Subjectivity in usage

[metal56]

IMHO, we have to stick to the agreement of the common use of Since: In I have been sick since 1990, the sickness is an unfinish: I am still sick today. But we may add other sentences to explain the present condition: I feel much better these days. This is permissible.

You are welcome to your prescriptivist's opinion. I though am talking about what actually happens, not what should happen.

[metal56]

I am afraid no one will be so scrupulous about the tense here at such moment. If you want to be precise, however, you may use Past Perfect.
A: John's just been fired!
B: What! What a shame, he had worked here since 1989.

Xui[/size]

And this is where you have to study harder to understand the difference between real/objective time and psychological time (subjective) in language choice.

I'll let someone else enlighten you. You've had enough help from me.

[metal56]

It follows that, when at the time of not doing it we use Since, it doesn't mean the routine has interrupted or finished at all.

Xui, just try, for once, to answer a direct question that has been put to you:

Question:


Xui, where have you lived, and for how long in each place, since you were a baby?

--------------------------------------------

As a whole, I still follow and uphold the agreement recorded in every grammar that talks about Since. I will do it, even people here call me cheating and batty.

In every grammar, are you sure? LOL!

[metal56]

Xui disagrees with this:

Since-adverbials are ambiguous between being
durational and being inclusive. When since is durational, it yields the
U-perfect only. When since is inclusive, it yields the E-perfect (Vlach
1993; see also Bennett and Partee 1972, Dowty 1979).

Does anyone else?

[fluffyhamster]

I'm not convinced that in saying e.g. "I've lived in HK since 2001", that the speaker doesn't still live in HK.

That being said, however, if we use e.g. a for... "time frame", only the context will tell us whether somebody still lives there or not (e.g. A asks B, who is on a trip to NY, how long B's been living in HK, to which B responds, "I've lived in HK for 3 years"; alternatively, A asks B about the places B has lived, and B proceeds to rattle off a list: "I've lived in HK for 3 years, and Shanghai for 2, and...". B could also construe and express this as a Simple Past "chronological history").

[Xui]

Xui, just try, for once, to answer a direct question that has been put to you:

Question: Xui, where have you lived, and for how long in each place, since you were a baby?
============================

It is a good question. After I was born, I have lived in three different places, one for 8 years, and the second 7 years. I have lived in the third place since 1987.

[Xui]

I'm not convinced that in saying e.g. "I've lived in HK since 2001", that the speaker doesn't still live in HK.

That being said, however, if we use e.g. a for... "time frame", only the context will tell us whether somebody still lives there or not .................
=================

You have a keen eye. As I have explained, if this year is 2004, then SINCE 2000 is same as IN THE PAST FOUR YEARS. That is to say, Since is a member of the Past Family. But "For xx years" isn't.

The difference is, "For xx years" can even link to the future tense:
Ex: "I have worked enough. My wife and I will travel the world for four years."
== The Past Family cannot do the same.

Do you know how many kinds of time adverbials are there in English?

[fluffyhamster]

That would appear to make you about 33 then, Xui - same age as me. Some people were telling me they thought you were an elderly (and senile) old man, but you always have had too much energy to ever be quite that old!

[Xui]

That would appear to make you about 33 then, Xui - same age as me. Some people were telling me they thought you were an elderly (and senile) old man, but I always knew you had too much energy to be quite that old!

But my eyesight is very bad now.

[Xui]

This is my eyesight:

[fluffyhamster]

Ray Charles! Or Stevie Wonder.

[metal56]

Xui, just try, for once, to answer a direct question that has been put to you:

Question: Xui, where have you lived, and for how long in each place, since you were a baby?
============================

It is a good question. *After I was born, I have lived in three different places, one for 8 years, and the second 7 years. I have lived in the third place since 1987.

You may be missing a "since" there.

[Xui]

Xui, just try, for once, to answer a direct question that has been put to you:

Question: Xui, where have you lived, and for how long in each place, since you were a baby?
============================

It is a good question. *After I was born, I have lived in three different places, one for 8 years, and the second 7 years. I have lived in the third place since 1987.

You may be missing a "since" there.

You are correct. In relating such uncontinuous thing, I have to miss it. Do you really think we can use Since anytime anywhere for anything?

[Xui]

"I have been sick since 1990." has the tendency to be read as a universal, BUT IT IS NOT THE DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC OF THAT STRUCTURE.
====================

In my understanding, it is. As I have explained, however, you may put more sentences to say what you really want to imply. Why must we condense many implications into one sentence, actually one word: SINCE?

[fluffyhamster]

Why must we condense many implications into one sentence, actually one word: SINCE?[/size]

Because it is important and necessary to ponder many implications if we ever want to arrive at an accurate and widely acceptable and useful description of the language.