Linguist Forum
Specializations => Morphosyntax => Topic started by: Natalia on May 18, 2015, 12:18:45 PM
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Today I watched a film where a man said the following:
"Why did you turn off the TV? I was watching that programme!"
And I'm wondering why he used Past Continuous here instead of Present Perfect Cotninuous. Wouldn't it be more correct to say:
"Why did you turn off the TV? I've been watching that programme"?
Could you comment on this please?
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"I have been" implies a continuous (or habitual, or frequentive) action, where "he was watching and still is". Because the TV was turned off he can't continue watching it, so "he was watching".
Compare:
- I was watching (for half an hour)
- I have been watching (for half an hour)
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Ok I get your point. But I'm still confused about the definition of PPC which we use to express: "actions that began in the past and are still continuing or HAVE ONLY JUST FINISHED".
So, for example, if my friend says on the phone:
I have been ironing my clothes. (= she can still be ironing or she has only just finished)
Am I right?
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Hmm... well, he didn't really finish anything, he was interrupted. The ongoing action to which he refers is in the past ("was watching") before the interruption, not in the present ("have been watching").
I also think the past progressive is simply used for interruptions. You might be placing a little bit too much emphasis on "just recently finished".
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Yes, it was interrupted, so it's over, and the speaker is emphasizing that.
The use of the perfective forms indicates present relevance, not strictly temporal information. In this case, it is NOT relevant to the present, because it's actually contrastive with it, due to the interruption.
1) Watching TV, when interrupted.
2) Discussing the previous event (1).