動物を使った言い方 or 動物を使う言い方?


In this comprehension passage that I'm reading about figurative speech, I came
across this sentence:

> 猫だけではなく、犬、牛、馬など、人と昔から生活してきた動物たちを **使った** 言い方がたくさんあります。

~~Why is 使う in past tense here? Not only in this sentence, but throughout the
comprehension passage and its questions, "phrases that use animals" also use
the past tense. Surely animals are still "used" today in speech right?~~ Edit:
Sorry I blatantly mistook 「た」as past tense. Please teach me what it otherwise
stands for.

I asked my teacher about this, and while she said both 動物を使った言い方 and 動物を使う言い方
are grammatically correct, she added that 使った is more common (but never
explained).

Why is this so?




Why do we prefer た form here? It's because those animals are familiar and easy
to concretely imagine.

non-た form represents that something has not happened yet but is going to
happen. On the other hand, た form represents that something has happened. In
short, non-た form feels obscure while た form feels more vivid.

For example, when you pull up a fish, you first yell "いる いる！" when you sense
some response or see an obscure shadow, then yell "いた いた！" when you confirm a
shape of the fish.




Why do we prefer た form here? It's because those animals are familiar and easy
to concretely imagine.

non-た form represents that something has not happened yet but is going to
happen. On the other hand, た form represents that something has happened. In
short, non-た form feels obscure while た form feels more vivid.

For example, when you pull up a fish, you first yell "いる いる！" when you sense
some response or see an obscure shadow, then yell "いた いた！" when you confirm a
shape of the fish.

