The possibilities of describing the Russian form and time are being studied using the concept of a reference point opposed to the moment of speech. The concept of an egocentric element is introduced, which makes it possible to present space-time deixis and subjective modality as a single area subject to linguistic pragmatics. Speech and narrative modes of interpretation of egocentric elements are compared. A linguistically informed typology of narrative forms based on the juxtaposition of primary and secondary egocentrics is proposed.