Perfect tenses
An obvious characteristic of the English tense system is the availability of a contrast between the simple past or preterite tense (32a), and the present perfect (32b):
Both sentences locate the event of seeing the Queen in the past; however, the choice between preterite and present perfect construes the implications of the event in different ways. Meanings like that of the English present perfect (32b) are common in the world’s languages, yet prove remarkably hard to describe in a satisfying way. The perfect is often explained as conveying the continuing relevance of the past action (Comrie 1985; Fabricius-Hansen 2006). Intuitively, there seems something right about this. But how to be precise about the exact meaning conveyed here? Imagine that B is in the room, and A comes in and initiates an exchange with the words ‘What’s going on?’. Three possible replies are given in (33) and (34):
The (33) sentences use the present perfect; the (34) the preterite. Presumably B’s answer is just as relevant in both cases; the difference must be that in (33) B is specifically representing their answer as relevant, whereas in (34) they are not. The problem here is that in the absence of any way of knowing whether something is or isn’t being ‘specifically represented’ as relevant, we don’t really know whether our description of the semantics of the present perfect is on the right track. ‘Relevant’ is a slippery label: without an independent way of showing what is and isn’t perceived as relevant, we arguably lack any way of testing it (Klein 1992).
We can also point to some cases where the present perfect seems to be less likely a choice than the preterite, even though the situation referred to is clearly relevant:
In all three cases the present perfect in (35) is less idiomatic than the simple past equivalent in (36).
QUESTION Can you account for this situation? How restricted is it to a certain class of verbs?
QUESTION Can you account for the varying acceptability of the following sentences and ones like them? Sentences (i) and (ii) may appeal to different explanations. What do they contribute to our understanding of the meaning of the English perfect?
