Someone wrote, "If his temporal stance is today, then the past perfect is expressing its "remote past" function and could be replaced with "was" if specification of remote past is not important to the writer".

~~~~~
 
I would love to know how many of the professionals on this list buy into the concept of "remote past", what I think of as "the paster past".
 
Question: do the words "remote past" mean anything useful? Is it something grammar teachers do teach or should teach? (Lots, nay all, of you can answer this last question.)
 
Can anyone (other than the person who wrote the quote) explain it, if you presume it to exist, with one or more examples?
 
.brad.27jan10.


      

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