What are you going to do?:-(

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah, "has been" and "had been" feel to me like they're falling by the
wayside. I've had experiences similar to yours.


JL

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 3:20 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      What are you going to do?:-(
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> iTunes:
>
> "This computer is not authorized to play this [whatever]."
>
>
> All right. So, I take the appropriate steps.
>
>
> iTunes:
>
> "This computer was authorized to play [whatever]."
>
>
> Say what, iTunes?!!! It "*was*" authorized?!!! If it *already* had
> authorization, then whyTF did you say that it *didn't* have
> authorization and make me authorize it all over again, for no reason,
> thereby wasting my time?!!! Of which I have precious little left, BTW.
>
> Oh, I see. The system of tense in the English verb that I learned as a
> native-speaker back in the late '30's and earlier '40's ceased to be
> used. Hence, the string,
>
> "This computer _is_  / _has been_ authorized ..."
>
> now no longer comprehensible to contemporary native-speakers, became
> ungrammatical and obsolete.
>
> --
> -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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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