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Isn't it wrong to write "Mrs X is head of $department at $company since 2015" ?

Shouldn't it be "has been head of xyz since 2015"?

I have seen quite a few examples of "is [...] since" in the brochures and websites of certain organisations - but the individuals are all native English speakers and the organisations in questions are all based in English-speaking countries, which left me quite puzzled.

Thanks!

Pythonista anonymous
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1 Answers1

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Over on the ELL StackExchange, this broad type of construction has been declared unacceptable (see here). The same claim is made in this blog by a native speaker who is an editor and language trainer; see here.

These verdicts notwithstanding, the construction does seem to be at least marginally acceptable, at least in American English.

Discussion

In the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), we find this attested example:

Since 2004 he is a partner and CTO of Secure Network, a firm specializing in…

As indicated in the question, one can find examples of this construction on web pages of organizations where there is little doubt the writer is a native English speaker. One example:

Sharlene S. Vichness is Founder and President of Language Directions, LLC. since 2005. (source)

Here is a relevant section of the CGEL (p. 697):

Since, irrespective of the type of complement, is largely restricted in BrE to occurrence with the perfect, as in [13i] [Jill has sold over 200 policies since she joined the company.]; it can, however, be used with simple tenses in the construction It is now nearly a year since he died. AmE allows preterites rather more widely: %Since you went home we redecorated our bedroom.

(Here % means 'grammatical in some dialect(s) only'.)

Also, the Macmillan Dictionary has this note in its entry for since (here):

When since is used for talking about time, the verb in the main clause of the sentence is usually in the present perfect or past perfect tense: It hasn’t rained since the end of July. He had been composing music since he was ten years old. Sometimes the present simple or past simple is used in the main clause [emphasis mine]: It’s over twenty years since we last met.

I should stress that this doesn't mean that there is a free-for-all on the usage of present simple with since. The marginal acceptability of the examples above seems to be constrained to the particular narrow context of biographical entries. For example, I don't think any native speaker would find the following acceptable: *Police Chief Smith fights crime since 1990. It would have to be has fought or has been fighting.

Having said all that, the corresponding construction with the present perfect (e.g. Since 2000 he has been a director at Acquavella Galleries, New York, which…) is much more common in COCA.

Also, in the American Heritage Dictionary entry for since, all the relevant examples use the present perfect; see here.

In conclusion, lots of people will agree with you that it is not acceptable. Nevertheless, it is not unheard of for native speakers to use this construction. So, I conclude that it is marginally acceptable.

(Note that related questions pop up in various forums from time to time, e.g. here, here, here…)

linguisticturn
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  • Your second example ("Since 2002 they are in Gaenserndorf") is very likely to have been written by a native German speaker, not a native English speaker, as this is a very common error for native-German-speaking ESL speakers to make. – The Photon Jan 09 '21 at 05:20
  • Well, even Latin languages tend to have the same construction (he is head of x since 2010). – Pythonista anonymous Jan 09 '21 at 14:26
  • @ThePhoton I checked COCA's source more thoroughly (here), and what you say is quite possible. I'm removing that example. Thanks! – linguisticturn Jan 09 '21 at 17:39
  • The ungrammaticality here reminds me of how you must use the perfect for the first time one has ever seen/done/etc something, not the simple present. – tchrist Jan 09 '21 at 19:21
  • @Pythonistaanonymous That's interesting! However, the acceptability of a construction in a Romance language—even Latin, which grammarians used to use as a model for English—is a poor predictor for the acceptability of a corresponding construction in English. As CGEL says (pp. 9-10), English grammar differs on innumerable points from Latin grammar… where analogies are used uncritically to predict grammatical properties, or Latin principles are taken to guarantee correct use of English, the user is simply being misled. – linguisticturn Jan 09 '21 at 19:31
  • @tchrist Indeed… But, do I understand it correctly from your comment that you personally don't find this particular construction acceptable (even in the very narrow context of biographies)? – linguisticturn Jan 09 '21 at 19:34
  • @linguisticturn Certainly your first COCA example of Since 2004 he is a partner and CTO of Secure Network is something I find hard to imagine generating in my own idiolect. I would have to (for example) say that Anthony Fauci has been* the head of NIAID since 1984*, never *is head there. – tchrist Jan 09 '21 at 20:27
  • @linguisticturn I am not saying it should be "is since" just because that's how Latin languages write it, absolutely not. I meant that I was used to seeing this in the English section of French/Spanish/Italian companies' websites, which I could kind of understand as a poor translation, but it surprised me to see it for companies in English-speaking countries. – Pythonista anonymous Jan 09 '21 at 21:06
  • @Pythonistaanonymous Oh, I see. OK! – linguisticturn Jan 09 '21 at 22:32