What is the difference in meaning?
Mary’s parents have made her change her decision.
Mary’s parents made her change her decision.
Just one of emphasis.
‘have made’ emphasises the forcefulness of the ‘making’.
Sorry I disagree. ‘Have made’ suggests an indefinite time and ‘made’ suggests a definite time. This isn’t to do with emphasis.
Alan
Mary’s parents have made her change her decision, so she is not going to study abroad. == She is now in Toronto.
Mary’s parents made her change her decision, so she gave up her plan to study abroad; however, because of her teachers’ strong push and her parents’ rethink, she finally wnet to Austria and has lived in Vienna ever since. == She is now in Vienna.
The result could be different. This is because ‘have made’ holds its effect up to now but ‘made’ does not. I agree with Alan this time.
Alan can you please give few examples to clarify. I am still not 100% sure what you all talking about.
Alan is on the right track but it’s not a matter of definite versus indefinite. The difference between the two structures is one of potential time information. However, without further qualification there is no difference in the information conveyed in these two sentences. The difference is in potential information.
In the second example (Mary’s parents made her change her decision.), the verb ‘make’ is not perfected (not by the structure of the sentence at least) but does have a naturally perfected aktionsart (the technical term for this is ‘telic’). This means that the nature of the verb is that it occurs and is then completed (which is what perfect means). The tense used is past tense which tells us that the verb ‘make’ occurred in the past and by the aktionsart of the verb we know it was also completed in the past. However, we don’t know anything else.
In the first example (Mary’s parents have made her change her decision.), the verb ‘make’ IS perfected (meaning that the structure of the sentence focusses the verb on the fact that it is completed as of a given time). The perfecting auxiliary ‘have’ is in the present tense. This makes this sentence present tense and when perfected forms are used in the present tense it simply means that ‘as of now’ the verb is known to be completed. As stated above though, the aktionsart of the verb ‘make’ is telic which means that it is naturally completed by its meaning. Had the sentence been in a past or future tense (meaning that the auxiliary ‘have’ would have been past or future) then the added information of a specific time at which the verb ‘make’ is completed could be given. However when used in the present that is not possible (because the time of completion is always ‘as of now’).
In a situation where a verb that has a naturally perfected aktionsart is then perfected, perfection is used to emphasis completion or draw particular attention to the time of completion. For this reason, this is why the first form would be required for something like:
Mary’s parents have just made her change her decision.
Hi,
Well, I’m glad I’m on ‘the right track’ but what I said was a reference to ‘definite and indefinite time’. In less technical language I maintain:
‘They have made’ means that is something that has happened. It refers forward to now because it is in the current topic of conversation or thought.
‘They made’ means’ that something happened and we can assume that it was at a particular time.
Alan
Which sentence is correct?
- Alan have made me understand my mistakes.
- Alan made me understand my mistakes.
If that a different if it is “had made”?
Hi.
Should be ‘has made’. ‘Had made’ would suggest another time in the past.
Alan