When I am working with ESL students, trying to get them to conceptualize the
perfect tense, I refer to picture perfect.  "I walked to the store."  That's an
event.  "I had walked to the store."  That is a picture of the event that can be
stored or pulled out and examined.  You possess it as part of your history.
    If our language is seen as a structure build upon a philosophy, where the
infinitive marks the infinite possibility of something actually happening, the
perfect tense suggests that the experiences we have are perfect.  Made through
time, they are not accidental but reveal what is true by their very existence.
In this sense, everything is perfect because it reveals itself to be what it is.
You just have to have eyes to see it.  Here, the ordinary become extraordinary.
    I wonder what others have to say about the philosohical underpinnings of the
English language (and of other languages, as well).
        Gregg Heacock

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/