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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76 Kristin Killie<br />
ing of this periphrasis. Although Bertinetto et al. assume that <strong>the</strong> Present-day English<br />
progressive goes back to <strong>the</strong> beon/wesan + Vende construction, I have also included<br />
syntagms such as be in milking, be a-milking, and be milking of, which are considered<br />
to be variants of <strong>the</strong> be + prep + Ving pattern since <strong>the</strong>se appear to have a progressive<br />
meaning. The fact that <strong>the</strong>re are hybrid forms which apparently have elements of both<br />
be on hunting and beon/wesan/be + Vende/ing, i.e., represent a mixture of verbal and<br />
nominal elements (e.g., on feohtende wæron, cf. Elsness 1994: 23–24, n. 4), suggests<br />
that <strong>the</strong> two constructions may have merged at some stage. There are only twenty-two<br />
examples of <strong>the</strong> be on hunting construction in <strong>the</strong> Helsinki data. With one exception<br />
(a late Middle English example), <strong>the</strong>se uses are all <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> Early Modern period.<br />
They mostly have a focalized function, just like <strong>the</strong> majority of <strong>the</strong> be + prep + Ving<br />
uses at this time. I have not kept <strong>the</strong>se uses separate <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> non-prepositional uses<br />
as <strong>the</strong>ir impact on <strong>the</strong> statistics is negligible. The number of be + prep + Ving periphrases<br />
in <strong>the</strong> supplementary Middle English corpus is also very small. There are six<br />
occurrences: one <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> 12th, one <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> 14th and four <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> 15th century.<br />
The most useful diagnostics in distinguishing between durative and focalized<br />
progressives have been adverbial collocates. Durative and focalized progressives<br />
differ with respect to what adverbial collocates <strong>the</strong>y take. Some examples of durative<br />
adverbials are found in (2); o<strong>the</strong>rs are e.g., since early this morning, until midnight,<br />
during <strong>the</strong> uprising, gradually, etc. Focalized progressives may occur within a frame<br />
construction (typically a when or as clause), as in (3). They may also collocate with<br />
adverbials such as at <strong>the</strong> moment, now, still, etc. Time adverbials have been useful<br />
in interpreting <strong>the</strong> function of many progressives; however, given that as many as<br />
fifty-eight percent of <strong>the</strong> corpus progressives do not involve a time adverbial at all,<br />
it follows that <strong>the</strong> context has often been all-important. 8<br />
4. Analysis<br />
4.1 Durative, focalized and o<strong>the</strong>r progressives in Old to Early<br />
Modern English<br />
It is clear that both durative and focalized progressives are found in all historical<br />
periods of English. The sentences in (4)–(6) below are examples of durative<br />
progressives taken <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> Old English subcorpus.<br />
8. Cf. Freckmann (1995) for a discussion of <strong>the</strong> adverbial collocates of progressives. Bertinetto<br />
et al. also suggest o<strong>the</strong>r diagnostics for determining <strong>the</strong> function of progressives, but <strong>the</strong>se have<br />
not been very useful in <strong>the</strong> present study. For example, it is claimed that durative progressives<br />
are more likely than focalized progressives to occur with <strong>the</strong> perfect, but given <strong>the</strong> scarcity of<br />
perfect progressives in <strong>the</strong> periods under study, this diagnostic has not been of much help.