Shankar Ganesh

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In an English sentence like When you arrived, I had already eaten, the verb arrived is situated relative to the moment of speech—it precedes it. This type of tense is fully compatible with the immediacy of experience principle. But the verb had eaten is not defined relative to the moment of speech, but relative to arrived. It precedes an event that is itself located in time relative to the moment of speech. We could just as easily have said When you arrive tomorrow, I will have eaten, in which case eaten is still before your arrival, though you will arrive after the moment of speech, that is, ...more
Don't Sleep There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
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