Advanced English: the narrative tense

[rpapo]

Was looking for something else, but I stumbled upon this in "Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar", by Stefan Kaiser et al:

142.3 NARRATIVE PRESENT

Non-past forms are often used at key points in a narrative to make them more immediate or dramatic. In English, these are often translated into the past tense.

a. 話しているうちに忘れかけていた関西弁がポンポン【飛び出してくる】。不思議ですね。
Hanashite iru uchi ni wasurekakete ita kansaiben ga ponpon tobidashite huru. Fushigi desu ne.
As I'm talking, the Kansai dialect that I'd almost forgotten pops out, one word after another. Strange, isn't it?

b. 30秒とたたないうちに電話が【かかってくる】。
Sanjuubyou to tatanai uchi ni denwa ga kakatte kuru.
Before 30 seconds had passed, the phone rang.

[Mystes]

What do you guys do when you use the past and come across a sentence like this?

"My name's Goura Daisuke, and I'm twenty-three this year. The old books that are related to me is none other than <The Complete Works of Soseki (漱石全集)>.
Well then, let me begin with this story."

Should I be switching from past to present in the narration then?

(Source:
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index ... 1_Prologue)

[rpapo]

What do you guys do when you use the past and come across a sentence like this?

"My name's Goura Daisuke, and I'm twenty-three this year. The old books that are related to me is none other than <The Complete Works of Soseki (漱石全集)>.
Well then, let me begin with this story."

Should I be switching from past to present in the narration then?

(Source:
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index ... 1_Prologue)

Actually, I only see one thing wrong with that sentence: ...to me are none other than...

Unless, of course, you change "The old books" to "The old book", in which case the first "are" becomes an "is".

[Mystes]

Oh yeah lol. But why I meant is whether I should set all the narration to the past or switch back and forth between past and present depending on the situation.

[rpapo]

Oh yeah lol. But why I meant is whether I should set all the narration to the past or switch back and forth between past and present depending on the situation.

In English, you will generally stay in the past tense . . . unless a character is speaking. That is considered to be present action in the context of the story. Most stories are told to the listeners as if they had happened at some point in the past, and the storyteller is recounting what happened.

The point of the quotation I gave earlier is that in Japanese this is not always so.