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

80 Kristin Killie
Table 2. Functions of the progressive in the Helsinki Corpus, more fine-grained analysis
Durative Focalized Narrative Stative Other Total
OE 37 (15%) 71 (28%) 53 (21%) 55 (22%) 36 (14%) 252
ME 8 (9%) 17 (19%) 3 (3%) 49 (56%) 11 (13%) 88
EModE 13 (7%) 111 (61%) 4 (2%) 34 (19%) 19 (10%) 181
Total 58 199 60 138 66 521
In Table 2, ‘narrative progressives’ and ‘stative progressives’ are treated as separate
categories, due to their high frequencies. Less frequent types have been put in the
‘other’ category. 10
‘Narrative progressives’ are progressives which occur in dynamic predicates,
but which do not serve to express progressivity or ongoingness. They are bounded,
i.e., view the event as a whole. According to Fitzmaurice (1998), such progressives
have a textual function. They serve to mark peaks in a narrative; hence the term
‘narrative progressive’. Examples are given in (10) and (11).
(10) þa somninga se min latteow gestod & butan eldenne
then suddenly this my travel-servant stood and without hesitate
wæs eft his gong cerrende: & me eft lædde ðy selfan
was then his path turning and me then led the same
wæge, ðe wit ær coman
way that we-two earlier came
“then suddenly my travel-servant stood still and then, without hesitating,
turned around and led me along the same road that the two of us had come
earlier” (Bede’s Ecclasiastical history; HCO2)
(11) Her cuom micel sciphere on West Walas, & hie
In this year came big ship-army into West-Wales and they
to anum gecierdon & wiþ Ecgbryht West Seaxna cyning
to each turned and with Ecgbryht West Saxon king
winnende wæron
fighting were
“In this year a large (Viking) army arrived in western Wales and they turned
to each and every one and fought with Egbert, the West-Saxon king”
(Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; HCO2)
These examples illustrate one interesting aspect of narrative progressives, viz.
the fact that they often occur within a sequence of verb forms, where the neighbouring
verb forms are non-progressive. The function of the longer progressive
10. The new ‘other’ category contains a few habitual progressives (fourteen occurrences),
hyperbolic always progressives (five occurrences), interpretative uses (thirteen examples) and
‘hypothetical’ uses (e.g., Ac ic wolde beon ȝyrnende ȝif hit godes willæ wære ‘But I would yearn/be
yearning if it God’s will were’; sixteen examples), in addition to ambiguous and otherwise
indeterminate uses.