So it was originally an error, right?
You’re the one being prescriptivist now. It was originally a variant usage, just as the habit of dropping post-vocalic R’s was in England before it became standard.
However, to really get an idea what happened, you have to look into the history of the usage of the present perfect tense. It could very well be that the use of the simple past was the original usage in that type of sentence and that the use of the present perfect in that context came later, probably imposed by grammarians in the 19th century, just as the rules against “dangling prepositions” and other things unnatural to English were. Another possibility is that the simple past and the present perfect existed side by side and had the same meaning, as they do in some other Germanic languages and that the meaning difference developed later. Everything depends on what the historical usage was.
Very often, the American variant is the older one, and the standard British usage is a later development.
Oh Jamie! You have an explanation for almost everything, don’t you? 
As a professor of linguistics and English language instructor Jamie simply knows a lot about the English language. What I like about his answers is the fact that they are based on his expertise and experience rather than on his personal opinions.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC short conversations: Summing up an interview[YSaerTTEW443543]
That’s half the truth. Being opinionated and scooping from a well of wisdom also comes in handy.
He’s our resident all-rounder. If you mention disabled-people, he’s worked with them. Mention “elderly” people, he’s had a lot of contact with them. Africans, he been there done that. Why what would we do without Jamie’s “just ask me” approach to posting?
:lol:
I think I’m gonna cry. It’s so, well, touching [color=olive](on worship).
:lol:
How can you give so much love to someone who spends much of his time spouting:
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
I know better than you.
You’re a marxist.
Your a lunatic-feminist.
Etc.
Ah, what happened to the moderators, here?
:shock:
I rather give my love to a person who gives me straight answers than fire me back with more and more questions.
C’mon, Molly, don’t be jealous 
:lol:
Yeah, Molly. Don’t be jealous. I like Jamie more… :lol:
And I like Molly more 
As I see it, Jamie’s the kind of guy who, if I say I am a man, will come up with a convincing explanation that I am not. :lol: That’s not true, is it? (It’s not, by the way) :lol:
Molly, keep in mind that…
-
Often I, and other people in the forum, really do know better than you.
-
I didn’t call anyone a Marxist. I compared some of your behavior to that of a fanatical Marxist by analogy and for illustrative purposes only.
-
I don’t call any of my interlocutors lunatic feminists. I talk about lunatic feminists (as opposed to sane feminists) in the abstract. If the person I’m communicating with sees the characteristics of a lunatic feminist in herself and wants to take it personally, that’s not my problem.
Hi,
Spoken like a true politician!
Alan
Easy life? 
:?:
Really? When, for example?
Yes, a childish comparison, to say the least. On other fora, it’s known as flaming, trolling etc. How you get away with it here, beats me.
And how shallow you sound when you do so.
I thought that first of you.
Jamie always gives us facts and his best opinion to us, sincerely answering questions that were asked, even the ones that most people would likely think of as petty questions. How many do you think, have that big of a heart?
But you chose the easiest way when troubled with something you cannot refute.
For example, if people said something you said is incorrect, you asked them to define ‘incorrect’.
I am not a linguist, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist either to understand the pattern here.
I know you are just kidding here but just for the record, you shouldn’t think that of Jamie. In the given situation, unless you gave him reasons to believe otherwise, I think he would just say okay.
Or maybe you prefer that people just tell you “Define man”. :lol:
I was obviously kidding. :lol:
Did I not delete this post yesterday? I wonder how it’s still there.
Anyway, you are very fond of Jamie, aren’t you? (Do I smell something goin’ on here :lol: I am kidding again :lol: )