Tempus i trekktvang. Om en kontrafaktisk presens i norske sjakkspalter

Abstract

This paper analyses tense marking in Norwegian chess columns, a specific genre that reports mainly two kinds of events: actual chess moves played in the game under discussion vs. counterfactual, alternative chess moves discussed by the chess pundit. This narrow context is ideally suited for pragmatic competition. It is shown that Norwegian chess writers typically use the unmarked indicative present tense in reference to counterfactual chess moves. The present tense form contrasts with the marked past tense used for actual and anaphoric refer-ence. From a production perspective the simple unmarked present is preferred over morpho-syntactically heavy competitors (composite tenses and modals) with explicit marking of counterfactuality.