This paper deals with the “hot news” use of the English present perfect. Previous research has suggested that this use marks the end point of the perfect category, paving the way for further grammaticalisation to a perfective or past tense. To examine its historical development in Modern English, verb forms in the leads of hard news reports in the New York Times and the Sydney Morning Herald were examined, with comparison made between two time periods, 1851–1900 and 1951–2000. Attention was given to contextual influence on the choice between the present perfect and the past tense for expressing hot news meanings. The quantitative findings show that the hot news perfect has not taken over the ground of other tense forms, but has become increasingly associated with unspecified, recent past time. The evolution of the English present perfect in general is characterised by register-mediated functional specialisation.

中文翻译：

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“热点新闻”在英语中的完美演变

本文讨论了英语现在完成时的“热点新闻”用法。先前的研究表明，这种用法标志着完美类别的终点，为进一步语法化为完成时或过去时铺平了道路。为了检查其在现代英语中的历史发展，我们检查了《纽约时报》和《悉尼先驱晨报》硬新闻报道中的动词形式，并在 1851-1900 和 1951-2000 两个时间段之间进行了比较。关注语境对选择现在完成时和过去时以表达热点新闻意义的影响。定量研究结果表明，热门新闻完成式并没有取代其他时态形式，而是越来越多地与未指定的、最近的过去时间相关联。