摘要：Several studies indicate that sentence processing engages mental simulation of the event conveyedby the sentence, creating a “ mental microworld” (Magliano & Schleich 2000). This simulation isfound to be mediated by the extent to which the event is “ ongoing” . Hence sentences in imperfectiveaspect show stronger evidence of mental simulation than perfectives. Given that the temporalprogression of an event can be expressed with grammatical aspect and tense, it is unclear if tenseinfluences mental simulations, and how tense and aspect effects are graded.
