死背语法概念毫无意义：Continuous and progressive aspects

友情提示：读懂英语文章是英语入门的最基本要求，如果您学习了N年的英语却连英语版的少儿读物都读不懂，您的英语学习基本上是在做无用功。

如果您不认识continuous和progressive，也不知道tense和aspect的区别，继续执着于用汉语描述的英语语法就基本上是在做无用功。

当您能够认识（不会读都没有关系）这些单词，就会发现英语中根本就没有什么复杂的语法问题。

continuous[kEn5tinjuEs]adj.连续的, 持续的（con+tin+u+ous）

continue[kEn5tinju:]v.继续, 连续, 延伸(con+tin+u+e)

依-ue，-e结尾的单词多数是经由法语再进入英语的，请复习dialogue, value, avenue。

progressive[prE5^resiv] adj.前进的, (税收)累进的, 进步的（pro+gress+ive）

如果您已经熟悉英语的词类，相信您已经认识pronoun（代词），也已经熟悉pro-这个前缀。在此基础上再记忆professor（教授），program（程序）就相当轻松。

强烈建议您认真读一读《中小学生轻松玩转英语词类》。

 

gress是源自拉丁语的词根，表“走”，小朋友们可能都学习过dress。dress和gress是不是只是一个字母之差？

如果您可以掌握dress，记忆gress应该不难。再记忆press也相当容易，自然express，expression和expressive也不在话下。

-ive形容词后缀，这个实在是太常用了，我都不好意思再提它了。

如果您不是愚蠢地把progressive分解成p,r,o,g,r,e,s,s,i,v,e去读、记，小学三年级学生掌握这样的单词都绝对是小菜一碟。

当您搞清楚了continuous和progressive的区别，可能就不会再为“进行时态”是continuous tense还是progressive tense发愁了。

实际上，现代英语中已经不再把“进行时态”称为tense，而是代之以aspect。

如果您已经搞清楚tense和aspect的区别，英语中就基本上没有什么复杂的时态问题。

请相信：所谓的语法问题实际上只是单词问题。您只要从心理上解决单词问题，语法问题也都会迎刃而解。

下面的内容请大概地读一读：

The continuous and progressive aspects (abbreviated CONT and PROG) are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action or state in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects.

imperfective aspect 未完成体

也就是说，现代英语中基本上不存在什么“进行时态”，而是称其为“进行体”。

“进行体”的特点是“未完成”。

In the grammars of many languages the two terms are used interchangeably.

在许多语言中，“continuous aspects”和“progressive aspects”是指同一个东西。英语中就是如此。

This is the case with English: a construction such as he is washing may be described either as present continuous or as present progressive.

either or 不是...就是..., ...或...

However there are certain languages for which two different aspects are distinguished.

而在汉语中，“continuous aspects”和“progressive aspects”则是指不同的东西。

In Chinese, for example, progressive aspect denotes a current action, as in "he is getting dressed", while continuous aspect denotes a current state, as in "he is wearing fine clothes".

As with other grammatical categories, the precise semantics of the aspects vary from language to language, and from grammarian to grammarian.

For example, some grammars of Turkish count the -iyor form as a present tense;^[1] some as a progressive tense;^[2] and some as both a continuous (nonhabitual imperfective) and a progressive (continuous non-stative) aspect.^[3]

语法学家都是神，我们普通的学习者只要能读懂文章就可以，完全用不着参与他们的“专业争论”。

 

 Continuous versus progressive

The progressive aspect expresses the dynamic quality of actions that are in progress while the continuous aspect expresses the state of the subject that is continuing the action.

For instance, "Tom is reading" can express dynamic activity: "Tom is reading a book" - i.e. right now (progressive aspect), or Tom's current state: "Tom is reading for a degree" - i.e. Tom is a student (continuous aspect).

The aspect can often be ambiguous; "Tom is reading Ulysses" may describe his current activity (it's in his hand), or the state of having started, but not yet finished, the book (it's in his bag).

ambiguous[7Am5bi^juEs]adj.暧昧的, 不明确的（ambig+u+ous）

源自 拉丁语 ambiguus [不确定的]，源自ambigere [忙于]

ambi- [在…周围]，agere [驾驶]。

相信您只要复习一下am和big，再加上辅助的u和形容词后缀-ous就可以轻松掌握这个ambiguous。

 

Continuous and progressive in various languages

Unless otherwise indicated, the following languages treat continuous and progressive aspects the same, in which case the term continuous is used to refer to both.

English

Use

See also: Uses of English verb forms

The continuous aspect is constructed by using a form of the copula, "to be", together with the present participle (marked with the suffix -ing).^[4]

together with adv.和, 加之

present participle n.[语]现在分词

请参考《中小学生死背单词毫无意义——participle（分词）和infinitive（不定式）(附Complete English Grammar视频之4——动词)》。

It is generally used for actions that are occurring at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale.

For example, the sentence "Andrew was playing tennis when Jane called him." indicates what Andrew was doing when Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long Andrew played, nor how often he plays; for that, the simple past would suffice: "Andrew played tennis three hours every day for several years".

The perfect continuous (have been doing), as a special case, sometimes implies that the action being described was interrupted at the time in question, and does not clarify whether the action resumed.

For example, "Andrew had been playing tennis when Jane called him." may sometimes suggest that Jane's calling him interrupted his tennis-playing (whereas in the former example, it was possible that he simply ignored her call), and leaves open the possibility that what she told him required such urgent action that he forfeited his match and left.

 

But the perfect continuous need not imply interruptedness, as in "I have been running for 30 minutes, but I'll stop soon."

Salikoko Mufwene^[5]:pp.35-36 contrasts the effect of the progressive form on the meanings of action verbs versus those of lexically stative verbs:

1.     [I]t converts events expected to be punctual into longer-lasting, even if transient, states of affairs [e.g., "Nancy is writing a letter"];

2.     it [con]versely converts those states of affairs expected to last long (lexical statives) to shorter-lasting / transient states of affairs [e.g., "Tom is living with us"]; and

3.     it simply presents those verbs whose denotations are neutral with regard to duration as in process / in (transient) duration [e.g., "The wall is cracking"], though duration is most expected of statives.

Origin

One hypothesis regarding the origin of the development of the English progressive aspect was the Old English construction that used a form of beon/wesan (to be/to become) with a present participle (-ende). Although there is some debate among scholars, it is generally thought that such a construction in Old English was not analogous to progressive aspect signaled in present-day English (a more modern development), but rather carried the meaning of a simple stative verb, where the past participle functioned as an adjective, and was predominantly used for translating the corresponding construction in Latin texts (Brinton, 1988, p. 109).

One postulated source of the English current progressive aspect is the Celtic languages that have been spoken in Britain throughout its history, which all use a (to be)+preposition+verbal noun construction to form it.^[6]

Chinese

This article contains Ruby annotation. Without proper rendering support, you may see transcriptions in parentheses after the character instead of ruby glosses.

Chinese is one family of languages that makes a distinction between the continuous and progressive aspects.

Cantonese

Cantonese has a very regular system for expressing aspects via verb suffixes. 緊 is typically used to express progressive aspect while 住 is used to express continuous aspect. Take the following example:

	Cantonese(Literal English)	English Translation
Progressive	我(I) 著(wear) 緊(PROG) 衫(clothes) 。(.)	I am putting on clothes.
Continuous	我(I) 著(wear) 住(CONT) 衫(clothes) 。(.)	I am wearing clothes.

In the example, the progressive aspect expresses the fact that the subject is actively putting on clothes rather than merely wearing them as in the continuous aspect. This example is useful for showing English speakers the difference between continuous and progressive because "wearing" in English never conveys the progressive aspect (instead "putting on" must be used).

In Cantonese, the progressive marker 緊 can express the continuous aspect as well, depending on the context (so the example above could also mean "I'm wearing clothes" in addition to "I'm putting on clothes"), but in general, the progressive aspect is assumed. In order to emphasize the progressive aspect rather than the continuous, 喺度 (literally meaning "at here") can be used in front of the verb:

我(I) 喺度(at here) 著(wear) 緊(PROG) 衫(clothes) 。(.)

喺度 can also be used without 緊 to indicate the progressive aspect.

Mandarin （汉语普通话）

Unlike Cantonese, Mandarin does not have a verb suffix for expressing the progressive aspect, but it can use the pre-verbal auxiliary zhèngzài 正在 (or just 在), similar to how Cantonese uses 喺度 in front of the verb.

The continuous aspect does have a verb suffix, 著/着 zhe, which is cognate with the Cantonese 住 in this context.

Incidentally, 著/着 is also used for the Cantonese word for "wear", but is actually not related because it is one of those words that have multiple meanings in Chinese.

	Mandarin(Literal English)	English Translation
Progressive	我(I) 正在(right now) 穿(wear) 衣服(clothes) 。(.)	I am putting on clothes.
Continuous	我(I) 穿(wear) 著(CONT) 衣服(clothes) 。(.)	I am wearing clothes.

For more information see Chinese grammar: Aspects.

建议小朋友们经常看看（这要比您在读不懂英语文章的情况下做选择题和完型填空有用）：

http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XODAyMzQ3NDA=/v.swf