atw: Re: Particular past tense
- From: Peter Martin <peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:47:38 +1000
Hey, Peter, it's a Kylie thing, really...
Not the Minogue, but the Mole....
"She goes... she goes.... she goes....."
Past events written as present tense.
--Peter M
pfagan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:09:59 +1000 (EST), you wrote:
> 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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-Peter M
There's really no point in listening to other people. They're either going to be
agreeing with you or saying stupid stuff -- Dogbert via Dilbert and (c)Scott
Adams
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