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1 results

  • 12 - Tense, Aspect and Modality in the History of English

  • from Part II - Tracking Change in the History of English
  • Edited by Joan C. Beal, University of Sheffield
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge History of the English Language
    Published online:
    23 October 2025
    Print publication:
    23 October 2025, pp 326-359

  • Summary

    The verbal system of Proto-Indo-European was primarily based not on distinctions of tense, but rather on distinctions of aspect. The shift from the three aspect system (imperfective, perfective, retrospective) of late Proto-Indo-European to the binary tense system (past vs. non-past) of Germanic explains why the older forms of Germanic lack aspectual forms completely, and also why in historical times the various Germanic languages have developed analytic aspectual patterns of various kinds. In the case of English, these include two perfects to mark past events relevant to the present (I have seen her twice; The warm sea wind was risen and blew over them now), a fully grammaticalised be progressive (She is reading a book) and a second, partly grammaticalised progressive periphrasis formed on a deictic motion verb (Bill went whistling down the street). Also examined in the chapter are changes pertaining to the domain of modality.