Perfective-Imperfective

Larry Trask larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
Mon Sep 27 10:48:25 UTC 1999


Well, I see little point in continuing this increasingly dreary
discussion, but perhaps I might correct one or two misunderstandings.

[LT]

>> First-person effects are pervasive in English, and must be factored out
>> of our analyses.

> Vintage Larry. Red herring. Without explaining the "first person
> effects" (outside of Appalachia, I think we would say "AFFECT"),
> Larry implies that this discounts my assertion of the normal
> understanding of the phrase "used to VP" (="no longer VP"). Any of
> the examples I used are applicable in any person!

Two things.

First, here and elsewhere, Pat Ryan appears to be laboring under the
view that I speak Appalachian English.  Not so, I'm afraid.  I come from
western New York State, and my variety of English is classified in the
standard dialect map as a western-NYS variety of the Northern dialect
group.  In fact, I am frequently taken by Brits, and occasionally by
Americans, for a Canadian, because my accent has several features
regarded as typically Canadian, even though I don't have the
`cot'/`caught' merger -- a dead giveaway that I can't be Canadian.

Interestingly, when I met Roger Lass, he listened to me for a bit, and
then told me I must come from the far north of the USA but east of
Michigan -- spot on, as it happens.

Appalachian English is no more familiar to me than it is to the average
Brooklynite.

Second, I note that Mr. Ryan has attempted to correct my phrase
`first-person effects' to *`first-person affects'.  And this is the man
who accused Bernard Comrie of having an inadequate command of English.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk



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