Present perfect In british and american

138) “The cook whistled in the kitchen.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

139) “She heard the click of the typewriter.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

140) “It was her life, and, bending her head over the hall table…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

141) “She bowed beneath the influence…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

142) “She felt blessed and purified, saying to herself…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

143) “She took the pad with the telephone message on it.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

144) “…as if some lovely rose has blossomed for her eyes only.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

145) “…for the shock of Lady Bruton asking Richard to lunch without her made the moment in which she has stood shiver, as a plant on the river-bed feels the shock of a passing oar and shivers.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

146) “Millicent Bruton, whose lunch parties are said to be extraordinarily amusing, has not asked her.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

147) “No vulgar jealousy could separate her from Richard.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

148) “But she feared time itself…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

149) “She put the pad on the hall table.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

150) “She began to go slowly upstairs…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

151) “She has left a party, where now this friend now that has flashed back her face, her voice; has shut the door and gone out and stood alone…” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

152) “Like a nun withdrawing, or a child exploring a tower, she went upstairs, paused at the window, came to the bathroom.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

153) “There was the green linoleum and a tap dripping.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

154) “There was an emptiness about the heart of life; an attic room.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

155) “She pierced the pincushion and laid her feathered yellow hat on the bed.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

156) “The sheets were clean, tight stretched in a broad white band from side to side.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

157) “The candle is half burnt down and she has read deep in Baron Marbot’s Memoirs.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

158) “She has read late at night of the retreat from Moscow.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

159) “For the House sat so long that Richard insisted, after her illness, that she must sleep undisturbed.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

160) “And really she preferred to read of the retreat from Moscow.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

161) “He knew it.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

162) “So the room was an attic; the bed narrow; and lying there reading, for she slept badly, she could not dispel a virginity preserved through childbirth which clung to her like a sheet.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

163) “She could see what she lacked.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

164) “It was not beauty; it was not mind.” (Action was committed in the past and it is not related to the present. The Past Simple Tense.)

165) “It was something central which permeated; something warm which broke up surfaces and rippled the cold contact of man and woman, or of women together.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

166) “For THAT she could dimly perceive.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

167) “Only for a moment; but it was enough.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

168) “It was a sudden revelation, a tinge like a blush which one tried to check and then, as it spread, one yielded to its expansion, and rushed to the farthest verge and there quivered and felt the world come closer, swollen with some astonishing significance, some pressure of rapture…” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

169) “But the close withdrew; the hard softened.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

170) “It was over — the moment.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

171) “Against such moments there contrasted the bed and Baron Marbot and the candle half-burnt.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

172) “She raised her head she could just hear the click of the handle released as gently as possible by Richard, who slipped upstairs in his socks and then, as often as not, dropped his hot-water bottle and swore!” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

173) “How she laughed!” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

174) “She sat on the floor — that was her first impression of Sally — she sat on the floor with her arms round her knees, smoking a cigarette.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

175) “But all that evening she could not take her eyes off Sally.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

176) “Perhaps that summer she came to stay at Bourton…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

177) “Then, for that moment, she has seen an illumination; a match burning in a crocus; an inner meaning almost expressed.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

178) “It is an extraordinary beauty of the kind she most admired, dark, large-eyed, with that quality which, since she hasn’t got it herself…” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

179) “There has been some quarrel at home.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

180) “She literally hasn’t a penny …— she has pawned a brooch to come down.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

181) “She has rushed off in a passion.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

182) “She has seen an old man who has dropped dead in a field — she has seen cows just after their calves are born.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

183) “They sat up till all hours of the night talking.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

184) “She knew nothing about sex — nothing about social problems.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

185) “But Aunt Helena never liked discussion of anything.”  (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

186) “Suppose any of the gentlemen has seen?” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

187) “The words meant absolutely nothing to her now.”  (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

188) “She could not even get an echo of her old emotion.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

189) “…now the old feeling began to come back to her…” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

190) “She SEEMED, anyhow, all light, glowing, like some bird or air ball that has flown in, attached itself for a moment to a bramble.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

191) “All this was only a background for Sally.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

192) “She and Sally fell a little behind.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

193) “Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

194) “It was true.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

195) “Since her illness she has turned almost white.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

196) “Laying her brooch on the table …the icy claws have had the chance to fix in her.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

197) “She was not old yet.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

198) “She has just broken into her fifty-second year.” (Action was completed in the past, but it has a connection with the present through the result of this action. The Present Perfect Tense.)

199) “Months and months of it were still untouched.” (It is single complete action. The Past Simple Tense.)

200) “Clarissa plunged into the very heart of the moment, transfixed it, there — the moment of this June morning on which was the pressure of all the other mornings, seeing the glass, the dressing-table, and all the bottles afresh, collecting the whole of her at one point, seeing the delicate pink face of the woman who was that very night to give a party; of Clarissa Dalloway; of herself.” (Actions took place in the past, one by one, i.e., in chronological order. The Past Simple Tense.)

 

We have studied 200 sentences from the text: 67 sentences with the Present Perfect Tense and 133 sentences with the Past Simple Tense. 67/133 ~ 0,504. One sentence with the Present Perfect Tense corresponds to 2 sentences with the Past Simple Tense. We have come to a conclusion that the Past Simple Tense is almost 2 times more often used than the Present Perfect Tense.

So, we compare the results of our research. We can see that the average ratio of Present Perfect to Past Simple is equal 1: 2 in BE and 1: 2, 5 in AE. This ratio is not exactly the same as the ratio nominated by Schweitzer. However, it supports our hypothesis that the Present Perfect Tense is more frequently used than the Past Simple Tense in British fiction rather than in American fiction. On the other hand, the ratio obtained by us proves our assumption that the average ratio of the use of Present Perfect and Past Simple in BE and AE changes over time. In this case, the ratio is reduced over time (1: 2, 5 at the beginning of the twentieth century and 1: 3, 5 at the end of the twentieth century, when Schweitzer conducted his research).

In this chapter we have analyzed the reasons of the use of Past Simple and Present Perfect verb forms in fiction and shown the frequency of the use of Present Perfect and Past Simple in the English language. If we paid our attention to the time when there was a particular action, we use the Past Simple. If all the attention is paid to the result of action and its connection with the present, the Present Perfect is used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

In our work we have analyzed the reasons of the frequency of the use of Past Simple and Present Perfect verb forms in American and British fiction and identified the average ratio of this frequency.

In the theoretical chapter of our work we have studied the definition of the category of tense of English verb and basic qualities of the Perfect forms; also we have given the peculiarities of Past Simple and Present Perfect. We have examined the structure and use of these times. Then we passed to consideration of a question of the historical development of temporary system in British English and American English. After that we presented stylistic potential of Present Perfect and Past Simple in English.

Also we have compared the Past Simple Tense and the Present Perfect Tense and identified similarities and differences between them. Having compared the 2 tenses, we came to the following conclusions: all the differences between the two forms of tense can be grouped into two points, depending on what we want to emphasize in a sentence.

1) If the attention is paid to the time of particular action, the Past Simple is used. It is for this reason in sentences with the Past Simple is almost always present reference to the time (ago, yesterday, last year, etc.).

2) If all the attention is paid to the result of action and its connection with the present, the Present Perfect is used.

We also found that Schweitzer suggested that the average ratio of the use of Present Perfect and Past Simple in BE and AE was equal 1: 2 in BE and 1: 3, 5 in AE.

In the practical part of our work we have analyzed three chapters from each of two texts: one text from American fiction and one text from British fiction. We have analyzed four hundred sentences, taken from the texts "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser and "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf.  We have shown that in fiction the result of the action and its relation to the present are the most important. We have also compared and analyzed the frequency of the use of Past Simple and Present Perfect verb forms in fiction. And based on all of these reasons, we have proved that the Present Perfect Tense is more frequently used than the Past Simple Tense in British fiction rather than in American fiction. Also we have proved our assumption that the average ratio of the use of Present Perfect and Past Simple in BE and AE changes over time. We graphically depicted the average ratio received by us in practical part of our research. (Appendix 2) As a result, we can make the following conclusion – we have proved our hypothesis.

So, this work can be used for further study of this problem in the course of theoretical grammar.

 

 

 

 

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Appendix