Farewell, past perfect?

(Correction, January 5: A commenter points out below that Santora is evidently an Italian rather than a Hispanic surname. This does not alter my general points about (a) the disconcertingly common inability of U.S.-born Hispanics to understand or speak any sentence more complex than a simple declaratory sentence, and (b) the increasing loss or rejection of the past perfect tense, even at the New York Times.)

A recent New York Times article, written by Marc Santora and Anemona Hartocollis, evidently two non-European Americans, contains this sentence referring to the murderer of Kendra Webdale, for whom “Kendra’s Law” was named:

Mr. Goldstein was convicted of second-degree murder, a decision that was overturned. But he ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Although he stopped taking medication for schizophrenia, the insanity defense did not convince a jury.

Of course the last sentence should have been,

Although he HAD stopped taking medication for schizophrenia, the insanity defense did not convince a jury.

The loss of the past perfect tense, which places an action before a definite time in the past, continues at the Times. As even some Hispanic educators have admitted, Hispanics are remarkably weak when it comes to expressions more complicated than a simple declarative sentence. If you ask them any ordinary question using the conditional or subjunctive mood (“If X is such and such, how will you fix it?”), they won’t understand it. The low IQ of Hispanics is dragging down America in regard to our language, as in many other regards, and the process is being facilitated by white liberals, who enjoy destroying standards for the sake of equality and inclusion.

- end of initial entry -

Paul M. writes:

A friend was a Spanish language court interpreter in Fairfax VA. He said that some of the illegal aliens he saw in court not only couldn’t spell their own names, but didn’t seem to even understand the concept of spelling.

JUDGE: “What is your name?”

DEFENDANT: “Manuel Rodriguez”

JUDGE: “Please spell that for the record.”

DEFENDANT: (very slowly) “Man. Well. Rod. Ree. Guz”

James P. writes:

You cannot expect Marc Santora to use the past perfect correctly when he is apparently unable to use a comb correctly. =)

Gintas writes:

” … he is apparently unable to use a comb correctly.”

It probably took him a good 15 minutes to get his hair to look like that. It’s hand-crafted style.

JC in Houston writes:

I think you might be mistaken on the this one. My research indicates that Santora is an Italian surname, and the reporter looks much more Italian than Hispanic-mestizo.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 04, 2013 10:17 AM | Send