The church was built in the countryside so that believers can / could go there to pray.

Jack, the language issues. This kind of tangent is a favorite among you prescriptivists.

make that savoir faire.

One step at a time for simple minded folks like you, Jack. Remember, Jack, you are the one who advanced the reported speech examples from dictionaries no less as examples that supported your position.

Both you and the dictionaries, as I have pointed out a number of times, were flat out wrong.

You can see how difficult it is to penetrate the mindset of Americans. Faced with uncomfortable truths they resort to what you have been resorting to.

what a peculiar little person you are. I'm the descriptivist, the one who deals with the language as it is actually spoken. You're the prescriptivist who clings to his arcane set of "rules" that nobody actually follows.

Well then, MJ, it should be easy for you to do what I've been asking you to do for a number of posts now - and you've been avoiding like the plague - to explain your positions.

JTT says:


I have no idea what the point you're failing to make here is, but it sounds like you're trying to divert attention again by going off on one of your screeds about American war crimes. Won't work. We're onto your ploys.

The point is clear; you are avoiding answering questions about mistakes you have made in your shoddy analysis of this issue. You incorrectly identified examples of reported speech as COULD being the past tense of CAN.

You've gone on and on about dictionaries always being right and now, when faced with proof positive that they are wrong on the very issue I told you they are wrong on, you have filled a good number of posts with displays of your grand dishonesty.

Another post where you avoid discussing the language issue. You're not being a descriptivist, Jack the prescriptivist.

Let's deal with the facts, I said that it was a bit creepy the way you obsess with Gracie. It is a bit creepy, you're a bit creepy.

Your personal profile shows that you're still following her.

When I asked you why you wouldn't talk about any war crimes you may have participated in, you suggested in very strong terms that I had been sodomising my daughter since she was 13.

My daughter had to slap you down for the creep you are.

You were the one who brought up the issue of sodomising 13 year old girls, 13 being the same age Gracie was when she last posted on this forum.

It's fairly clear how your mind works, and exactly what sort of person you are.

You're a sad misanthrope who, despite your supposed in depth knowledge, has failed as a teacher, because you're vain, petty, humourless, hypocritical, narcissistic and dull. The minute you start wittering on any class would be looking out the window, thinking about lunch, anything other than listen to you sucking the joy out of life.

It's the same on A2K, most people have you on ignore because you're very dull and have no social skills. Which is probably why Oralboy still talks to you.

Ta very much.

That suits me fine, Izzy, but it's not something that you are capable of.




Yes, you did raise this nonsense without the least bit of proof. You continued to advance it, again, without any proof.



No, it doesn't show that at all. But with your exceptional talent of spreading lies, you are attempting to make it look that way.



Really, think about what you are saying, Izzy. Think about what you were trying to do, again, without a scintilla of proof.




A flat out lie, but what can one expect from you. I SPECIFICALLY stated that such an accusation was as ludicrous an accusation as the ones you were advancing. You were the dishonest fellow who took a statement that a four year old child could not fail to understand and ran with it. One can only begin to imagine how badly you twisted the facts when you PMed your daughter.



Yes, I notice that your daughter was a regular chip off the old block - or, she was so badly misinformed by Izzytheliar that she failed to discern for herself how the facts actually played out.



Explained above. But let me explain it once more to illustrate just how deeply ingrained dishonesty is in your person, Izzy.

You made some outlandish accusations without a shred of evidence. I described those being as equally outlandish, being on the same level as an untrue accusation that you had been sodomizing your daughter.

Again, it was you, the dishonest one who twisted all that into whatever it is your twisted mind can conjure up just because you get caught out on your hypocrisy and your lies.



A typical piece of Izzy "evidence". But you didn't stop there, Izzy. More typical examples of Izzy "evidence" followed.

May I remind you, JTT, when I cited a dictionary definition, you snidely insinuated that there was no example sentence, because they could't come up with one. I thereupon supplied a number of sentences that dictionary makers had indeed supplied, throwing your argument out with the dishwater. THEY think they illustrate the use of "could" as the passt tense of "can" (and that includes the few of the many that are reported speech). I think that those, including the reported speech several, illustrate the point. I also included a blog post under the imprimatur of the Oxford dictionaries by an English EFL teacher illustrating "could" as the past tense of "can". Over the course of these several threads I have also given a good many instances of its function as such. The only "evidence" I can recall you giving is your repeated unsupported assertion that modals, in particular "can", don't have tenses. Your word does not constitute evidence.

I suspect I was arguing with my high school English teachers that prepositions could indeed end sentence, that infinitives could be split, and that English had compound verbs, not just single-word verbs, most probably before you were born. I realize that "prescriptivist" is your all-purpose abolute worst insult, which you apply to everybody, no matter how badly it fits, but don't sling it at me. You're the prescriptivist, following blindly your own set of "zombie rules", and you refuse to recognize it. Izzie hit the nail on the head, and pounded it clear into the board, when he described you as sucking the joy out of life.

I applaud you for those situations, Jack.

But I have to wonder - where were you then when everyone was advancing these silly prescriptions in the Pet Peeves of English thread?

What are compound verbs?



Simply repeating an old canard doesn't make it true, Jack. I've explained to you what occurs with the "backshifting" and your continued contention doesn't change the fact that you were mistaken by putting forward the reported speech examples as examples indicating true past tense.



Jack, these are supported by language science. Why do you dishonest people continue to suggest that it is only me? This is an oft used A2K canard, one I have to note that you don't address when it is used against me. In fact, you made a point of engaging in the same a short time ago. More of your dishonesty.

Surely you don't mean Izzytheunbelievableliar.

You're right, I don't. I mean Izzythepushtheinvetereatetruthtellerwhohasmadeanumberofcogentpostsonthisthread. That Izzy.

Now you are resorting to childishness, Jack. You obviously failed to read my post, to do the necessary research, which wouldn't be much to see that Izzy lies like a sidewalk.

And you are using tangents to avoid discussing the language issues.

JTT says:

This, from the man who christened him Izzytheunbelievableliar. Nyaah, nyaah, you started it.

You mean he's straight, user-friendly, and gets you where you want to go.? This is not a simile that works for you, JTT. You're really not doing too well today.

I have no intention of sitting and reading thru another one of your litanies of woe, of how you're grievously misunderstood and how everyone around you lies. It's never been true in the past.

You're dishonest to a fault, Jack.

And again, yet again, you are using tangents to avoid discussing the language issues.

I don't think JTT's even been to London.

Another top notch response on the language issues from Izzytheputz.