Dear Carrol,

So "I go to town tomorrow" indicates the future: "I will go to town  
tomorrow."
Is that just future tense?

Diana

Sent from my iPod

On Mar 11, 2010, at 1:14 PM, Carrol Cox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> And Jerry & I have only made a beginning on the various ways in  
> various
> contexts a given tense can carry quite varied time references. "I go  
> to
> town to morrow." Present tense use dto indicate future action. Engless
> possibilities. Morphology is morphology and meaning is meaning, and  
> the
> two overlap but do not coincicde.
>
> Carrol
>
> Diana Manister wrote:
>>
>> Dear Jerry,
>>
>> Thanks for clarifying that. I was under the impression that
>> progressive present would actually indicate an action that, well,
>> progresses. The simple present then continues in either a durative or
>> iterative way? "I drink water right now" sounds like broken-English.
>> Is it correct usage? It sounds like "I go to the store now." On the
>> other hand "I go to school" is durative. Whew!
>>
>> "I drink water every morning" or "I generally drink water instead of
>> wine" as well as the other durative examples you provide are all
>> either continuing or iterative actions, right? Even "I do drink"  
>> seems
>> durative or iterative, as in "Yes, I do drink" or "I do drink a glass
>> once in a while."
>>
>> A punctum in the present then is always progressive, while durative  
>> or
>> iterative actions are present tense. Seems backwards to me.
>>
>> Anyway, many thanks!
>>
>> Diana
>>
>> --- 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:21:49 -0800
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: "Us he devours" was ....Re: 'Gerontion' -- Grammatical
>> Accuracy
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Yes, Diana.  "I am drinking" is progressive present tense.  "I drink"
>> is simple present.  "I do drink" is emphatic present.  Each of them
>> can be used in contexts that modify the temporal parameters of the
>> action.  "I drink coffee from morning to night" (continuous, durative
>> action).  "I drink a cup of coffee every morning when I get up"
>> (puntual, repeated action).  But for punctual, non-repeated action in
>> the present, the progressive present ("I am drinking a cup of coffee
>> right now").  For simultaneous action, the progressive past ("I was
>> drinking a cup of coffee when you called") can be replaced
>> (Runyon-style) by the progressive present ("Guess who arrives while I
>> am drinking a cup of coffee!").  I have no doubt there are other,  
>> even
>> more nuanced uses of the various tenses beyond those I've  
>> exemplified.
>>
>> Jerry Walsh
>>
>> --- 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>> From: Diana Manister <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Thu, March 11, 2010 9:46:10 AM
>> Subject: Re: "Us he devours" was ....Re: 'Gerontion' -- Grammatical
>> Accuracy
>>
>> Peter I'll allow that I'm confused about simple present tense. In the
>> sentence "I am drinking a glass of water right now" is it progressive
>> present because of the participle "drinking"? Even though the action
>> does not continue?
>>
>> Diana
>>
>> Sent from my iPod
>>
>> On Mar 11, 2010, at 7:23 AM, Peter Montgomery
>> < [[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> In a sense the inversion isolates US. He doesn't devour anything
>> else, just
>>> US.
>>>
>>> P.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Carrol Cox" < [Image][log in to unmask]>
>>> To: < [Image][log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 8:23 AM
>>> Subject: "Us he devours" was ....Re: 'Gerontion' -- Grammatical
>> Accuracy
>>>
>>>
>>>> (Ignoring all Diana's comments on this.)
>>>>
>>>> The present tense in English (as in most languages) has a number of
>>>> different uses, and identifying the use in a particular case offers
>> or
>>>> can offer interpretive problems, especially when, as here, there is
>> a
>>>> deliberate departure from normal English word order of
>>>> subject-verbv-object. Obmect-subject-verb wold be perfectly normal
>> and
>>>> non-ambiguous in Latin, That English has an objective (accusative)
>> case
>>>> in pronouns (though not in nouns) makes the Latin word order
>> possible
>>>> here, and the use of non-English word order is surely the most
>> strikig
>>>> feature of the phrase. US he devours -- ie., not "them." But since
>> the
>>>> antecedent of "he" is itself an interpretive crux it's hard to know
>>>> where to_begin_ om cconstruing the phrase, that is, which is the
>>>> dependent, which the independent variable here. Le's leave the
>> puzzle
>>>> regarding "he" aside for a moment and focus on the word order and
>> the
>>>> verb. "Devours" here has an iterative feel: He is in the practice
>> of
>>>> devouring, not just anyoen, but _us_ (emphasized by word order).
>> The
>>>> iterative feel and the emphasis on us (rather than someone else)
>>>> suggests something like an regularly repaeated action, annual in
>> this
>>>> case.
>>>>
>>>> I don't know where to take it from here, except to note that here
>> we
>>>> have the kind of ambguity Empson was concerned with -- ambiguities
>> that
>>>> _function_ significanty in the text, not ambiguties 5that are
>> pulled out
>>>> of the air for the fun of it by someone who just thinks ambiguity
>>>> regardless of purpose is groovy. Weighing the various alternatives
>> is
>>>> clearly part of theaction that counts in this poem: not the action
>> mimed
>>>> by the poem (there is none) but the action of reading. Like so many
>>>> romantic and modernist poems, the poem is about the act of reading
>> (we
>>>> are back to cunning passages).
>>>>
>>>> *Carrol
>>>
>>
>> --- 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
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>