Why is there no past tense in this sentences predicative?


今、 **来た** ところなので、まだその話は、 **聞いていません** 。 => "Because I came around just now, I
don't hear that story yet."

I'm confused because in the subclause 今、 **来た** ところなので there is past tense,
and in the main clause there is present tense. I know that in japanese it's a
bit difficult with tenses for us and that they don't have the same
understanding about tenses like we have in english etc.. But since 聞く doesn't
seem to represent the result of "hearing", e.g. "knowing"
<http://jisho.org/search/kiku> I have trouble interpreting this construction.




It is pretty much the same as in English.

> I just arrived now, so I am not aware of what's going on.(PAST/PRESENT)

OR

> I just got here, so I didn't hear about it yet.(PAST/PAST)

There are many ways to say what you want.

The sentence is in the present, but 来たところ is in the past because it explains
that his action of arriving here is already over, but the action of hearing
the story has yet to come, so not in the past.

Is is also possible to have the verb to hear in the past tense too if you want
to put emphasis on the fact that you didn't hear it until now.

> この話は、聞かなかった




This 聞いていません does not use the past tense, but it uses **～ている** , which denotes
the continuation of a state that was caused by an action in the past. In
English this is expressed using [the present perfect
aspect](https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-
grammar/verbs/present-tense/present-perfect).

Therefore the most literal translation is not "I don't hear" nor "I didn't
hear" but:

> まだその話は、聞いていません。  
>  I **haven't heard** that story yet.

See:

  * [When is Vている the continuation of action and when is it the continuation of state?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3122/5010)

