Teeth, Braces, and the English Language or Variations there of.

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 190300



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, June Ewing <doctorwhofan02 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Steve/bboyminn:
> > "...they wanted me to carry on with my brace. "
> 
> I wonder if we aren't stumbling into a variation of common usage of
> UK English here.
> 
> It is possible that Hermione is NOT saying that her parents want her
> to continue on with braces, but more so that her parents would like
> he to follow a more traditional approach to dentistry (ie: braces).
> 
> What I'm getting at is that even though Hermione is using language
> that implies the past and present, she could be talking about
> > proposed future events. <snip>
> 
> 
> June:
> Her parents wanted her to carry on with her brace, which means
> she has them already .... If it was past tense she would have 
> said I had braces ... and if it was future ... it would have 
> been more like "My parents wanted me to have braces" (or get 
> braces).
>

Steve responds:

Yes, if we assume prefect and proper English, but in everyday conversation people do not speak in perfect and proper English. In many cases the intentionally use grammatical errors. 

Though, I think far more likely is the fact that JKR, and every other author out there, never imagined the level of scrutiny and nitpicking that these books ultimately spawned. 

In most books, we are so caught up in the flow of the story we are not concerned about minor logical inconsistencies, as long as the story keeps reasonably moving forward. 

To write a book imagining the level of scrutiny these books have gotten, I suspect, would be beyond any author out there. If you start imagining that every phase and statement is going to be given detailed scholarly examination, they would never start writing the book at all. 

So, yes in proper perfect English, it is stated in the present tense, but that does not necessarily mean it was intended in the present tense. Which is why I asked about common UK English speech in everyday usage. We have people who live or have lived in the UK here in the group, and I wonder if, in common language, it was fair or even possible to assume future tense in Hermione's statement?

Steve/bboyminn