On the Meaning and Function of the Historical Present Tense

This paper is an attempt to sort out various effects and constraints associated with what has been referred to as the historical present tense in the literature, and to find out its prototypical function from which the observed effects and constraints can be derived. After discussing certain general effects and constraining factors in section Ⅱ based on an analysis of several Korean short stories, I will argue in Section Ⅲ that the central function of the historical present tense is ‘suspended judgment’ and that all other effects and constraints, such as the ‘vividness effect’ and the feeling of ‘continuing action’ it generates, the ‘sense of relief’ triggered by a tense switch to the past after a series of the historical present tense, and the constraints on its use with the first-person action or explicit time markers, can be given plausible explanations based on this simple generalization.