Re: Back to the Future (was: I'm back, sort of)

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 09:37:43AM -0400, Isidora Zamora wrote:
> >With pronouns in, the verb to be goes [Aim], [jO:], [hi:z], [wI@], [DE:](no
> >comments on pronunciation, please).  There are two of those that can be
> >said
> >to be clitics, [hi:z] and [DE:].  And as English barely ever uses the
> >simple
> >present, English can be said to be pro-drop in the present tense.
>
> What do you mean by the "simple present"?  Something like "I run" as
> opposed to the progressive "I am running"?
That's how I interpreted it.  But people rarely say "I am running";
they say "I'm running".  Thus the tie-in to the contracted pronoun+be
examples above.

-Mark