Herb,
   DD follows the "sounds right" with a question about why. ("Sequence of
tense sort of stuff?")
   I have a hard time with the implication that perfect aspect does no work.
   Gorge Bush is President for seven years.
   George Bush was President for seven years.
   George Bush has been President for seven years.
For the most part, the third one sounds right to me (in the context of our
current situation) because it conveys the sense of a continuing reality.
It sounds right because there's a form/meaning match. We can do that a
number of ways (He is in the final year of a second four year term),but
"taste">leaves me uncomfortable.
   I don't think you are in that camp, but most people believe grammar is
about what's correct or what's tasteful, and that's one reason it's out
of favor.
   What does perfect aspect do? Don't we need to define that in functional
terms?

Craig

 DD shows us that there is also a matter of taste involve in these choices.
>  And his taste is better than mine.
>
> Herb
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of DD Farms
> Sent: Sun 2/17/2008 2:04 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Context matters - continued
>
> At 08:01 AM 2/17/2008, Brad Johnston wrote:
>>In context, do the five 'had's belong in or out?
>>  "Beyond containment, the major thrust of American Cold War
>> diplomatic foreign policy was to return the defeated enemies,
>> Germany and Japan, to the emerging international system as
>> full-fledged members. This task, unprecedented in respect to
>> nations on which unconditional surrender (had been) was imposed
>> less than five years earlier, made sense to a generation of
>> American leaders whose formative experience (had been) was
>> overcoming the Great Depression of the 1930s. The generation that
>> organized resistance to the Soviet Union (had) experienced Franklin
>> D. Roosevelt's New Deal, which (had) restored political stability
>> by closing the gap between American expectations and economic
>> reality. The same generation (had) prevailed in World War II,
>> fought in the name of democracy."
>
> DD: Sounds better with all the "hads." Sequence of tense sort of stuff?
>
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