It is a situation that a boxing fight will begin very soon. Suddenly, a trainer of a boxer thought that his man could be knocked out very easily. He then said the following sentence. Anyway, the trainer is a middle aged man.
まってくれっ ゴングをならすのはまったあっ
I would like to know why the past form is used even though the gong has not yet been rung.
The past tense form 待った (ie, the auxiliary た in 待った) in your example indicates urgent request/command (要求・命令). 明鏡国語辞典 states:
た 〘助動詞〙
➍ 《終止形で》差し迫った要求・命令を表す。「さあ、帰った、帰った。」「おっと待った」
So your sentence 「ゴングをならすのはまったあっ」 practically means the same thing as 「ゴングを鳴らすのは待て」 or 「ゴングを鳴らすのは待ってくれ」.
For more detail on this usage of た, please refer to these threads:
Difference between ちょっと待って and ちょっと待った
Usage of doubled non-past tense "た"
We have ”待った”, ”待ったを掛ける” in the game.
According to goo辞書:
１ 碁・将棋などで、相手の仕掛けてきた手を待ってもらう。また相撲で、立ち合いを待ってもらう。
２ 物事の進行を一時とどめる。「工事の着工に―・ける」「優勝に―・ける」
In this case, I think No.1 is close to your situation. When you are playing games like Go, Shogi,Mahjong, poker, etc., you are asking opponents to reset what you are trying to do such as moving pieces or putting cards on the table. This is a violation normally. In sumo, the wrestlers ask the referee to start initial charge(the moment their hands trying to touch "dohyo floor") again. However, in this case, the trainer himself ask a referee to stop ringing gong in order to gives up the game since the boxer would not stand for next 3 minutes.
I think ”待った" itself is programmed in the game as a rule rather than analyzing the tense.
