The Progressive in Modern English : A Corpus-Based Study of Grammaticalization and Related Changes

Svenja Kranich

ISBN 10: 9042031433 / ISBN 13: 9789042031432

Published by Brill Jan 2010, 2010

About this Item

Neuware - This book constitutes the first full-length diachronic treatment of the English progressive from Old English to Present-day English, focusing on the crucial phase of its grammaticalization between the 17th and 20th centuries. It uses data from the British component of ARCHER-2 (A Representative Corpus of Historical English Registers, version 2) to uncover the details of this long-term grammaticalization process, tracing the development of the construction from a stylistic device to a fully-fledged aspect marker. Illustrated by a wealth of examples, the work offers new results concerning the preferred linguistic environments and the development of the functions of the progressive. In contrast to previous studies, the author shows that there are certain restrictions to context expansion in grammaticalization. She argues convincingly that the persistent reluctance of the progressive to occur in certain contexts does not point to incomplete grammaticalization, but can instead be explained as a product of its particular functions. The author also challenges the tenet that grammaticalization is generally accompanied by subjectification.

Seller Inventory # 9789042031432

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Progressive in Modern English : A Corpus-Based Study of Grammaticalization and Related Changes
• Publisher: Brill Jan 2010
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9042031433
• ISBN 13: 9789042031432
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 236W x 154H x 27D millimeters 236 millimeters width by 154 millimeters height by 27 millimeters depth
• Weight: 587 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book constitutes the first full-length diachronic treatment of the English progressive from Old English to Present-day English, focusing on the crucial phase of its grammaticalization between the 17th and 20th centuries. It uses data from the British component of ARCHER-2 (A Representative Corpus of Historical English Registers, version 2) to uncover the details of this long-term grammaticalization process, tracing the development of the construction from a stylistic device to a fully-fledged aspect marker. Illustrated by a wealth of examples, the work offers new results concerning the preferred linguistic environments and the development of the functions of the progressive. In contrast to previous studies, the author shows that there are certain restrictions to context expansion in grammaticalization. She argues convincingly that the persistent reluctance of the progressive to occur in certain contexts does not point to incomplete grammaticalization, but can instead be explained as a product of its particular functions. The author also challenges the tenet that grammaticalization is generally accompanied by subjectification.

About the Author

Svenja Kranich obtained a PhD in English linguistics from the Freie Universität Berlin. She has published on the English progressive and on general issues in grammaticalization, as well as on the use of modal expressions in English and German and the impact of English on German textual norms. She is a researcher at the Research Center on Multilingualism at the University of Hamburg.