Abstract
In an attempt to present a clear picture of the use of previous, most grammars and usage guides resort to the explanation that previous replaces last when our viewpoint is in the past, looking further back into the past, and provide examples in which last occurs with the simple past and previous with the past perfect, for example I'm sure I saw him last week versus. I was sure I’d seen him the previous week. This article has found, however, that last can also occur with the past perfect and that the prototypical example of previous is not typical at all, as less than 20% of the previous tokens occurred with the past perfect. Thus, giving the impression that previous must replace last when the verb tense changes from simple past to past perfect is not only misleading but does not get at the core reason why previous usually replaces last in such a context: the shift in viewpoint from deictic to non-deictic, which happens not only in past contexts but also in future and timeless contexts.
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