TAMnI: The present problem of past/present tenses

[Teh_ping]

にょろーん...

Editors, translator preferences, use of 'aspects' rather than tenses, since that's basically how Eastern languages go, especially for Chinese, where there's no tenses at all, so aspects are heavily used. For Japanese, not as much, but it's mostly spoken in realtime, so I really hated the idea of treating the story as a past narrative. However, I gave consent to edit it into past tense. Now I just need people to put the project as British English (Can you imagine Index speaking American English?)

[Snorca]

I think some of the major problems lie with how people get confused over the use of "if's"; the differences between simple past, past continuous, and past perfect; and how the narrator is addressing the reader directly.

When using if's, the verb tense is based on how factual the situation is and how likely things are to happen. A good guideline in the use of tense and "if" situations can be found here: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts ... onals.html

Those inexperienced with the use past continuous and past perfect often think only in simple past and would often mistakenly change all present participles into past participles. Luckily, these people don't seem quite common, but here is a link to brush up on it: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/types.html

Now, the most challenging part which I believe people have in my way of editing comes in the last part: when narrator addresses the audiences directly. I see Kamachi-sensei use this style while often, especially in the prologue of volume 1 where the narrator tries to talk to the reader directly unrelated to the events in the story. In these situations, I try to leave the narration in present tense because it has nothing to do with the events in the story, and who talks to people directly in past tense? This is a style isn't all that common but has been used by several classic authors such as Charles Dickens in Dombey and Son. I have tried to search for a site that could explain this technique better than I could but I can't seem to find a free one. Here somewhat summarizes what I'm trying to say: http://www.jstor.org/pss/30224975 I do suppose that I'm rather imposing this style onto the project. This problem lies mostly in the Prologue of Chapter 1 where I seem to have some disagreement in styles with Tact.

So yeah, strictly speaking: this is why I argued earlier to eliminate the option of "mixed". There is absolutely no way to have a pure one-tense story out of this translation. If the story was told in present tense, we'd still have to use past tense to talk about events that had happened according to the story; vice versa if the story was told in past tense, we still have to deal with times where the author directly addresses the reader. The whole purpose of past vs present tense was simply a vote on the style. To have the story be told by a commentator or a story teller. One feels more suspenseful and the other feels more natural respectively. Both have their places and advantages.

[BALLandCHAIN]

にょろーん...
...it's mostly spoken in realtime, so I really hated the idea of treating the story as a past narrative. However, I gave consent to edit it into past tense. Now I just need people to put the project as British English (Can you imagine Index speaking American English?)

Kinda agree with you there, it's a little hard to wrap my head around, but it seems like that would turn it into some sort of "once upon a time" story being told from like a bystander perspective or something?

[Teh_ping]

That's correct.

[Darklor]

So yeah, strictly speaking: this is why I argued earlier to eliminate the option of "mixed". There is absolutely no way to have a pure one-tense story out of this translation.

And that was the reason I voted for mixed...