Is the future near or far depending on the verb tense markers used? An experimental investigation into the effects of the grammaticalization of the future

Psycholinguistic approaches that study the effects of language on mental representations have ignored a potential role of the grammaticalization of the future (i.e., how the future manifests linguistically). We argue that the grammaticalization of the future may be an important aspect, as thinking about the future is omnipresent in our everyday life. The aim of this study was to experimentally manipulate the degree of future time references (i.e., present and future verb tense and temporal adverbials) to address their impact on the perceived location of future events. Across four experiments, two in French and two in German, no effect was found, irrespective of our verb and adverbial manipulations, and contrary to our hypotheses. Bayes factors confirmed that our null effects were not due to a lack of power. We present one of the first empirical accounts investigating the role of the grammaticalization of the future on effects of mental representations. We discuss possible reasons for these null results and illustrate further avenues for future research.