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Events in the past still continuing

352b

The progressive form is often used for events which started in the past and are still

continuing, or which have stopped, but whose effects are still continuing:

She

’s been working for the company for years, hasn’t she?

Maybe they can see I

’ve been crying.

(the tears or the effects are still visible; ‘Maybe they can see I’ve cried’ would

not allow the possibility that the crying was still continuing right up to the

present moment)

Have you been watching ‘The Lonely Planet’?

(the TV programme, The Lonely Planet, is still continuing each week, and

people continue to watch it)

References to things which have been true for very long periods of time often

prefer the simple form:

A church 

has stood on this site since the twelfth century.

(preferred to: has been standing)

References to events closed and completed at some indefinite point in the past

prefer the simple form:

A: Do you know ‘A Tale of Two Cities’?

B: I have read it, but I don’t remember much about it. 

(not: I have been reading it …)

(‘I’ve been reading A Tale of Two Cities’ might mean that the speaker had not

finished it but was still reading it, though not necessarily at the moment of

speaking. It could also suggest that the speaker had finished the novel but had

been kept occupied by it: ‘I’ve been reading A Tale of Two Cities, that’s why you

haven’t seen me all week. I had to write an essay on it.’)

The difference between the present perfect simple and the present perfect

progressive may sometimes be between an emphasis on the event itself as a

progressive, extended activity (progressive form), compared with the results of the

event, or some other, secondary reference to the event (simple form). Both forms

may refer to completed events:

[looking out of the window]

It

’s been raining.

(the rain has stopped)

In sub-Saharan Africa … the rate of decline in infant mortality 

has slowed

noticeably: a child’s risk of dying before reaching the age of five is higher than

anywhere else in the world.

(the slowing of the rate may or may not have stopped; what is important are the

results)