LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 22.AUG.2000 (10) [E/LS]

[Ian James Parsley]

John Feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk] wrote:

> I've just heard a couple more abbreviated US past tenses:
>
> "By the powers vest in me ..."
>
> "The police knew they need to know ..."

I wonder if this latter one might be part of a new syntactical theory
I've heard some people come up with. The "logical" argument is that
the main clause ("The police knew") is already in the past tense, so
some people argue that the following subordinate should be present
(because at the time the police knew, "they need" was actually
present, if you see what I mean). The most obvious example of this
debate is "I'd have loved to have been there" versus "I'd have loved
to be there" - the latter is favoured by most modern grammarians on
the basis that tense is already indicated by "I'd have".

The first example reminds me of usage with latinate verbs in
traditional Scots writing, e.g. "That wud be appreciate" (not
"appreciateit") or "A'm acquent wae him" (not "acquentit").

Best wishes,
---------------
Ian James Parsley