'Have you eaten?' and 'Did you eat?'

[Alina Israeli]

What's getting lost here is first and foremost that not all verbs are  
created equal, as Mr. Vendler explained some 50 years ago (I think  
this is it: www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~agatt/teaching/dl/vendler57.pdf ).  
Позвонить, спрятаться, съесть and let's add упасть or стукнуть are  
very different.

Prjatat'sja is a state (an no, I am not going to write a whole paper  
here) and behaves differently from the other three groups  
(activities, achievements, accomplishments) and their translations  
may at times vary.

Second important issue in questions asked is Who asks whom? in case  
of Ty zvonil/pozvonil domoj? or Ty el sup? vs. Ty s"el sup? and what  
do both participants know at the moment of speech and what are the  
expectations vis-a-vis the action, i.e had there been a previous  
discussion or exchange regarding the action?



On Sep 10, 2008, at 1:22 AM, Dustin Hosseini wrote:
> Russian-speaking students of English as a foreign language tend to  
> struggle
> with the perfect tenses and quite a bit.  These learners/speakers  
> tend to
> use the present perfect more often than not in cases where the present
> perfect isn't needed, depending on the depth of their knowledge of  
> English.
>  i.e. Have you called me today? vs. Did you call me today?
>

In this case I would like to blame the textbooks and grammar books  
that treat tenses as grammatical forms and nothing else. But in fact  
if "you have called me today" I should know about it. In other words,  
calling is a two-way communication, and if YOU were calling ME, I am  
the one to know. It's a different story if I asked

Have you called your parents?

particularly if this was discussed before or otherwise expected.

AI


On Sep 10, 2008, at 9:39 AM, Alex wrote:

>
> Hello!
>
> Did I understand it correct, that for the "Past (or Present)  
> Perfect" in
> Russian we should use SIMPLE PAST in English and vice versa?
>
> For example: Луна спряталась за облака - The Moon hid behind the  
> clouds...
>               but: Луна пряталась за облака(ми) - The Moon has  
> hidden behind
> the clouds...
>

Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------