[Grammar] 'has been married' and 'has married' for nearly twenty years

[Oceanlike]

Are the following sentences correct? With the change in tense, do (1a) and (1b) have the same meaning? Same question for (2a) and (2b)

1a) She has been living in Vietnam all her life. (present perfect continuous)
1b) She has lived in Vietnam all her life. (present perfect)


2a) They have been married for nearly twenty years.
2b) They have married for nearly twenty years.

Thank you!:-D

 

[Raymott]

1a = 1b
Only 2a is correct.

 

[Oceanlike]

Exactly what I thought!

However, I don't understand the "grammar" reason for (2b) being wrong. It definitely sounds weird to me though.

Can you explain to me why (2b) is wrong?

Thank you, Raymott! :-D

 

[emsr2d2]

"Married" is an adjective in the context you are trying to use it so "They have married" is incorrect.

 

[Raymott]

"2b) They have married for nearly twenty years."
Getting married is something you do once (ideally). "For twenty years" doesn't work for single actions. For example, you can't say, "I joined the army for twenty years" unless, when you joined, you made a twenty year commitment. It's a different meaning.
You can use use 2b if you mean that they made a commitment to stay married for nearly 20 years. But this is not how people marry. You can live somewhere continuously for 20 years, but you can't marry someone continuously for 20 years. You marry them once (again, usually).

 

[tedmc]

2a) "Have been married" is a state or status, like single/divorced/widowed.
2b) "Have married" is a verb, a one-off action, e.g. A marries B.

 

[Matthew Wai]

2b) "Have married" is a verb, a one-off action,

I would consider 'marry' a momentary verb, but I am not a teacher.

2b) They have married for nearly twenty years.

May I take it to mean that they got married repeatedly in the past twenty years?