A NEW LOOK AT CANTONESE EXPLETIVES
101
news bulletins in English for some reason they adopt a terrible mid-Atlantic jargon, both prolix and imprecise, as unworthy of the English tradition as modern Pekingese is of the Chinese.
Now let us do a little fetching and carrying.
"When he brought the letter I had finished cleaning my boots'.
Why, my Chinese friends ask, does the second clause have "had" (the pluperfect) where they feel it more appropriate to say, and most of them would say “have"?
The sentence records two separate and logically unconnected actions: the bringing of the letter and the cleaning of the boots. Both are in the past; but the cleaning of the boots was already over at the moment of bringing the letter. That kind of temporal relationship is expressed in English, as in Latin, by the pluperfect tense: but whereas in Latin the pluperfect is a real tense, formed by putting "historic" terminations on to the "perfect" root, English uses auxiliary verbs, usually "had". Indeed the sentence could be expressed more concisely as "I had cleaned my boots when he brought the letter."
Greek also has the pluperfect tense, indicated by the augment, then the reduplication, then the verb root, then the perfect infix kappa, then special terminations; sounds cumbersome and is, which is perhaps why Greek prefers to jump back to the time of arrival, as Chinese does.
Let us look at the likely combinations in sets, beginning with the present:
He brings the letter: I am cleaning my boots.
He brings the letter: I have cleaned my boots.
He brings the letter: I shall clean my boots.
When he brought the letter I was cleaning my boots. When he brought the letter I had cleaned my boots. When he brought the letter I was about to clean my boots.
Now for the future, pausing only to notice that modern English uses the present indicative, no longer the subjunctive, for the subordinate verb; and never did use the future as Latin, Greek and French would do:
When he brings the letter. I shall be cleaning my boots, When he brings the letter, I shall have cleaned my boots. When he brings the letter, I shall clean my boots.
A NEW LOOK AT CANTONESE EXPLETIVES
101
news bulletins in English for some reason they adopt a terrible mid-Atlantic jargon, both prolix and imprecise, as unworthy of the English tradition as modern Pekingese is of the Chinese.
Now let us do a little fetching and carrying.
"When he brought the letter I had finished cleaning my boots'.
Why, my Chinese friends ask, does the second clause have "had" (the pluperfect) where they feel it more appropriate to say, and most of them would say “have"?
The sentence records two separate and logically unconnected actions: the bringing of the letter and the cleaning of the boots. Both are in the past; but the cleaning of the boots was already over at the moment of bringing the letter. That kind of temporal relationship is expressed in English, as in Latin, by the pluperfect tense: but whereas in Latin the pluperfect is a real tense, formed by putting "historic" terminations on to the "perfect" root, English uses auxiliary verbs, usually "had". Indeed the sentence could be expressed more concisely as "I had cleaned my boots when he brought the letter."
Greek also has the pluperfect tense, indicated by the augment, then the reduplication, then the verb root, then the perfect infix kappa, then special terminations; sounds cumbersome and is, which is perhaps why Greek prefers to jump back to the time of arrival, as Chinese does.
Let us look at the likely combinations in sets, beginning with the present:
He brings the letter: I am cleaning my boots.
He brings the letter: I have cleaned my boots.
He brings the letter: I shall clean my boots.
When he brought the letter I was cleaning my boots. When he brought the letter I had cleaned my boots. When he brought the letter I was about to clean my boots.
Now for the future, pausing only to notice that modern English uses the present indicative, no longer the subjunctive, for the subordinate verb; and never did use the future as Latin, Greek and French would do:
When he brings the letter. I shall be cleaning my boots, When he brings the letter, I shall have cleaned my boots. When he brings the letter, I shall clean my boots.
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