Biblical Hebrew Forum

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"Elsie HAD walked in the garden", however, does suggest that her walking  
ended before the reference point.
Hayyim
 
In a message dated 7/26/2005 6:50:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
peterkirk AT qaya.org writes:

>  ...
>
>I will argue that the perfective aspect in English is  expressed by perfect
>(and not by simple past, which is a tense). When I  say, "Elsie has walked in
>the garden," what I make visible is the the  end of the action. We know that
>the action had a beginning, and we know  that it progressed over some time, 
>but
>only the end is made  visible.  This is the perfective aspect.
>  
>

As  a mother tongue speaker of English, I consider that this is a  
misunderstanding of the English present perfect (which may be subtly  
different from its Norwegian counterpart here). I would say "Elsie has  
walked in the garden" normally if I have found some evidence for her  
presence there, such as something she has dropped. But that does not  
imply that she has stopped walking in the garden, she may be still there  
but hidden, or this may be a continuing regular activity. In fact all we  
know for certain is that the action has  STARTED.