A perfect question

[Paul B. Gallagher]

[redirecting my reply to the list:]

Caveat: my replies are for American English; I profess no expertise in 
other varieties, despite a casual acquaintance with them.

Goloviznin Konstantin wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I have had some argument about usage of perfects in English. At this
> "riot" my opponent stated that the modifier of time "in the last
> year" in "I have been to Mexico in the last year" (=I have been to
> Mexico at least once at some point between 365 days ago and now.) is
> out-of-date, that just in times of Shakespeare it would be OK but
> nowadays it's very rare (or just obsolete). How far was he right?

It would be more typical nowadays to say "past," but even with "last" I 
would not be surprised to see this construction, and I use it myself. On 
the other hand, "last year" without the preposition is incompatible with 
a present tense, perfect or otherwise.

> Moreover, a present perfect is a "competitor" to that of the simple
> past tense dependently on modifying with finished or unfinished time.
> Then could I take "in 2011" (=formally finished time) as unfinished
> to make up the sentence "I have been to Mexico in 2011" (now 2012).

If you said "I have been to Mexico in 2011," most literate Americans 
would wince or worse; it makes little difference if you update to 2012. 
The present perfect really doesn't go well with specific adverbs of 
time, because one of the functions of such adverbs is to define the time 
frame of the narrative. By specifying 2011, you are forcing the adoption 
of a nonpresent time frame, and that's incompatible with a present 
tense, perfect or otherwise.

However, if you choose an open-ended time frame such as "this year," 
which does include the present moment, it's fine: "I've been to Mexico 
this year."

-- 
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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