Hostname: page-component-5f7774ffb-rjhn2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-02-19T15:14:47.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Progressive in Modal Semantics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Paul Portner
Paul Portner*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
*
Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057 [portneph@gusun.georgetown.edu]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents a semantic analysis of the English progressive as an intensional operator within the framework of modal semantics proposed by Kratzer. This treatment allows a combination of the central idea of Dowty's influential analysis, that the progressive's meaning has a major modal component, with the insights of other scholars (Parsons, Vlach, and Landman). My claim is that using a more sophisticated background theory of modality allows natural solutions for the problems raised for the modal account.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , December 1998 , pp. 760 - 787
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Asher, Nicholas, 1992. A default, truth conditional semantics for the progressive. Linguistics and Philosophy 15. 463–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bach, Emmon. 1986. The algebra of events. Linguistics and Philosophy 9. 5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barwise, Jon, and Perry, John. 1983. Situations and attitudes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Binnick, Robert I. 1991. Time and the verb. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Gregory. 1977. Reference to kinds in English. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts dissertation.Google Scholar
Cipria, Alicia, and Roberts, Craige. 1996. Spanish imperfecto and preterito: Truth conditions and aktionsart effects in situation semantics. Columbus: Ohio State University, ms.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald. 1967. The logical form of action sentences. The logic of decision and action, ed. by Rescher, Nicholas, 81–95. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowty, David. 1977. Towards a semantic analysis of verb aspect and the English ‘imperfective progressive’. Linguistics and Philosophy 1. 45–78.Google Scholar
Dowty, David. 1979. Word meaning and Montague grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowty, David. 1986. The effects of aspectual class on the temporal structure of discourse: Semantics or pragmatics? Linguistics and Philosophy 9. 37–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Jaegwon. 1973. Causation, nomic subsumption, and the concept of event. Journal of Philosophy 70. 217–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Jaegwon. 1974. Noncausal connections. Noûs 8. 41–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1977. What ‘must’ and ‘can’ must and can mean. Linguistics and Philosophy 1. 337–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1981. The notional category of modality. Words, worlds, and contexts: New approaches in word semantics, ed. by Eikmeyer, H. J. and Reiser, H., 38–74. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1991. Modality. Semantics: An international handbook of contemporary research, ed. by von Stechow, A. and Wunderlich, D., 639–50. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Landman, Fred. 1992. The progressive. Natural Language Semantics. 1.1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David. 1973a. Causation. Journal of Philosophy 70. 556–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David. 1973b. Counterfactuals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Moens, Marc, and Steedman, Mark. 1988. Temporal ontology and temporal reference. Computational Linguistics 14. 15–28.Google Scholar
Parsons, Terence. 1990. Events in the semantics of English. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Portner, Paul. 1992. Situation theory and the semantics of propositional expressions. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts dissertation.Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota. 1991. The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stalnaker, Robert. 1968. A theory of conditionals. Studies in logical theory, ed. by Rescher, Nicholas, 98–112. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Taylor, Barry. 1977. Tense and continuity. Linguistics and Philosophy 1. 199–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ter Meulen, Alice. 1985. Progressives without possible worlds. Chicago Linguistics Society 21. 408–23.Google Scholar
Vlach, Frank. 1981. The semantics of the progressive. Syntax and semantics, vol. 14: Tense and aspect, ed. by Tedeschi, P. and Zaenen, A., 271–92. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar