The Past Family

[shuntang]

Some readers think grammarians would not DELIBERATELY hide away the Past Family, like IN THE PAST XX YEARS (such as in the past, in the past year, in the past two months, during the past three decades, over the past four weeks, for the past few years, etc.) But I think otherwise. Please check Collins Cobuild English Grammar for example, which emphasizes to give you REAL English. Count the members of its Editorial Team. And use a magnifier to see pages in special small letters stating thousands of sources from which they selected REAL examples. Despite the awful manpower and sources, unfortunately, they missed the Past Family, every one of them, relating to tenses. So, try to convince me that the Editorial Team really carelessly, rather than deliberately, missed all these time adverbials. And coincidentally, this carelessness happens in all the grammar books beside you. Some carelessness, if not deliberate.

By the way, however, Collins Cobuild English Grammar does give you a big hint:

WARNING: 5.34 You cannot use adjuncts which place the action at a definite time in the past with the Present Perfect.

Can't you see? With this warning, will the grammar show you any example of the Past Family?

Shun Tang

[Stephen Jones]

Ex1: The low foodgrain prices in the past two years saw farmers not selling their agricultural output immediately.
http://www.indiainfoline.com/view/2402c.html

Ex2: "A typical household iin the past two years saw about a $20,000 gain in equity," said Lawrence Yun, forecasting economist at the National Association of Realtors.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/01/21/news/economy/housing/

Ex3: "This new board is refreshingly healthy, and their ideas are great," says one of the few returning School Board veterans, Reginald Malone, who in the past two years found himself on the losing end of many 7-2 votes.
http://www.richmond.com/richmondmagazin ... id=2515082

Ex4: It has always been in dispute, but only in the past two years did it cause a war.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/ ... itrea1.htm

The difference here is between British and American English. American English uses the Past Simple where British English would use the Present Perfect. It would be perfectly correct in both British and American English to use the Present Perfect in all four examples. and indeed the Past Simple as used here sounds strange to British ears.

You are still getting hold of the wrong end of the stick. The fact that these phrases can be used with the Past Simple does not mean they can't be used with the Present Perfect.

Time frames that are indefinite or lead up to the present can be used with the Present Perfect. Time frames that finish in the past cannot.

This is what the Cobuild reference you give is trying to say. None of the four examples you give, nor "previously" nor "before" give a definite time in the past.

You have decided to call this thread "The Past Family". Nobody else knows what on earth you are talking about. You clearly don't understand the difference between the Past Simple and the Present Perfect and instead of attempting to understand it you have devised some wacko theory which yo can't even be bothered to divulge to us.

If according to your analysis, in the example "I saw John yesterday", I may say the seeing does not go up to the present, but YESTERDAY does. Also, John and I do go up to the present. Therefore, we may even claim that nearly the whole of "I saw John yesterday" is up to the present.

This is absolute nonsense. Yesterday is finished. It finished at midnight.

Here, people will understand what I mean, but you don't. Please review the head of this thread. I am claiming that because of this so-called golden rule, people are hiding the Past Family. "The Past Family" is the title of this thread, if it can mean anything to you.

I don't know what people you are talking about. A far as I can tell nobody on this thread apart from you has the least idea what you are talking about. We can try and guess what your defective English is referring to and as far as we can tell your "golden rule" is just plain wrong.

[shuntang]

Didn't I say Present Perfect is piece of cake!