The Progressive Tense: Frequency of Its Use in English

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to examine the growth of use of the progressive, or expanded, tense system in Modern English. The shades of significance of the system have been minutely analyzed by Jespersen, Curme, and others. Jespersen's explanation of the form as taking its rise in the preposition on + the gerund after the verb to be (fused with the use of be + the ing participle) seems unchallenged. But the frequency of use is yet another matter.