Hucky
Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Switzerland
- Current Location
- Switzerland
Hi again,
The debate in one of my recent threads has reminded me of a linguistic phenomenom I came across some time ago. I`ve been bearing it in some corner of my mind, not being really conscious of it anymore, and as it struck me once it still strikes me now being aware of it again. What I am talking about it this: The present perfect - as the term itself suggests and as can be read in numerous grammar books - is mainly a present tense. Yet, there seems to be some evidence to insinuate its usage as a past tense. You can check in any monolingual dictionary that a "has-been" is not someone who used to be famous and popular and still is, but - contrary to the present perfect sense - someone who is no more famous or popular, i.e. someone who was famous and popular once upon a time, who is a goner. The same applies to the stale joke that most of you will be familiar with. It goes like this:
Customer: Waiter! What sort of soup is this?
Waiter: It`s bean soup, sir.
Customer I don`t care what it`s been. I want to know what it is now.
Here "has been" in the pun obviously refers to the past, doesn`t it? Can anyone of you account for that?
The debate in one of my recent threads has reminded me of a linguistic phenomenom I came across some time ago. I`ve been bearing it in some corner of my mind, not being really conscious of it anymore, and as it struck me once it still strikes me now being aware of it again. What I am talking about it this: The present perfect - as the term itself suggests and as can be read in numerous grammar books - is mainly a present tense. Yet, there seems to be some evidence to insinuate its usage as a past tense. You can check in any monolingual dictionary that a "has-been" is not someone who used to be famous and popular and still is, but - contrary to the present perfect sense - someone who is no more famous or popular, i.e. someone who was famous and popular once upon a time, who is a goner. The same applies to the stale joke that most of you will be familiar with. It goes like this:
Customer: Waiter! What sort of soup is this?
Waiter: It`s bean soup, sir.
Customer I don`t care what it`s been. I want to know what it is now.
Here "has been" in the pun obviously refers to the past, doesn`t it? Can anyone of you account for that?