Tense, Reference, and Worldmaking

Lori A. Dunn is an ESL teacher and editor of the Toronto women’s
magazine Feminie.

McGilvray has developed a theory of tense and temporal relationships
that incorporates the amazing abilities of human beings to be perfectly
understood while speaking of anywhere and anywhen from a set point in
time and space. His idea of tense differs from the currently accepted
view on a number of points—most obviously in his conception of the
relationship between individuals and situations within the speech act.
McGilvray posits a three-way temporal structure that represents more of
the infinite variations of language, whether spoken or written.

Space limitations prevent our providing here an in-depth review of
McGilvray’s theory itself, as his explanation assumes considerable
theoretical knowledge both of linguistics and of current trends in
semantic theory. But he has hit upon an unpretentious style with which
to relay this technical information. His informal, first-person style
softens the negative impact of the dense jargon he is forced to use,
making his theory more accessible to those specializing in semantics.