Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background ofthe research
1.2 Purpose and significance of the research
1.3 Data and methodology
1.4 Organization ofthe book
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 The study oftense in narrative-
2.2 Studies of tense in media discourse and in corpus linguistics
2.3 Reflections onprevious studies
Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework
3.1 Fleischman's theory of tense—aspect in narrative
3.2 Labov and Waletzky's narrative model and Bell's model structure for news text
3.3 A three—dimensional framework for tense analysis
Chapter 4 Tense Use on the Three Planes
4.1 Tense—position plane--Textual distribution of the tenses
4.2 Tense—verb plane--Verbs associated with the three tenses
4.3 Verb position plane--Textual distribution of verb categories
4.4 Tense.position and verb categories
Chapter 5 Tense Patterns
5.1 Pattems of the present tense--Distribution and functions
5.2 Present perfect patterns--Distribution and functions
5.3 Consecutive use of present perfect and its functions in news report
Chapter 6 Textual,Expressive and Metalinguistic functions of Tense
6.1 Properties oftense—verb construction
6.2 Textual function oftenses
6.3 Expressivefunction of tenses
6.4 Metalinguistic function of tenses
6.5 The functions of tense and modern journalism
Chapter 7 Conclusion
7.1 Summary ofthe findings
7.2 Conclusion
7.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study
Bibliography
Appendix A Verbs associated with the present tense
Appendix B Verbs associated with the past tense
Appendix C Verbs associated with the present perfect
Appendix D Analysis ofNews Samples
1 Analysis ofSample News 1
2 Analysis ofSample News 2
Appendix E Sample News Text 1
Appendix F Sample News Text 2
Appendix G Sample News Text 3