I think it is unfortunate that there are so many grammarians for which "tense" is attributed to such a great deal of different forms and syntactic structures. "Verb tense" is literally the form that a verb takes as the main verb in a sentence. There are four verbs in the reply in question: "would," "have," "had," and "go." We recognize that the form "would" is a variant of "will." This form is historically a preterit, which is often found in sentences referring to past time: "Yesterday I would go, but not today." That is the main verb in the sentence, so that is the answer to Brad's question.
For many grammarians, that answer is not adequate. What about all the other verbs in the verb phrase? Aren't they participating in making a "tense"? Indeed, the English language does have multiple ways to build structures using multiple verbs to express other nuances of meaning besides time or tense. These dimensions of meaning have acquired other terminology to distinguish them from tense, such as aspect and mood. But their correspondence is not to a simple form of the verb, but to a periphrastic structure containing several verbs.
Let's see how the verb phrase is built up of smaller pieces and see how the "tense" has been shifted across other forms. The main verb, as far as carrying content is concerned, is the infinitive form "go" following a marker "to" (related historically to a preposition). "Infinitive" means that it does not carry tense. It is a noun form called a verbal. The phrase "have to go" is a way of expressing an obligation. The verb "have" is also an auxiliary. In the phrase in question it is in the form of another verbal, an adjective form called a participle. The participle "had" is not a finite form of the verb either, so it can't carry tense. There are two participles in English and this one has the name of "past participle." It is there because of another auxiliary "have" as in "I have almost finished." This auxiliary "have" forms a phrase with the past participle to express an aspect called "perfect." We could call it an aspectual auxiliary. This is not tense either, though many still refer to it by its corresponding Latin form "perfect tense." The form "would" is a modal auxiliary and must be used with another verb whose form is infinitive. That is why the "have" that follows it is the infinitive (no tense). Therefore, the tense falls on the modal auxiliary. The verb phrase consists of a string of 5 words: Would (past tense of modal aux) + Have (inf. of aspectual aux) + Had (p.part. of periphrastic obligative verb) + To (prep. as inf. marker) + go (inf. of main verb). [Actually, I suppose, "go 'dutch'" is the main verb -- an adverb compounded with the verb "go," but this analysis gets into constructional grammar.]
I believe it was Chomsky in 1957 who first suggested a formal description of the verb phrase with these kinds of forms ordered rigorously with each part optionally manifested but conditioning the form of the part to follow. The terminology and instruction in such terms seem to have lagged somewhat behind.
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brad Johnston
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 8:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: cutting the pear in half
"I'm sorry I can't make it."
"That's O.K. We would have had to go 'dutch' anyway."
What's the verb tense in the reply?
.brad.24apr09.
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/
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
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/