Ahoj,

dnes jsem sledoval Privy Council a oficiální prohlášení Charlese za krále a na začátku ceremoniálu zazněla tato věta:

The business for part one of the Council: My Lords, it is my sad duty to inform you that Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has passed away on Thursday, the 8th of September, 2022 at Balmoral Castle.

Trochu mě ta věta zarazila po gramatické stránce. Jak to, že je v prohlášení použit předpřítomný čas (has passed away), pokud je zde minulé příslovečné určení času? To je přeci hrubá chyba, ne? A druhá věc, nemělo by zde být v souladu se slovosledem SVOMPT nejprve uvedeno příslovečné určení místa „at Balmoral Castle“ a až poté příslovečné určení času (tedy "… passed away at Balmoral Castle on Thursday, the 8th of September 2022).

Děkuji předem za případnou odpověď.

Yes, you're absolutely right. Strictly speaking the use of the present perfect here with a specific time reference in the past is wrong.

It can be explained (though still not grammatically justified) by the fact that this is an announcement of a „new“ event which still feels very much in the present (even though everyone listening already knows what has happened), so the present perfect feels appropriate.

But don't forget that this is also a set-piece historic announcement that will go down in the annals (the written records) of British constitutional history, and that's why the speaker feels justified in adding the date of the event, even though that would usually require the simple past.

So in the socio-historic context, a form of words has had to be found which reflects the „news“ (present perfect) but also tells us when it happened (for the official records) and it's a (grammatically incorrect) compromise. All in all, it doesn't grate on the ear here, and they won't send the speaker to the Tower of London to have his head chopped off.

On the word order point, you're right that SVOMPT is the standard word order in a normal declarative statement. But this isn't a normal declarative statement, it's a news announcement, an announcement about something that has just happened,. so in terms of its rhetorical (= emotional) impact, the „when“ (time) element is more important than the „where“ (place) element. So the „time“ information is brought forward to give it greater prominence. The „place“ information („at Balmoral Castle“) is of secondary incidental importance, so it's relegated to the end of the sentence.

• Hey, have you heard the news? The Queen has died!

The natural rhetorical (emotional) response here is:

• Oh really? When (not where) did that happen?