Bystanders no more: simple forms and the expression of aspect in the history of English and beyond

contrast to other Germanic languages, Present-day English systematically marks progressive aspect, using BE Ving (e.g. ‘we are eating’). In this, English now behaves typologically as an unbounded language. While BE Ving and its recent rise and grammaticalization have attracted much attention in the literature, little is known about other means of expressing progressive aspect in English, and how the rise of BE Ving affected these. These bystanders of the expression of progressive aspect include simple forms (e.g. ‘how do you feel?’), as well as a variety of ad hoc strategies, such as lexical periphrases (e.g. ‘I’m on my way’) or framing subclauses (e.g. ‘she caught him stealing’).

This project seeks to give them the floor and to understand how the entire system of resources for the expression of progressive meaning evolved. To that end, it will examine (i) how simple forms and ad hoc aspectual strategies are deployed in other (bounded) Germanic languages, i.e. Afrikaans, Dutch and German, and in older stages of English, (ii) how this system was affected in English by the rise of BE Ving and (iii) whether Dutch may have recently entered on a similar path to unbounded status.

It is expected that the shift to unbounded status first triggers increasing reliance on already available resources (simple forms, ad hoc strategies) only then to turn increasingly to an explicit and grammatically integrated marker. Evidence to test this scenario is to be drawn from a combination of traditional historical corpora and historical translation corpora. (FWO proposal)