Subject: query summary : tense

dear linguist subscribers , a month ago i sent out an e - mail inquiry on tense in complement clauses . i would like to thank the following people for their kind replies . i will enclose a summary of their answers . special thanks to linguists who answered my questionnaire : frederik fouvry deborah miliam berkley david houghton annabel cormack gordon nicholson eleanor batchelder keira ballantyne gerald b mathias peter keiser deepest gratitude goes to linguists who sent their own or friends ' papers : raphael salkie " time reference in reported speech , " by salkie , r . and s . reed , to appear in a new journal , english language and linguistics . renaat declerck " constraints on tense choice in reported speech , " by declerck , r . and k . tanaka , in studia linguistica 50 - 3 , 1996 . nobue mori " tense restrictions on interclausal quantifier - binding , " by nunes , j . and e . thompson , in proceedings of the tenth eastern states conference on linguistics , 1993 . " the discourse representation of temporal dependencies , " by nunes , j . and e . thompson , in temporal reference , aspect , and actionality , vol . 1 : semantic and syntactic perspectives by bertinetto , v . , j . bianchi , and m . higginbotham , rosenberg & sellier , 1995 . i am also greatful to a linguist who let me know some pieces of information concerning declerck & tanaka 's paper : kaneaki arimura the summary is as follows : my question was " is the present tense ok ? " , so i will use " yes " ( the present tense is ok ) and " no " ( not ok ) . note that some linguists answered all questions , while the others did not . the numerals show the number of the linguists who have had the opinion . as for ( 5 ) , ( 6 ) , ( 17 ) and ( 18 ) , i will just write down the opinions . ( 1 ) a . they thought oxford was / is in london . ( yes 1 ; no 5 ; was is better 1 ) b . they thought oxford university was / is in london . ( yes 1 ; no 4 ; was is better 1 ) c . they thought oxford street was / is in london . ( yes 1 ; no 4 ; was is better 1 ) ( 2 ) a . john said mary was / is a liar . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) b . i said mary was / is a liar . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; ok if said is stressed 1 ) c . i said i was / am a liar . ( yes 4 ; no 2 ; ? ? 1 ) d . john said i was / am a liar . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) ( 3 ) a . john thought mary was / is a liar . ( yes 1 ; no 5 ; ? 1 ) b . i thought mary was / is a liar . ( yes 1 ; no 5 ; ? 1 ) c . i thought i was / am a liar . ( yes 1 ; no 5 ; weird even if the past tense 1 ) d . john thought i was / am a liar . ( yes 2 ; no 5 ) ( 4 ) a . john told me mary was / is a liar . ( yes 4 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; past is a little better 1 ) b . i told myself mary was / is a liar . ( yes 4 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; past is a little better 1 ) c . i told myself i was / am a liar . ( yes 4 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; past is a little better 1 ) d . john told me i was / am a liar . ( yes 4 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; past is better 1 ) e . john told mary she was / is a liar . ( yes 4 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; past is better 1 ) f . i told mary she was / is a liar . ( yes 4 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; past is a little better 1 ; marginally acceptable 1 ) g . i told mary i was / am a liar . ( yes 3 ; no 2 ; ? ? 1 ; past is a little better 1 ; marginally acceptable 1 ) h . john told mary i was / am a liar . ( yes 3 ; no 2 ; ? ? 1 ; past is a little better 1 ) ( 5 ) in ( 2 ) - ( 4 ) above , you must have found some examples where the complement clause can have a present tense . is your judgment still the same if we put " always " in the main clause ? [ yes - 2 ] [ no ] [ less acceptable - 2 ] [ the present tense is acceptable with all but ( 3 ) ] [ a little odder ] a linguist has made an example where the present tense is ok : ( i ) john always told me that mary has her head in the clouds , and now i think he 's right . ( 6 ) in ( 2 ) - ( 4 ) above , you have found other examples where the complement clause can accept only a past tense . what will happen if we change the situation in the complement clause to " someone be lying , " e . g . she is lying ? or " someone be still lying " ? is the present tense ok in such a case ? [ no - 5 ] [ only in ( 2 ) ] [ ok in all but ( 3 ) ] ( 7 ) a . i thought scotlant was / is too far . ( yes 2 ; no 5 ; odd 1 ; past is better 1 ) b . scotland , i thought , was / is too far . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) c . scotland was / is , i thought , too far . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) d . scotland was / is too far , i thought . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) ( 8 ) a . he thought scotland was / is too far . ( yes 2 ; no 4 ; odd 1 ; past is better 1 ) b . scotland , he thought , was / is too far . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) c . scotland was / is , he thought , too far . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) d . scotland was / is too far , he thought . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) ( 9 ) a . you thought scotland was / is too far . ( yes 2 ; no 4 ; odd 1 ; past is better 1 ) b . scotland , you thought , was / is too far . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) c . scotland was / is , you thought , too far . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) d . scotland was / is too far , you thought . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; odd 1 ) ( 10 ) a . galileo believed the earth moved / moves . ( yes 5 ; no 2 ; a little odd 1 ) b . i believed the earth moved / moves . ( yes 5 ; no 2 ; a little odd 1 ) c . john believed the earth moved / moves . ( yes 5 ; no 2 ; a little odd 1 ) ( some point out that the past tense implies a specifc movement , whereas the present tense implies a general movement . ) ( 11 ) a . galileo believed the sun moved / moves . ( yes 4 ; no 3 ; a little odd 1 ) b . i believed the sun moved / moves . ( yes 4 ; no 3 ; a little odd 1 ) c . john believed the sun moved / moves . ( yes 3 ; no 4 ; a little odd 1 ) ( 12 ) a . i said i was / am going to do it . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; ok if said is stressed 1 ) b . i said you were / are going to do it . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) c . i said she was / is going to do it . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) d . you said i was / am going to do it . ( yes 4 ; no 2 ; ? ? 1 ) e . you said you were / are going to do it . ( yes 4 ; no 2 ; ? ? 1 ) f . you said she was / is going to do it . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) g . she said i was / am going to do it . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) h . she said you were / are going to do it . ( yes 4 ; no 2 ; ? ? 1 ) i . she said she was / is going to do it . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) ( 13 ) a . did you know i had / have come ? ( yes 3 ; no 5 ; came is better 1 ) b . did you know tom had / has come ? ( yes 3 ; no 2 ; ? ? 2 ; came is better 1 ) c . did you know i had / have lost a tooth ? ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; lost is better 1 ) d . did you know tom had / has lost a tooth ? ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; lost is better 1 ) ( 14 ) a . did you know i was / am here ? ( yes 2 ; no 6 ; was is better 1 ) b . did you know tom was / am here ? ( yes 4 ; no 1 ; less acceptable 1 ; ? ? 1 ; was is better 1 ) c . did you know i was / am in tokyo ? ( yes 4 ; no 3 ; was is better 1 ) d . did you know tom was / is in tokyo ? ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ; was is better 1 ) ( 15 ) a . they told me you were / are in london . ( yes 4 ; no 3 ; distinct nuance 1 ) b . they told me tom was / is in london . ( yes 6 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) c . they told me you were / are here . ( yes 4 ; no 4 ) d . they told me tom was / is here . ( yes 7 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) ( 16 ) a . they said you were / are in london . ( yes 2 ; no 4 ; distinct nuance 1 ) b . they said tom was / is in london . ( yes 5 ; no 1 ; ? ? 1 ) c . they said you were / are here . ( yes 2 ; no 5 ) d . they said tom was / is here . ( yes 4 ; no 2 ; ? ? 1 ) ( 17 ) in ( 13 ) - ( 16 ) above , we have found some examples where the complement clause can accept only a past tense . what will happen if we put " still " in the complement clause ? is the pressent tense ok ? [ the present tense is not ok - 6 ] [ only for 3rd person ] [ " still " introduces a duration - some present tense is ok ] ( 18 ) in ( 13 ) - ( 16 ) above , the speaker is addressing to the hearer directly . are your judgments still the same if we change the situations like this : the speaker is talking on the phone to the hearer , who is in a distant place ? [ the same ] [ no - 2 ] [ yes for ( 13a ) and ( 14a ) - 2 ] [ for some of them the present would be possibly acceptable ] a linguist points out that for ( 13a ) and ( 14a ) to be ok , there should be some ill feeling between the participants , e . g . the hearer will be angered or surprised by the presence of the speaker . sorry for anything which might have been missed out . i will present a paper at the 114th meeting of the linguistic society of japan to be held at gakushuin university , tokyo , japan , on june 15 . i will take some of these results into consideration . others will contribute my future research immensely . i would like to thank again those who have helped me in various ways . minako nakayasu assistant professor kagoshima women 's college 1904 uchi hayato - cho , aira - gun , kagoshima 899-51 japan nakayasu @ kwc-u . ac . jp
