2.5. Continuous forms. The category of aspect

In the OE verbal system there was no category of aspect. The growth of continuous forms was slow and uneven.

Verb phrases consisting of bēon + participle I often occur in OE prose. They denoted a quality, or a lasting state, characterizing the person or thing indicated by the subject of the sentence, e.g. seō… is irnende þurh middewearde Babylonia bur “that (river) runs through the middle of Babylon”. This construction functioned as a compound nominal predicate at that period.

In Early ME the structure ben + participle I fell into disuse, in Late ME its frequency grew again, e.g. Syngynge he was or floytynge al the day (Chaucer) ‘He was singing and playing the flute all day long’. At that stage the meaning of the construction changed, it was used for emphasis and vividness of description, e.g. We holden on to the Cristen feyth and are byleving in Jhesu Cryste. (Caxton) ‘We hold to the Christian faith and believe (lit. “are believing”) in Jesus Christ’.

In Early NE (15^th -16^th c.) be plus participle I was often confused with a synonymous phrase – be plus the preposition on (or its reduced form a) plus a verbal noun. By that time the present participle and the verbal noun had lost their formal differences: the participle I was built with the help of –ing and the verbal noun had the word-building suffix –ing, which had ousted the equivalent OE suffix –un:

She wyst not… whether she was a-waking or a-slepe. (Caxton) ‘She did not know whether she was awake (was on waking) or asleep.’

The prepositional phrase indicated a process, taking place at a certain period of time. It is believed that the meaning of process or an action of limited duration – which the continuous forms acquired in Early NE – may have come from the prepositional phrase. Yet even in the 17^th c. the semantic difference between the continuous and non-continuous forms is not always apparent, e.g.:

The Earl of Wesmoreland, seven thousands strong, is marching hitherwards. (Shakespeare).

What, my dear lady Disdain! Are you yet living? (Shakespeare).

Here the continuous makes the statement more emotional, forceful.

The non-continuous, simple form can indicate an action in progress which takes place before the eyes of the speaker (nowadays this use is typical of the continuous form):

Enter Hamlet reading… P o l o n i u s. What do you read, my lord?

It was not until the 18^th c. that the continuous forms acquired a specific meaning of their own, that of incomplete concrete process of limited duration. Only at that stage the continuous and non-continuous made up a new grammatical category – aspect. The meaning of non-continuous = indefinite forms became more restricted, though the contrast was never as sharp as in the other categories: in some contexts the forms have remained synonymous and are even interchangeable to this day (e.g. after while). By that time the formal pattern of the continuous as an analytical form was firmly established. The continuous forms were used in all genres and dialects and could be built both from non-terminative verbs, as in OE, and from terminative verbs.

In the 19^th c. continuous forms were used more widely. But in the early 19^th c. they were considered a feature of colloquial style and were not admitted in to poetry.

William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) was the first to use continuous forms in poetry, where their use seemed very bold and even vulgar. Later, however, continuous forms penetrated far deeper into all styles of the language.