par Rosier, Laurence ;Wilmet, Marc
Référence Langue française, 138, page (97-106+127)
Publication Publié, 2003
Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : The starting point of this article is to revisit the "sequence of tenses" in a more general problematics, wondering about the relationship between tenses and co(n)text. Indeed, the sequence of tenses offers a particular cotext of use which was studied mainly, in French and English, under the restricted angle of the introducers verbs and/or the temporal articulation, whether mechanical or semantic, between verbs of the sentence and the under-sentence. In the light of a monosemist approach of verbal tenses, we advance two simple rules: (i) The verbal form with the past is the sufficient condition of "imparfait" in the under-sentence but is not a necessary condition (cf the "imparfait" in the under-sentence with a nonlast verbal form). (ii) The co(n)textuals elements are necessary conditions but never sufficient of a present (because the secant aspect of "imparfait" entitles it to play the same role).