"conceive (of)"

[Mark Mandel]

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 1:26 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> But, at this point in time, the development of English seems to be
> trending toward the loss of the Present Perfect in favor of the
> Perfect, whereas German and the Romance languages appear to have a
> preference for the Present Perfect-equivalent, to the detriment of the
> Perfect.

That paragraph confuses me; would you please elucidate your
terminology?  In (AFAIR) all that I was taught and all I have learned
of and about English, "perfect" = "present perfect", e.g. "I have
approved" (unless you're speaking categorially of "the perfect
tense*s*"). I would call "I approved" an example of the simple past
tense.

m a m

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org