Perfect forms of the verb

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INTRODUCTION
I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1 CATEGORIES OF ASPECT AND TIME
1.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE ENGLISH PERFECT
II. PERFECT FORMS OF THE ENGLISH VERB
2.1 OPPOSITION OF PERFECT – NON-PERFECT FORMS OF THE VERB
2.2 USES OF THE PERFECT FORMS
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

For example: (4a) ...like clamorous patients who have been waiting all night for the doctor’s surgery to open; (4b) The heads of other men present have been swiveling from side to side, like spectators in a tennis match, during this argument. (4c) The students who have been writing everything down now look up and smile wryly at Robyn Penrose, like victims of a successful hoax. (4d) Robyn looks up from the copy of North and South from which she has been reading this passage, and surveys her audience with a cool, grey-green eyes. (4e) ‘They’ve learned what’s expected of them in a patriarchal society.’ (4f) ‘I haven’t danced for ages.’ (4g) ‘I don’t think I’ve ever read that one.’ (4h) Whereas you’ve been working for yourself in the company’s time. Most of these examples with the above-mentioned verbs indicate continuation from the unspecified point or period in the past to the present moment, thus belonging to the type called perfect of persistent situation (4a, b, c, d, h). The example (4f) is a specific kind of the perfect of persistent situation because it denotes the continuation of the non-existence of a situation (not dancing for ages). However, in the example (4e), which implies a reached goal (what’s expected of them), the type of perfect is the perfect of result or recent past, and in the example with the adverbial ever (4g) the type is experiential perfect – implying that the subject did not have a certain experience (reading a certain book). The second group of examples, those with the feature [– duration], or momentary verbs, includes the verbs like appear, arrive, ask, borrow, bring, close down, decide, deliver, discover, finish, invite, lend, meet, offer, pay, reach, reduce, sell out, split up, start, trigger. Some of the typical examples are: (5a) The pressure of his foot on a wired pad under the stair-carpet has triggered the burglar alarm... (5b) She carries the Daily Mail, which has just been delivered. (5c) Marjorie has now appeared at the lounge window... (5d) Vic grunts, unsurprised that his Marketing Director has not yet arrived. (5e) ‘Have you brought me to the phone just to tell me that?’ Robyn inquired icily. (5f) ‘I’ve sent off that reference to America.’ As expected, momentary verbs typically denote the situation immediately preceding the moment of speech, which is often accompanied by the adverbials just and now (examples 5b, 5c), or yet in case of the non-realization of the situation (5d). In the examples without adverbials modifying present perfect, the implication is also immediate or very near past (examples 5a, e, f). So, these examples belong to the perfect of recent past. However, some momentary verbs with adverbials denoting frequency (never, ever) also indicate experience up to now, which classifies them into the experiential perfect: (6a) He has never met Beryl, said to be Everthorpe’s second wife, and formerly his secretary. (6b) It has already been used twice for the circulation of internal mail and resealed by means of staples and Sellotape. (6c) ‘Haven’t we met before?’ he said. (6d) ‘That’s because you haven’t met him yet.’ There are just a few such examples in the corpus and they imply a context which unambiguously indicates repetition of the momentary situation up to now, most of them with the verb meet. As for this verb, it is interesting to point out the difference between the perfect of recent past and the experiential perfect: with the adverbials like just, recently, this verb is interpreted as recent past, and with the adverbials like ever, before as experiential perfect.Telicity is the feature in the semantic structure of some dynamic lexical verbs and verb phrases which denotes the existence of a goal. This goal could be indicated by the presence of the direct object, adverbial particle or other syntactic elements. The following examples (and some of the above-mentioned) indicate the presence of a goal:(7a) Vic Wilcox has now, strictly speaking, left the city of Rummage and passed into an area known as the Dark Country... (7b) ‘Have you signed the Official Secrets Acts?’ (7c) Halted at a red light, Robyn consults her A to Z, but before she has found the place on the map, the lights have changed and cars are hooting impatiently behind her.(7d) Anyway they’ve just discovered that compulsory retirement is unconstitutional... (7e) ‘Mr Wilcox has dropped his pen, Marion,’ she said. (7f) ‘I’ll tell Swallow that I’ve changed my mind.’ As it has been pointed out, if the nonprogressive verb is followed by a well-defined object (NP or a nominal clause), it usually implies a goal (examples 7a, b, c, d, e, f). The combination of the feature [+ telicity] with the present perfect (nonprogressive) indicates that the goal was reached immediately before, or a short time before the point of speech, which is usually interpreted as the perfect of recent past (the examples under 7) or possibly the perfect of result. As expected, some examples from the corpus were ambiguous when it comes to the above-mentioned types of present perfect, even when their semantic features and the context were taken into account. For example:(8a) Now we’ve gone into reverse. (8b) Raymond Williams has called them “Industrial Novels” because they dealt with social and economic problems... (8c) He’s been trained, hasn’t he?(8d) Foundtrax has stolen the Rawlinson’s bone from you... (8e) I’ve had enough,’ said Penny Black, getting to her feet. (8f) ‘I mean, I’ve had enough of this heat.’ (8g) ‘No. I’ve had enough of the rat race.’ The verb in the example (8a), go, is dynamic, durative and atelic, or momentary and telic if its meaning is ‘leave’, but it is difficult to establish the type of perfect it implies: the possible interpretations include recent past or result. There is a similar problem with the example (8c): the training could be related to recent past or could present a result of a past process. The second example (8b) contains a telic momentary verb call (meaning ‘give a name’), but it could hardly be designated as recent past, result or experience. It is not a typical persistent situation either, because the situation itself does not continue up to now, so it is perhaps best described as “current relevance” of the situation. The example (8d) is closest to recent past, with the verb steal being dynamic, momentary and telic. Finally, the last three examples (8e, f, g) contain the phrase ‘have enough’ in present perfect; it seems that these verbs denote the perfect of persistent situation, that is an undesirable continuation of a situation up to now. These examples (but also some of the previous ones) illustrate the difficulties one faces in classifying the concrete sentences with present perfect into a certain type which is determined within a specific theoretical framework.Perfect TensesPast PerfectPresent PerfectFuture Perfect1. an event or conditionthat occurred beforeanother event or timein the past2. in complex sentences, an untrue condition(subordinate clause)1. an event or situationthat began before nowand continues into thepresent2. a prior action that hascurrent relevance3. a very recentlycompleted action4. an action that occurredover a prior time periodand is completed at themoment of speaking. 5. in complex sentences:a time related event orcondition (subordinateclause)1. a future action or conditionthat will be completedbefore another event ortime in the future1. She had assignedseveral problems before the class ended.2. If I had studied more, Iwould have earned an A1. I have been in this classfor two weeks.2. The teacher has assigned this chapter already.3. I have just finishedtomorrow’s homework.4. I have studied the Course material for three hours. 5. When I have finishedtoday’s problems, I willbe able to relax.1. I will have been studying Academic Writing for three years by the time I graduate next spring.Perfect Progressive TensesPast PerfectProgressivePresent Perfect ProgressiveFuture Perfect Progressive1. an action or habitualaction taking place overa period of time in the past, prior to some other event or time. 2. in complex sentences: a past action in progress(main clause) that wasinterrupted by a morerecent past action1. a situation, habit oraction that began in thepast and continues up tothe present (andpossibly into the future)1. an ongoing or habitual action that is taking place in the present and will continue into the future until or into a specific time.1. The teacher had beenassigning five problemsa day prior to midterms.2. The teacher had beenplanning to have an inclass exam, but she had a take-home exam instead.1. The teacher has beenmeeting with studentsin her office every day.1. By the time you get here, I will have been studying for The final for eight hours.CONCLUSIONInterpretation of the finite perfect verb forms often depends on some semantic features of lexical verbs and on the context. The analysis of examples showed that such interdependence really exists, even though the basic semantic features taken into account (stativity, duration, telicity) do not prohibit the use of perfect forms; however, they influence the interpretation of the types of perfect (perfect of result, of recent past, experiential perfect and the perfect of persistent situation). It turned out that the stative verbs (verbs of inert perception and cognition in this corpus) excluded the perfect of result and often the perfect of recent past, which follows from the fact that they are atelic. Therefore, their most frequent interpretations were the experiential perfect (perception or cognition occurring once or more than once up to now, or not occurring at all) and the perfect of persistent situation in cases when these verbs denoted continuative situations (for example, being in love or knowing). On the other hand, dynamic verbs which were durative and atelic typically belonged to the perfect of persistent situation, denoting a situation which continued from a point or period in the past up to now. Telic dynamic verbs (specially the momentary ones) usually belonged to the perfect of recent past, implying that the goal of the situation was reached in the near past.As for the perfect of result, it is interesting to point out that the corpus almost did not contain unambiguous examples of that type, only some examples which could be interpreted both as recent past or result. Moreover, the notion of result is rather subjective, which has been pointed out in the relevant literature. Comrie [2, p. 56-57] writes that “in the perfect of result a present state is referred to as being the result of some past situation”, adding that this type of perfect assumes that the result is still significant, but it “makes no claims what constitutes a continuing result, only that there is some continuing result.” This seems to be the essential problem with this type of perfect – the notion of result is rather relative, even for the native speakers, let alone for those who want to learn how to use this type of perfect in English. Having in mind that problem and the examples presented in this article, perhaps it would be better to refer to this type of perfect as “the perfect of current relevance” instead of the perfect of result. Finally, to conclude, one could say that English perfect denotes a link between a preceding situation and a following situation in the past, present and future. This link could be established in several ways, which provides several types of perfect. As for present perfect, the link is established between a past situation and the point of speech (now); such a link is possible if the situation immediately precedes (the perfect of recent past), if it is a part of somebody’s experience (experiential perfect), if the situation continues till the moment of speech (perfect of persistent situation) or if it is – for some reason – still significant or relevant (current relevance). In addition, there seems to be some interdependence between certain semantic features of lexical verbs and these types of perfect, so stativity, telicity and duration should be also taken into account when interpreting present perfect.REFERENCESBlokh M. Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar. 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