atw: Re: Particular past tense

Sounds like plain old aussie colloquialism to me!

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From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
pfagan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, 26 April 2007 1:10 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Particular past tense

I have noticed how common it has become in this country for police and
other emergency personnel to a use a particular past tense when
describing events to the media. Example:

"The driver has lost control of his truck and he's ended up in a creek.
He's got out of the cab and tried to swim for it but he's caught his leg
in a snag. He's yelled out and fortunately some local kids have heard
him.
They've run for help..."

Rather than:

"The driver lost control of his truck and ended up in a creek. He got
out of the cab and tried to swim for it but caught his leg in a snag. He
yelled out and fortunately some local kids heard him. They ran for
help..."

Can one of our esteemed grammarians (Michael Lewis?) please tell me the
name of this tense? Would anyone like to speculate as to why it has
become common usage when describing such events and offer an opinion as
to its appropriateness?

My limited research says:

Use the past tense ("The driver lost control") for the immediate past
and the past perfect tense ("The driver had lost control") for the less
immediate past. So what is the status of "The driver has lost control"?

Peter Fagan

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