Abstract
<jats:p>In the grammar of the verb, tense is a salient deictic category whose diachronic evolutions will be reviewed in this chapter by considering in particular the interplay of tense with a non‐deictic category like aspect. This chapter also aims at comparing tense to the deictic dimensions of evidentiality. As to tense, the main focus will be on the role of temporal and spatial deictic items as lexical sources of tense‐targeting grammaticalization paths, also considering whether deictic oppositions are grammaticalized as organized patterns or as isolated evolutions. As to evidentiality, the diachronic role of non‐deictic types of evidence will be contrasted to the role of the speaker as a deictic pivot that filters knowledge coming from external sources. In its connection to evidentiality, egophoricity will also be considered as a category in which deixis is a particularly prominent dimension. In many cases, tense and evidentiality prove diachronically secondary to non‐deictic features, from which they cannot be disentangled. Tense‐only forms do occur but their diachronic origins are mostly obscure, either because they derive from a long‐run diachronic trajectory in which lexical sources have become unrecognizable or because they do not have lexical origins at all, which possibly shows the limits of a diachronic theory wholly based on grammaticalization. In this respect, a comparison to different methods, including reconstructive historical linguistics, will be proposed. From a theoretical point of view, cognitive linguistics will also be referred to as a theory in which the mental cluster of spatial and temporal deixis is greatly relevant.</jats:p>