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

Joe wrote at 2003-06-23 16:37:54 (+0100)
 > ----- Original Message -----
 > From: "Tim May" <butsuri@...>
 >
 > > 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.
 > >
 >
 > Perhaps, but it's still used in a past context.  And I don't think that
 > usage of 'go' is Standard English...
 >

Of course it's in a past context - the historic present always refers
to the past.  It's fairly standard, if usually informal.  Here's the
entry in Greenbaum & Quirk's _A Student's Grammar of the English
Language_.

| Simple present tense for past and future
|
| 4.4 There are three additional kinds of uses of the simple present
|     that are best seen as extended interpretations of the basic
|     meanings of 4.3.
|
|     (a) The HISTORIC PRESENT refers to past time, and is
|         characteristic of popular narrative style.  It conveys the
|         dramatic immediacy of an event happening at the time of
|         narration:
|
|          Just as we arrived, up _comes_ Ben and _slaps_ me on the back
|          as if _we're_ life-long friends.
|
|         It is used as a stylistically marked device in fictional
|         narrative for imaginary events in the past:
|
|          The crowd _swarms_ around the gateway, and _seethes_ with
|          delighted anticipation;  excitement _grows_, as suddenly
|          their hero _makes_ his entrance...