A History of English Language

The appeal to authority, 1650-1800 275
new terms to the general language. Boomerang and kangaroo are interesting examples of
native words that have passed into universal use. Other words are sometimes found in the
English of Australians—wombat, a kind of burrowing animal, paramatta, a light dress
fabric, and cooey, a signal cry used by the aborigines and adopted by the colonists; one is
said to be ‘within cooey’ of Sydney when within an easy journey of the city. Thus, one of
the reasons for the cosmopolitan character of the English vocabulary today is seen to be
the multitude of contacts the English language has had with other tongues in widely
scattered parts of the world.
209. Development of Progressive Verb Forms.
Before concluding this survey of the factors affecting the language in the eighteenth
century we must notice in particular one characteristic development in English grammar.
In a work such as this it is impossible to follow in detail the history of each part of
speech. All that can be done is to indicate the more important grammatical changes that
have taken place since Old English times and to note such new developments as are of
most significance in the language of today. Of these, one of great importance concerns
the verb. Where French says je chante or German ich singe, English may say I sing, I do
sing, or I am singing. The do-forms are often called emphatic forms, and this they
sometimes are; but their most important uses are in negative and interrogative sentences
(I don’t sing, do you sing). The forms with to be and the present participle are generally
called progressive forms because their most common use is to indicate an action as being
in progress at the time implied by the auxiliary. The wide extension of the use of
progressive forms is one of the most important developments of the English verb in the
modern period.
In Old English such expressions as he wœs lærende (he was teaching) are occasionally
found, but usually in translations from Latin. 51 In early Middle English, progressive
forms are distinctly rare, and although their number increases in the course of the Middle
English period, 52 we must credit their development mainly to the period since the
sixteenth century. The chief factor in their growth is the use of the participle as a noun
governed by the preposition on (he burst out on laughing). 53 This weakened to he burst
out a-laughing and finally to he burst out laughing. In the same way he was on laughing
became he was a-laughing and he was laughing. Today such forms are freely used in all
tenses (is laughing, was laughing, will be laughing, etc.).
51
A thorough study of the contexts in which this pattern occurs in Old English, including contexts
not influenced by Latin, is by Gerhard Nickel, Die Expanded Form im Altenglischen (Neumünster,
Germany, 1966).
52
A valuable list of early occurrences is given in W.Van der Gaff, “Some Notes on the History of
the Progressive Form,” Neophilologus, 15 (1930), 201–15.
53
In Middle English, forms without the preposition are usually accompanied by an adverb like
always, all day, etc. (cf. Chaucer’s syngynge he was, or floytynge, al the day).