Tom Bartlett wrote on 30 October 2014 to sys-func & sysfling:
Prototypical verbals take present in present: Right now he's telling her that he can't find the key.
They shift towards present simple when they are on the way to relational processes: The rules state that that's illegal. The clock says five o'clock. The big hand at the 12 and the little hand at the 5 says five o'clock.
Blogger Comment:
The unmarked present tense for prototypical verbal processes is of course the simple present, as in
He says there is a lot of nonsense posted on sysfling.This does not mean that the present-in-present is not also used, only that it is marked in comparison with the simple present:
He is saying there is a lot of nonsense posted on sysfling.
