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Stative progressives in Inner and Outer Circle varieties of English
Author(s) -
Lenoble Christophe
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/weng.12483
Subject(s) - extension (predicate logic) , feature (linguistics) , linguistics , property (philosophy) , distinctive feature , varieties of english , history , mathematics , sociology , philosophy , computer science , epistemology , programming language
The extension of the progressive to statives is a feature of both Inner and Outer Circle varieties even though a division of labour seems to be at stake in regards to the semantics involved. Indeed, the pragmatic implicatures of temporariness and hedging are characteristic of the extension in Inner Circle varieties, whereas extended duration or ongoing states is what appears to be the property of Outer Circle varieties (Van Rooy, 2014). Temporariness is, however, common to all sorts of dialects, but adversative meanings have also been found in Singapore English (Ziegeler, 2017). I propose that all types of stative progressives in Present‐Day English are the result of a reanalysis all the way back to the general imperfectivity characterising Old and Middle English progressive constructions (Ziegeler, 2017). The gradualness of the extension will be seen to be universal and independent of community size and complexification to be a feature shared by all varieties.