Delahunty and Garvey
you find it?)
a. The plane is taxiing. (The action does/does not take a period of
time.)
b. I watch television. (Is/is not compatible with continuation “while
my clothes are drying.”)
c. I was watching television. (Is/is not compatible with continuation
“while my clothes were drying.”)
d. I am earning $4.75 an hour. (Suggests permanence/imperma-
nence.)
e. (1) As the beast advanced, (2) the hikers were planning their
escape route. (Event (1) occurred during event (2)/Event (1) did
not occur during event (2).)
f. Sarah was jumping well at the meet. (Implies repeated jumping/
continuous activity.)
g. Oscar is being a ninny. (Implies that Oscar is a temporary/perma-
nent ninny)
- Other verbs besides be may be followed by Ving forms, e.g., The
Energizer Bunny keeps on going, and going, and going. The rescuers
continued working through the night. (a) What other verbs can you
think of that take the progressive Ving form? (b) What meaning do
these verbs have in common? - The following text is adapted from “A New List for a New Year,”
an article by David Noonan, Newsweek (January 21, 2008 p. 18). The
article is about making a list of illnesses besetting oneself and one’s
friends. (a) Identify all the instances of the progressive in the text,
making sure not to be misled by non-progressive Ving forms and pro-
gressives with an omitted but understood wh-word and form of be. (b)
Identify the tense of each of the progressives you listed. (c) List the
different forms of the progressives you identified. (d) Discuss the rea-
sons why the author might have chosen the progressives in this text.
Are they consistent with the discussion of the progressive just above?
I got the idea for my list a couple of days after Christmas, dur-
ing a memorial service for an old friend who died of Huntington’s
disease.... As I sat listening to stories about my friend, I thought
about my brother, John, who was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2005
and who is now doing fine. I also thought about my father, who beat
colon cancer 22 years ago; a younger member of my extended family