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Re: Tense and aspect in English
- To: Alan Repurk <lars@repurk.mw.com>, Jonathan Robie <jwrobie@mindspring.com>
- Subject: Re: Tense and aspect in English
- From: Micheal Palmer <mwpalmer@earthlink.net>
- Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 20:27:57 -0700 (PDT)
- Cc: b-greek@virginia.edu
- In-Reply-To: <33675167.C4CDB59@repurk.mw.com>
- References: <1.5.4.32.19970430012044.008f4654@pop.mindspring.com>
At 7:04 AM -0700 4/30/97, Alan Repurk wrote:
>Jonathan Robie wrote:
>>
>> Jim: What are you doing tomorrow?
>> Mary: Well, I *was* going to my brother's house...
>> Jim: How would you like to go horseback riding? I have a friend who has
>> horses, and...
>
>Jonathan,
>Would it be too much of a stretch to interpret it as :
>
>Mary: Well, I *was* [thinking about | considering] going to my brother's
>house...
If I were Mary, I would definitely not mean it this way. I would mean,
'Until you asked, I had a definite plan for tomorrow, i.e. going to my
brother's house. Now that you've asked, however, I'm willing to consider
other options.'
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Micheal W. Palmer
Religion & Philosophy
Meredith College
mwpalmer@earthlink.net
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