[lit-ideas] Re: On the radio (was more polls)

  • From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 12:24:35 -0800

on 11/2/04 11:20 AM, Judy Evans at judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:


> Yes indeed.  But this was the Annual Maintenance Visit so nothing got
> broken!
> 
> DR> David Ritchie waiting for the tile guy
> 
> as bad as waiting for the Gas Man?! -- they are better here now; but
> it's a different one each time, so I can't train them to call me on my
> mobile, so I can go out while I'm waiting!
> 
He came.  He quoted me a huge sum.  He went.

Here's the small question that came to me while I was distracted by
quotidian life: why is it that conversations on the radio run as follows:

NPR guy: We have on the line Joe, from Portland, Oregon.

Joe: Thank you for taking my call...I had a question about...

It's the "had" I'm considering.  Why do people put this in the past tense?
I think I would say, "I have a question."  Why bother someone with a
question if it once was there and now has gone?

Are others on the list hearing the same pattern?  What does it indicate?

My first guess was that there is a delay between people calling and their
getting on the air, and that this delay causes people to use the past tense.
But in some instances people seem to be responding to quite recent
statements.

David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon

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