People call these constructions by different names, but the simplest of the names that I've run into would be "conditional perfect progressive".  Present/past, which is the only real tense distinction in English, doesn't apply because of the semantics of the modal.

Herb Stahlke

Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN  47306
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>>> [log in to unmask] 04/02/01 03:01PM >>>
Hi,

A minor point came up that I couldn't answer in my English class, so I told
the kids I'd go right to the experts.

We've been studying verb tenses in my sixth grade class with an eye to their
effect on writing.  I asked them to write a half-page narrative using as much
progressive tense as they could (I wanted them to notice what it did to
"voice").  We were looking at the sentences today, and I didn't know what to
call the verb phrase in the following:

The children should have been eating.

It's present perfect progressive, but does adding the modal change it to
something else?  For that matter, does adding a modal change the name of any
tense?

Thanks,
Gretchen in San Jose
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