Thank you, Ed, for your interest but you'll need to be more specific than just saying I don't know what I'm talking about. In what ways do you perceive that my view is "distorted" and that I do not understand English tense and aspect?
The impetus for my comments was this passage: "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."
You think Sally "had died last week"? Is that it? And you like, "she had been ill"?
If so, you'd have to like, "She had died in a nursing home where Sam says she got wonderful care."
What time zone are you in that you are talking shop at 8:45 p.m., EDT?
.brad.mon.13sept10.
From: Eduard Hanganu <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, September 13, 2010 8:45:15 PM
Subject: Re: A personal note
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.