Backshifting in complex sentences - another question

Question

Hi guys,I have yet another question regarding backshifting in complex sentences. Consider a scenario in which a child didn't go to school because he was ill. His father came back from the office in the afternoon and quested him the reason for not going to school.Dad: Why didn't you go to school today?Context1, Son: I didn't go to school because I was sick. Context2, Son: I didn't go to school because I am sick.Context1 follows the rules of backshifting, however, tells me that the son was sick in the morning at the time of going to the school, while leaving the impression that he is better now.Context2 do not follows the rules of backshifting, however, asserts the reason that the son is still sick and didn't recover from the morning.here is the question, how do I modify context2, which asserts the reason, while attaining the rules of backshifting? ThanksFaraz Amjad

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

frazpkhow do I modify context2, which asserts the reason, while attaining the rules of backshifting?

If you backshift, you create context 1; what you're asking is not possible.

However, as happens with nearly all students, you may have some misconceptions about backshifting.

Tense and time are not identical. The past tense that is generated by backshifting does not indicate past time. (Some grammarians call it a "modal preterite", in other words a past tense that does not indicate past time.) Native speakers take it to indicate whatever time is appropriate as understood through a common-sense assessment of the situation. It doesn't make sense that the boy did not go to school at some time in the past (when he may not have been sick) because he is sick now, so anyone with common sense will discard that version of events.

By the way, your comment "while leaving the impression that he is better now" is not quite right. The sentence with the backshift says absolutely nothing about whether he is better or still sick. We simply don't know anything about how he is now. And we don't need to know because we are only explaining the cause of the boy's not going to school at the time it happened, not at the time he reports it to his father.

CJ

Backshifting in complex sentences - another question

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