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L O W L A N D S - L - 28 April 2011 - Volume 01<br>
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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">From: <span class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color:#008391">Sandy Fleming</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:fleemin@live.co.uk">fleemin@live.co.uk</a>></span></span><span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">Subject: <span class="gI">LL-L "Grammar" 2011.04.26 (04) [EN]</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"> </p>> From:
<span style="color:rgb(121, 6, 25)">R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><br> Subject:
Grammar
<br><br>> Related
or not, it makes me think of the fact that titles of news reports in English
use what appears to be present tense, probably more likely the aorist; e.g.
<p>> Ron
Paul <u>kicks</u> off exploratory committee</p>
<p>> (= Ron
Paul kicked off exploratory committee)</p>
<p>> Obama
<u>reissues</u> call to cut U.S.
oil tax breaks</p>
<p>> (= Obama
<u>reissued</u> call to cut U.S.
oil tax breaks)</p>
<p>> Southwest
jet <u>slides</u> off runway at Midway</p>
<p>> (= Southwest
jet <u>slid</u> off runway at Midway)</p>
<p>> Clearly,
all these events happened in the past, and this is so stated within the actual
texts of the respective articles. </p>
<p>> Is
this title-specific style unique?</p>
<p>> What
might be its origin?</p>
<p>I think if you're
used to analysing language in academic terms you have to be careful not
to look for a grammatical explanation for what might be a set of
practical considerations.<br></p>One thing is that the past tense can
sound dull in news terms: Obama reissued call, when? Last month? Who
cares? Jet slid off runway? Is this a historical article?<br><br>I notice that in the first example, the past-tense headline is incorrect! Ron Paul kicked it off, he didn't get kicked off it!<br><br>Sandy Fleming<br>
<a href="http://scotstext.org/" target="_blank">http://scotstext.org/</a><br><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">----------</p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
From: <span class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color:#008391">Sandy Fleming</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:fleemin@live.co.uk">fleemin@live.co.uk</a>></span></span><span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">Subject: <span class="gI">LL-L "Grammar" 2011.04.27 (01) [DE-EN-NDS]</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br><span class="gI"></span></p><div class="im">
> From: <span><span style="color:rgb(200, 137, 0)">Paul Finlow-Bates</span> <span><<a href="mailto:wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk" target="_blank">wolf_thunder51@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span></span><br>> Subject:
<span>LL-L "Grammar" 2011.04.26 (04) [EN]</span><br><br>> Wracking my brains, but I can't think of any other use of that
"present in the past" tense, except for headlines. Even in newspapers,
the article following the headline always reverts to a past tense:
<div> </div></div>This
is quite common in Scots spoken narrative, though rarely seen in
writing. It seems to me that in Scots people tend to slip into this
manner of speech once the narrative "really gets going". You can see an
extensive example in my short story "Economic Theory" at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/economictheory" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/economictheory</a><br><br>(Look at that horrific ancient website design! Time for a revamp, I think!)<br>
<br>Sandy Fleming<br><a href="http://scotstext.org/" target="_blank">http://scotstext.org/</a><br><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">
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