This question is about time.
If I just say to someone, for example, "You have been a fool", am I talking that the guy was a fool in the past and still being a fool in the present, or that the guy was a fool in the past(In some specific situation, etc.) and he isn't a fool in the present?
If the sentence is, for example, "You have been a fool since last year", the "meaning" is something like "You began to be a fool in some point of last year and still being a fool now", right? But how can I know the "meaning" of "have been" if the sentence does not have "for" or "since"? If the sentence does not have any reference about time, does it means that the action does not have any link with the present and finished in the past?