Present perfect simple/continuous puzzle

Question

I have some sentence translations which I use with my students and one part always causes a mini-revolution. Here are the French sentences with the translations:

1. Etienne conduit un taxi depuis 20 ans - Etienne has driven/has been driving a taxi for 20 years. I explain the nuance between the simple form emphasising the notion of a complete 20 years and the continuous form emphasising the duration. This seems to be understood.

2.Jean dort depuis plus de 12 heures, je suis inquiet - Jean has been sleeping for more than 12 hours, I am worried. Continuous form because the activity of sleeping for a long time is the reason for my concern. It is not important if the activity is finished or not.

3.Sophie n'a pas dormi depuis 2 jours - Sophie hasn't slept for 2 days. Simple form as 2 days are finished.....

and herein lies the problem. The students can't see why example no 3 cannot be the continous form. I have tried all sorts of explanations but they can't get it - even to the extent of pointing out that in French, the negative form takes the passé composé ad not the present, as in the positive sentence. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Thanks

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Anonymousand one part always causes a mini-revolution

Ah, well, that's to be expected. They are French, after all!

I don't think there is a magic bullet that will quell the revolution. At least there's nothing that follows in this post that will solve the problem once and for all. Many of these have multiple interpretations, and only context and knowledge of the real world, that is, consideration of what is normal for the kind of activity or event represented, can guide the listener to the "correct" interpretation.

When both the continuous and the non-continuous versions have a plausible interpretation, the choice is left to the speaker as to how to conceptualize the situation at the moment of speaking.

... has driven a taxi for 20 years. The taxi driving is conceptualized as having happened within one inseparable block of time. The details of breaks to eat and sleep and do other things are glossed over as unimportant. We are mentally "zoomed out" here.
... has been driving a taxi ... The taxi driving is conceptualized as repeated episodes of action. The driver has "busied himself" with taxi driving during this period, but not exclusively. Obviously, the man had to eat and sleep some time! We are "zoomed in" here, focusing on those times when he is actually driving.

In a strange way, within this context, the use of one form or another changes the meaning of the verb -- well, maybe not the meaning, but something like it. In the non-continuous, drive means "be employed as a driver, have the job of driver". In the continuous, drive means "engaged periodically in doing driving activities, be busy doing driving".
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The remaining examples involve the verb sleep, which is by nature stative, so the interpretations can be different than for the dynamic verb drive. In the examples below, you see how real world knowledge of normal sleep time affects the interpretation. Sleeping for a number of hours is quite different from not sleeping for a number of days.

... has slept for more than 12 hours. He has "accomplished this feat" at least once in his life. The unusual nature of sleeping so long pushes the listener to the "feat accomplishment" interpretation of the non-continuous form. (Without further context, this is not a likely choice. Tom is very anemic. He wants to sleep all the time. He has even slept for more than 12 hours on occasion.)
... has been sleeping ... He started to sleep 12 hours ago. He is still asleep. Sleep is by nature continuous, so "zooming in" fits it nicely. Even in the finest slices of time within an episode of sleep, sleeping is still what is going on. The same remarks apply to has been waiting, has been watching, has been resting, has been standing (there), has been staring (at us), ... (for X hours) because they are all the sorts of things that are more or less uniform throughout the time they occur -- "no moving parts".
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Note how the meaning of sleep is shifted to include the idea of the ability to sleep in the following.

... hasn't slept for two days / in two days. She had no sleep -- was unable to sleep -- during a continuous and inseparable block of time which started two days ago. Or -- much less likely -- she "accomplished the feat" of not sleeping for two days at least once in her life.
... hasn't been sleeping for two days. She experienced repeated episodes of not being able to sleep during those two days. She hasn't had much success at sleeping during those two days. We are mentally "zoomed in" here, so two days doesn't seem like enough time to talk about failure to sleep after (presumably two) repeated attempts. She hasn't been sleeping well for the past month works better.

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Sometimes contextualizing the "wrong" choice (where possible), explaining its meaning, and showing how unusual or inappropriate it is in a normal context can help students see why the "right" choice is the right choice. That's what I tried to do in the case of sleep. You can probably come up with even better examples, and with new examples for other verbs that your students encounter.

CJ

Present perfect simple/continuous puzzle

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