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English past tense grammar question

commandlinegamer

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The sad event outside the White House the other day provoked a question from an aquaintance on seeing a headline which began "Man shoots himself..."

He argues it ought to be "Man shot himself".

I said either were perfectly correct, though unable to explain the difference in tenses, and my Longman English Grammar is not to hand.

Is the former an example of the historical present?
 
Because it is a news headline.

Just open up Google News, scan the headlines, notice what tense many of them are using:

https://news.google.com/news/headlines?hl=en&ned=us&gl=US

"Trump-Russia: Former aide Sam Nunberg defies Mueller inquiry"
"Ryan Criticizes Tariff Plan as Trump Issues Nafta Threat"
"N. Korean dictator, Seoul envoys have 'openhearted talk'"
"Canelo Alvarez fails drug tests, but rematch with Gennady Golovkin may still go on"

In some cases the past tense is used, but usually because what is being reported now happened far enough in the past that it makes more sense that way:
"Trump Lawyer's Payment to Stormy Daniels Was Reported as Suspicious by Bank" (This would have been back in 2016)
 
The prestige is correct. The headline uses the historic present as it adds immediacy to the story. It is similar to how we tell stories when we want them to sound more exciting or interesting, “so the other day, I’m walking down the road minding my own businesss, when this massive *********** dog leaps out from alleyway and starts barking at me...”
 
Yep, and it's an example of register.

The use of conditional to express probability ("John Doe would step down at the end of this year") is another typical use in reporting news, isn't it?

I'd add that such sense of immediacy is complemented by showing the "freshness" of the piece of news, and by telling the story as if it is developing at this very moment.

I'd like to ask if that use of "historical present" is usual in top notch journalism. Does The New York Times use "NN shots himself" as a headline or use "...shot..." instead? Because in Spanish it would be an abuse, as the present supposes the action was set in the past but the whole situation continues to develop ("D.A presents charges against 3 officials") what doesn't include NN (nomen nesio = name not known -by me-) being buried or under intensive care.
 
The use of conditional to express probability ("John Doe would step down at the end of this year") is another typical use in reporting news, isn't it?

I don't think so. If it's a known fact it would probably be "John Doe to step down...", whereas if it's speculation it would be "John Doe could/might step down ..."

I'd like to ask if that use of "historical present" is usual in top notch journalism. Does The New York Times use "NN shoots himself" as a headline or use "...shot..." instead? Because in Spanish it would be an abuse, as the present supposes the action was set in the past but the whole situation continues to develop.

The historical present is pretty ubiquitous in all forms of journalism afaics. However, it tends to be used at the breaking of the news. In a follow-up article to the original news you might read: "NN shot himself because he'd got a parking ticket".
 
The use of conditional to express probability ("John Doe would step down at the end of this year") is another typical use in reporting news, isn't it?

Only indirectly, e.g., "There had been speculation that John Doe would step down at the end of this year" or "Sources said that John Doe would step down at the end of this year." I wouldn't say "John Doe would step down at the end of this year" as a stand-alone sentence.
 
the prestige is correct. The historical present, as it is termed, is used for news headlines and particularly useful for the scrolls across the bottom of the screen. If you see the past tense used, it connotes a finding on something from the past, not current news.... at least to me.

Compare actual headlines:

USA Elects Idiot (Nov. 2016, multiple sources)
This connotes a sense of an ongoing active story.

Lincoln Was a Republican (Trump News Network Dec. 2016)
This is obviously not ongoing, as Lincoln is long since dead but is something from the past.
 
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