praesentre

Praesentre is a neologism used in some discussions of tense, aspect, and theories of time. It is proposed as a hypothetical grammatical category intended to express that an event is treated as present in the speaker’s cognitive frame prior to its occurrence, or that the event is considered present in discourse even though it has not yet happened. The term appears to blend notions of pre-present status with a present-mistic sense of occurrence, reflecting debates about how speakers relate future events to the present moment.

There is no standard definition or consensus on praesentre. In some strands of theorizing, it is described as a mood or aspect that marks imminent events as if they already belong to the present discourse, offering a way to model anticipation or reflexive present-ness. In other accounts, the concept is treated more as a cognitive stance—how narratives or testimonials may position forthcoming events as if they are part of the current situation. Because it is not widely adopted in formal grammars, praesentre remains a topic of theoretical discussion rather than an established grammatical category.

Supporters argue that introducing praesentre could help formalize certain discourse phenomena around prediction, anticipation, or provisional truth claims. Critics contend that adding a new category risks unnecessary complexity and overlaps with existing tense, mood, and aspect systems such as present, future, perfect, and prolepsis. To date, praesentre is mainly discussed in speculative writings or online discussions about tense theory and has not achieved broad acceptance in mainstream linguistics.