Verbs: Progressive aspect¶
Auxiliary "be" followed by a gerund-participle
She was writing a novel (progressive, preterite tense on “was”, imperfective)
She wrote a novel (non-progressive, preterite tense on “wrote”, perfective, the novel as a whole)
The two clauses have the same tense, the preterite tense, but they differ in aspect.
The concept of aspect¶
Temporal structure
Aspect describes how an action, event, or state unfolds over time.
While tense tells you when an action occurs (past, present, or future), aspect reveals its temporal structure, whether it is complete, ongoing, repeated, or connected to another time.
See Aspect (grammar)
The Progressive and imperfectivity¶
Specific aspect of imperfectivity: In progress
Clauses with progressive form usually have imperfective interpretations.
Important
Not all clauses with imperfective interpretations, however, have progressive form:
At that time, he still lived at home
Dee didn’t call because she was busy
The characteristic meaning of progressive aspect involves a specific kind of imperfectivity: it presents the situation as being in progress:
Duration rather than being instantaneous or “punctual”
Dynamic rather than static. States don’t progress, they simply hold or prevail
Important
Clauses describing punctual or static situations generally appear in the non-progressive
I finally found my key (punctual)
I was finally finding my key(finding is punctual, unlike searching)
At last it has stopped raining (punctual)
She has blue eyes (static)
She is having blue eyes(a state)
This jug holds two pins (static)
Contrast between non-progressive and progressive¶
Specific interpretation of what the non-progressive means
The basic meaning of the progressive tends to interact with features relating to the kind of situation being described to yield a more specific interpretation.
He nodded (just one nod, nod is punctual)
He was nodding (specific: sequence of nods)
He is very tactful (a state, describes character, personality)
He is being very tactful (specific: behavior, “he is behaving very tactfully”)
She has lived with her parents (a state that held in the past)
She has been living with her parents (specific: it is progressing towards its end. It’s a continuative perfect in the progressive)
She reads the Economist (a state, regular, habitual reading. Reading is long, not like “one nod”)
She is reading the Economist (specific: single reading in process)
Note
“Nodding” is a punctual short action, single nod. So the specific interpretation is that the non progressive is single, and the progressive is sequence.
Since reading the Economist is a long action, the specific interpretation is exactly the opposite: We take the non progressive as many readings, and the progressive as a single reading
The progressive futurate¶
There are certain cases where clauses with progressive form do not have the usual “in progress” meaning.
The most important involves the futurate construction:
I see my therapist today. (ordinary futurate, appointment setup and regularly scheduled, perfective )
I’m seeing my therapist today. (I intend to see the therapist today. However, the non-progressive ordinary futurate interpretation is acceptable here as well. Perfective)
I both clauses, the interpretation is perfective. We view the event as an entire bounded situation located entirely in the future.
See also