Progressive form

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The progressive form is a verb form or verb periphrase in some languages that expresses a non-punctual event that takes place at a specific point in time and lasts.

Course forms in German

In the German language or individual dialects, there are various ways of expressing the course form. The forms differ greatly in terms of grammatical / semantic restrictions.

Progressive form with “at”
The progressive form is formed with sein + at the + infinitive .

  • "I am eating."
  • "I'm reading."

This type of progression is considered to be standard language. There are restrictions, for example, with 0-valued verbs ; the passive voice is at least questionable:

  • "It's raining."
  • "The dog is being petted."

Progressive form with “im”
The im form is formed with sein + im + infinitive .

  • "I'm going away."

This form is also regarded as standard language (see above), but is subject to severe restrictions:

  • "I'm thinking."
  • "The plant is growing."
  • "It's raining."

Progressive form with "am"

The progressive form with "am" is formed by being + am + infinitive and is now referred to in research as am-progressive ; various research contributions assume that the course form with am is much more grammaticalized in the German language than previously assumed. It is assumed that the infinitive used develops from a substantivated to a verbal unit and tends to be lower case ("he is reading"). Lt. Duden , the progressive form with am is now “partly already regarded as standard language.” A very similar form is even considered high-level language in Dutch, which is closely related to German (Hij is aan het lezen) . It also appears in Low German, which is closely related to Dutch .

Examples are:

  • "I am thinking about it."
  • "It's raining."
  • "The plant is growing and thriving."

Since this progression comes from southern and western German dialects, not all examples are equally accepted by the speaker community. Above all, higher valences outside of the dialects with the greatest acceptance (e.g. Rhineland) still tend to be rejected:

  • "I'm writing a letter to my mother about my money worries ."

Progressive form with "do"

In some dialects, for example in South Bavarian , “do” can express a progressive form: do + infinitive , there is a connection of “do” with a pure infinitive in sentences such as “she is currently talking” or “we are doing shopping”. The same form is also at home in the East Limburg and Ripuarian languages, where it usually describes more fundamental and longer-lasting relationships than the am- progressive form, which gives it a certain proximity to the same construction in northern Germany , in Jutian and Danish , as well as the reinforcements in Old English and English having.

Restrictions then result from the use in the respective dialect - if "do" is permissible for a shorter or general course, as in South Bavarian, "He does reading" is permissible, but in a dialect in which "do" expresses a longer course Not. The verb to do is a superfluous extension of the predicate. This usage is not considered correct in the standard language.

Lexical elements

The course of an event can also be expressed at the lexical level. This is often because the grammatical constructions, unlike in English, for example, are not mandatory in the German language. Typical examples are:

  • "It is raining right now."
  • "I've been working all day."
  • "I'll clean up on the side."

Sometimes there are links with syntactically expressed progressive forms:

  • "I'm just about to unlock the door."
  • "I'm currently thinking about it."

Absent-minded

The absentive is an independent construction, which however implies a course. The use of the absentive and other, syntactically formed progressive forms are mutually exclusive, since the construction - its + infinitive - only differs from other progressive forms through the absence of about in , on or with .

Middle High German

Middle High German had a progressive form that is still understandable today, formed with its + present participle :

  • "With Wazzer is he giving clarheit this, noble and pure"
  • Cf. New High German with participle: "With water it gives clarity."
  • Cf. New High German with am progressive: "With water he is the clarity of giving."

The progressive form initially lost the ending of the present participle occasionally, but probably died out completely in the course of the 16th century. The polished construction is identical in shape to the aforementioned absentive, but it has not yet been clarified in research whether the absentive goes back to the Middle High German progressive or was newly formed.

Gradient forms in different languages

In English , the progressive form is formed with the auxiliary verb be in conjunction with a participle , for example: He is reading. ("He's reading now"). In contrast to the German language, it is mandatory to use it in a corresponding context. A similar education can also be found in Basque .

In Italian , the progressive form is used with the auxiliary verb stare in conjunction with the gerund: L'uomo sta correndo (“The man is running straight”). Gradual developments or constant repetitions of a process, on the other hand, are expressed with the gerund + andare: Andava dicendo sciocchezze ("He kept saying stupid things "); Actions in their course with gerund + venire Mi vengo semper più persuadendo che ... ("I am becoming more and more convinced that ...")

Corresponding constructions with estar or andar and the gerund , gerundio are also used in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese : El hombre está corriendo (Spanish) or O homem está correndo (Portuguese). In European Portuguese, the gerund is replaced by the construction a + infinitive : O homem está a correr .

There is also a progressive form in French ; it is formed from être en train de faire qc . Literally translated this means: "To be on the train to do something", whereby the être is conjugated depending on the subject and the faire (to do) can be replaced by another verb in the infinitive, e.g. E.g . : Je suis en train d'écrire.

In the Celtic languages , e.g. B. in Breton and Irish , an auxiliary verb in the meaning of sein occurs with a preposition and the verbal noun, for example Irish Tá sé ag léamh an leabhair. ("He's reading the book."; Literally: "Is he reading the book.").

Also, the Japanese uses an analog structure: Here is the te-form of the verb with いる iru ( "there", "exist") connected as an auxiliary, for example. E.g . : 彼 は 本 を 読 ん で い る。 Kare wa hon o yonde iru. ("He's reading a book right now.").

In Lithuanian special (progressive) participles are used, for example jis buvo bemiegąs ("he slept", cf. the finite form jis miega / miegojo "he sleeps / slept" or jis yra / buvo miegojęs e "r has / had slept “), But in the present tense this construction is close to the dialect: aš esu beskaitąs (“ I read ”; literally“ I am a reader ”).

In Quechua , the infix -chka- expresses the progressive form: Taytanmantam rimachkan (“He is talking about his father”) versus Runasimitam riman (“He is speaking Quechua”). In Kichwa , on the other hand, the infix -ku- : Paypak taytamantami rimakun or Runashimitami riman is used for this .

See also

literature

  • Elisabeth Feldbusch, Reiner Pogarell, Cornelia Weiß: New questions in linguistics: files of the 25th Linguistic Colloquium. Vol. 1: Inventory and development. Paderborn 1990, p. 138 ( online ).
  • Gabriella Gárgyán: The am-progressive in today's German. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2014.
  • Olaf Krause: Progressive in German. An empirical study in contrast to Dutch and English. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2002.
  • Jeroen Van Pottelberge: Is every grammatical procedure the result of a grammaticalization process? Questions about the development of the am progressive. In: Torsten Leuschner u. a. (Ed.): Grammaticalization in German. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005.

Web links

Wiktionary: progressive form  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

swell

  1. ↑ Duden, Correct and Good German - Dictionary of Linguistic Doubts. 6th, completely revised edition. Bibliographical Institute & FA Brockhaus AG, Mannheim 2007.
  2. ↑ z. B. Rödel (2003/2004) in the journal Mutterssprache
  3. ↑ Duden, Vol. 9, 6th edition, 2007, p. 62
  4. ↑ Der younger Titurel , 30. Quoted from: von Aretin, Johann Christoph: Contributions to history and literature, especially from the treasures of the royal family. Court and Central Library in Munich , Volume 7, Lindauer, 1806.
  5. ↑ Gabriella Gárgyán: The Progressive in today's German. Peter Lang Edition, Frankfurt 2014, p. 105.