The desire, to represent the exact time of occurrence of an event, is the reason why most scholars spend time in studying tense. It is quite easy to represent an event accurately at the time of occurrence, but as time passes, it then becomes difficult to give an exact representation of the occurrence of such an event. Different definitions of what a tense is have been given, but the most suitable of all is that which defines a tense as the use of grammar in representing the occurrence of an event in time. The common and most recognised tense are: the present tense, which refers to an ongoing event, the past tense, referring to an event which has already taken place to which reference is been made, and finally the future tense, which refers to an event that is yet to take place or is about to take place.
When making reference to an event that has already occurred, it is imperative to make use of a reference point on the time line. This is because, reference to a past event might refer to general past, distant past or immediate past, thus making use of a reference point enhances the exact representation of such an event. These are some of the ambiguities that exist in the definition and usage of tense. For example, in speech a speaker might refer to an event in distant past, not because it has been measured in terms of passage of time, but because the event seems remote to the speaker. In another vain, an event might be referred to as remote, simply because the speaker is making reference to some other event that just occurred.
An attempt to provide us with an introduction into the varying nature of tense is the basis for Bernard Comries work, tense. In as much as the tense aid us in our daily expressions, Comrie in his work identified logically the variation of tense in languages and the limitations of the variations. In the opening chapter, he speaks of the concept of tense in relation to time, making reference to the definition of tense that, the definition gives us reason to look at other forms of time representation in language.
The core massage in Comries book is from Chapters two to chapter four; these chapters are centred on the key parameters necessary for the discussion and understanding of the three basic tense traditionally used. The discussion in chapter two is centred on what is referred to as the present tense or deictic centre, referring to an occurrence at the time of reporting. Chapter three, deals with relative tense, an event occurring in time other than the present moment. The last, and most intuitive chapter of the work which is chapter four, in this chapter Comrie seems to be asking questions that were absent in previous publications on tense. For example, where on the time line is an event in the past located, or how can the remoteness of an occurrence be measured? Comries questions are intuitive, but it is important to note that, it will be too rigid of him to insist that the exact location of an event be specified, an event in the past can be represented effectively by making reference to a preceding event, and not necessarily to the deictic centre as he is prescribing. According to Comrie, the perceived absence of discussions on remoteness is partly accounted for, as a result of the absence of grammatical expressions in most Europeans languages for remoteness of an event. On the absence of grammatical expressions in representing remoteness, what Comrie failed to note in his work is that, in most languages of the world, remoteness is expressed through stress or emphasis in speech on words used to represent a past event.
Finally, Comrie ends his Book by drawing together all the arguments raised in the opening chapters, the key issue been that, a formal theory of tense is almost impossible, as a result of the variations in grammatical representations and absence of grammatical expressions for remote occurrences. What Comrie has failed to do is to go on, and propose appropriately how a formal theory of tense generalisation can be arrived at. Leaving us with no direction and proposing a formula that should be followed if such generalised theory is to hold water, ending his work more like that of a critique.