【问】 I have not studied Russian for two years.

葛传椝：《英语惯用法词典》(P.261)说上面的句子有两个含义：

1.我已经有两年不学习俄语了。

2.我学习俄语以来还不满两年。

请问上面的英语句子有第二个含义吗?

【答】 我们认为，R. Quirk等人的论述能很好地回答你提出来的问题。他们说：

“For has different meanings in the following two sentences：

I’ve done that for years. [1]

I’ve not done that for years. [2]

In the positive[1]，the action is included in the for time span，ie included duration. In thenegative[2]，on the other hand，the action is excluded from the for time span，ie excluded dura-tion('It's years since I've done that' ，'I haven't done that in years' ). ”(CGEL，P. 689)

(“For在下面两个句子里有不同的含义：

I've done that for years. [1]

I've not done that for years. [2]

(“在肯定句[1]中，行为包含在for所表示的时间段之中，也就是说，这里所指的时间段是内包持续时间。而在否定句[2]中，行为被排除在for所表示的时间段之外，也就是说，这里所指的时间段是排除持续时间(‘It’s years since I’ve done that’，‘I haven’t done that inyears’”)

由上面的论述可以看出，你所提出的否定句I have not studied Russian for two years.只有葛老所提出的第一种含义：我已经有两年不学习俄语了。并请与下列句子进行对比：

I have-not seen you for ages.

我多年没有与你见面了。