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Progressive Attraction: On the Use and Grammaticalization of Progressive Aspect in Dutch, Norwegian, and German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2013

Bergljot Behrens*
Affiliation:
University of Oslo
Monique Flecken*
Affiliation:
Heidelberg University/Radboud University
Mary Carroll*
Affiliation:
Heidelberg University
*
Department of Literature, Area Studies, and European Languages, University of Oslo, pb 1003, 0315 Oslo, Norway, [bergljot.behrens@ilos.uio.no]
Radboud University, Donders Centre for Cognition, Montessorilaan 3, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands, [m.flecken@donders.ru.nl]
Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprachenphilologie, Heidelberg University, Plöck 55, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany, [carroll@idf.uni-heidelberg.de]

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of aspectual constructions in Dutch, Norwegian, and German, languages in which aspect marking that presents events explicitly as ongoing, is optional. Data were elicited under similar conditions with native speakers in the three countries. We show that while German speakers make insignificant use of aspectual constructions, usage patterns in Norwegian and Dutch present an interesting case of overlap, as well as differences, with respect to a set of factors that attract or constrain the use of different constructions. The results indicate that aspect marking is grammaticalizing in Dutch, but there are no clear signs of a similar process in Norwegian.*

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2013 

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