Reply
Sun 5 Jan, 2014 05:58 am
My sentence:
-TS Eliot was the tallest poet of those who have used English to write poems.
I use HAVE USED, because the time frame extends up to the present, but could I say change the sentence to this without change in meaning?:
--TS Eliot was the tallest poet who has used English to write poems.
He is dead, so it doesn't sound right to use HAS USED, but the replacement of USED for HAS USED would give the meaning that of those dead, he was the tallest while whether he was the tallest of those still alive is unknown, which is not my meaning.
Better to write TS Eliot was the tallest poet who used English to write poems.
I thought Longfellow was the tallest poet.
You cannot exclude the possibility that there was some giant, taller than either Longfellow* or Eliot, who "used English to write poems", but who simply never got published, or if he did, never got famous.
We generally use the word "living" if we wish to restrict a remark to those who are still alive.
The tallest living English poet is Joe Bloggs of Hartlepool.
We can use the present 'is' about dead people when writing in this way, because their status exists in the present:
Charles Dickens is the greatest English novelist
The tallest poet writing in English that there has ever been is Tall Joe Smith (1842-1888) who was 9 feet tall in his stockinged feet.
* I see what you did there.
@WBYeats,
WBYeats wrote:
could I say change the sentence to this without change in meaning?:
--TS Eliot was the tallest poet who has used English to write poems.
He is dead, so it doesn't sound right to use HAS USED
There is no change in meaning, and it is fine to use 'has used'. The "poets who have used English" includes those alive now, and those who are dead.
A point: either 'poet' or 'to write poems' is redundant, since poets are people who write poems.
@WBYeats,
Published by Longman's Press?
@WBYeats,
That is the name of an actual publishing company, in this country I think, so I put it in as a joke.
Tall poet- long man- geddit? Sorry.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace