Here we show..and the present tense
Many academic papers have an abstract where the authors say things like "Here, we show......"
I'm asking about the verb "show" here. Generally speaking the present tense means habitual action (eg. I go to school every day) but I know there are a few exceptions are one of them is performative utterances such as "i resign", "I promise..." and "I apologize."
Would you say the use of "show" in "here we show" is the same as "(hereby) i resign"?
How about the use of the verb "list" in sentences like "I list the data in Table 1"
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 5
1
Verbs such as "promise" are known as "static verbs", for which we do not use the present continuous tense. I think one can regard "show" as a static verb when it is used in the sense of "This diagram shows...", but not when we say "The cinema on Knightsbridge is showing 'Gone With the Wind'."
1
Abstracts of academic papers, just as synopses of films and books, are usually done in the simple present tense. This is "the narrative present", where, for example, newspaper headlines are written in the simple present tense.
1
You are quite right that this is an exception to the rule of present simple being used for regular habits and general truths.
The key here is the context - an academic paper. The present simple is often used to give a formal, detached and academic or official air to a text. The continuous tense 'We're showing' would seem both too immediate (after all, they're not doing this at the moment) and too chatty and informal for this context.
0
you are absolutely right about that, i'm actually quite impressed that there are people who can notice such hard-to-observe grammatical exceptions.
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!
Start Learning Today
