Which sentence is correct if my intention is to express the continuing process : English is studied by me for several years or English has been studying by me for several years.
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1Neither of them. English has been studied by me for several years or a better phrasing would be I have been studying English for several years or I have studied English for several years.– Weather VaneAug 19, 2017 at 19:03
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1Possible correction of the first one: English was studied by me for several years before I finally dropped it.– Michael LoginAug 19, 2017 at 19:07
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@MvLog Thanks. The question was asked about continued process of learning. Those who dropped it didn't ask anything at all– AndreiAug 19, 2017 at 19:30
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1@Andrei Continuing process not continued if it is still going on. Don't ask not didn't if you're making a general statement.– Michael LoginAug 19, 2017 at 19:44
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2It is a very unlikely sentence. No one in her right mind would say that. Imagine saying: Bread has been being baked by him for five years. It's grammatical but one would say: He's been baking bread for five years. These types of sentences in the continuous passive are not commonly structured like yours; That said, one can do it: English has been being used by us for various reasons. Machines have been being cleaned now for five hours.– LambieAug 19, 2017 at 21:36
2 Answers
English has been studying by me for several years.
This is not valid English: has been studying is active voice and will not sustain the agentive complement by me.
English is studied by me for several years.
This is formally acceptable, but there is a semantic disconnect between present-tense is studied and the temporal for several years. It is quite possible for a 'gnomic' present to refer to an indefinitely long timespan, but that timespan is taken to extend equally far into the past and the future, while for several years implies that the span has come to an end. The only context in which this sentence might appear is a narrative cast in the 'historical present': perhaps a chapter heading in your autobiography!
English has been studied by me for several years (suggested by Weather Vane)
This is possible: it might be a continuative perfect, mentioning an activity which has continued right up to the present. Equally, however, it might be an existential perfect, mentioning an activity lying entirely in the past: that activity would bear perfective aspect and thus exclude your requirement that it express processuality. There is consequently a growing tendency in present-day English to cast continuatives in the progressive perfect:
English has been being studied by me for several years.
All of this begs the question of whether I have been studying English can be meaningfully cast into the passive at all. What passivizable thematic role does English play here? A field of study is not a Patient or a Theme, unless the Agent effects (or at least seeks to effect) some change of state in it, as in This problem has been studied by me several years—and that doesn't really work in the progressive. English is I think more like a Location or Scene, and it's very doubtful that that can be passivized: *The airport has been departed from! I cannot imagine circumstances in which such a sentence would actually be uttered.
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1I would say that none is valid. English has been studied by these students, yes, But nothing with I or me. It is not a grammar issue. it's a: But who- would-even-say-that issue?– LambieAug 19, 2017 at 21:31
English has been studied by me for several years.
This is correct but very unnatural sounding.