Learn English and meet people on the world’s largest EFL social network

The poor Past Family

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) » Linguistics Discussion Forum

We have partnered with TradePub to bring you free industry magazines and resources - no coupons or credit cards required!

Visit: englishforums.tradepub.com


Share this topic:
This question is Not Answered
Latest post Tue, Jul 5 2005 12:57 PM by Mister Micawber. 3 replies.
Suggest an answer | | |
TS  +  115360 Mon, 04 Jul 05 11:13 PM

Because grammar writers claim that Present Perfect doesn't stay with past time adverbials:
Ex: *He has seen her yesterday.
they in their books hide away the past time adverbials that can stay with Present Perfect, such as in the past four years, over the past five weeks, etc. I call them the Past Family because they each have the adjective 'past'. Grammars don't talk about them at all. What do you think?
TS
Joined on Fri, Jun 4 2004
New Member 24
,
Mister Micawber  +  115390 Tue, 05 Jul 05 01:58 AM

I think that present perfect doesn't work well with past point-in-time references like 'yesterday', but revels in time adverbials of duration leading up to now, such as 'over the past four years'.

I don't think that there is any point in dallying with your 'past' family, as it is only an adjective:  'over the past/recent/succeeding/previous/last four years'.
Mister Micawber
Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004
Yokohama
Veteran Member 30,769
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'
Related discussions
TS  +  115425 Tue, 05 Jul 05 05:54 AM

 Mister Micawber wrote:

I think that present perfect doesn't work well with past point-in-time references like 'yesterday', but revels in time adverbials of duration leading up to now, such as 'over the past four years'.

I don't think that there is any point in dallying with your 'past' family, as it is only an adjective:  'over the past/recent/succeeding/previous/last four years'.

Then how do you call these time adverbials, if not past time adverbials? It has the adjective 'past', so that we call them present time adverbials?

TS
Mister Micawber  +  115440 Tue, 05 Jul 05 07:18 AM

Are you going to call 'over the succeeding years' a succeeding time adverbial ?  The particular adjective does not necessarily classify the sentence part.  What I'd call it would depend on its use in the specific sentence, I think.  I suppose however that in most cases 'over the past years' would be a past time adverbial.
Mister Micawber
Welcome to Englishforums.com, the world's largest EFL / TEFL social network.

Places to start

Browse Englishforums

© MediaCet Ltd. 2009, v5.0.3607.32596. All content posted by our users is a contribution to the public domain, this does not include imported usenet posts.*
For web related enquires please contact us on webmaster@mediacet.com, status updates are available at status.mediacet.com.
*Usenet post removal: Use 'X-No-Archive'. You may not have understood that your posts would end up in the public domain. Please send proof of the poster's email, we will remove immediately.