Thera Marie Crane

If I say, “I worked in the garden”, the suffix -ed will signal to listeners that my work took place in the past. In a subset of languages, especially in Africa, Papua New Guinea, and the Americas, verbal forms also distinguish between degrees of "remoteness" in the past or future – for example, whether something happened today, yesterday, or a long time ago. The most elaborate systems have up to five or six distinct past tense forms. Uses don’t always follow strict calendar time: a speaker might use a “recent” past to talk about something that happened a long time ago, thereby signaling their direct connection to the event. Conversely, someone could describe an event from today using a “remote” past, to distance themselves personally from the event. This project aims at a holistic understanding of these multiple-tense systems, studying how they vary across languages, how they are organized in speakers' minds, and how people use them in pursuit of their communicative goals.