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TO BE in the Progressive: A New Use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Walter Hirtle
Affiliation:
Université Laval
Claude Bégin
Affiliation:
Université Laval

Extract

Visser (1973:1968) gives a long list of verbs “more or less incompatible” with the progressive that have this in common: in their general sense

they do not express a real activity . . . In order to account for their use in the expanded form one ought to go in quest of the various senses and sub-senses that are tinged with a notion — however slight — of activity. (1973:1969)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1990

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