Vsechny Vas zdravim, jsem ani netusil, ze se rozjede az takovato diskuze.
Zdroj je opravdu SuperMemo, kde jsem ji nasel. Je pravdou, ze jsem jiz
upozornoval na vice prehmatu v teto databazi, nicmene jsem take oslovil meho
kamarada, rodileho mluvciho, ktery mi dal k vete nasledujici vysvetleni:
You are absolutely right they do have different meanings with regards
time.....
‘He is in a…’ would be referring to something that is now and on-going.
He is in it and, because it is constant, you can expect it to always be so and
have been so. Whereas, ‘He has been in a constant state…’ refers to the
fact that it is now in the past, even though it has been constant up
to now.
So you could say ‘He has been in a constant state of inebriety but, he
isn’t now’
But of course you cannot say ‘He is in a constant state of inebriety but,
he isn’t now.’ that clearly makes no sense.
And yet if asked ‘how is he? Is he sober?’ you could answer ‘ He has
been in a constant state of inebriety’ in order to imply that your knowledge
up to now shows he is always drunk. He is not with, you so you can’t be sure
but, it strongly implies it could be so. It can be a clever way to answer a
question using the past to imply something that you actually don't know.
eg,
Q:How is your employee?
A: He has been constantly ill.
They have asked you how he is but, you are answering how he has been. He
might now be cured and well forever more but, you didn’t want to tell them
that, so you have managed to give an answer that doesn’t lie but also
doesn’t tell us the whole truth!!
Hope this helps.