Hi Anton -- on Aug 03 2020 at 00:40, you wrote:
Raymond Chandler's short story "Pearls are a nui-
sance" has the following piece of dialogue:
"[...] The pearls are a string of forty-nine
matched pink ones which Mr. Penruddock gave to
Mrs. Penruddock for her golden wedding present.
She hardly ever wore them lately, except perhaps
on Christmas or when she had a couple of very old
friends in to dinner and was well enough to sit
up. And every Thanksgiving she gives a dinner to
all the pensioners and friends and old employees
Mr. Penruddock left on her hands, and she wore
them then."
"You are getting your verb tenses a little
mixed," I said, "but the general idea is clear.
Go on."
Have you an idea what corrections the spearker would
have made?
The section starts in past tense "Mr. P GAVE", "when she HAD" etc. Then suddenly shifts to present "she GIVES a diner" and back to past "she
WORE them". Despite this, it does work as the pensioners' dinner
appears to have been in the past and is intended to continue in the
future. Interesting example!
Cheers... Dallas
--- timEd/NT 1.30+
* Origin: The BandMaster, Vancouver, CANADA (1:153/7715)