It's not easy to tell, amidst all the flying sticks and stones and puppy dog bones, but Karl implies that he subscribes to the statement made by Sidney Greenbaum. He agrees with it, and that's fine, but his opinion is only one among the 312 grammarians on the listserv. How say the others?
   
  If you are one of the other 311 and have, or are, mugged up on the past perfect, let us hear from you. Does Greenbaum say it in a way with which you agree? Do you buy it, all of it, just the way he says it?
   
  Go off-line, if you like, and send it to [log in to unmask] I'll report only the numbers, pro and con. Just say, "agree" or "don't agree". The Greenbaum quote is reprinted below, verbatim.
   
  .brad.07apr08.
   
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Karl Hagen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
   
  Those who pretend that they know better than everyone who has ever published on the subject and yet offer nothing more than misplaced sarcasm to buttress their position have even more work cut out for themselves.

A remark from Richard Dawkins (made in a somewhat different context) leaps to mind: "It is, of course, entirely legitimate to question conventional wisdom in fields that you have bothered to mug up first. That is what Einstein did, and Galileo, and Darwin. But our hundred million are another matter. They are contradicting ... vast fields of learning in which their own knowledge and reading is indistinguishable from zero."
   
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
  The Oxford English Grammar, by Sidney Greenbaum, c.1996, page 272.
   
  5.28   Past Perfect
   
  The past perfect (or pluperfect) is a combination of the past tense of the verb have (had or the contracted form 'd) with the perfect participle. It is used to refer to a situation in the past that came before another situation in the past. The past perfect represents either the past of the simple past or the past of the present perfect. 
   
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~
   

       
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