Delahunty and Garvey
When perfective have and progressive be occur together in a clause, (1)
have precedes be; (2) be, as the verb immediately to the right of have, occurs
as a been; and (3) the verb immediately to the right of progressive be occurs
as Ving. The associated syntactic structure is:
(56)HAVE
BEen Ving
Exercise
Using (a) as a model, identify and distinguish the elements of the per-
fect and the progressive in each of the following sentences:
a. I have been searching for that for ages. (Bold = perfect; under-
lined = progressive)
b. We had all been hoping for better weather.
c. Eleanor has been dating JD for several months now.
d. JD has been seeing a physical therapist for his damaged knee.
e. The plants have been doing better since you started talking to
them.
f. My computer has been crashing a lot lately.
Like have, be may serve as a main verb. When it does, as in Wiggles is a
friendly boa, it is a linking verb. When two instances of be occur, the same
generalization holds as for have—the first is an auxiliary (as in Wiggles is being
affectionate) and the second is the head verb.
The auxiliary be is a bit more complex than auxiliary have because it also
occurs in the passive. The functional formula for the passive is Be + Ven, and
the corresponding syntactic structure is:
(57)
BE Ven