atw: Re: Particular past tense

"a sufficiently large number of the ignorant can always turn the tide."

The tide seems to be turning on apostrophes.
Where I am currently working, a lot of the staff are writing TV'S, and CD'S
in the like, new style.
What is worrying me is that they are also applying the apostrophe to all
plurals.
So we now get
     the PC'S are on the table's, and the plug's are in the socket's.

Like Malcolm Turnbull, I don't quite understand this democracy thing.
Bob T



On 4/27/07, Daryl Colquhoun <atw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Oh dear. Sorry about that mishap with the previous post.

Michael:
>Ah, yes. The power of democracy. Never mind the facts; a sufficiently
large
number of the ignorant can always turn the tide.

But at least that large number (based on my sample of 5) have the good
grace
to be talking about something other than the subject of this discussion,
which I now propose to subvert. It seems the "present perfect continuous",
according to the websites, is what we get when we deploy that bane of
English learners, the present participle, thus, *"The driver has been
losing
control of his truck and he's been ending up in a creek". Which is plainly
not possible here. It works in something like "I've been studying this
question all night". And it's different from the plain present perfect;
compare "I've washed my car as long as I've owned it" with the somewhat
silly "I've been washing my car as long as I've owned it".

I take Michael's point about perfect and continuous being a dichotomy, but
I've always called this construction with the present participle
"continuous". So this isn't really perfect? Because it's still happening?
(In which case I suppose the websites are just simplifying.)

**************************************************
To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to
austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to
austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field.

To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field.

To search the austechwriter archives, go to
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter

To contact the list administrator, send a message to
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************

Other related posts: