Re: USAGE: gotten, boughten

Thomas Wier said:
>> Still, it says here that "was going," "used to go," and "went" are all
>> forms of imperfect past, and that "was going" is the "past continuous"
>> construction, i.e., one specific imperfect form.
>
>Says where? Whatever you're reading, it's wrong.  The simple past
>(aka preterite) has no set aspect to it, although the tendency is
>to use it for aorist functions.
Actually, the books I learned grammar from in school called "was going" the
"past progressive" and "is going" the "present progressive". . . "went" was
called simple past.  I never even used the term "imperfect" until I studied
foriegn languages.  As the term applies to English, I was taught that all
three of these forms are (or can be, at least) imperfect.  I.e. "went" can be
imperfect because the sentence "He went to the store" doesn't necessarily
imply that the action is finished.  He could still going to the store, still
be gone (at the store), or he could be back.  When my dad said "Let's went,"
it obviously applied to an action that wasn't yet completed :)

My recent reference was to some online version of a reference text.  I want
to say Heritage, but it could have been something else.  All of my books are
in boxes, so I couldn't look it up in hard copy.

Eli

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