Parallel uses of the past and the beforepast static

The Past Static is frequently used to refer to processes which are objectively anterior to the past.

It was ... since. The Past Static in this pattern is about three times more frequent than the Beforepast Static (Cf.: I caught sight of her at the play. It was long since I had last seen her — W. S. Maugham // // Michelangelo gazed with pleasure at the shabby features. It had been a year since they had seen each other — I. Stone). Examples:

1. She glanced at her watch. It was ten minutes since the train had gone (D. Cusack); 2. It was weeks since they had eaten a proper meal (A. Coppard); 3. It was some days since they had met (M. Mitchell);

4. It was not a week since he had received a letter from his mother (G. Gordon).

In Sentences with No Adverbial Indicators of Anteriority. Anterio­rity of a process to another process in the past is commonly denoted by a beforepast tense. If, however, the meaning of anteriority is point­ed out by an adverbial modifier or is evident from other contextual signals, the use of the tense — a beforepast versus a past tense — is optional. Some examples illustrating the use of the Past Static to refer to objectively beforepast processes in utterances having no special adverbial modifiers of time are given below:

1. "Go into my sitting-room and sit down. I'll put on my stockings and some shoes." — He did as she bade and in five minutes she joined him (W. S. Maugham); 2. Though his room was beyond mine I saw him return the way he came (J. Conrad); 3. "The war did something to Larry. He didn't come back the same person he went" (W. S. Maugham); 4. So­phia, who was eleven, had not stirred to meet her. She alone inherited her father's fine straight profile, and large black eyes (Miss Yonge); 5. We drove out tosee the Turtles. Amicia rang me and I suggested it (J. Lindsay); 6. It was not what it used to be¹ (J. Galsworthy).

In Narrations after Beforepast Tenses. It sometimes happens that the speaker, when narrating about the past, has to refer to processes which objectively belong to a beforepast period of time. In such cases it is common to use only one or several beforepast tenses to switch the time relation over from past to beforepast. Other processes of the beforepast period of time are usually denoted by verbs in past tenses, for example:

The story she related was as follows: Her husband and child had

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left the hotel about 10 : 30 in the morning for a trip to Mount Vernon. She had remained in her room because of a headache. Half an hour later, feeling somewhat better, she dressed and went out, intending to get some fresh air. ... (A. Maltz); His history was curious. He had been born in Bavaria, and when a youth of twenty-two taken an active part in the revolutionary movement of 1848. Heavily compromized, he man­aged to make his escape, and at first found a refuge with a poor repub­lican watchmaker in Trieste. ... (J. Conrad).

Two factors account for the use of the Past Static in such cases. In the first place, the speaker, when narrating, associates the verbal processes with certain circumstances in the beforepast: the beforepast, therefore, becomes his m e n t a1 past. In the second place, the Past Static, which in such cases conveys the information intended equally well, is structurally simpler.

In Sentences with an As-, When-, or While-clause: 1. I spun the wheel hard to port. The giant wave carried with it not only the elemen­tal force of the sudden gale, but also the pounce of the submarine erup­tions. No one had seen it towering up astern as we raced towards the Thumb (G. Jenkins); 2. There should not be this sense of uncertainty, he thought vaguely. But it had been with him since they struck the Australian coast. Had grown day after day as he watched the shoreline in the north (D. Cusack); 3. "We'll stop, baby. I am tired from think­ing so much." — He had looked tired when he came in (E. Hemingway); 4. There was a bend in the road there, and the other two cars were no­where to be seen. Christian was sure they had stopped when they heard the shots (I. Shaw); 5. She had wakened at his company, much refreshed by her sleep, and, in full possession of her very sharp wits, had studied him with interest while he cooked, and had arrived at some conclusion (M. Mitchell); 6. Everybody was rejoiced to see him return, for while he was away every man had been afraid not Only of him being killed, but also of what would come after (J. Conrad).

In Sentences with Co-ordinate or Other Clauses: 1. This was new reason­ing for Hurstwood. In the old days the world had seemed to be getting along well enough. He had been wont to see similar things in the 'Daily News', in Chicago, but they did not hold his attention (Th. Dreiser); 2. All that night she'd lain in a kind of ecstasy, her body seemed to go rigid, stiff as a board (A. Cronin); 3. And Rosamond did not guess what had passed during those moments that he remained silent (Ch. Dickens).

In Sentences with From the First, Since, to This Day, Up to Then: 1. They ran together temperamentally from the first (Th. Dreiser); 2. He came from a poor farming family in some English village. From the very beginning he wanted to write (Sh. Anderson); 3. At this time, Presley knew him to be thirty-six years of age. But since the first day the two had met, the shepherd's face remained the same (F. Norris); 4. His home was too far out west for anyone to come to meet him. Besides, since Bod died, Mum didn't seem to have the farm at Nelangaloo (D. Cu­sack); 5. And to this day Felix remembered with delight the little bub­bling hiss that he himself had started (J. Galsworthy); 6. Dinner was over at 8 : 30 and all was normal up to then (A. C. Doyle).

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In Sentences with Adverbial Modifiers of Exact Time: 1. Leaders of the Trades Council headed the impressive demonstration to the station. Half an hour earlier, about two-hundred demonstrators left in coaches and by private transport (D. Worker); 2. It was almost two months before Alice came out of hospital. The day before I had a phone call from Brown at the Town Hall (J. Braine); 3. "He said he saw us with Eddie Harris at Martin's last night" (Th. Dreiser) 4. "Mr. Hundt told me that Graham spoke to her husband about it the other day" (G. Gordon).