Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang
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The English progressive 73<br />
Bertinetto et al. refer to <strong>the</strong> development <strong>from</strong> locative to durative to focalized<br />
(and finally also possibly to imperfective) as ‘PROG imperfective drift’. 4 The<br />
process involves <strong>the</strong> following stages:<br />
i. pure locativity = stative, durative<br />
ii. progressivity I = residually locative, durative<br />
iii. progressivity II = durative<br />
iv. progressivity III = focalized, strictly imperfective<br />
v. pure imperfectivity = loss of <strong>the</strong> progressive character<br />
Figure 1. ‘PROG imperfective drift’ (Bertinetto et al. 2000: 540)<br />
As can be seen in Fig. 1, it is assumed that progressives typically originate as<br />
locative constructions. 5 These are said to express stative or durative meaning. In<br />
<strong>the</strong> original construction, <strong>the</strong> locative verb does not function as an auxiliary, but<br />
as a full lexical verb, which is followed by an independent non-verbal element<br />
(predicative or adjunct). What happens in PROG imperfective drift is that <strong>the</strong><br />
verb and <strong>the</strong> predicative or adjunctive element in <strong>the</strong> source construction are<br />
reanalysed as constituting a complex VP; thus, <strong>the</strong> main verb is reanalysed (and<br />
bleached) into an auxiliary, while <strong>the</strong> predicative/adjunctive element acquires <strong>the</strong><br />
status of main verb. Stage (ii) represents <strong>the</strong> initial stage of grammaticalization.<br />
Here <strong>the</strong> locative or postural verb begins to develop into an auxiliary. The construction<br />
now expresses durative meaning, but this meaning co-exists with <strong>the</strong><br />
older locative meaning. (Such overlapping of meanings and functions is, of<br />
course, common in grammaticalization processes.) At stage (iii), <strong>the</strong> locative<br />
verb is fully grammaticalized into an auxiliary, and <strong>the</strong> construction sheds its<br />
4. I do not think <strong>the</strong> term ‘drift’ here is meant to imply that <strong>the</strong> development in question is an<br />
example of language changing by itself. The term is probably meant simply to refer to <strong>the</strong> fact<br />
that <strong>the</strong> development of certain constructions tends to follow specific stages and paths, and that<br />
<strong>the</strong> change tends to be in a certain direction.<br />
5. The view that progressive devices typically go back to locative constructions has become<br />
almost standard by now (cf. e.g., Comrie 1976: 98–103; Bybee et al. 1994: 136; Torres Cacoullos<br />
2000: 121 and Heine 2003: 594), and it is based on ample evidence. Thus, Heine & Hünneyer.<br />
(1991) found more than a hundred African languages which had progressives based on locative<br />
sources, and Bybee et al. (1994: 128–129) also provide numerous examples <strong>from</strong> languages of<br />
diverse types.