"have ever been"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 15, 2006, at 1:56 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:

> May have missed someone else mentioning this but...
>
> While I consider 'I am and have ever been X' a bit weird, I find 'I
> am and
> will ever be X' completely natural (idiomatic, but natural).
>
> "am and have ever been" = 31 google hits
> "am and will ever be" = 897 google hits

these are items i pulled up at the beginning of this investigation.
note that they have to be weeded, to eliminate ones in the scope of
universals like "all" and "everything" (where "ever" means 'at some/
any time', not 'always, forever') and quotes from archaizing poetry
or fiction.  i suspect that the future will still have an advantage
over the perfect.

i do share lynne's feeling that the future examples are better --
possibly because "ever" here can be seen as a variant of "forever".

arnold

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