The phrase "a past perspective" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing viewpoints or interpretations that are based on historical events or experiences.
Example: "In analyzing the novel, it is essential to consider a past perspective to understand the characters' motivations."
Alternatives: "a historical viewpoint" or "a retrospective view".
AICN singled out the use of the newborn Hazel as a lone individual to chronicle large-scale events from a past perspective, and Alex Zalben of MTV Geek remarking that he could hear a John Williams score as he read the book.
It will only be possible to explore the lives and deaths (i.e., social treatment, health, status, longevity, burial, and life course) of the very old from a past perspective when we have the techniques to confidently identify the aged in skeletal assemblages.
Recall that the metaphysical modal base of non-root modals for the past has to do with possible future development of an event relative to a past temporal perspective (i.e., a past temporal perspective combined with a future temporal orientation).
The metaphysical use of might has a past temporal perspective in 1, and a present temporal perspective in 4. Therefore, might in 1, ceteris paribus, quantifies over a wider domain of metaphysical possibilities than in 4. Furthermore, Condoravdi (2002) assumed that a common ground is the union of equivalence classes of worlds relative to THE SPEAKER'S UTTERANCE TIME.
An important implication of this temporal restriction on keneng is that the metaphysical reading expressed by the English "non-root modal + Perf have" construction, with a past temporal perspective, cannot be expressed by means of keneng, unless there is a mechanism that can back-shift the temporal perspective of the modal.
Thus, the metaphysical reading has a past temporal perspective and a future temporal orientation (future with respect to the past perspective time) for the non-root modal.
Rather, the non-root modal with a past temporal perspective receives a metaphysical reading.
With a past temporal perspective, the non-root modal can only have a metaphysical reading.
The two readings both involve non-root modals for the past, i.e., non-root modals with either a past temporal perspective or a past temporal orientation.
Chen (2012b) claimed that epistemic keneng in 13 can be understood as having a past temporal perspective.
Keneng can be used as a metaphysical modal for the past, with a past temporal perspective and a future temporal orientation.
