The missing past progressive

[hw gray]

And what about "has not been monitoring[, ever]," as opposed to "was not
monitoring [by mere happenstance, at the time that you broke nasty on us
about it]"?



On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 12:16 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      The missing past progressive
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>
> On the Daily Show tonight, Jon Stewart begins with a clip of White House
> Press Secretary Jay Carney responding to Angela Merkel’s demand that the
> U.S. stop tapping her phone:
>
> ‘The President assured the Chancellor that the United States is not
> monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the Chancellor”’
>
> Then Stewart touches one finger and notes: “is not monitoring”, touches
> second finger and notes: “will not monitor”, and observes "I think you’re
> missing a tense there.  You got your present progressive there, and you got
> your simple future, but you’re missing your past progressive, a.k.a. the
> 'We were not'.   Where’s your past progressive, Jay Carney?"  ("Brought to
> you by…GRAMMAR", Stewart goes on.)
>
> Shades of Clinton's "There is no relationship", which he later pointed out
> was strictly true, "depending on the meaning of the word 'is'".
>
> Ben, is Linguist List posting on Carney's missing past?
>
> LH
>
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-- 
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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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