Q: Am Eng past for perfect

[Larry Trask]

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As is well known, vernacular American English frequently
uses the simple past tense in contexts in which other
varieties of English, including edited American English,
require the perfect.  Examples:

        'Did you eat yet?' = 'Have you eaten yet?'
        'I just ate.' = 'I've just eaten.'

Most published commentary on this usage suggests that it
may derive from the influence of European immigrant languages
which do not systematically distinguish the past and the perfect.
But, around a year ago, I stumbled across a suggestion that
this vernacular usage might in fact be a conservative feature
of spoken English, of some antiquity but little recorded in
writing, surviving in the US but not elsewhere.  Unfortunately,
I didn't note the reference, but now one of my colleagues, not on
this list, is interested in pursuing this idea, and would like
to retrieve this reference, or any other such suggestion.

Does anybody know of any such published suggestion?  Or would
anybody like to comment on its degree of plausibility, if any?


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: 01273-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: 01273-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)