Present perfect In british and american

This example creates a duality of perception perfect temporary action that mentally displayed simultaneously in two ways - past and present. This duality as a means of creating grammatical imagery is an extremely expressive stylistic device. It allows you to present the past action in all its clarity, detail, "proshlosti" without shifting focus from its relevance to the present.

A supporter of the theory of cognitive species, A. Kravchenko considering the semantics of the form as significative, not denotative category. It focuses not on the designation of the subject of reality (denotation), and on the designation of a concept (significatum). As fact a separate language-specific category types - an objective phenomenon, but as a specific term reflecting the sense of the world especially the representatives of the linguistic community, the view is by nature subjective. The main concepts in the A.V. Kravchenko - an introduction to the model indicate the grammatical meaning of the observer.

The content of the grammatical category of aspect is the opposition of the observed actions (events, etc.) unobservable, or known to act as a grammatical term "form", which in English, German and French translation corresponds to the "aspect", produced by Russian verb see and etymologically related to the Latin "videre" ("seeing") and the Greek "eidos" ("that which is seen"). AV Kravchenko defines the perfect form as a temporary form of a certain (Definite) species. The verb in the perfect form describes a situation in which there are only observed and / or the perceived (or other person speaking) are signs that the action took place, the very same action in this particular situation is observed ("no") [33].

Stylistically, the concept of A.V. Kravchenko allows selecting other function perfect forms - subjective. The narrative, which is in the simple past, has a more objective and impersonal. The reader looks at the action from the sidelines. When introduced into the narrative the reader is perfect forms involved in the action, seeing it through the eyes of the hero, and from his point of view, identifies himself with the hero, who is, in the terminology of A. Kravchenko, "an observer."

Perfect can also be used to express the emotional evaluation. The evaluation function is based on estimated values ​​of adjectives. But the semantics of the perfect tense is not indifferent to these connotations. Form perf reinforces the subjective element of evaluation that has passed the action is given, as this assessment underlines the importance for the present.

"He's always been wonderful, you know," Tom said to his father. [34]

So, we can highlight the following compositional and stylistic potential perfect forms:

- An expression of retrospective (back to back to the previous treatment);

- An expression of the impact (due to the time schedule of one another);

- An expression of communication, weave different time plans, communication between the different parts of a literary work (continuity of the time stream);

- An expression of the experience;

- An expression of emotional evaluation;

- An expression of complete action or condition;

- Function of exposure, administration;

- Introduction of subjective and emotional aspects in a statement.

To sum up, one cannot say that none of the selected functions are not implemented in the text in isolation. Usually functions intersect and overlap each other, creating a single integrated stylistic effect. So, in this paragraph we studied stylistic potential of Present Perfect and Past Simple in English.

 

1.4 Present Perfect vs. Past Simple in different variants of English

 

In this paragraph we will consider grammatical features of American English on the basis of a comparison with British English.

In the case of the Present Perfect, action, which had done in the past, has a direct connection with the present moment.

I have received your letter. Now I have all the necessary information. Thank you!

If we do interlinear translation of this sentence, we get a clear manifestation of logic of tense’s name:

Я имею письмо полученным. Сейчас у  меня есть вся нужная информация. Спасибо.

Or:

We have done our homework! We can go to the cinema now!

Мы имеем домашнее задание сделанным. Мы можем сейчас пойти в кино.

Present Perfect is used in the case where the action itself is important, but not the exact time when it occurred. The result is important in the present:

We have already ordered the pizza. It’ll be delivered soon.

 Мы уже заказали пиццу.  Ее скоро доставят.

Time in this situation is not the main, the result is important that the pizza will soon be delivered, because the booking has been made.

We have moved into our new house! You can finally come and see us!

Мы переехали в новый дом! Ты, наконец-то, можешь к нам придти!

This example also shows that the result is important. Now, after the move, we are finally able to receive guests.

When comparing the Present Perfect and Past Simple, we will see that in the case of Past Simple the exact time of execution of action is important.

We ordered the pizza two hours ago.

Мы заказали пиццу 2 часа назад.

In this example there is a clear indication of the time of execution.

We should pay attention to the fact that the specified time in the Past Simple always refers to the past, this time has finally expired and has no connection with the present.

My friend went to India in 1995.

1995 is over; it has not connection with the present.

They met in a small café yesterday.

They met in a cafe yesterday. Yesterday is completely left in the past.

Present Perfect requires "vague", inexact indicators of time. They do not belong exclusively to the past, but spill over in the present and is used to express an action which lasts from the past to the present.

I have always loved dancing.

I've always loved to dance. I had this affection in the past and I have it to this day.

I haven’t seen him for ages.

I have not seen him for a long time. I have not seen him for a period of time that began in the past and continues to the present.

So, we can summarize our comparison with words of I. I.Pribytok:“The Past Simple Tense - a finally remaining time in the past. The Present Perfect Tense - action which has the result in the present” [18].

It is important to remember that the latest news transmitted using The Present Perfect Tense.

However, if after the news details of the event are followed, then The Past Simple Tense is used. In this case, the "economy of language" is triggered. This tense is more convenient to transfer large amount of information in the past

The train has crashed today morning. The accident happened near Munich. (Details are served in the Past Simple)

The medical equipment exhibition has opened in Paris. (News is served in the Present Perfect) It was opened by the Minister of Health. (Details are served in the Past Simple)

There is a certain difference in the use of tenses of the verb. So, instead of Present Perfect the American can use Past Simple.

Refusal of Perfect Tenses in a spoken language became so everyday occurrence that already it is time to enter it into grammars; phrase: "Did you go see "Redheat" with Arnold? " it is represented to many Americans absolutely natural and true though situationally on all norms, including described in the American grammars, Perfect is required: "Have you seen …? " Or at least in a colloquial form: "Seen "Redheat" yet?"

Usually main a contribution to ignoring of times of Perfect group attribute to immigrants from those countries in which language there are no perfect times, mention also Russians.

However any English-speaking American will use perfect if other choice makes the statement ambiguous or unclear.

In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment. For example:

I've lost my key. Can you help me look for it?

In American English the following is also possible:

I lost my key. Can you help me look for it?

In British English the above would be considered incorrect. However, both forms are generally accepted in standard American English. Other differences involving the use of the present perfect in British English and simple past in American English include already, just and yet.

British English:

I've just had lunch

I've already seen that film

Have you finished your homework yet?

American English:

I just had lunch OR I've just had lunch

I've already seen that film OR I already saw that film.

Have your finished your homework yet? OR Did you finish your homework yet?

As Schweitzer claims: “The comparative analysis of the use of the verbal Present Perfect and Past Indefinite forms in the British and American English suggests that the ratio of the of these forms in BE and AE are different. The average ratio of Present Perfect to Past Indefinite is equal 1: 2 in BE and 1: 3, 5 in AE.” [1]

So, in this paragraph we compared features of the use Present Perfect and Past Simple in American English and British English. And also we learned exact number of a ratio of frequency of these forms which in chapter 2 we will try to check.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Analysis of the texts "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser and "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

 

In this chapter in order to conduct a comparative analysis we will take 2 texts: "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser and "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf. We will analyze each text separately to identify the average ratio of frequency of use of the Present Perfect and the Past Simple in each of the two types of fiction parsed by us.

 

2.1 Analysis of the text "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser

 

In order to analyse  the frequency of the use of Present Perfect and Past Simple in the American English language through the analysis of the sentences from the text "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser.

An American Tragedy was published in December 1925, and issued in two volumes. Dreiser created a poignant yet powerful novel of youthful loneliness in industrial society and of the American mirage that beckons some of the young to disaster.

For years Dreiser had been collecting news accounts about desperate young men who had tried to rid themselves of passing love affairs by violence. The case of Chester Gillette particularly fascinated him. In Herkimer County, New York, in 1906, Gillette lured his pregnant sweetheart, Grace Brown, to Big Moose Lake and drowned her. Discovered and apprehended almost immediately, Gillette was electrocuted at Auburn Penitentiary in March 1908.

In voluminous detail, Dreiser tells the bewildering story of Clyde Griffiths, a son of evangelists, who takes a job as a bellhop, is involved in an automobile accident, escapes to another city, finds work in his uncle's factory, divides his affection between a factory girl and a socialite, entices the pregnant factory girl to a lake, lets her drown, and is himself tried, sentenced, and electrocuted.

For this story, Dreiser scrutinized the official court records and the many newspaper reports of the Gillette-Brown case, explored Herkimer County, and inspected Sing, gathering thousands of impressions and details.

The chief tenet of such literary naturalists as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London, and Theodore Dreiser is that man is a helpless pawn of his heredity and his environment, a creature caught in the web of causation and chance. Although Clyde has seemingly successful moments, his life is basically one of suffering. Because of his deficient thought and weak will, Clyde is the protagonist-victim not of a "tragic" but of a "pathetic" plot, and in keeping with the naturalistic-pathetic plot, human frailty and futility pervade An American Tragedy.

Both the "pathetic" individual and the "tragic" civilization loom large in this novel. In Kansas City, Denver, and San Francisco, we see the Griffithses in a society whose organic community has declined. Clyde's class snobbery is an outgrowth of individualism and urbanization. And we see in Clyde the decline of belief, the growth of the secular ethic, and the fragmentation of his personality.

Although its classic one hundred chapters are divided into three disproportionate books of nineteen, forty-seven, and thirty-four chapters, the ponderous whole is tensely unified. Dreiser's fictional cosmos of indifference toward puny, struggling man reveals the contrast between the weak, the poor, and the ugly and between the relatively strong, rich, and beautiful. Again, he contrasts the photographic world-as-it-is with the visionary world-as-it-might-be. Because of Dreiser's bold contrasts, systematic ambiguity, and uneasy mixture of scientific notions and compassionate feelings, critics often argue whether or not Dreiser was a "naturalist," a "realist," or an old-fashioned "romantic." Indeed, his descriptions of subjective states compel as much attention as do his documentaries of material surfaces — and both penetrate beneath simple appearance. Aesthetically, his vast network of dramatic contrast makes for fascinating ironies, foreshadowings, and parallels, all of which contribute to the book's unity.

1) “It was hot, yet with a sweet languor about it all.” (Action was committed in the past and it is not related to the present. The Past Simple Tense.)

2) “Crossing at right angles the great thoroughfare on which they walked, was a second canyon-like way, threaded by throngs and vehicles and various lines of cars which clanged their bells and made such progress as they might amid swiftly moving streams of traffic.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

3) “Yet the little group seemed unconscious of anything save a set purpose to make its way between the contending lines of traffic and pedestrians which flowed by them.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

4) “They have reached an intersection this side of the second principal thoroughfare…” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

5) “Then handing the Bible to the man, she fell back in line with him…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

6) “The man — the father, as he chanced to be — looked about him with seeming wide- eyed assurance, and announced, without appearing to care whether he had any auditors or not…” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

7) “At this the eldest girl, who until now has attempted to appear as unconscious and unaffected as possible…” (The action began in the past and it is still continuing. The Present Perfect Tense.)

8) “By this time various homeward-bound individuals of diverse grades and walks of life, noticing the small group disposing itself in this fashion, hesitated for a moment to eye them askance or paused to ascertain the character of their work. (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

9) “This hesitancy, construed by the man apparently to constitute attention, however mobile, was seized upon by him and he began addressing them as though they were specifically here to hear him.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

10) “At this the young girl began to interpret the melody upon the organ, emitting a thin though correct strain, at the same time joining her rather high soprano with that of her mother, together with the rather dubious baritone of the father.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

11) “The other children piped weakly along.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

12) “The boy and girl have taken hymn books from the small pile…” (Action was committed in the past and in the present we have the result. The Present Perfect Tense.)

13) “As they sang, this nondescript and indifferent street audience gazed, held by the peculiarity of such an unimportant-looking family publicly raising its collective voice against the vast skepticism and apathy of life.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

14) “Some were interested or moved sympathetically by the rather tame and inadequate figure of the girl at the organ, others by the impractical and materially inefficient texture of the father, whose weak blue eyes and rather flabby but poorly-clothed figure bespoke more of failure than anything else.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

15) “She, more than any of the others, stood up with an ignorant, yet somehow respectable air of conviction.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

16) “A kind of hard, fighting faith in the wisdom and mercy of that definite overruling and watchful power which she proclaimed, was written in her every feature and gesture.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

17) “The boy moved restlessly from one foot to the other, keeping his eyes down, and for the most part only half singing.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

18) “A tall and as yet slight figure, surmounted by an interesting head and face — white skin, dark hair — he seemed more keenly observant and decidedly more sensitive than most of the others — appeared indeed to resent and even to suffer from the position in which he found himself.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

19) “Indeed the home life of which this boy found himself a part and the various contacts, material and psychic, did not tend to convince him of the reality and force of all that his mother and father seemed so certainly to believe and say.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

20) “At the same time, as he understood it, they collected money from various interested or charitably inclined business men here and there who appeared to believe in such philanthropic work.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

21) “Thus in one neighborhood in which they have lived, when he is but a child of seven, his father, having always preluded every conversation with “Praise the Lord,”…” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present. The Present Perfect Tense.)

22) “Yet the family was always “hard up,” never very well clothed, and deprived of many comforts and pleasures which seemed common enough to others.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

23) “Plainly there was something wrong somewhere.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

24) “He could not get it all straight, but still he could not help respecting his mother, a woman whose force and earnestness, as well as her sweetness, appealed to him.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

25) “I see these people around here nearly every night now — two or three times a week, anyhow,” this from a young clerk who has just met his girl and is escorting her toward a restaurant.” (Action was committed in the past and in the present we have the result. The Present Perfect Tense.)

26) “Despite much mission work and family cares, she managed to be fairly cheerful, or at least sustaining, often declaring most emphatically “God will provide” or “God will show the way,” especially in times of too great stress about food or clothes.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

27) “Yet apparently, in spite of this, as he and all the other children could see, God did not show any very clear way, even though there was always an extreme necessity for His favorable intervention in their affairs.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

28) “It was that old mass yearning for a likeness in all things that troubled them, and him.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

29) “…her mother and father have assured her that she has an appealing and compelling voice, which is only partially true.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

30) “On this night in this great street with its cars and crowds and tall buildings, he felt ashamed, dragged out of normal life...” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)