"They even admitted that papers may have been lost or misfiled."
I was wondering if the speaker used it because he already thought of "may have been" as a past tense construction not the one that should have been shoved into the past tense?
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
(1) As usual, you have asked an excellent question.
(2) Mr. John Honey wrote a 1997 book entitled
Language is Power/ The Story of Standard English and its Enemies (London and Boston: Faber and Faber).
(3) He was severely criticized because he felt that there
is correct English
and incorrect English. At that time in his country (the United Kingdom),
some people thought that he was wrong to insist that everyone learn
standard English.
(4) One thing that upset him was the fact that many educated people
do not understand the difference between
might have been and
may have been.
(5) I hope that I can explain his views correctly.
(6) Professor Honey says that (generally speaking)
might have been =
something could have happened but it
didn't!!!
(7) Professor Honey says that (generally speaking)
may have been =
something could have happened, but we
do not know yet!!!
(8) These are only my examples, so I cannot guarantee you that they are
correct:
TV announcer: Terrible news!!! There has just been an earthquake in city
X. 100, 000 people live there. We are getting reports that maybe
as many as 10,000 people
may have died (but WE DO NOT KNOW YET).
***
TV announcer: There was a terrible airplane accident in country Y. When
the plane crashed, all of the 100 passengers were immediately taken
by ambulance to the hospital. Now they are all OK. Those 100 passengers
might have died if there had not been those ambulances waiting to rush
them to the hospital (but WE KNOW THAT THEY DID NOT DIE -- thanks to
those waiting ambulances).
(9) Based on my reading of Professor Honey's book,
IF I am correct,
your sentence "They admitted that papers
may have been lost" =
They do not yet know whether the papers have been lost or have not
been lost. They are now checking.
("They admitted that papers
might have been lost" would =
The papers were NOT lost. For example: the papers were in a big
box. The custodian/janitor picked up the box to take it to the
trash container. But a good security guard told him: Don't touch those
papers!!! They are important!!! So we can say:
They admitted that papers might have been lost if the security guard
had not stopped the custodian. But the security guard DID stop the
custodian and the papers were NOT lost. Therefore, use "might have
been.")