18th century "was" vs. "had been"

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

In your original post you quoted Revere as writing "was hung"? So have you answered your own question?

If he actually wrote "was hanging," then there's a further ambiguity since AFAIK the progressive passive wasn't (commonly) used then and the active progressive would have been used with passsive meaning. Thus, "X was hanging" could have meant "X was being hung/hanged."

Matt Gordon

On 2/4/10 9:37 AM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

... But my
question is about whether Revere actually saw the
body still hanging in 1775, 20 years after Mark's
execution, or was simply identifying the location
when describing his ride.  Historians have
interpreted Revere's sentence in both ways.  I am
asking whether, in the 18th century, "was
hanging" might have had a "past perfect" sense,
where today we might say "had been hanging".

If Revere had written "was hung", I would
interpret that as the simple past -- Mark was no
longer there.  But Revere didn't (and I don't
know if at his time one could have written that).

Joel

....
>
>On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 9:02 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the
> mail header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      18th century "was" vs. "had been"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > When Paul Revere wrote about his ride to Lexington, that in
> > Charleston he "got opposite where Mark was hung in chains", did that mean
> > (a)  he "got opposite where Mark was still hung in chains"(that is,
> > was still hanging); or
> > (b)  he "got opposite where Mark had been hung in chains up to some
> > previous time" (that is, had been hanging)?
> >
> > (Mark was one of the two slaves convicted of poisoning their master,
> > John Codman, in 1755.)
> >
> > Joel
> >
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>
>--
>-Wilson
>---
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"--a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-Mark Twain
>
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