In the textbook by by Raymond Murphy, Intermediate English Grammar, 2nd edition, on page 26:
- "The Chinese invented printing."
Raymond Murphy says that we can't use the present perfect here. I question why?
According to Murphy:
"We can't use the present perfect if there's no connection with present."
But I guess there is a connection/result in the above example because we have printing now.
So why can't we say:
- "The Chinese have invented printing."
Why is version #2 wrong?
Best Answer
Statement of about the past, that this is a historical fact. (simple usage of the past tense of "invent").
Saying it that way implies it just happened, like you'd say "The Chinese have invaded our moon base!". As discussed in comments, you can get away with this usage in reply to a question like "What have the Chinese invented?", because that gives a context for the statement.
I think in most cases, the meaning will still be clear whether you say "invented" or "have invented", but it will probably sound strange to native English ears if its clear from context you don't mean "just now" when you say "have invented".
edit: There are other ways to use present perfect tense that don't imply something just happened, but this specific usage does (outside of a context provided by a question, or an introduction like "Let's consider what Chinese civilization has accomplished"). See the comments on this answer for discussion.
See the other high-voted answer for an analysis of how the grammar rules apply.