Talk:Language Report
Add topicLatest comment: 15 years ago by IXIA in topic the wider context
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the wider context
[edit]"... while Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue: The English Language (1990) and Made in America (1994) had offered, from the viewpoint of an anglophile Mid-Westerner, entertaining accounts of the development of English on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean." The use of the Past Perfect here seems to imply that Bryson subsequently withdrew his offer. The standard tense/aspect form in referring to the contents of books is the Present Simple, which is used among other things to record the 'timeless'.Pamour (talk) 13:45, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
Have altered to "provided" (simple past). It may be more a matter of ambiguity than muddled tenses, but anyway, a fair point ... IXIA (talk) 23:01, 7 November 2010 (UTC)