perfect tense

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Terry Moran wrote:

> Frank -
>
> It's fine, but as a fully paid-up pedant I can't resist pointing out
>  that (a) я устал is the (only) past tense of a perfective verb, not
> the perfect tense (which doesn't exist in Russian); and (b) none of
> the ways I can think of to say вчера вечером я устал in English is in
> the perfect tense either: /I was tired/ (imperfect of /to be/), /I
> got tired /(simple past/preterite of /to get/). You can contrive a
> perfect tense, but only in more complex contexts: /I've been as tired
> as this before, but only once/ (perfect tense of /to be/).

Concur in all respects.

As a general rule, the English present perfect disallows specific 
statements of time:
	*I have eaten yesterday.
	*I have eaten at noon.
Even when the past event has present relevance, you can't say (in 
response to an offer of food):
	*No, thanks, I've eaten two hours ago [so I'm full now].
You have to substitute the simple past:
	No, thanks, I ate two hours ago [so I'm full now].

By "specific" time statement I mean one that denotes a point in time or 
an interval so short as to be practically indivisible. The present 
perfect does accept ranges, provided they include the present moment:
	I have eaten /in the past hour/.
	I have eaten /already/.
	I've /just/ eaten.
	*I have eaten yesterday. [excludes present]
	I have eaten today. [includes present]

The rules are somewhat laxer for the past perfect:
	I had eaten the day before.
	[excludes time frame of past context]

But neither Russian past tense (pf./impf.) is subject to this 
English-language constraint, so the query sentence is fine.

Another practical consideration in English is that the verb "to tire" is 
not much used, though it is still grammatically possible:
	I had tired. => I was tired.
	I have tired. => I am tired.
	I tired. => I got/became tired.

The timing (pastness) of the exhaustion process is much less important 
than the resulting state of affairs at the time of the narrative. Similarly:
	He had died. => He was dead.
	He has died. => He is dead.

But this practice varies from verb to verb:
	He has fallen in love. <=> He is in love.
	He has learned English. => He knows English.

It's also subject to dialect variation: the following substitutions are 
more common in American than in British:
	?He has gone. => He is gone.
	?He has come. => He is here.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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