The present dynamic to refer to sequent processes

A process denoted by a verb in the Present Dynamic can be sequent to (or with) processes denoted by verbs in the Present Static or Present Dynamic tenses. Examples:

1. "Sometimes, when the pain is bad, I want it all to end as quickly as it may be, but when the pain goes, there I'm again thinking of the money" (H. Walpole); 2. "I see the boy in the road. He's coming right up here. Oh! look, look, he's coming into our house" (A. Cronin); 3. Each manifestation of life is coming and then going back again (Th. Dreiser); 4. Outside it is raining. I like to think of that cold drenched window be­hind the blind, and beyond the fence. And all at one and the same mo­ment I am arriving in a strange city, slipping under the hood of a cab while the driver whips the cover off the breathing horse, running from shelter to shelter, dodging someone, swerving by someone else. I am conscious of tall houses, their doors and shutters sealed against the night. I am brushing through deserted gardens and falling into most smelling summer-houses. I am standing on the dark quayside, giving my ticket into the wet, red hand of the old sailor in an oilskin. How strong the sea smells! How loudly the tied-up boats knock against one another! I am crossing the wet shackyard, hooded in an old sack. And now I am walking along a deserted road — it is impossible to miss the puddles, and the trees are stirring, stirring (K. Mansfield).

Adverbs and adverbial phrases of time combined with the present dynamic

Adverbs and adverbial phrases of time combine with the Present Dynamic to modify processes of the present time sphere in about 19% of its uses: in 81% the context has no such indicators. Figures in brack­ets in the frequency list that follows indicate the percentage of the use

100

of the Present Dynamic with a particular adverb or phrase relative to the total number of instances of the tense combined with them:

now (23.6); always (19.1); every day, etc. (9.6); still (9.3); all the time, etc. (7.4); constantly, etc. (5.6); at present, this moment, etc. (3.8); today, tonight (3.4); just now (3.1); this week, etc. (2.2); till (1.8); these days (1.5); again (.9); all day, for the first time, now and then, soon, then, yet (.6, each); after awhile, all this time, for a number of years, from ... till, never, steadily (.3, each).

Now: 1. "A moment ago I had doubts. Now I am ordering you to do it" (G. Jenkins); 2. "And by the way, how is the dancing hall doing now?" (A. Cronin); 3. "What are you doing now?" —"Not much. I get around a little. I'm taking it sort of easy now" (E. Hemingway); 4. "What's he studying now? Is he studying science?" —"Yes, and I think he's getting on quite well at it. He's certainly working very hard" (D. Hicks); 5."I'm teaching now at one of the church schools" (G. Gordon); 6."Many of those who are writing novels now were only children during the Civil War" (D. Worker).

As the examples show, the Present Dynamic, when combined with now, refers both to concrete (Example 1) and abstract (Examples 2—6) processes.

Always: 1. "Where's my French grammar? You've boned it. You're always pinching my books" (H. Walpole); 2. Language is a living, grow­ing organism, like a tree or a vine. It is always changing (S. Cody); 3. The associations of words are always shifting, even when the meaning re­mains unchanged (J. Greenough); 4. Men are always trying to make machines which will do their hard work for them (H. McKay).

Examples 2—4, in which the Present Dynamic is combined with the adverb always, are emotionally colourless.

Every Day, etc.: 1. "Things of that sort are happening every day all over the world. They are in the nature of things" (H. G. Wells); 2. "I know it is hard to go on striking. A bowl of stew is all I am having each day and that is all I have to keep me going" (D. Worker); 3. "They're sending six pounds every month" (P. Abrahams).

Still: "Is it still snowing?" (W. S. Gray); 2. "Well, what are you doing now? Are you still keeping up your singing?" (D. Parker); 3. "She's still living, they say" (J. Galsworthy); 4. "I haven't the least use for anybody who's still talking about the war" (E. Delafield).

All the Time, etc.: 1. The experience of the working class is flowing in all the time, analysed, tested, reapplied, reanalysed (J. Lindsay); 2. The shift in parts of speech is not something that happened to old languages, or to new languages in their early stages. It is going on all the time (I. Goldberg); 3. "Everybody is trying to down me, and now I'm up against the Railroad. I'm fighting them all, Hilma, night and day, lock, stock, and barrel" (F. Norris).

Constantly, etc.: 1. Frozen foods are constantly gaining new markets (G. Stewart); 2. Form lives longer than its conceptional content. Both are ceaselessly changing, but the lorm tends to linger on when the spirit has flown or changed its being (E. Sapir); 3. The notion "present" has no stability whatever, but is continuously shifting from the past toward

101

the future (A. Markwardt); 4. And Cowperwood turned his face to that dawn which is forever breaking where youth is (Th. Dreiser); 5. "He is perpetually meeting accidents" (G. Meredith).

Already: 1. "Marvellous. I'm already feeling different" (D. Cusack); 2. "Mrs. Henry is already losing much of her strength. The sooner we operate now the safer (E. Hemingway); 3. "Aileen is already planning to go to Paris shopping" (Th. Dreiser).

At Present, etc. Today, Tonight: 1. He is at present studying for a scientific degree at Cambridge (J. Braine); 2. "Just about this moment she's getting away with a pearl necklace!" (P. Wodehouse); 3. These achievements of the U.S.S.R. surpass those of the West — indeed at the moment we are pausing, the Communists are driving ahead (D. Work­er); 4. "This train is really travelling today" (F. Norris); 5. Today the controllers are becoming controlled (D. Worker); 6. "Your ears are stick­ing up so nicely tonight, Michael" (J. Galsworthy).

Just Now, Right Now: 1." Aren't you feeling happy just now?" (P. Ab­rahams); 2. "He's the only man in England who's doing real work just now" (J. Galsworthy); 3. "The 17th and 19th Street line is earning one thousand dollars a day right now" (Th. Dreiser).

This Week, These Days: 1. "I'm a dancer, and the company I am with is playing here this week" (Th. Dreiser); 2. "I'm selling tickets for you this afternoon. I'm having such success" (F. Norris); 3. "How are you getting on these days?" (E. James).

Till, Again, All Day, For the First Time, Now And Then, Soon¹, Then², Yet: 1. Mass forms of protest in Greenboro are marking time till the end of lengthy negotiations (D. Worker); 2. "I think I'll be all right. I'm hearing from some of my friends again" (Th. Dreiser); 3."They are working in dust all day — their lungs are chucked with it" (A. Cro­nin); 4. "The appletree is having fruit for the first time" (D. Russel); 5. "You're getting to talk like a landlubber now and then" (G. Meredith); 6. "You are getting old; I am not, yet" (J. Galsworthy).

After a While. All This Time. For a Number of Years. From ... Till. Never. Steadily: 1. The Mexicans are simply enraptured. But after a while they are pining to put their spokes into those wheels (D. H. Lawrence); 2. "What's fretting you, dear?" —"It's George. He's waiting at home for his tea all this time" (J. Lindsay); 3. All full-time students, and those part-time students who are attending for a number of years may need a small locker in which to keep their belongings (B. Price); 4. The nuns are toiling from morning till night (A. Munthe); 5. "I'm never thin king of anything else" (G. Meredith); 6. The structural linguistics issteadi-ly becoming more influential among students of the language (J. Hook).