Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Former

It seems almost standard to say in the broadcast media things like 'He was a former Cabinet minister' or even 'You were a former TV producer' (Woman's Hour just now). Surely this is a kind of double past and it should be 'you are' (still are, you are still alive). Why does this kind of duplication (redundancy, I think is the term) happen? Is it related to what I call 'word inflation'? Extra syllables, extra words, extra tenses?
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2 comments:

  1. uranrising12 April 2012 at 04:50

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. uranrising12 April 2012 at 08:27

    Note. Twas me sent deleted text becase there is no facility to edit or correct a sent maessage.

    It may be that they ae using it as a form of emphasis or because the interviewer, having said 'was', feels the point that they were'former' might not have registered.

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