Re: USAGE: NATLANG: I've Gots An English Question

Joe wrote at 2003-06-22 22:17:04 (+0100)
 > As I said before, in British Dialects, a generalised -s indicates a
 > past tense.  I'm not sure how to describe it...recountative tense?
 > It's used when recounting an event.  For instance "I goes to town"
 > would be correctly translated as "I went to town", rather than "I
 > go/am going to town".  The phrase is nearly always preceded or
 > followed by 'and' [n=] For instance "I goes to town, right,
 > and..."[7g@z t&:~ r\7i? n=](very thick london accent, spoken very
 > quickly) is correct(in that it occurs).  However, in answer to the
 > question "what did do yesterday?", "I goes to town" is incorrect.
 > The answer can only be "I went to town"[7 wEn?@ t&:n]. I hope that
 > clears some stuff up.
 >

I'd analyze this as basically the historic present - "I goes to town"
is closer to "I go to town" (as in, "so, I go to town, and then...")
than it is to "I went to town".  What to call it when it develops
features seperating it from the present, I don't know.

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