Now that you've mentioned this, I'm almost certain that I do this mostly because I'm not certain that I've ever concentrated on not doing it.
I'd also like to propose that most people who do not form the majority of their world around words simply do not think enough about grammar to consider (or even acknowledge) the error.
Well, you raise some interesting points. Yes, I live my life mainly in words, and while my own grammar is hardly without fault, I obsess over it quite a lot (much more than I did only a few years ago). And, possibly, this leads me to look more critically than I ought upon what others write in rp.
But, as Sonya said in an above comment, it's still wrong, the present-to-past shift, and I think it continues to capture my attention because those who who do it are so consistent about it, leading me to believe they learned somewhere that this was correct English, or at least something expected of them in rp. It's not the sort of thing one does habitually by accident. SL rp is replete with bad grammar, and most of it I manage to ignore. But this bit fascinates me. It's just so weird.
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Now that you've mentioned this, I'm almost certain that I do this mostly because I'm not certain that I've ever concentrated on not doing it.
I'd also like to propose that most people who do not form the majority of their world around words simply do not think enough about grammar to consider (or even acknowledge) the error.
Well, you raise some interesting points. Yes, I live my life mainly in words, and while my own grammar is hardly without fault, I obsess over it quite a lot (much more than I did only a few years ago). And, possibly, this leads me to look more critically than I ought upon what others write in rp.
But, as Sonya said in an above comment, it's still wrong, the present-to-past shift, and I think it continues to capture my attention because those who who do it are so consistent about it, leading me to believe they learned somewhere that this was correct English, or at least something expected of them in rp. It's not the sort of thing one does habitually by accident. SL rp is replete with bad grammar, and most of it I manage to ignore. But this bit fascinates me. It's just so weird.