The Use of the English Progressive Form in Discourse: An Analysis of a Corpus of Interview Data

Frazier, Stefan; Koo, Hahn

doi:10.1007/s41701-018-00050-9

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“…When time is limited, we can only concentrate on a particular event and cannot ISSN 2616-5783 Vol. In sentence (18), the repeated events of dancers' jumping up and down are observed when we are dancing foxtrots and waltzes. According to our understanding of daily life, a single movement of jumping up and down can be completed in seconds, which is significantly less than the time required for waltzes or foxtrots; thus, the scope of time is rather broad, implying the use of a coarse-grained time adjustment.…”

Section: Coarse-grained Scalar Adjustment On Time Dimensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, a coarse-grained scalar adjustment is made on the temporal dimension. Unlike phrase (18) which merely expresses repetition, the expression more and more people in sentence (19) imposes a meaning on this sentence of an overall rise in the degree of change (from not renting to renting). As a result, phrase (19) has the sense of an overarching trend that is controlled by action takers, and hence is represented as figure 9: When a coarse-grained scalar adjustment is made to time, the English progressive construction with an achievement verb takes on the sense of repetition or an overall trend, depending on the context.…”

Section: Coarse-grained Scalar Adjustment On Time Dimensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coercion and Information Structure in English Progressive Construction with Achievement Verbs

2022

AJHSS

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English progressive aspect which characterizes dynamicity and duration illustrates an ongoing process at a specific temporal point or during a temporal interval; therefore, achievement verbs and stative verbs generally cannot be used in English progressive aspect, but a large number of achievement verbs indeed appear in English progressive aspect. Regarding it as a construction, this paper explains this abnormal phenomenon based on the notions of coercion in Construction Grammar. According to the analysis, it can be found that "dynamicity" and "duration" are the core constructional meanings of the English progressive construction. Additionally, a prototype-based category of the concept ACTIVITY with the main properties of "causal control", "dynamicity", and "duration" as its main properties is built. Scalar adjustment and conceptual metonymy matter a lot in the process of coercion. When coarse-grained scalar adjustment is adopted, achievement verbs are coerced into undirected activities or directed activities. Through this coercion, the English progressive construction with achievement verbs obtains the interpretation of repetition or overall trend. When fine-grained scalar adjustment is adopted, the achievement verb in the English progressive construction can refer to this neighbouring dynamic durative process through part-part metonymy, which contributes to the interpretation of preparatory stage or plan. Furthermore, the information structure of English progressive construction is also explored.

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Section: Coarse-grained Scalar Adjustment On Time Dimensionmentioning

confidence: 99%