After suggesting to Brad that he provide some context for his sentences,
which he rejected, I haven't paid much attention to what he's posted.
He has, however posted a persistent query as to whether the past perfect
is the past of the present perfect.  Asked in this way, it's rather like
asking, "Is the cat black?" in a context where there's no cat around.
The only legitimate answer to such a questions is "There's no way to
know."  I suspect he doesn't see the subtlety of tense, aspect, and,
probably, modality and how context-dependent the choices among them are,
not to mention how much they may depend on the knowledge and beliefs of
the speaker.  The fact that the sentences are not original to him, as he
has stated more than once, does not relieve him of the responsibility to
know what it is he's surveying and to recast the survey so that it has
some chance of producing useful data.  Unfortunately, we have no idea
what Brad wants to do with this information, which is usually enough in
itself to make me reluctant to answer.  Brad has asked that we not
lecture him, but I don't know how to help him make his survey meaningful
without doing some explaining.

 

Herb 

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jane Saral
Sent: 2008-02-13 14:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Brad Johnston's Surveys

 

Dear Gram Negative,

Yipes.  Who's raving?

I have just figured that there is method in his madness that he will
ultimately reveal.

In the meantime, you might exercise your right to hit the delete button.

Jane Saral

On Feb 13, 2008 12:33 PM, Gram Marian <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hey Brad...(2) things:

 

1) You are purposely trying to insult the members of this listserv with
your stupid questions.

 

                                  -OR-

 

2) You are so stupid that you actually think your questions are worth
answering.

 

Either way, your continued presence on this list is to say the least
ANNOYING, unless, that is, you can actually come up with something
interesting and constructive to say. This list is a forum for people who
are actually interested in learning about grammar and language, not a
dumping site for the ravings of an apparent lunatic.

 

Gram Marian

 

PS. "a", "e", "i", "o" and "u" are considered vowel sounds in the
English language, not consonants, which perhaps could be your first
lesson in English grammar.

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