George bush has been president for 7 years (and still is).
   
  After he's gone, George Bush was president for 8 years.
   
  "George Bush had been president", is not a sentence. It cannot stand alone. It's a "fragment". If you have a better word than "fragment", I can live with it.
   
  If you think "George Bush had been president", is a sentence, someone tell me what it means.
   
  .brad.17feb08.
  
Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
   
  I have a hard time with the implication that perfect aspect
 does no work.
   Gorge Bush is President for seven years.
   George Bush was President for seven years.
   George Bush has been President for seven years.
For the most part, the third one sounds right to me (in the
 context of our
current situation) because it conveys the sense of a continuing
 reality.
It sounds right because there's a form/meaning match. We can do
 that a
number of ways (He is in the final year of a second four year
 term),but
"taste">leaves me uncomfortable.
   I don't think you are in that camp, but most people believe
 grammar is
about what's correct or what's tasteful, and that's one reason
 it's out
of favor.
   What does perfect aspect do? Don't we need to define that in
 functional
terms?


       
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