A mysterious email

[Benjamin J Barrett]

Is the reason for using the perfect because "in the past few years" is
still going on as in (1) vs. (2)?

(1) I've eaten twice today.
(2) I ate twice yesterday.

Or is it because the time within the "in the past few years" is not set
as in (3)?

(3) I've been to Italy.

Benjamin Barrett
Ballard Visualization Complete

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of George Thompson

It is well known that, according to grammar books, we don't use present
perfect tense when there is a past time adverbial mentioned: e.g. *I
have seen him yesterday. (ungrammatical) Nearly every grammar book
reminds us of this important rule, so we have accepted it without
question. It is the essence from their experience.

Because of this rule, however, we Chinese usually use simple past tense
with "in the past few years", for this time adverbial is as past as you
can possibly define what is past: e.g. He worked there in the past few
years. We cannot interpret the adjective 'past' as referring to present
or future time, can we? From schools to even government departments, we
usually choose only simple past tense for such time adverbials as within
the past four years, during the past three weeks, etc. It is as simple
and logical as can be.

However, gradually, English native speakers strongly reminded us we
shall use the present perfect essencewith such time expressions: e.g. He
has worked there in the past few years.