d them among the tense-forms of the verb, defining them as expressing an action going on simultaneously with some other action. This temporal interpretation of the continuous was most consistently developed in the works of H. Sweet and O. Jespersen. In point of fact, the continuous usually goes with a verb which expresses a simultaneous action, but, as we have stated before, the timing of the action is not expressed by the continuous as such - rather, the immediate time-meaning is conveyed by the syntactic constructions, as well as the broader semantic context in which the form is used, since action in progress, by definition, implies that it is developing at a certain time point.
The correlation of the continuous with contextual indications of time is well illustrated on examples of complex sentences with while-clauses. Four combinations of the continuous and the indefinite are possible in principle in these constructions (for two verbs are used here, one in the principal clause and one in the subordinate clause, each capable of taking both forms in question), and all the four possibilities are realised in contexts of Modern English. Cf.: p align="justify"> While I was typing, Mary and Tom were chatting in the adjoining room. While I typed, Mary and Tom were chatting in the adjoining room. < span align = "justify"> While I was typing, they chatted in the adjoining room. While I typed, they chatted in the adjoining room.
Clearly, the difference in meaning between the verb-entries in the cited examples cannot lie in their time denotations, either absolutive, or relative. The time is shown by their tense-signals of the past (the past form of the auxiliary be in the continuous, or the suffix - {e) d in the indefinite). The meaningful difference consists exactly in the categorial semantics of the indefinite and continuous: while the latter shows the action in the very process of its realisation, the former points it out as a mere fact. P align = "justi fy"> On the other hand, by virtue of its categorial semantics of action in progress (of necessity, at a definite point of time), the continuous is usually employed in descriptions of scenes correlating a number of actions going on simultaneously - since all of them are actually shown in progress, at the time implied by the narration. Cf.:
Standing on the chair, I could see in through the barred window into the hall of the Ayuntamiento and in there it was as it had been before. The priest was standing, and those who were left were kneeling in a half circle around him and they were all praying. Pablo was sitting on the big table in front of the Mayor's chair with his shotgun slung over his back. His legs were hanging down from the table and he was rolling a cigarette. Cuatro Dedos was sitting in the Mayor's chair with his feet on the table and he was smoking a cigarette. All the guards were sitting in different chairs of the administration, holding their guns. The key to the big door was on the table beside Pablo (E. Hemingway). p align="justify"> But if the actions are not progressive by themselves (ie if they are not shown as progressive), the description, naturally, will go without the continuous forms of the corresponding verbs. E. g.:
Inland, the prospect alters. There is an oval Maidan, and a long sallow hospital. Houses belonging to Eurasians stand on the high ground by the railway station. Beyond the railway - which runs parallel to the river - the land sinks, then rises again rather steeply. On the second rise is laid out the little civil station, and viewed hence Chandrapore appears to be a totally different place (EM Forster). p align="justify"> A further demonstration of the essentially non-temporal meaning of the continuous is its regular use in combination with the perfect, ie its use in the verb-form perfect continuous. Surely, the very idea of ​​perfect is alien to simultaneity, so the continuous combined with the perfect in one and the same manifestation of the verb can only be understood as expressing aspectuality, ie action in progress.
Thus, the consideration of the temporal element in the continuous shows that its referring an action to a definite time-point, or its expressing simultaneity irrespective of absolutive time, is in itself an aspective, not a temporal factor.
At the second stage of the interpretation of the continuous, the form was understood as rendering a blend of temporal and aspective meanings - the same as the other forms of the verb obliquely connected with the factor of time, ie the indefinite and the perfect. This view was developed by I. P. Ivanova. p align="justify"> The combined temporal-aspective interpretation of the continuous, in general, should be appraised...
