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Our next example is of the link verb be in the continuous aspect form: There were a few laughs which showed however that the sale, on the whole, was being a success. With the non – continuous form substituted: There were a few laughs which showed however that the sale, on the whole, was a success. In this instance, once more, the difference would appear to be essential. In the text as it stands, it is certain that the laughs mentioned were heard while the sale was still going on, whereas in the second variant this left to conjecture: they might as well have been heard after the sale was concluded, when some people were discussing its results. So the continuous form of the link verb has an important function in the sentence. Compare also the following: You are being presumptuous in a way you wouldn’t be with anyone else, and I don’t like it. Compare also the following: you are being presumptuous in a way you wouldn’t be with anyone else, and I don’t like it. Compare also: “ I think you are being just,” Charles said… Here the continuous is perhaps more necessary still, as it clearly means that the person’s behaviour in a certain concrete situation is meant, not his general characteristic, which would be expressed by saying, “ I think you are just”. Compare also: Perhaps I’m being selfish… The link verb be is also use in the continuous aspect in the following passage: What I think is, you’re supposed to leave somebody alone if he’s at least being interesting and he’s getting all excited about something. He is being interesting obviously means here, “he is behaving in an interesting way”, or “he is trying to be interesting”, and it implies a certain amount of conscious effort, whereas he is interesting would merely mean that he has this quality as a permanent characteristic, without reference to any effort of will and without limitation to any period of time. Compare also: Now you are being rude.
Terminology
Each of the two aspects must be given some name which should of course be as adequate as possible to the basic meaning of the aspect. It seems easier to find a name for he type is writing than for the type writes. The term continuous aspect has now been in use for some time already and indeed it seems very appropriate to the phenomenon which it is used to describe. As to the type writes, a term is rather more difficult to find, as the uses of this form are much more varied and its intrinsic meaning, accordingly, less definite. This state of things may be best of all described by the term common aspect, which is indefinite enough to allow room for the various uses. It also has merit of being parallel with the term common case, which has been discussed above and which seems the best to denote the phenomenon if a case system in English nouns is recognized at all. Thus we will use the terms continuous aspect and common aspect to denote the two aspects of the Modern English verb.
Special uses
However, the problem of aspect and their uses is by no means exhausted. First of all we must now mention the uses of the continuous aspect which do not easily fit into the definition given above. Forms of this aspect are occasionally used with the adverbs always, continually, etc., when the action is meant to be unlimited by time.
Aspect and character of the verb
The problem of aspect is intimately connected with a lexico -logical problem, which we shall therefore have to touch upon here. It may be well illustrated by the following series of examples. If we have, for example, the sentence, A young man was sitting in the corner of the room, without affecting he basic meaning of he sentence . The same situation may be described in both ways, the only difference between them being that of stylistic colouring: the variant with the common aspect form is more matter – of – fact and “dry”, whereas the one with the continuous aspect form is more descriptive.
The absence of any actual difference in meaning in such a case is brought out in the following passage from a modern novel: Mr Bodiham was sitting in his study at the Rectory. The nineteenth – century Gothic windows, narrow and pointed, admitted the light grudgingly; in spite of the brilliant July weather, the room was sombre. Brown varnished bookshelves lined the walls, filled with row upon row of those thick, heavy theological works which the second – hand booksellers generally sell by weight. The mantelpiece, the overmantel, a towering structure of spindly pillars and little shelves, were brown and varnished. The writing – desk was brown and varnished. So were the chairs, so was the door. A dark red – brown carpet with patterns covered the floor everything was brown in the room, and there was a curious brownish smell. In the midst of this brown gloom Mr Bodiham sat at his deks.
By comparing the first and the last sentence of this passage it will be seen that they tell of the same situation, but in different ways. The first sentence is clearly descriptive, and it opens a rather lengthy description of Mr Bodiham’s room, its furniture, books, etc. the last sentence of the passage, on the other hand confirms the fact that Mr Bodiham sat in his study, as if summing up the situation. So the same fact is told a second time and the difference in the stylistic qualities of the continuous and the common aspect is well brought out.
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