Another thought on tense...and aspect

The decision not to base the analysis of tense on discourse function does not, however, mean that the study of tenses is discourse is not a relevant study, indeed it is often the case that the investigation of the meaning of tense (or of some other grammatical category) can best be approached by studying its use in discourse: rather, all that is argued here is that the investigation of the use of a grammatical category in discourse should not be confused wit the meaning of that category; instead, the discourse functions should ultimately be accounted for in terms of the interaction of meaning and context.—Tense, page 29

<idle musing>
I wonder how much of the disagreement on aspect in Greek grammar today is based on this very assumption? Ironically, this book was written in 1985 and the argument in Koiné Greek about aspect didn't start until much later...of course, this book is about tense and not aspect, but you would think that it would have been read...and his book on aspect was written in 1976!
</idle musing>