Re: An Example in Comrie's "Tense"

Joachim Pense wrote:
>
> Peter T. Daniels:
>
> >
> > Let's put it into American:
> >
> > By 1990, every graduate student will have met a president.
> >
> > It means that everyone during their tenure as a grad student before 1990
> > will have met a sitting or former president.
> >
>
> So a former president is a president?
>
> If I had met Bill Clinton last week, I would hesitate telling "I met a
> president".

You would say "I met President Clinton." Officials are customarily
addressed and referred to by the highest office they had achieved.

If Wm. Howard Taft had not died in office, I wonder whether he would
have been referred to after retirement as "Mr. President" or "Mr. Chief
Justice."

***
So you don't actually want to discuss Comrie's example either?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.

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