AE and BE, perfect or simple.

[revel]

Hey all.

Are the B and A speaking after having filtered their words through grammatical mores and rules and regulations, or is one trying to find out if the other has seen the film? Having lived in several different regions of the USA (and being American myself), I have noted that, despite what we may teach our students as far as usage and interpretation of utterances is concerned, in an actual conversation people are not thinking if what they are saying would be accepted by their eighth grade Language Arts teacher. This is evident in the very example offered here, that is, a B listening to an A.

So, if in Longmont Colorado everyone always asks this rather common question using "Did you", meaning "Have you", then the person from Longmont talking to the other person from Longmont would understand that the film is still playing. Yet, if in Albany New York people tend to ask it with "Have you" instead of "Did you" then two from the same town would also understand each other. And when people from differing linguistic backgrounds and habits are talking about having seen the film there might be confusion, but it would be quickly cleared up with a "oh, too bad, it's not at the theatre anymore, but you can probably get it on DVD" or "well, hurry up and see it before they change the movie at the Bijoux!"

In my ESL class I teach them that the "did you" form would IN GENERAL be interpreted as a completed action, while the "have you" form, with its implied "yet" would IN GENERAL be interpreted as still being valid at the moment of speaking. I follow that quickly with "In NYC there are 7 identified dialects of American English and in London there are 11" (I don't care if the numbers are accurate or not, shall we just say "many"?) "and you all will be speaking English as L2, never never as L1, so when in doubt, ask, it's good practice." But then I am a practical linguist and not an investigative nor philosophical one.

peace,
revel.

[woodcutter]

My comment was a bit general. I think that people know better than to make large assumptions based on a choice of the "I have been to France" kind of present perfect, referring to isolated events in the past, and the past simple form, however.