Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

4 Svenja Kranich
It is not easy to distinguish between aspectual and subjective progressives.
The first, general criterion I have applied to identify the latter is that the progressive
must serve as an expression of the speaker’s subjective belief state/attitude
toward the proposition, and that this should be reasonably understood as the main
motivation for the use of the progressive, unlike in the following example:
(4) for the troops are all mouldering in their winter quarters.
(archerii\ 650–99.bre\ 667temp.x 37)
Here, the speaker clearly has a certain attitude toward the proposition, but
this is expressed by lexical choice (mouldering), while the use of the progressive is
rather motivated by the fact that the event is viewed as in progress. Thus, if one can
assume that a progressive would have been used regardless of a possible speaker
involvement, the use will not be counted as subjective.
3.1 Type : Subjective progressive with ALWAYS
Type is characterized by this general criterion as well as by the use of an alwaystype
adverbial. Since EModE times, the use of ALWAYS increasingly “signposts
the construction as operating modally” (Wright 994: 478). As limited duration is
strongly implied by the progressive since EModE, there is a clash when it is combined
with ALWAYS: temporally limited events are not always ongoing – at least
not in the objective sense of ‘at all times possible’. This is not to say that a combination
of progressive + ALWAYS in ModE 8 can never refer to an objectively always
ongoing, dynamic event. We can see that this is possible in the PDE example The
universe is forever expanding. This example is taken from Ljung ( 980: 28) who
explains that
it is part of our knowledge of the world that events progress [...] [and that]
this progression from beginning to end does not take very long. Because of this,
it is natural to associate all dynamic constructions with temporariness. However,
it is also part of our knowledge that the progression from beginning to end may
sometimes take very long, and it is not inconceivable that there are events which
go on for ever. (Ljung 980: 28)
Thus, limited duration is not part of the meaning of the progressive, but it is likely
to be associated with it. The presence of an adverbial of the always-type in ModE is,
then, a good indication that we are looking at a subjective progressive (the adverb
. The term ModE is used here to refer to the English language from the EModE period
onwards, including present-day use.