| Acknowledgements | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract（Chinese） | 第7-8页 |
| Abstract（English） | 第8-9页 |
| Introduction | 第9-13页 |
| 1． My interest in tense | 第9-11页 |
| 2． Purpose for Studying tense | 第11-13页 |
| Chapter One A Survey of Research on Cohesion | 第13-21页 |
| 1．1 Preliminary remarks | 第13-14页 |
| 1．2 Halliday and Hasan’s classification | 第14-17页 |
| 1．2．1 Reference | 第14-15页 |
| 1．2．2 Ellipsis and Substitution | 第15-16页 |
| 1．2．3 Conjunction | 第16页 |
| 1．2．4 Lexical cohesion | 第16-17页 |
| 1．3 Basic criteria for being a cohesive device | 第17-18页 |
| 1．4 Previous studies of tense in text | 第18-19页 |
| 1．5 Concluding remarks | 第19-21页 |
| Chapter Two Types of tense in English | 第21-32页 |
| 2．1 Scope of tense to be studied in this paper | 第21-22页 |
| 2．2 The expressions of present time | 第22-24页 |
| 2．2．1 Preliminary remarks | 第22页 |
| 2．2．2 Simple Present referring to present time | 第22-23页 |
| 2．2．3 Present Perfect referring to present time | 第23页 |
| 2．2．4 Simple Past referring to the present | 第23-24页 |
| 2．2．5 Present Progressive referring to the present | 第24页 |
| 2．3 The expressioms of past time | 第24-28页 |
| 2．3．1 Preliminary remarks | 第24-25页 |
| 2．3．2 Past Tense in refefence to past time | 第25页 |
| 2．3．3 Perfect Aspect referring to past | 第25页 |
| 2．3．4 Future in the past | 第25-26页 |
| 2．3．5 Simple Present referring to past | 第26-27页 |
| 2．3．6 Progressive Aspect in reference to past | 第27-28页 |
| 2．4 The expressions of future time | 第28-31页 |
| 2．4．1 Preliminary remarks | 第28-29页 |
| 2．4．2 Will/shall+Infinitive | 第29页 |
| 2．4．3 Will/shall+Progressive | 第29页 |
| 2．4．4 Present Progressive | 第29页 |
| 2．4．5 Simple Present | 第29-30页 |
| 2．4．6 Be going to+Infinitive | 第30-31页 |
| 2．5 Concluding remarks | 第31-32页 |
| Chapter Three Studies of Tenses in Texts | 第32-52页 |
| 3．1 Preliminary remarks | 第32页 |
| 3．2 Primary tense | 第32-39页 |
| 3．2．1 Simple Present as the primary tense | 第33-37页 |
| 3．2．1．1 Academic prose | 第33-35页 |
| 3．2．1．2 Spoken text | 第35-36页 |
| 3．2．1．3 Novels | 第36-37页 |
| 3．2．2 Past tense as the primary tense | 第37-39页 |
| 3．3 Tense complexity in narrative：combination of tenses | 第39-51页 |
| 3．3．1 Sequence of tenses Within one time frame | 第39-42页 |
| 3．3．1．1 Simple Past | 第39-40页 |
| 3．3．1．2 Past Progressive | 第40-41页 |
| 3．3．1．3 Simple Past + Past Progressive | 第41页 |
| 3．3．1．4 Present Perfect + Simple Past | 第41-42页 |
| 3．3．1．5 Simple Past + Past Perfect | 第42页 |
| 3．3．2 Alternation of past and present | 第42-51页 |
| 3．3．2．1 Switch of time reference | 第42-44页 |
| 3．3．2．2 Historic Present in past narrative | 第44-46页 |
| 3．3．2．3 Free Direct Speech and Free Indirect Speech | 第46-51页 |
| 3．4 Concluding remarks | 第51-52页 |
| Chapter Four Textual Analysis of Tense's Cohesive Function | 第52-72页 |
| 4．1 The False Burton Combs by Carroll John Daly | 第52-56页 |
| 4．2 Tobin's Palm by O． Henry | 第56-60页 |
| 4．3 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway | 第60-63页 |
| 4．4 Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by M． Barrie | 第63-68页 |
| 4．5 Aesop's Fables translated by George Fyler Townsend | 第68-69页 |
| 4．6 Appreciation: Laura Wright's textual analysis of Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys | 第69-72页 |
| Summary and Concluding Remarks | 第72-74页 |
| Notes | 第74-75页 |
| Bibliography | 第75-77页 |
