tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 16 18:07:49 1996
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Re: perfective and "today"
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: perfective and "today"
- Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 20:10:17 -0500
>>...I sincerely believe I'm trying to straighten out some
>>grammatical confusion.
>
>And, as far as I'm concerned, you did. Let's leave it at this, okay?
Okay.
I just talked on the telephone with a teacher who has about 30 years
of experience teaching English. She undid the damage that apparently
was done to my brain in fourth grade by a "Transformational Grammar"
textbook. I believe I now have a proper understanding of "perfect"
tense: according to what she told me, it doesn't say something is
*done* before the time mentioned, it says it was *begun* before that
time and *is* done at that time. Using this newly acquired knowledge
to look at the sentences in question, I now understand completely how
the sentence "my book has arrived today" ought to be interpreted, and
I agree completely that it makes perfect sense.
My apologies to all who were subjected to the fallout of my confusion.
Once again, charghwI' and I have butted heads, and he has come out the
victor. {reH lugh charghwI'} indeed! :-)
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj