George bush has been president for 7 years (and still is).
After he's gone, George Bush was president for 8 years.
I should have said in here:
"George Bush IS president", is a sentence.
"George Bush WAS president", is a sentence.
"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.
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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