Page 1 of 29 Temporal Reference Kasia M. Jaszczolt for: Anne Barron, Yueguo Gu, and Peter Grundy (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics [1] Introduction: Temporal reference, the concept of time, and real time Temporal reference in discourse is a topic that is intrinsically connected with the question of how humans conceptualise time. As such, it is also intrinsically connected with the question of linguistic relativity in that the observable differences between natural languages in expressing temporality can be regarded as reflections of the conceptual differences or, alternatively, explained as superficial differences that can be superimposed on the universal construal of temporal reference at the level of atomic concepts. I what follows I therefore focus on two aspects pertaining to this important question: the views on the human concept of time and some cross-linguistic differences in expressing temporality. These two aspects will allow us to propose some plausible answers to such questions as: 1. Is the human concept of time universal or language-/culture-specific? 2. What is the relation between the human concept of time and the natural-language devices used to represent temporal reference? 3. What is the division of labour between the lexicon, grammar and pragmatics as far as expressing temporal reference is concerned? In the concluding part I also make some tentative comments concerning the relationship between temporality and the metaphysics of time.