Boundarizing Principle: Producing Of English Progressive

There are various English Progressive types in contemporary English grammar. Not only bounded verbs can occur in the English Progressive, unbounded verbs can turn into bounded verbs in some context and then occur in this construction. In order to examine the generative mechanism of the English Progressive, boundarizing hypothesis is proposed in this paper. With the abduction methodology, this hypothesis is analyzed and verified under the bounding theory of Langacker and Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization of Gestalt psychology. This thesis proposes that boundarizing principle be applied in producing the English Progressive.Boundarizing hypothesis is described as follows: English verbs can be divided into bounded and unbounded verb. It is not absolute for a verb to have a boundary or not in different situations. That is, an unbounded verb can be construed as bounded with some. boundarizing devices, and then it can be used as a bounded verb; on the other hand, a bounded verb can be construed as unbounded with some deboundarizing devices, and then be used as an unbounded verb. In traditional English grammar, only bounded verbs can occur in the English Progressive aspect. In fact, unbounded verbs can be applied to this construction if they are boundarized appropriately. This is proposed as boundarizing of verbs in this thesis. Actually, the producing of a Progressive is boundarizing of a verb or verb phrase. Boundarizing is to make unbounded verb get virtual boundaries. Deboundarizing is to make bounded verb demonstrate unbounded situation in special contexts. Neither boundarizing nor deboundarizing can change essential attributes of a verb. They are special uses of a verb. Construed in different ways, verbs will be used in different ways in special situations. This hypothesis is proposed as a principle of producing the English Progressive. That is, boundarizing principle is applied unconsciously when people want to apply the English Progressive to represent a situation.This thesis aims to solve the following two problems mainly with boundarizing principle: How do some verbs occur in the English Progressive nowadays while they are not allowed to be used in this construction according to traditional grammar? How is the Progressive used to indicate the future process? While solving these problems in language use, we try to solve such theoretical problems as how are the unbounded processes designated by unbounded verbs boundarized and what are the boundarizing devices. After detailed discussion of many Progressive constructions, the author finds that people tend to apply the boundarizing principle to form the English Progressive. People do not care about the essential attributes of main verbs so much. What they care about are the situations where the verbs situate. Whether a verb can occur in the Progressive or not is not only determined by attributes of the verb, but also determined by its context.Many linguists have done much research on the English Progressive, but little research clearly tells us how this construction is produced and why there are various Progressives, and how verbs with different attributes occur in the same construction. Every linguist has his own ideas, but they all just list kinds of Progressives. This urges the author to examine generative mechanism of the English Progressive. Verbs are classified into bounded and unbounded verbs. Unbounded verbs can be boundarized. This thesis examines the producing of English Progressive from boundary perspective.In Chapter One, the author introduces this paper in general: boundarizing hypothesis, research aims, research basis, theoretical framework supporting this hypothesis, and methodology in developing this paper.In Chapter Two, Researches on the English Progressive of scholars home and abroad are reviewed. These scholars classified verbs in different ways in order to do research on the English Progressive. According to their researches, we conclude that any verb can be used in the English Progressive if it is boundarized appropriately in time domain. The most influential linguist to this paper is Langacker. This paper is formed mainly according to his theory. Langacker introduced the Progressive from the verb classification: perfective verb and imperfective verb. He proposed that only perfective verbs can occur in the Progressive, but this classification is not absolute. Perfective verbs can be used in imperfective way, and vice versa. That is to say, only bounded verbs can be used in this construction, and unbounded verbs can be used in a bounded way sometimes. So we still can not know what kind of verbs can occur in the Progressive from his research. When the imperfective verbs are used in a perfective way, it is named boundarizing of unbounded verb in this thesis. Langacker used many Schemas to express his idea. His Schemas and method are used widely in this paper. Scholars like Palmer, Comrie, and many others also listed many examples to express variety of the Progressive. From their research, we find that the unbounded verb can be boundarized with some boundarizing devices and then occur in the English Progressive.The theoretical framework is introduced in Chapter Three in detail. The theoretical framework is Langacker's bounding theory. Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization play an important role in supporting boundarizing principle. There is one famous example to explain bounding theory well. It is the sea example. When a sea is construed from a spaceship, it is bounded and its boundary can be seen. But when the sea is construed from a person swimming in the sea, he could not know where the boundary of the sea is, so he may think that it is unbounded. He may use water to depict what he saw but not sea. When a bounded entity is construed from the internal viewpoint, it tends to be construed as unbounded. This phenomenon is proposed as deboundarizing which is introduced in detail in chapter three. Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization are principles people tend to obey when they perceive the world. People tend to perceive the stimulus as a good gestalt. According to Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization, unbounded verbs can be boundarized through some boundarizing devices and then be used in the English Progressive reasonably.Various verb classifications are depicted in Chapter Four, for example, perfective/imperfective distinction, dynamic/stative distinction, and terminative/durative distinction. Based on these classifications, the author reclassifies verbs into two classes: prototypical progressive verbs and non-prototypical progressive verbs. Under this new classification, prototypical English Progressives are discussed first. Prototypes of English Progressive are formed by prototypical progressive verbs which include perfective verbs, relatively terminative verbs, some durative verbs and some dynamic verbs. These prototypical progressive verbs are all bounded verbs. Progressives in different tenses are also introduced a little in this chapter. Whether a verb or verb phrase can occur in the English Progressive has no relation with the sentence tense.In Chapter Five, a figure is drawn to represent the complex overlaps among various verb classifications. And non-prototypical progressive verbs are obtained. Punctual and static verbs are included in this type. Punctual verbs include some perfective verbs, absolutely terminative verbs, and some dynamic verbs. Imperfective verbs, some durative verbs and stative verbs are all called static verbs. Each kind of non-prototypical verb is analyzed when they occur in the Progressives anti-traditionally. From the detailed discussion, the author finds that boundarizing principle is applied when people produce the English Progressive. At the same time, boundarizing devices are used in either explicit or implicit ways. The explicit boundarizing devices include plural boundarizing, adverbial boundarizing and comparative degree boundarizing.Unbounded verbs can not be used in the English Progressive according to traditional grammar. However, many Progressive sentences with unbounded verbs exist nowadays. What are the differences between the Progressive aspect and the Simple aspect of unbounded verbs? Chapter Six explains some differences in general: the process in the Simple aspect is absolutely unbounded, and that of the Progressive aspect is bounded in a period of time although it is relatively unbounded in the immediate domain. The unbounded verb in the Progressive has been boundarized. The unbounded verb is used in bounded way in the Progressive.After detailed discussion of boundarizing principle and various Progressive forms, the author concludes that bounded verbs can occur in the English Progressive directly; and when construed in different ways, unbounded verbs can be used in this construction in an appropriate way. People tend to obey boundarizing principle while producing this construction with various devices such as explicit boundarizing devices in language level: plural boundarizing, adverbial boundarizing and comparative degree boundarizing; and implicit boundarizing devices. However, this paper is developed from the verb perspective. There are so many verbs in English that we can not cover them all. Thus, there must be Progressives that we do not cover. Hope others can perfect the research on the English Progressive.