At first, I wondered if Brad's example works only because it is in the passive voice.  Accordingly, I changed it to active voice.

First, the past perfect:

"Four days later, 76,000 people had viewed Field's video, and more than 800,000 had viewed a shortened clip of the exchange."

And now, the past-tense default:

"Four days later, 76,000 people viewed Field's video, and more than 800,000 viewed a shortened clip of the exchange."

In active voice, the difference between the two (past perfect vs. past) is still evident.

Brad Layton

 


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Brad Johnston <[log in to unmask]>
To: ATEG <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thu, Aug 4, 2011 1:03 pm
Subject: The past-tense default




Martha,


"Four days later, Field's video had been viewed by 76,000 people, and a shortened clip of the exchange had been viewed by more than 800,000." (TWP, 03aug11)


My position, crisply stated for Geoff, is that (1) both 'had been's are correct, and (2) you can prove it by applying the past-tense default, in this case "was".


"Four days later, the video was viewed by 76,000 people"? Obviously not what was intended, that on the fifth day, 76,000 people logged on to see something they ignored for the first four days. Ditto for the shortened clip and the 800,000 people.


The past perfect: by the time something happened, something else had already happened.


.brad.04aug11. 


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