The American and British English
Both the American and British English have different ways of expressing stative verbs, including the continuous aspect, which most literature writings argue that it is unacceptable and ungrammatical. Stative verbs, such as love, hate, and small, can be used in all verbal forms. Stative verbs are used to describe a physical state, feeling, or states of being such as emotions. The stative verbs, however, do not often occur in continuous form as many English literature scholars argue that it is ungrammatical. In semantic language, however, dynamic stative verbs such as love do occur in such style. One would semantically point out that she is looking smart nowadays.
The primary purpose of this paper, therefore, is to provide more information on the choice of the American English to drop the ‘rule’ that stative verbs should not occur in continuous form and the extent to which the language allows this bend. The paper focuses mainly on a small study carried out to look at how the American English chooses to deviate from the rule as seen in contexts such as advertisement. The ultimate reason for this paper is to show proof for the hypothesis that the employment of choice of continuous aspect is allowable in American English. However, it is restricted to various circumstances, which are rare.
The research will incorporate both qualitative and quantitative methods. The layout of the study will be as explained: The first section will entail the introduction in detail, while chapter 2 will provide past researches and findings as well as outlining reference grammar’s remarks exhaustively. The third section will be the central part of the paper. The chapter will be mandated to investigate the illustrative examples provided in the Corpus of History American English. The investigation will be corpus-based and will follow the corpus of American English strictly. Section four will then semantically analyze the incidences cited in the previous part. The paper will then conclude in part 5, which will entail the summary of American English insights as well as providing other possible ways of researching the same.
- Literature review
Before we lay out, the arguments developed from past research that regards the application of the stative verbs in continuous aspect, which is, however, uncommon. We should understand the way the grammar for reference develops itself as a suitable chance to provide initial leverage to help in understanding the normative position as well as recommended several forms of the stative verbs in the continuous circumstance in the English language.
Progressive English has gained popularity in America and beyond in the recent couple of centuries, increasing their frequency and scope (Hundt 2004). Consequently, stative verbs have expanded in the present-day English to accommodate the continuous aspect. It is important to note that when the stative verbs occur in continuous form, they became action verbs. For instance,
- I have bread. The verb love is a stative verb since it describes a state of feeling.
- I am having supper. The verb is a stative verb in continuous aspect, which describes an action. The verb hence seizes to be stative and becomes an action verb.
In the ancient English, stative verbs could not occur in the progressive form since they show inactively steady, experienced states. On the other hand, the continuous aspect shows dynamic events, depicting temporary and energetic activity with an object, which is often human. For example; statements such as The lorry is containing harmful gases have been considered wrong.
McDonald’s 2003 global campaign came with a slogan; I’m lovin’ it. The slogan created controversy since stative verbs were not thought they would appear in continuous form. Years later, the slogan is acceptable, and the use of stative verbs in the progressive aspect is continuously expanding. In general, change in language is first experienced in the spoken art (Aarts, Close & Wallis 2010). The corpus data was, therefore, collected from speech-like internet information as well as an informal spoken language, including interactive blogs and online discussion forums.
The continuous form consists of be + ing. The verb constitutes the event in future, present or past time while the participle describes an action which is ongoing and is incomplete. The continuous part is included in the bigger English aspectual, which is made up of the lexical and the grammatical aspects. The progressive element belongs to the salient grammatical part, meaning that the speaker controls it. The speaker chooses the inflexions of the primary and auxiliary verb to express their view of events as repeating, ending, continuing, beginning, ongoing or complete, thus regarding grammatical part as ‘viewpoint aspect’ (Smith, 1983:479). The speaker is free to choose either the perfective forms for complete actions or the progressive forms for activities still in progress during speech time (Brinton 1988), as described below:
- They built a sandcastle.
- They were building a sandcastle when a massive wave swept up the beach.
Lexical aspect, on the other hand, shows the main verbs’ intrinsic semantic characters that the speaker cannot control. Such traits include; the period of the event, whether the action is incomplete or complete, as well as whether the verb is dynamic or stative. The study will restrict the research to the dynamic aspect of the stative verbs. Brinton (1988) explains states as independent on a human object, unlimited, undifferentiated, as well as durative, showing why most stative verbs do not occur progressive aspect often. However, certain stative verbs frequently appear in the continuous aspect. The possible reasons would be that stative verbs can possess dynamic element and that they can also illustrate temporariness of an action ( Greenbaum and Quirk 1990: 53-4).
The above two concepts, according to Smith (1983: 498), can be jointly illustrated in a statement;
- She’s being silly.
The author explains that the agent subject in the statement above actively participates in the event of her volition, which makes the verb to be dynamic. Moreover, the continuous aspect shows that the action is incomplete and temporary as opposed to simple present tense, which suggests a permanent state of behaviour. For example, she’s is silly.
From the above example, it is clear that subject’s nature in a statement is crucial in enhancing the continuous aspect. The elements in the composition of sentences can influence the use of the progressive aspect. For instance;
- The river is smelling particularly lousy today.
The adjectival clause is a complement while the adverb today shows that the event is temporary, while they jointly support the continuous aspect.
It is important to note that the continuous aspect can also be used to show a range of attitudes and emotions including emotion intensification, softening or hedging proposition, as well as being polite (Kesner Bland 1988: 59-67). The three instances can be shown as;
- I was loving the movie.
- Are you hating the rains?
- I’m liking the new meals.
The continuous aspect of the word love in (5) has become the most widely used stative verb in recent times. The continuous element affects the verb love and intensifies it. Consequently, the aspect can have a contrary effect in the verb think as shown by Levin (2013: 210-11), with an example derived from The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA 1996), especially when accompanied by time specifiers such as a little bit or maybe as shown below;
- I’m thinking that maybe the Republicans are blowing this up a little bit…
The non-aspectual or the subjective functions shown in clauses (5-8) are, however, conceived as problematic because they hardly perfectly fit with the core meaning of incompletion and temporariness projected by the progressive aspect.
The progressive aspect of the stative verbs has gained popularity in the recent time. The McDonald’s I’m lovin’ it advert has made the continuous form of the stative verbs to be widely used, especially in the spoken content in the American English.
- Data and Methodology
3.1 Meaning and syntactical restrictions of stative verbs in progressive form
Stative verbs describe a state of being rather than an action. An action verb consequently describes an action. Stative verbs have in the recent time bent the American English rule to accommodate the progressive form. The continuous aspect, when added to a stative verb, causes the verb to stop describing a state and depict action. The new verb consequently becomes an action verb. It is important to note that not all stative verbs are capable of changing to explain actions. For example, it is wrong to say;
- I am understanding you.
To convey the message correctly, the statement becomes;
- I understand you.
Some governing rules determine every verb placing in their correct syntactical alignment, and stative verbs are no exemption. Stative verbs can be used at the start, middle, or end of a statement, although the former is rare since it is considered too official. Most stative verbs are put in the middle of comments or questions, including just. Putting just in the middle helps it to be placed as the significant verb after is, following the first auxiliary verb as well as the modal verb and the subject of the statement or question. It is important to emphasize that some stative verbs can also be used to state commands when used at the start of the statement.
3.2 Structural procedure concerning the corpus search
The study’s prelude things will be made clear in the comments provided in this section. The Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) will form the reference point of this study research as it shall be used exclusively to investigate the behaviour of stative verbs over the years. It is important to note that the study shall only consider using the sentences with some stative verbs that often occur in describing actions. The research will further narrow the research study and focus on statements, questions, or commands where stative verbs are placed in its normal middle position. The research study will also prefer declarative controls, questions, or comments and will also regard all negative sentences since their construction with stative verbs appearing in the continuous form; hence describing actions.
The main aim of this research was to establish the reasons as to why stative verbs can assume a progressive form, which makes them lose their definition of states and instead describe actions. Therefore, the particular empirical goal of this study is to show an analysis of the frequency of the past as well as the present progressive aspect of the main progressive verbs. The discussion within COHA will focus on answering questions such as: Which is the most used type of progressive perspective is used? Why is this type the most common? Why do stative verbs appear in the progressive form, and why do the meaning change? What does the frequency in the corpora depict? In which context are these non-progressive verbs mostly applied? To what extent do the American people use non-progressive verbs in progressive forms?
The corpus search will be limited to three major stative verbs, that is, love, like, and fear. This section will combine the results of every selected non-progressive verb with their analysis for easier reading. The part will critically analyze each chosen stative verb’s attitude, emotion, and cognition in cases where the verb occurs with a progressive aspect. The research will also focus on the circumstance under which the selected stative verbs are used.
It is important to note that the study will also focus on the different domains in which the chosen verbs are used and to what extent. The different categories include non-academic texts, magazine, academic contexts, newspapers, fiction, and spoken language. However, non-academic contexts and magazines have a very insignificant impact, though they will be included. The motives of the given stative verbs will take into consideration various aspects such as certain words applied in texts, register, tenses, as well as the contexts in the research. However, in most cases, the context is the most crucial consideration in stative verbs, accompanied by a progressive aspect. I will, therefore, provide sample examples showing the context to establish the reason for application. The tables generated from COHA that represents the reasons for the use of chosen verbs in their continuous form will be accompanied by the motives provided in this part. It is, however, crucial to note that not all reasons are discovered in the corpus search for each of the non-progressive verb chosen. The motive explanations show how much the theory correspond to the real usage of these stative verbs.
Results and Analysis
Love
The non-progressive verb love has a frequency of 10667 from COHA. It is important to note that COHA covers 1810-2000. The use of the verb love in its progressive form cannot be accounted for the years after the twentieth century. As seen in the table below, the use of the verb love in its progressive way gained popularity in America in the second half of the nineteenth century. The first use of loving is recorded under fiction, as shown;
When at last I gave way to the impulse of nature and sought her; when I found her majestic amidst surrounding misery, pure though assail’d by poverty, and loving the hand which had bruised her—
The context shows the stative verb love with a continuous aspect, making it describe an action rather than a state. As seen from the context, the verb loving is used to show the act of love shown on the receiver of the action.
SECTION
ALL
FREQ
10667
27
149
343
494
683
787
947
919
902
584
492
523
335
374
536
369
503
524
544
632
WORDS (M)
405
1.2
6.9
13.8
16.0
16.5
17.1
18.6
20.3
20.6
22.1
22.7
25.7
24.6
24.3
24.5
24.0
23.8
25.3
27.9
29.6
PER MIL
26.34
22.86
21.51
24.90
30.78
41.47
46.15
51.02
45.24
43.78
26.43
21.67
20.39
13.62
15.36
21.84
15.39
21.12
20.70
19.47
21.37
SEE ALL
YEARS
AT ONCE
A table from the COHA showing the frequency of the verb love
The use of the stative verb love, as seen from the table, reduced its use in the 20th century since the use of fiction in literature reduced. Most people were concerned with academic writings as well as scientific studies. From more research, it was discovered that the first 100 uses of the non-progressive verb love were in fiction. The fiction uses were from stories and novels written by prominent writers of that time. The purpose of the verb in 2000, the last year provided by COHA provided similar results. The first 100 instances all came from fiction. It was, however, impossible to generate a table to show the usage in different domains. Research from another corpus COCA proved that the use of verb love in the continuous form mostly occurred in fiction writing. The way does not feature much in academic, magazine and non-academic writing. The application was also rampant in the newspapers due to a lot of advertisements and fiction writing featured. Further probing discovered that the continuous form of the verb love is applied to depict speaking moments, repetition, duration, temporariness, emotiveness, as well as in presenting a case and giving generic statements a state of immediacy.
Like
SECTION
ALL
FREQ
3478
3
22
123
104
153
162
213
257
214
262
244
272
217
217
186
157
204
164
139
165
WORDS (M)
405
1.2
6.9
13.8
16.0
16.5
17.1
18.6
20.3
20.6
22.1
22.7
25.7
24.6
24.3
24.5
24.0
23.8
25.3
27.9
29.6
PER MIL
8.59
2.54
3.18
8.93
6.48
9.29
9.50
11.47
12.65
10.39
11.86
10.75
10.60
8.82
8.91
7.58
6.55
8.57
6.48
4.97
5.58
SEE ALL
YEARS
AT ONCE
A table from the COHA showing the frequency of the verb like
As seen in the table above, the frequency of the stative verb like in its continuous form is 3478. The use of the progressive aspect of the verb gained popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The continuous form of the verb like has, however, remained popular over the years, showing that the American people continue to use it, probably up to date.
The first use of the progressive form of the verb like as provided by the COHA was in the fiction section. Out of the first 100 instances of the use of the verb liking, most occurred in the fiction category, with some derived from non-fiction and magazine writings. The first use in context was;
But as I was saying sir, I want not gold, I only wish a service to my liking until such time as my old lord and I shall agree to come together again Twill not be long.
The use of the continuous aspect of the verb like makes the verb to describe an action rather than a state, as seen in the context. The searches in the last provide year, 2000, proved that the use of the continuous aspect is mainly used in fiction writing and least in scientific and academic writings. The use of liking in spoken language is also high among the Americans. From further probing, it was discovered that the continuous form of the non-progressive verb like tends to show politeness, emotions intensity, and moment of speech, activity increase, as well as temporariness and a matter of course situation. It is important to note that the primary use of like in the continuous form is to show temporariness.
Fear
SECTION
ALL
FREQ
3345
9
72
127
161
172
176
257
223
225
247
170
229
242
108
109
121
191
147
154
205
WORDS (M)
405
1.2
6.9
13.8
16.0
16.5
17.1
18.6
20.3
20.6
22.1
22.7
25.7
24.6
24.3
24.5
24.0
23.8
25.3
27.9
29.6
PER MIL
8.26
7.62
10.39
9.22
10.03
10.44
10.32
13.85
10.98
10.92
11.18
7.49
8.93
9.84
4.44
4.44
5.05
8.02
5.81
5.51
6.93
SEE ALL
YEARS
AT ONCE
A table from the COHA showing the frequency of the verb fear
As seen from the above table, the progressive aspect of the verb fear has a frequency of 3345. The use of the verb’s progressive form was popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century but declined later to a stable rate. Again, the first 100 searches from the COHA were mostly excerpts from fiction. Other sources search as non-fiction materials and magazines also had used the progressive form of like, but insignificantly. The first use in the corpus is;
But seeing that the way from the palace hither was rather crowded and fearing that more of Hilario’s honest debtors might be among them.
The use of the verb fearing depicts action.
It is important to note that the search from the last year provided, 2000, provided most of the results as excerpts from fiction.
Conclusion
From the research, it is clear the use of progressive forms of various stative verbs has gained popularity among Americans. The application was unacceptable in ancient English but has been embraced by modern English. As the COHA reveals, most of the use of continuous forms of non-progressive verbs occur in fiction writing, with some occurring in magazines. Academic sector has the lowest use of this form, showing that the progressive form of stative verbs is considered informal. Newspapers also use stative verbs in a continuous way, especially in advertising and informal sections.