Said there has/had been...
"Jack Langer, spokesman for the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said a deal for immunity has not been discussed. An aide to California Rep. Adam Schiff, the panel’s ranking Democrat, also said there had been no discussions about an immunity deal for Flynn." (USA Today.)
Is there any difference in meaning between "has not been discussed" and "had been no discussions" in the above? What I exactly mean is the usage of the present perfect and past perfect in the reported speech here. In other words, I wonder how usage of different perfect tenses influences the lexical meaning in predicate "said...".
Top answer
Anonymous Is there any difference in meaning between "has not been discussed" and "had been no discussions" in the above? I don't believe so. It seems to be a style error of regressing the second instance but not regressing the first instance.
- Anonymous Is there any difference in meaning between "has not been discussed" and "had been no discussions" in the above?
- I don't believe so.
- It seems to be a style error of regressing the second instance but not regressing the first instance.
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AnonymousIs there any difference in meaning between "has not been discussed" and "had been no discussions" in the above?
I don't believe so. It seems to be a style error of regressing the second instance but not regressing the first instance.
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