§6.1 The present perfect 49past tense. The fonner includes explicit reference to the present as well as the past,
whereas the latter does not. We can see the significance of the present tense compo
nent in two ways.
(a) Time adjuncts
Under certain conditions the present perfect allows time adjuncts referring to the
present. The preterite does not. And conversely, the present perfect more or less
excludes time adjuncts referring to the past, since they divorce the situation from
present time. So we have these contrasts:
[42] a. We have by now finished most of it. b. *We by now finished most of it.
ii a. * She has finished her thesis last week. b. She finished her thesis last week.(b) Current relevance
With the present perfect the past time situation is conceived of as having some kind
of current relevance, relevance to the present, whereas the preterite does not express
any such relationship. Compare:
[43] a. She has lived in Paris fo r ten years. b. She lived in Pa ris fo r ten years.
ii a. She has met the President. b. She met the President.
iii a. The premier has resigned. b. The premier resigned.
iv a. Yo u've put on some weight. b. Yo u put on some weight.In [ia] the connection with the present is that she is still living in Paris. In [ib], by
contrast, the period of her living in Paris is located wholly in the past.
In [i ia], a natural interpretation would be that we are concerned with her past
experience as it affects her status now: some past experience of hers at some
indefinite time puts her in the present state of being among the relatively small
class of people who have met the President. If I use [iib], on the other hand, I'm
simply reporting a past event, and it will typically be clear from the context what
time period I am talking about.
In [iiia] we see an example of the present perfect as used to report hot news.
Examples like [iiia] are very common in radio and TV news broadcasts (and, of
course, not at all common in history books).
Example [iva] illustrates the common use of the present perfect where the con
cern is with present results of past events. The salient context is one where you
are now somewhat heavier than you were before. In [ivb] there is no such con
nection with the present: it simply describes a past event, and it could well be that
the extra weight was subsequently lost.^44 On the last point, colloquial AmE differs somewhat from BrE. The adjunct already calls attention to
the early occurrence and present results of an event; but American speakers will often say I did that
already where a BrE speaker would say I've already done that. AmE speakers understand the use of
the perfect in such contexts, but use it less frequently.