Developement of the Continuous Aspect

The problem of the formation of the Continuous Aspect is of great complexity and is still a matter of discussion. Constructions composed of the copulative verb beon/ wesan and Participle I occur even in O.E. especially in the translations from Latin.

O.E. He wǽs lǽrende. (He was teaching)

He wǽs sprechende. (He was speaking)

In early Mid.E. progressive forms are distinctly rare, their number increases in the course of Mid.E. (since the 16^th century) However neither in O.E. nor in Mid.E. these constructions were established as analytical forms as it is the case in N.E.

Unlike O.E. and Mid.E. in N.E. a rapid growth of the continuous forms is observed.which was probably aided by the simultaneous development of the gerund and especially such gerundial constructions as He was fighting. In New E. side by side with theconstruction with the participle (He was fighting) parallel construction He was on fighting came to be used. The preposition on used in the gerundial construction imparted a special meaning showing that the subject is in the act of doing something whereas the older descriptive construction with the participle (He w es l erende) denoted some general ability characteristic of the subject and therefore expressed the meaning of a permanent action.

Gradually the form of the preposition on used before the gerund weakened to a (He was afighting)and finally these two forms fused (got blended) into one. Before the fusion took place the construction He was fighting was somewhat ambiguous: it was not clear whether it showed an action in process or a permanent characteristics, an occupation of the subject. For example, in Mod.E. the combination is amusing has different meaningsin such a sentence as She is amusing her guests. ( an action in progress ) and in the sentence She is very amusing (permanent characteristics).

Thus, the new compound analytical form acquired a new meaning: the vividness of the action in process which led to the development of the meaning of an action limited in time, this being one of the characteristic features of the Continuous Aspect in Modern English.

Owing to the fact that the new analytical form acquired a new meaning the older synthetic form which continued to be used side by side with the analytical one acquired a new meaning too. In this way the so-called Indefinite and Continuous forms came to be differentiated from the point of view of Aspect. ( the way the action is shown to proceed ). This gave rise to a new category – the category of aspect.

The category of aspect was formed in Mid.E. on the basis of the free combination of ben (beon) + present participle:

Mid.E. Singinge he was … al the dai.

(he was singing all the day)

It is worth noting that aspect differentiation existed in O.E. where the verb had 3 aspects: perfective and imperfective.

O.E. writan – писать ewritan – написать

sin an – петьsingan – спеть

this differentiation, however, was far from being perfect in many respects as the verbal prefix of the perfective aspect at the same time denoted differences in meaning. Therefore the old system of aspect broke down. With the development of the continuous the aspect came into being again as a grammatical category

 

The grammatical categories of tense and mood which existed in O.E. acquired new categorial forms.

The O.E. present and past forms were supplemented with a special form for the future tense which appeared in Mid.E. out of the free combination of the O.E. modal verbs sculan and willan with the infinitive. This free combination of words was split into two groups: in the first, remaining free, the modal meaning is preserved:

You shall do it. – necessity

I will do it. – volition

In the second the independent meaning is lost and the fixed word combination is perceived as the future tense form.

I shall go there

You will go there

The category of mood in O.E. was represented by three mood forms, one for each of the moods (indicative, subjunctive and imperative). The subjunctive in O.E. did not show whether the events were possible or contrary to fact.but it had two tense forms – past and present, which in the course of history developed into two subjunctive moods:

I/he be present – out of the O.E. present tense form of the subjunctive mood.

I /he were present – out of the O.E. past tense form of the subjunctive mood.

The difference between these two subjunctive moods now is in the shade of probability, and not in the tense, the second one denoting events which are contrary to fact.

In addition to that at the end of Mid.E. and the beginning of N.E. two more subjunctive mood forms appeared, making use of the analytical form building means:

I/ he should be present – to show events which are probable, though problematic

I should be present to show imaginary events contrary to

He would be present fact.

Here should and would are the subjunctive mood forms of the O.E. sculan and willan.

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The same may be said about the formation of the analytical perfect forms (the category of order).This category was the oldest, It was formed already in Mid.E. from the O.E. free combination habban+ past participle.

O.E. Hie h efdon hiera cynin awor enne.

(They had already overthrown their king).

The same idea of order is sometimes still expressed in Modern E. with the help of the combination to be +participle II going back to the O.E. beon + past participle.

The category of voice appeared out of the free combination of weor an/beon + past participle:

O.E. … he wear ofsl e an ( he was killed )

Mid.E. … engendered is the flour ( the flower is generated, born )

Thus, the analytical forms of the categories of aspect, perfect (order) and voice developed from free word combinations of O.E. copulative verbs habban, beon/wesan + infinitive (participle).

The first element was gradually losing its lexical meaning, the second element was loosing its grammatical meaning, the whole combination becoming inseparable idiomatic analytical form.

 

2) Development of the Analytical Forms with Do

In early N.E. analytical descriptive forms with the auxiliary verb do developed. These forms were widely used not only in interrogative and negative but also in affirmative sentences. In the latter case the forms with do were not apparently emphatic. The analytical forms with do were used in early N.E. side by side with the older synthetic ones. Later on the forms with and without do began to be differentiated: the forms with do began to be used in interrogative and negative constructions while the affirmative statements with do gradually fell out of use. Thus in early N.E. in negative constructions both forms were possible (with and without do ): I know not