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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim May" <butsuri@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 2:12 AM
Subject: Re: 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.
>
Perhaps, but it's still used in a past context.  And I don't think that
usage of 'go' is Standard English...

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