recollection. The function of the plus-que-parfait would be to indicate an extrapolation made by the locutor from an already recollected event, in order to stimulate the recollection of another event. The passé composé is associated with the state of having accomplished the recollection.
Keywords : French past tense categories, procedural meaning, memory.