Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: AmEng phones:  Clashing tenses, gnashing teeth
Message-ID: <DwB5rD.L37@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 00:38:01 GMT
Lines: 21


In a ubiquitous televisionary pitch for a well-known toothpaste, a young 
woman whose accent clearly pegs her as a reasonably well-educated native 
speaker of a blandly normative variety of American English says (and has 
said many times a day for months now):

     My father has been my dentist since my first tooth has come in.

Do real people (a) really say that that way, and (b) not correct 
themselves when they hear themselves say that that way and have the 
chance?  In my idiolect (and, I think, in general AmEng usage) "has come" 
in the above sentence *has to* be emended to "came".  Every time I hear 
that ad her grammar makes me less eager than before to use her toothpaste.

Leland

--
Liland Brajant ROS'                "Sed krom se iuj el la  homoj  malsategas,
P O Box 30091                      kiel do la socio povas posedi strukturon?"
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono            -Gulivero (Ted Danson) en la nova televida
Tel. (206) 633-2434                 versio,  citita  en  "Baptist Peacemaker"
