TJ,
    There is a slightly different dynamic between past and present
(cognitively), so the answer may be yes and no. There are choices in
the system. I can choose past or present, but not both. I can choose
perfect or progressive or neither or both. I can choose active or
passive. (Active would be default.) The dynamics shift a bit because
of the different ways we construe present and past time. We also have
time reference conjunctions and adverbials that influence the meaning,
so sometimes perfect aspect can seem like an option (as in "After I
had finished the book, I returned it to the library). If we think of
this in functional terms, we have different ways to keep clear these
time relations.
    I don't think there is a future tense. We can use present tense to
refer to something that hasn't happened yet. "My plane leaves in an
hour." We can also make present time (time of the utterance) judgments
about the likelihood or desirability of something that hasn't happened
yet, using the modal adjuncts. "My plane will leave. My plane might
leave. My plane can't leave. My plane shouldn't leave." I like to
think of "will" as an expression of certainty. It's a judgment. The
modals function mainly by adding these kinds of judgments.

Craig

Craig,
> While I'm not sure what your last paragraph means, may I say
> that your explanation of a present perfect progressive passive
> is as cogent as has been presented.  Good for you.
>
> May the same explanation not be extended (with a tense difference)
> to past and future perfect progressive passives?
>
> tj
>
>
>
> On Saturday 01/08/2011 at 9:06 am, Craig Hancock   wrote:
>>>
>>>        One problem with listing and classifying a number of forms
>>> (like
>> present perfect progressive passive) is that the list becomes
>> extremely daunting to anyone trying to get a grasp of it. Another is
>> the faulty (I think) assumption that this is a single "tense" rather
>> than a combination of meanings (form and meaning pairings). In other
>> words, it's hard to grasp as a single concept what the "present
>> perfect progressive passive" is doing, much easier to realize that it
>> is construed as happening at the point of utterance (present) started
>> earlier (perfect) but ongoing (progressive) and happening TO the
>> subject. "I have been being helped." In context, it might happen like
>> this. "Have you been helped"? "I have been being helped for some time
>> now."
>>      This is another argument for tense and aspect and voice as
>> separate
>> systems that work together within the verb phrase.
>>      In English, we need a new term to add another function. If
>> "present
>> perfect progressive passive" was a single "tense" you might expect
>> them
>> to conflate into a single term over time, but that hasn't happened.
>>
>> Craig
>>
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