Perfective And Progressive Aspects III.

Progressive aspect in relation to tense:
It has the effect of surrounding a particular event or point of time with a temporal frame. a point in the flow of time from where the event is seen to stretch to the future and past. When the eight o’clock news comes on, I am already traveling to work. The temporal frame can be implied by reference to a past time of orientation. A moment later, we were hurrying for shelter beneath the trees. The relationship between a past progressive and simple past is of time inclusion: made coffee, was making coffee when we arrived. The temporal frame is not important.

Other uses of the progressive aspect:
May be used to refer to the future or future in the past. Are you going to the meeting? They were getting married the following spring. May be used with attitudinal past tense or present: I am hoping to borrow some money. or I was wondering if you could…
Or can be used following the auxiliary WILL or SHALL that suggests that the matter will definitely take place. I’ll be seeing you next week.

Perfective progressive:
when perf. and progr. are combined (has been working) their other features also combine. Progressive has three features: DURATION, LIMITATION OF DURATION, and POSSIBLE INCOMPLETENESS. The first two give the perfective progressive a sense of temporariness. I have been writing a letter to… This is a temporary situation leading up to the present. A state leading up to the present is simple perfect. The limitation of duration is weak in the case of LIVE, STAND, LIE. The use of punctual verbs is in most cases unacceptable with perfective progressive. He has been starting the book. which is wrong because it has no duration to start a book. The incompleteness feature becomes clear in the next two sent.: I have cleaned/have been cleaning the window. The use of simple perfective is wrong with accomplishment verbs when the clause contains an adverbial of duration. So ve say They have been repairing the road for months. But where the duration adverbial refers to the resultant state or where the clause is negative we may say: They haven’t repaired the roads for years. If a conclusive verb is not accompanied by a verb of duration it implies that the effects of the happening are still visible. You have been fighting again
The main uses of perfective progr. are as follows: The happening has limited duration/continues up to the present/need not be complete/may have effects which are still apparent.
We use present perf. progr. when a temporary habit up to the present. It implies that it may continue in the future. The meaning of the perfective progr. may combine with those of the past tense and the modal verbs.