Narrative Time Signals

时间连接词(temporal transitions) 是一种常用的时间标记(time signals)。 时间连接词或词组表示了特定动作发生的特定时间或它和其他动作的关系。我们常用的时间连接词有then, when, at that time, before, after, while, next, later, first, 和second等。比如在上期E. B. White 的"Death of a Pig"里， 第一句中的when 标志着作者第一次发现有严重的状况发生 (It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when I first noticed that there was something wrong with the pig.)；而第三句里的After 表示了两个动作的先后顺序—先检查猪的情况，再打电话询问(After examining my pig, who was stretched out in the sawdust inside the building, I went to the phone and cranked it four times.)。

在解释操作步骤的时候，尤其涉及到比较复杂的操作程序时，清晰的时间标记就特别重要。

除了时间连词， 动词时态(Verb Tense Markers)和钟表时间(Clock Time)也是很好的时间标记。

动词时态不仅能表示动作发生的时间，还能表现动作是正在进行中的还是已经完成的。比如E.B. White 在文章中大多使用了一般过去时，因为他叙述的是一件发生在过去的事。不过请注意以下这句句子：When my son and I arrived the pigyard, armed with a small bottle of castor oil and a length of clothesline, the pig had emerged from his house and was standing in the middle of his yard, listlessly. 在这句句子里，作者用了三种时态：一般过去时 (arrived) 表示动作已经完成，过去完成时(had emerged)表示这个动作在某个动作(父子两到猪圈前)之前发生，过去进行时(was standing)表示动作发生了一段时间并且还持续着。这样，这三个动作之间的关系就很清晰，意思表达得也很准确了。

除了过去时态(past tenses)，作者还使用了现在时态(present tenses), 如：… and when a pig (or a child) refuses supper a chill wave of fear runs through any household, or ice-household. 句子中的一般现在时表示这是经常发生的状况。在描写步骤 (process narratives)的时候，通常用现在时态。另外，现代很多作家用也将现在时态运用于对过去的描写中，以给读者身临其境(a sense of you-are-there immediacy)的感受。

动词时态和时间连接词往往结合在一起使用，以区分经常性动作和一次性动作。如下面Willie Morris 的 North toward Home 里的一段：

Many times, walking home from work, I would see some unknowing soul venture across that intersection against the light and then freeze in horror when he saw the cars ripping out of the tunnel toward him… Suddenly, the human reflex would take over, and the pedestrian would jackknife first one way, then another, arms flaying the empty air, and often the car would literary skim the man, brushing by him so close it would touch his coat or his tie… On one occasion, feeling sorry for the person who had brushed against the speeding car, I hurried across the intersection after him to cheer him up a little. Catching up with him down by 32nd I said, "That was good legwork, sir. Excellent moves for a big man!" but the man looked at me with an empty expression in his eyes, and then moved away mechanically and trancelike, heading for the nearest bar.  
划线的时间标记既有动词时态（如would, hurried, said, etc.），也有连接词（Many times, On one occasion, then, etc.）。作者用would, many times和often等表示经常性动作，而用一般过去时表示一次性动作。

钟表时间不象前面两个标记那样常用，但如果用的好，也能起到很好的效果。E. B. White在文中就使用了钟表时间。下面的例子中，钟表时间让读者感受到动作发生的速度：

9：05 P. M. An ambulance backs into the receiving bay, its red and yellow lights flashing in and out of the lobby. A split second later, the glass doors burst out open as a nurse and an attendant roll a mobile stretcher into the lobby. When the nurse screams, "Emergent!" the lobby explodes with activity as the way is cleared to the trauma room. Doctors appear from nowhere and transfer the bloodied body of a black to the treatment table. Within seconds his clothes are stripped away.
                                                          George Simpson, "The War Room at Bellevue"

思考题：
1． George Simpson的 “The War Room at Bellevue”用的是什么时态？为什么要用这种时态？
2． 找一篇叙述文，看看作者运用了哪些时间标记？如果把这些标记去掉，再读文章，会有什么感觉？
3． 自己写一段或一篇文章，记述过去发生的一件事情，把以上三种时间标记用到你的记述中。