2006 writes: but what is the time limit of "recently"? The word "recently" seems to be a poor guide by which to set grammar rules.
My understanding is that descriptive grammarians do not 'set' grammar rules. A grammar 'rule' is an attempt to describe what has been observed, as in: T
he form of the indefinite article is a before vowel sounds and an before consonant sounds. Nobody prescribed this - it is just what happens.
Recently is indeed open to subjective interpretation. And that is why it is impossible to predict with 100% accuracy which tense any particular individual will choose with regard to a particular time. We can report only what the majority of people have been heard to say, or seen to write, in similar circumstances.
2006 goes on: Have you eaten (recently)? Yes, I have (eaten recently).
- But one could also say 'Did you eat recently?' While, by habit, that may be much less common than 'Have you eaten recently?', it would be hard to say that the past tense question is wrong. It's not grammatically incorrect, unless arbitrarily defined to be so, and the meaning is clear.
- Of course, again by habit, since most of us would use the perfect tense, it may sound more correct. But that doesn't make the other choice wrong.
I agree. But then I don't think many people would claim that 'the other choice' is wrong. Even what many would consider clear-cut cases of wrong usage may turn out to be acceptable, in conversation at least. I once heard a lecturer state categorically that the Present Perfect is not used in BrE with an adverbial of past time. Literally seconds later he said, in an aside: "I have heard Chomsky speak ten years ago." When challenged, he said that, while he would never have written this, in speaking naturally he must have combined the two almost simutlaneous thoughts: 1." I have heard Chomsky speak"; and 2. "This happened ten years ago". This seems to me to be a plausible explanation. His listeners picked it up only because he appeared to be giving, in his own speech, clear proof either that the 'rule' he had just given was wrong or that he spoke ungrammatically.
Since then I have heard such 'mistakes' quite often, from educated people. They are natural. The 'rule' is still basically sound.