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Square Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

The book seems to have been published.

The book seems to have been published.

I am a bit confused about the use of "to have + past participle" here.
What is the grammar point relating to this?
Can I rewrite that sentence as follows?

1. The book seems published.
2. The book seems to be published.

Thank you.
  

Top answer

e. "The book seems to have been published" is the passive form of "(Someone) seems to have published the book". This refers to refers to past action with present effect.

— GPY

  • e.
  • "The book seems to have been published" is the passive form of "(Someone) seems to have published the book".
  • This refers to refers to past action with present effect.
  • It is also conceivable that "published" could be interpreted as an adjective, in which case "seems to have been published" would refer to a state existing at some past time.
  • "The book seems to be published" and "The book seems published" would probably be interpreted with "published" as an adjective, referring to present state.
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6 Answers
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The full pattern is "to have been + past participle", which is the passive perfect infinitive, i.e. "The book seems to have been published" is the passive form of "(Someone) seems to have published the book". This refers to refers to past action with present effect. It is also conceivable that "published" could be interpreted as an adjective, in which case "seems to have been published" would refe
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Thanks. As you said, it refers to past action. I am wondering why don't we use the past simple instead of present perfect here.
The book seems to + past simple.
However, I don't know how to use past simple for the sentence above.
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"The book seems to ..." (in the relevant sense) must be followed by an infinitive. There is no simple past infinitive, only a perfect infinitive. In order to use the simple past, you would have to recast the sentence, e.g. as "It seems that the book was published".
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A perfect infinitive has the same meaning as a simple past here, right?
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Hmm. Sometimes the usual differences between present perfect and simple past, such as that the present perfect has a stronger connection with present state, may be apparent. For example, "My bag seems to have been stolen" has a stronger sense of talking about present state resulting from past action, compared to "It seems that my bag was stolen". However, in other cases the difference appears to b
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