Brad,
   Past tense and past perfect are not the same, but perfect aspect adds
something to a past tense verb phrase. The past tense of "be" is "was",
but past perfect is "had been".
   I can easily imagine something like the following: "It is 1962. Kennedy
has been President for two years." If we simply change this to past
tense, it would read "It was 1962. Kennedy had been President for two
years." The tense of the second changes, but the perfect aspect
continues. (It goes from present perfect to past perfect.) >
> Tense and aspect are different systems. Perfect aspect gives a sense of
completion in close relevance to the point in time we choose as central
focus.
  "The two neighbors had been quarreling for months, so it was no surprise
when they came to blows."
   This seems absolutely natural to me.
   There is no rule in prescriptive grammar against a clause with past
perfect verb phrase functioning as main clause in a sentence. Many
sentences feel incomplete out of context. They don't become fragments
when they do. If you are using "fragment" that way, you are using your
own definition.


Craig


Nancy: Imagine that next year, after a new president has been inaugurated,
> someone asks me, “Prior to inauguration day, who had been President?”
>
>   Brad: They would not ask you that. They would say, “Prior to
> inauguration day, who was President?”
>
>   Nancy: I would answer, “George Bush had been President.”
>
>   Brad: You would answer, “George Bush was President.”
>
>   The Rule: The past tense of "to be" is "was" (singular) or "were"
> (plural), not "had been".
>
>
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