Brad,

I don't have time for small talk. Take the courses, and then you will "come home" on tense and aspect in general, which, by the way, are universal features of human language. Do a comparative study on tense and aspect in most of the European languages. You will realize then that it is your limited experience with language that makes you hold such a narrow understanding of the relation between tense and aspect on the time axis from the perspective of the agent and that of the observer. As in everything else, provincialism does not help. 

Eduard 

----- Original Message -----
From: Brad Johnston <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, September 13, 2010 20:33
Subject: Missing links
To: [log in to unmask]

> Thank you, Ed, for your interest but you'll need to be more 
> specific than just 
> saying I don't know what I'm talking about. In what ways do you 
> perceive that my 
> view is "distorted" and that I do not understand English tense 
> and aspect?
>  
> The impetus for my comments was this passage: "I just got a call 
> from Sam saying 
> Sally had died last week. She had been ill for several years, 
> which he said 
> explains why we haven't heard much from them. She died in a 
> nursing home where 
> Sam says she got wonderful care."
>  
> You think Sally "had died last week"? Is that it? And you like, 
> "she had been 
> ill"?
>  
> If so, you'd have to like, "She had died in a nursing home where 
> Sam says she 
> got wonderful care."
>  
> What time zone are you in that you are talking shop at 8:45 
> p.m., EDT? 
> .brad.mon.13sept10.
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Eduard Hanganu <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Mon, September 13, 2010 8:45:15 PM
> Subject: Re: A personal note
> 
> 
> Brad,
>  
> After reading a lot of your messages in which you argue for a 
> certain 
> perspective on "had" and so on, I believe that you don't 
> understand English 
> tense and aspect. You might want to take some courses in 
> linguistics on these 
> matters. I suggest morphology, syntax, and comparative 
> linguistics. Such courses 
> might provide you with the missing links that make your 
> perspective on tense and 
> aspect so limited and distorted.
>  
> Eduard 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Brad Johnston <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Monday, September 13, 2010 9:26
> Subject: A personal note
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
>  Inbound message: 
>  
> ~~~~~
>   
> Reply:
>   
> It indicates to me that he wasn't taught it and hasn't thought  
> about it, so he 
> doesn't (read: can't) follow a consistent pattern. This argues 
> for teaching 
> grammar as a separate discipline, as opposed to the currently-
> popular preference 
> for nudging students toward good grammar in their writing, 
> all the while not 
> correcting errors, which to some is "playing gotcha".
>   
> Can quarterbacks and surgeons and chefs and small-engine 
> mechanics become 
> proficient without instruction and drill in the basics of their 
> trades? It makes 
> no sense to me to imagine that writers can become good at their 
> trade without 
> learning the basics. "Here's the ball and here's the club and 
> you just go 
> out there and see if you can hit it. He won the Masters last 
> year but if 
> you approach your game with confidence, you can beat him." 
>  Yeah, right.
>   
> .brad.mon.13sept10.
>  
> This from an old friend, a graduate of (name deleted to protect 
> the guilty) with 
> a degree in English, and a former editor of the (name deleted to 
> protect the 
> co-conspirator). Ignore the content.
>  
> "I just got a call from Sam saying Sally had died last week. She 
> had 
> been ill for several years, which he said explains why we 
> haven't heard much 
> from them. She died in a nursing home where Sam says she got 
> wonderful care."
>  
> What's interesting to me is that there are two erroneous "hads" 
> in the first two 
> sentences, and yet none in the last.
> 
> 
>       
> 
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web 
> interface at:
>      http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
> and select "Join or leave the list"
> 
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/