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 79<br />
We see that focalized progressives are more frequent than durative ones in<br />
all <strong>the</strong> three subperiods under study. It is never<strong>the</strong>less clear that <strong>the</strong> difference<br />
in frequency between <strong>the</strong> two types increases over time. Thus, while <strong>the</strong> ratio<br />
of durative to focalized progressives is approximately one to two in <strong>the</strong> Old<br />
and Middle English data, <strong>the</strong> corresponding Early Modern rate is one to nine.<br />
The data are thus compatible with <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis that <strong>the</strong> English progressive<br />
used to be more durative, but has over time developed into a prototypically<br />
focalized construction. However, given <strong>the</strong> ra<strong>the</strong>r low frequency of durative<br />
progressives even in <strong>the</strong> earliest data, a development <strong>from</strong> prototypically durative<br />
to prototypically focalized presupposes that <strong>the</strong> first stages of this development<br />
took place before <strong>the</strong> time of <strong>the</strong> written records. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, it is<br />
also possible that <strong>the</strong> English progressive was never a predominantly durative<br />
construction. In any event, <strong>the</strong>re is no doubt that <strong>the</strong> construction has become<br />
much more focalized with time. There has also been a clear increase in <strong>the</strong> use<br />
of <strong>the</strong> frame construction during <strong>the</strong> time span under study. Frame uses are<br />
highly infrequent in Old and Middle English, while <strong>the</strong>y constitute almost eighteen<br />
percent of <strong>the</strong> tokens in <strong>the</strong> Early Modern period. However, such uses are<br />
hardly frequent enough to be referred to as prototypical, at this stage at least.<br />
Thus, if Jespersen is at all right in claiming that <strong>the</strong> frame construction represents<br />
<strong>the</strong> prototypical use of <strong>the</strong> English progressive, this must be a relatively<br />
recent development.<br />
The rise in <strong>the</strong> use of focalized progressives and <strong>the</strong> decrease in <strong>the</strong> use of<br />
durative progressives may be seen as a result of <strong>the</strong> increased grammaticalization<br />
of <strong>the</strong> English progressive as an aspectual, focalizing device. The sharp decrease<br />
in <strong>the</strong> use of <strong>the</strong> progressive in o<strong>the</strong>r functions is of course ano<strong>the</strong>r important<br />
aspect of this process; <strong>the</strong> more <strong>the</strong> progressive was conceived of as an aspectual<br />
device, <strong>the</strong> less likely it was to be used as a non-aspectual device. However, judging<br />
<strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> data in Table 1, <strong>the</strong> grammaticalization of <strong>the</strong> English progressive<br />
was not a tidy and linear development. In particular, <strong>the</strong>re is a puzzling fall in <strong>the</strong><br />
use of focalized progressives between Old and Middle English, <strong>from</strong> twenty-eight<br />
to nineteen percent, and <strong>from</strong> 1.7 to 0.3 occurrences per 10,000 words. This decrease<br />
is not due to a rise in <strong>the</strong> use of durative constructions in Middle English;<br />
instead, <strong>the</strong> data show an increase in <strong>the</strong> category ‘o<strong>the</strong>r’. In order to determine<br />
whe<strong>the</strong>r this rise was caused by a specific type of use, which came to be favoured<br />
by Middle English writers, I decided to carry out a more fine-grained analysis of<br />
<strong>the</strong> progressives in this category. Ano<strong>the</strong>r good reason for doing this is <strong>the</strong> fact<br />
that <strong>the</strong> ‘o<strong>the</strong>r/indeterminate’ category is by far <strong>the</strong> largest category in <strong>the</strong> Old and<br />
Middle English data, so a fur<strong>the</strong>r subdivision of <strong>the</strong> relevant progressives seemed<br />
pertinent in order to better understand <strong>the</strong> history of <strong>the</strong> progressive. The result of<br />
<strong>the</strong> analysis is displayed in Table 2.