Re: Danish enigma

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "willemvermeer" <wrvermeer@...>
wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "aquila_grande"

<aquila_grande@...>

> wrote:
>
> > In Norwegian the perfect is used in the following instances:
> >
> > -When an action, process or property in the past extends into

the

> > present. Ex: I har arbeidet som lærer i to år: - I have worked

as a

> > teacher in 2 years, and still do.
> >
> > -When an action in the past makes neccessary some action or
> > attention from the listener. Ex: The horse has run away from his
> > hedge. (The listener has to go out to bring it back)
> >
> > Is this the same way it is used in Swedish and Danish?
>
>
> From a Dutch perspective this looks very English.
>
> As for the first type of examples, Dutch sentences like "Ik heb

twee

> jaar als leraar gewerkt" tend to imply that the speaker is no

longer

> working as a teacher at the moment of speaking unless drastic
> measures are taken to avoid that implication. This is a recurrent
> source of misunderstandings and mistranslations. ("I definitely
> thought you'd said you had a different job now ...".) If you want

to

> express the fact that you are still working, you have to use a
> present tense, preferably also adding some kind of temporal

anchor,

> like "nu" 'now', e.g. "Ik werk hier [nu] twee jaar als leraar".
>
>

That's a different kettle of fish. Dutch, Germans and French say "Ik
werk hier zinds twee jaren", "Ich arbeite hier seit zwei
Jahren", "Je travaille ici depuis deux années". They sometimes say
it in English and Scandivian too, which is wrong, since they should
have said "I have worked here for two years", "Jeg har arbejdet her
i to år" etc.


Torsten