Continuous and progressive aspects
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The continuous and progressive aspects are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. Most languages treat continuous and progressive aspects as the same and use the two terms interchangeably, but there are languages that distinguish them.
As with other grammatical categories, the precise semantics of the aspects vary from language to language, and from grammarian to grammarian. For example, G.L. Lewis's grammar of Turkish counts the -iyor form as a present tense; Robert Underhill's as a progressive tense; and Jacklin Kornfilt's as both a continuous (nonhabitual imperfective) and a progressive (continuous non-stative) aspect.
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[edit] Continuous vs. progressive
The difference between the continuous and progressive aspects is often hard to grasp because they are not generally distinguished in many languages (including English). In general, the progressive aspect expresses the dynamic quality of actions that are in progress while the continuous aspect expresses the state of the subject that is continuing the action. For instance, the English sentence "Tom is walking" can express the active movement of Tom's legs (progressive aspect), or Tom's current state, the fact that Tom is walking rather than doing something else at the moment (continuous aspect).
The relationship between the progressive and continuous aspects is not quite clear. Some linguists consider the progressive aspect to be a kind of continuous aspect, one that merely emphasizes the action already conveyed by the continuous. However, some other linguists consider the continuous aspect to be a kind of progressive aspect, because in many languages that distinguish the two, the formal progressive aspect can convey a semantic continuous aspect, but not the reverse. Additionally, the continuous and progressive aspects (whatever the relationship between them) are both sometimes considered to be kinds of durative aspect.
[edit] Continuous and progressive in various languages
Unless otherwise indicated, the following languages treat continuous and progressive aspects the same, in which case the term continuous is used to refer to both.
[edit] English
[edit] History
One hypothesis regarding the origin of the development of the English progressive aspect was the Old English construction that used a form of beon/wesan (to be/to become) with a present participle (-ende). Although there is some debate among scholars, it is generally thought that such a construction in Old English was not analogous to progressive aspect signaled in present-day-English (a more modern development), but rather carried the meaning of a simple stative verb, where the past participle functioned as an adjective, and was predominantly used for translating the corresponding construction in Latin texts (Brinton, 1988, p. 109).
The likely source of the English's current progressive aspect is the Celtic languages that were spoken in Britain during much of English's history, all of which formed it similarly; this would explain why English is the only Germanic language with this feature. [1]
[edit] Formation
The continuous aspect is expressed with a regularly conjugated form of to be, together with the present participle of the main verb. For example, in the sentence "I was going to the store," the verb phrase was going is in the past continuous tense - that is, in the continuous aspect and the past tense.
The continuous aspect can be applied with any mood, voice, and tense, and in combination or not with the perfect aspect, although for obvious semantic reasons, some combinations are less common than others. Some examples of the continuous aspect include:
- We had been talking for hours. (indicative mood, active voice, past tense, perfect continuous aspect)
- If you're not going to be working on it the whole time, … (indicative mood, active voice, present tense, continuous aspect)
- … then I recommend you at least be working on it when the teacher gets back. (present subjunctive mood, active voice, continuous aspect)
- I wish I were being given more interesting tasks. (past subjunctive mood, passive voice, continuous aspect)
[edit] Use
The continuous is generally used with actions that are actively on-going at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale. For example, the sentence "John was playing tennis when Jane called him" indicates what John was in the middle of doing when Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long John played, nor how often he plays; for that, the simple past would be used: "John played tennis three hours every day for several years."
The perfect continuous (have been doing), as a special case, implies that the action being described was interrupted at the time in question, and does not clarify whether the action resumed. For example, "John had been playing tennis when Jane called him" suggests that Jane's calling him interrupted his tennis-playing (whereas in the former example, it was possible that he simply ignored her call), and leaves open the possibility that what she told him required such urgent action that he forfeited his match and left.
In the present tense, the continuous aspect can be used to describe actions that have not begun yet; and in any tense, a similar effect can be achieved with the auxiliary "go" in its continuous aspect. An example of the former is "I'm taking three classes next semester"; of the latter, "I was going to do it if I had time, and then I didn't have time." In this use, this construction has a temporal (tense-like) quality in additional to its usual aspectual one.
[edit] Chinese
The Chinese language is one family of languages that makes a distinction between the continuous and progressive aspects.
[edit] Cantonese
Cantonese has a very regular system for expressing aspects via verb suffixes. 緊 is typically used to express progressive aspect while 住 is used to express continuous aspect. Take the following example:
| English Translation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | I'm putting on clothes. | |
| Continuous | I'm wearing clothes. |
In the example, the progressive aspect expresses the fact that the subject is actively putting on clothes rather than merely wearing them as in the continuous aspect. This example is useful for showing English speakers the difference between continuous and progressive because "wearing" in English never conveys the progressive aspect (instead "putting on" must be used).
In Cantonese, the progressive marker 緊 can express the continuous aspect as well, depending on the context (so the example above could also mean "I'm wearing clothes" in addition to "I'm putting on clothes"), but in general, the progressive aspect is assumed. In order to emphasize the progressive aspect rather than the continuous, 喺度 (literally meaning "at here") can be used in front of the verb:
喺度 can also be used without 緊 to indicate the progressive aspect.
[edit] Mandarin
Unlike Cantonese, Mandarin does not have a verb suffix for expressing the progressive aspect, but it can use 正在 (or simply just 在), which also translates to "at [here]", similar to how Cantonese uses 喺度 in front of the verb.
The continuous aspect does have a verb suffix, 著, which is cognate with the Cantonese 住 in this context. Incidentally, 著 is also used for the Cantonese word for "wear", but is actually not related since it's one of those words that has multiple meanings in Chinese.
| English Translation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | I'm putting on clothes. | |
| Continuous | I'm wearing clothes. |
[edit] French
French does not have a continuous aspect per se; events that English would describe using its continuous aspect, French would describe using a neutral aspect. That being said, French can express a continuous sense using the periphrastic construction être en train de ("to be in the middle of"); for example, English's "we were eating" might be expressed in French either as nous étions en train de manger, or as simply nous mangions.
[edit] German
There is no continuous aspect in standard German; however, certain regional dialects, such as those of the Rhineland, the Ruhr Area, and Westphalia, form a continuous aspect using the verb sein (to be), the preposition am (short for an dem) (at the or on the), and a gerund. For example, ich bin am Lesen, ich bin beim Lesen (literally I am on/at the reading) means I am reading. Known as the rheinische Verlaufsform (roughly Rhenish progressive form), it has become increasingly common in the casual speech of many speakers of standard German, although it is still frowned upon in formal and literary contexts.
[edit] Dutch
The continuous is not used very often in Dutch. There are two methods of forming a continuous: one is the same as in English: zijn (to be) with the present particple. E.g. Het schip is zinkende, (The ship is sinking). This is usually used to give some dramatic overtone and is not normally used. The other, more common, method of forming is as in the German dialects above: zijn, the preposition aan, and the gerund (verb used as a noun). E.g. De man is aan het eten (literally The man is at the eating), meaning The man is eating.
[edit] Jèrriais
Formed exactly as in Rhenish German, Jèrriais constructs the continuous with verb êt' (be) + à (preposition) + infinitive. For example, j'têmes à mangi translates as we were eating.
[edit] Russian
In the Russian language the continuous aspect may be expressed using reduplication.[citation needed]
[edit] Spanish
In Spanish, the continuous is constructed much as in English, using a regularly conjugated form of the verb estar together with the gerundio of the main verb. Unlike in English, the continuous cannot be used to describe an action that has not yet begun at the time of interest; however, in the present tense, the simple present suffices for this, and in any tense, a similar effect can be achieved with the auxiliary ir ("to go") in its non-continuous aspect.
[edit] Hindi and Urdu
Hindi and Urdu has a definite progressive/continuous aspect, marked by auxiliaries, for past, present, and future. It is distinguished from the simple aspect, and is widely used in everyday speech. Like English, it is also used to denote an immediate future action. For a complete conjugation of the continuous tenses, see Hindi grammar.
[edit] References
- Matthews, Stephen and Yip, Virginia (1994). Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08945-X.
- Yip, Po-Ching and Rimmington, Don (2004). Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15032-9.
