| 中文摘要 | 第1-6页 |
| Abstract | 第6-10页 |
| Introduction | 第10-14页 |
| Chapter1 A Brief Review of Traditional Views on Tense of the English Verb | 第14-28页 |
| ·Tense in English as a grammatical category | 第14-17页 |
| ·Contemporary views on tense of the English verb | 第17-22页 |
| ·Multi-tense views | 第17-19页 |
| ·Bi-tense view | 第19-22页 |
| ·Deficiencies of contemporary views on tense of the English verb | 第22-25页 |
| ·Summary | 第25-28页 |
| Chapter 2 Metaphor | 第28-36页 |
| ·A brief review of metaphor study | 第28-30页 |
| ·Image schema | 第30-33页 |
| ·Metaphorical mapping | 第33-35页 |
| ·Summary | 第35-36页 |
| Chapter 3 Past Tense—A Tense of Distance | 第36-56页 |
| ·Metaphorical mapping from space to time to tense | 第36-39页 |
| ·The original use of the past tense | 第39-41页 |
| ·Metaphorical extensions of the past tense | 第41-53页 |
| ·Past tense in truth-value domain | 第41-48页 |
| ·Past tense in psychology domain | 第48-53页 |
| ·Summary | 第53-56页 |
| Chapter 4 Present Tense—A Tense of Connectiveness | 第56-78页 |
| ·Definition of the present time | 第56-57页 |
| ·Nature of the present tense | 第57-60页 |
| ·The original use of the present tense | 第60-63页 |
| ·Metaphorical extensions of the present tense | 第63-73页 |
| ·Present tense in truth-value domain | 第63-70页 |
| ·Present tense in objective reality | 第63-66页 |
| ·Present tense in imaginary reality | 第66-70页 |
| ·Present tense in psychology domain | 第70-73页 |
| ·Summary | 第73-78页 |
| Conclusion | 第78-82页 |
| Bibliography | 第82-86页 |
| Appendix | 第86-88页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第88-90页 |
