A Unified Analysis of Three Uses of the Progressive in English

Abstract

This study presents a process-driven semantics for the progressive in English, offering a unified analysis of its three core uses: event-in-progress, characterizing, and futurate readings. It reconceptualizes the progressive as denoting ongoing processes within their reference times, moving away from traditional approaches that emphasize event culmination. A novel progressive operator is introduced, linking a series of ongoing actions or processes to the property expressed by the verb phrase. The framework accounts for: (1) the event-in-progress reading as sequences of actions or processes underlying events, irrespective of their culmination; (2) the characterizing reading as sequences of homogeneous events occurring over reference times significantly longer than those associated with event-in-progress readings; and (3) the futurate reading as preparatory actions leading to future target events. By adopting this process-based approach, the study offers a unified and flexible explanation for the three distinct uses of the progressive in English, advancing our understanding of its semantics.