The Past Perfect before a since-clause

Question

Hello. Could you help me, please?I encountered a sentence in my grammar book:"Not a word had she written since the exam had started."What governs the rules here? I think I can understand why the Past Perfect is used after 'since', but why is it used in the first part of the sentence? Having no context provided I can't be sure, but maybe this is reported speech where the Present Perfect becomes the Past Perfect?And is it true that we don't use the Past Perfect to emphasise the results of past actions in the past as we do with the Present Perfect for the present?Thanks for any help!

GPY · Accepted Answer

"Not a word has she written ..." is talking about a period of time stretching up until the present.

"Not a word had she written ..." is talking about a period of time stretching up until some point in the past.

So, the sentence that you quote could be part of a past-tense narrative, used at a moment when the point of narration is just beyond the start of the exam. A "reported speech" explanation does not seem likely.

As you probably know, this is a literary-style inversion of the more usual "She had not written a word ...".

AlpheccaStars · Answer

nkspb"Not a word had she written since the exam had started."

It is a subject-verb inversion rule applied when the sentence begins with a negative adverb. The subject and verb are interchanged. The normal order is:

She had not written a word since the exam had started.

The unusual order is rather formal.

CalifJim · Answer

nkspbNot a word had she written since the exam had started.

= She had not written a word since the exam (had) started.

The past perfect in the since-clause is unnecessary, the main clause already having established the time frame, but it's not wrong.
____________

A since-clause establishes the beginning of the situation mentioned in the main clause that it accompanies, and in these kinds of sentences the main clause usually contains a perfect tense. If there's a verb in the since-clause it is generally in the past. It may be in the same perfect tense as the main clause, but this is not necessary and is not usually done.

1. Michael has lived in New York | since [2010 / his 30th birthday / he graduated from college].

[ graduation] < living in New York > {present time}
[ ... event .. ] < ....... 'activity' ....... >
[... past ..... ] < .... pres. perf. ...... >

2. Thomas has been on disability leave | since [ January / he injured his back].
(The construction of the corresponding diagram is left as an exercise.)

3. She had not written a word | since the exam started.

[ . exam starts . ] < no words being written > {a moment in past time}
[ ....... event ..... ] < ............ 'activity' .......... >
[ ........ past ...... ] < ............ past perf. ....... >
______________

Note: The past of the past is the past perfect. The past of the present perfect is also the past perfect.

Note: This pattern with a since-clause will seem to you to violate the principle that the past perfect expresses an action that occurred before another past action. That's because, as it stands, an isolated sentence, it doesn't explicitly mention the reference point in the past. You can do that for your example sentence thus:

She was in the middle of taking an exam. (past reference established) She had not written a word (before the reference point) since the exam started.

nkspbmaybe this is reported speech

Not really. That would look more like this:

They said that she had not written a word since the exam (had) started.

There is no tense in English that allows us to go back in time farther than the past perfect, so it is ambiguous as to which sentence is being reported. It may be either of these:

They said, "She has not written a word since the exam (has) started".
They said, "She had not written a word since the exam (had) started".

nkspbAnd is it true that we don't use the Past Perfect to emphasise the results of past actions in the past as we do with the Present Perfect for the present?

I'm not sure what you're asking, but it seems to me that this is not true. It seems to me that you can use the past perfect to talk about results of past actions in the past. If you want to pursue this discussion, please provide some examples.

CJ

The Past Perfect before a since-clause

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