On the Use of Tenses and Aspects in English Complex Sentence
复合句中时、体用法的几个问题

This paper is primarily concerned with the use of tenses and aspects in English complex sentences within the time reference framework, with its focus on the general tense and aspect rules, other factors affecting the use of tenses and aspects as well as operational tests. The study well demonstrates that the temporal relation relation the two clauses in many cases determine the tense and aspect usage in both the matrix and subordinate clauses, that the interaction of various factors, namely, event types, conjunctions and causal relations, etc., can also affect the use of tenses and aspects. The operational test enables us to reach a more objective conclusion when it comes to distinguishing functionally different syntactic patterns which might otherwise be difficult to identify.