Brad,

 

After reading a lot of your messages in which you argue for a certain perspective on "had" and so on, I believe that you don't understand English tense and aspect. You might want to take some courses in linguistics on these matters. I suggest morphology, syntax, and comparative linguistics. Such courses might provide you with the missing links that make your perspective on tense and aspect so limited and distorted.

 

Eduard

----- Original Message -----
From: Brad Johnston <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, September 13, 2010 9:26
Subject: A personal note
To: [log in to unmask]

> Inbound message:
>
>  
> ~~~~~
>  
> Reply:
>  
> It indicates to me that he wasn't taught it and hasn't thought
> about it, so he
> doesn't (read: can't) follow a consistent pattern. This argues
> for teaching
> grammar as a separate discipline, as opposed to the currently-
> popular preference
> for nudging students toward good grammar in their writing, all
> the while not
> correcting errors, which to some is "playing gotcha".
>  
> Can quarterbacks and surgeons and chefs and small-engine
> mechanics become
> proficient without instruction and drill in the basics of their
> trades? It makes
> no sense to me to imagine that writers can become good at their
> trade without
> learning the basics. "Here's the ball and here's the club and
> you just go out
> there and see if you can hit it. He won the Masters last year
> but if you
> approach your game with confidence, you can beat him."  Yeah, right.
>  
> .brad.mon.13sept10.This from an old friend, a graduate of (name
> deleted to
> protect the guilty) with a degree in English, and a former
> editor of the (name
> deleted to protect the co-conspirator). Ignore the content.
>
> "I just got a call from Sam saying Sally had died last week. She
> had been
> ill for several years, which he said explains why we haven't
> heard much from
> them. She died in a nursing home where Sam says she got
> wonderful care."
>
> What's interesting to me is that there are two erroneous "hads"
> in the first two
> sentences, and yet none in the last.
>
>
>      
>
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