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

...delurking...

on 6/22/03 9:12 PM, Tim May at butsuri@BUTSURI.FREESERVE.CO.UK wrote:

> 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.
I believe I've heard this called the narrative mood.

Josh