Tense

Tense may refer to:

See also

Tenseness

In phonology, tenseness or tensing is the pronunciation of a vowel with a relatively longer duration and with the tongue positioned slightly higher and less centralized in the mouth compared with another vowel, thus causing a phonemic contrast between the two vowels. Contrast between vowels on the basis of tenseness is common in many languages, including English; for example, in most English dialects, [iː] (as in the word beet) is the tense counterpart to the lax /ɪ/ (as in bit), and /uː/ (as in kook) is the tense counterpart to the lax /ʊ/ (as in cook). The opposite quality of tenseness, in which a vowel is produced as relatively more shortened, lowered, and centralized, is called laxness or laxing.

Unlike most distinctive features, the feature [tense] can be interpreted only relatively, often with a perception of greater tension or pressure in the mouth, which, in a language like English, contrasts between two corresponding vowel types: a tense vowel and a lax vowel. An example in Vietnamese is the letters ă and â representing lax vowels, and the letters a and ơ representing the corresponding tense vowels. Some languages like Spanish are often considered as having only tense vowels, but since the quality of tenseness is not a phonemic feature in this language, it cannot be applied to describe its vowels in any meaningful way. The term has also occasionally been used to describe contrasts in consonants.

Tense (artwork)

Tense is the title of an art installation made by Turner Prize nominee Anya Gallaccio in 1990. The work consists of printed rolls of wallpaper featuring an orange motif, "the paper was pasted on the walls, and on the floor Gallaccio made an oblong 'carpet' comprising one ton of Valencia oranges which gradually decayed over the duration of the show."

Considering the work in his 2001 essay, Oranges and Lemons and Oranges and Bananas, British art critic, historian and academic Michael Archer said,: "As a somewhat opportune indication that we are dealing here with continuities as much as breaks and new beginnings, it could be pointed out that Anya Gallaccio’s contribution to Bond’s East Country Yard Show was a ton of oranges spread in a large rectangle on the floor. Together with an orange-motif wallpaper plastering one of the walls, the work made reference to the building’s past as a fruit warehouse and its planned future as a luxury residence."

The work was on display at the 1990 exhibition East Country Yard Show.