Why was the simple past instead of the present perfect used?

Question

I have found the following sentence in Michael Swan's grammar book.

From his earliest childhood, he loved music.

So far as I know, present perfect is used to talk about actions that have just completed (such as "He has just/already come") or if the action is still continuing and which began in the past ("He has lived in the house for the last five years.")

On the other hand, the simple past is used to talk about completed actions in the past, such as "He saw the film yesterday," or "Columbus discovered America".

Why did the author use the simple past instead of present tense? Is it a grammatical rule, or usage?

If I change the sentence into present perfect and present perfect continuous,will they be grammatically wrong and unidiomatic?

From his childhood, he has loved music

from his earliest childhood, he has been loving music

If you're asking if the present perfect is grammatical, see "Q: Canonical Post #2: What is the perfect, and how should I use it?" and "Is there a simple and clear way to explain the difference between past simple and present perfect?". If you're asking why the author chose the simple past, we'd need context or to ask them. — Jason Bassford, Aug 07 '19 at 17:51
@JasonBassford.i am sorry i can not contact Swan.please let others give their answers — Jvlnarasimharao, Aug 07 '19 at 17:58
What I'm saying is that anybody answering why Swan said something, without more context than is given here, would be entirely speculative. If you quote more from the book than the single sentence, it might be more objectively answerable. Especially since it's a grammar book, it's likely the reason is clear, given the page on which it appears, assuming that it's an example sentence that's being used to demonstrate something about grammar. — Jason Bassford, Aug 07 '19 at 19:32

score 2 · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-07T17:13:37.917

2

Perhaps the man is no longer alive.

From his earliest childhood, he loved music.

Now consider that we are talking about someone who is sitting next to us:

He has loved music since his earliest childhood.

From his earliest childhood, he has loved music.

From his earliest childhood, he loved music. But recently he was diagnosed with melophobia.

edited Aug 07 '19 at 17:13

answered Aug 07 '19 at 16:41

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Perhaps the subject *no longer* has that love of music, even though he's not dead. – FumbleFingers Aug 07 '19 at 16:48
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melophobia- fear of music. (Nor a word I expect to ever use again.) – Aug 07 '19 at 17:14
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@Patriot.thank you.when i read the sentence,I felt that the music lover was .no more – Jvlnarasimharao Aug 07 '19 at 17:31
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@JagathaVLNarasimharao Perhaps he is no longer with us: "From his earliest childhood, he loved music." – Aug 07 '19 at 17:35

Why was the simple past instead of the present perfect used?

1 Answers1