There's another way to remember the difference between the progressive
and perfect aspects. 'Progressive' or 'continuous' forms designate an
action _in progress_, so the term 'progressive' makes sense. 'I will
have been running', even with all of the tense complications, still
designates the action (run) as in progress or underway. 'Perfect' is a
less perfect terminology choice ... but think of 'perfect' as meaning
'perfected' -- finished, such that no more fiddling is needed. Perfect
verb forms designate an action that is completed, finished -- it started
and came to an end. The 'high-quality' feature of the ordinary meaning
of 'perfect' isn't relevant, but the 'finished' feature is. At the
moment at which you 'have run five miles', you have stopped running; the
running is finished.

The term 'aspect' as applied to grammar refers to how the action named
by the verb is being viewed -- frame-by-frame 'as it happens', without
regard to beginning and end points (progressive/continuous)? Or having
begun, run its course, and ended (perfect/completive)? There are other
aspects, too, in addition to perfect and progressive. For instance,
simple present tense in English for most verbs designates habitual
aspect -- something that occurs regularly or routinely, as in 'I run
every day', 'we always eat at 6:30 pm', etc.

A major shortcoming of traditional grammar, in my mind, is that it deals
only with the names of the English verb forms and not the areas of
meaning they are used to designate. The system is presented in an
oversimplified way, as if the meanings match the names, which they
don't. 'Simple present tense' as a form has 'simple present' meaning
('happening as I speak') for only certain classes of verbs, such as
verbs of perception ('see', 'hear', 'feel'). The default way of
conveying present 'as I speak' meaning is to use present progressive ('I
am eating').

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
                                       **
"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank  Oppenheimer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~