Example of AmE vs BrE?

[emsr2d2]

Listening to the radio last night, I heard 2 radio DJs (British) interviewing an American folk singer, and I noticed an interesting verb use. I'm wondering if it was an accident or if the following is acceptable in AmE:

DJ: So how long have you been singing?
Singer: I sang since I was a little girl.

Now, I realise that I would have expected an answer like "I've been singing for 10 years" as an appropriate answer to the exact question, but the point is that in BrE, her answer would be:

I've been singing since I was a little girl.

Is it correct that in AmE, the past simple would be used before "since" here?

[Barb_D]

If I were composing proper sentences, I would also say "I've been singing since..." or possibly "I've sung since..."

But perhaps when she started, she was thinking something like "I sang when I was just a little girl" and changed her direction as she went.

[BobK]

...
But perhaps when she started, she was thinking something like "I sang when I was just a little girl" and changed her direction as she went.

Sounds very probable. The syntax of speech is like that.

(Then of course it finds its way into a corpus, and then an academic says it's acceptable syntax [period - not something emollient like 'accepted in informal speech'], and then we have to go through the Descriptive vs Prescriptive wars all over again. )

b

[Barb_D]

then we have to go through the Descriptive vs Prescriptive wars all over again. )

b

In this war, the pen is surely mightier than the sword!

[konungursvia]

But if both sides are armed with pens?

[meobeo]

It's not very uncommon to hear even native English speakers say something seemingly grammatically incorrect. On one occassion, when I was listening to the BBC, a man from London being interviewed said :"Personally, I done it 7 years on me father's advice." It's just the way he speaks naturally, reflecting his dialect and it surely is not standard.

[emsr2d2]

It's not very uncommon to hear even native English speakers say something seemingly grammatically incorrect. On one occassion, when I was listening to the BBC, a man from London being interviewed said :"Personally, I done it 7 years on me father's advice." It's just the way he speaks naturally, reflecting his dialect and it surely is not standard.

Oh, I absolutely agree and when it's a BrE speaker speaking, I know when it's simply a dialect rather than a grammatical error. However, because the speaker in this example was American, I was interested to know if this was actually an accepted construction in AmE or simply a slip-up!

[Tdol]

we have to go through the Descriptive vs Prescriptive wars all over again. )

b

Is there no room for a neutrality?

[SoothingDave]

Is there no room for a neutrality?

The only things in the middle of the road are dead possums.

[Tdol]

Kill or be roadkilled?