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1、ICAMEJournalNo.18OntheprogressionoftheprogressiveinearlyModernEnglishJohanElsness,UniversityofOsloIntroductionTheprogressiveverbforminEnglishiswellworthourattentionfor1atleasttworeasons.Onereasonisthatthisconstruction,consistingofaformofTOBEfollowedbythe-ing-formofthenex
2、tverbintheverbphrase,isonewhichdoesnothaveanyobviousparallelinanyofthelanguagesthatEnglishismostcloselyrelatedwith.Hencethestudyofthisformisimportantfromacontrastivepointofview,andfortheteachingofEnglishasasecondlanguage.Obviously,itmakesagreatdealofdifferencewhetherones
3、ays‘IcrossedthestreetwhenInoticedher.’ratherthan‘IwascrossingthestreetwhenInoticedher.’,or‘MaryspeakswithanIrishaccent.’ratherthan‘MaryisspeakingwithanIrishaccent.’,andthatisadifferencewhichforeignlearnersneedtobetaught.Also,thefrequencyoftheprogressivehaslongbeenonthein
4、crease,anincreasewhichseemstobecontinuingunabatedinpresent-dayEnglish,whichmakesitallthemoreimportantthatweshouldtrytounderstandtheuseandmeaningofthisverbform.Tofurtherthatunderstandingitmaybehelpfultostudythehistoricaldevelopmentoftheprogressive:howitcametobewhatitis.40
5、0yearsagothepositionoftheprogressivewasverydifferentfromwhatitistoday.ThenPoloniuscouldask,‘Whatdoyouread,mylord?’.AndHamlethimselfcouldbeginhislastspeechwiththewords‘O,Idie,Horatio’.TodaythegoodLordChamberlainwouldhavehadtorephrasehisquestionandratherask,‘Whatareyouread
6、ing,mylord?’,andwhateverapresent-dayHamletwouldsayinsimilarlydirecircumstances,hewouldhardlychoosethenon-progressivepresent.Notsurprisingly,thetermsusedtorefertothisconstructionhavevaried.‘Definite’,‘expanded’,‘continuous’,‘progressive’haveallbeenused.Whatismoresurprisin
7、g,consideringwhatisveryoftenthesituationasregardslinguisticterminology,isthatthepositiontodayischaracterisedbysomethingapproachingconsensus:theterm‘progressive’hasnowbeenalmostuniversallyadopted,obviouslybecauseacentral5JohanElsnesselementinthemeaningofthisverbformistode
8、scribeanactionason-going,asbeinginprogress.Itshouldbenoted,however,thatconsideredasadescriptionofmeanin
