The emergence of Be Going to Be V-ing in native and non-native varieties of English

Although a lot is known about the usage of the be going to-Inf future and pedagogic grammars’ account of it (Römer 2005), its progressive counterpart (be going to be V-ing) has been minimally explored, and only in native English varieties (Declerck 1991; Williams 2002; Gesuato 2008a, 2008b). This paper examines whether the construction is attested in non-native English varieties, and if its usage matches that of native varieties on the basis of data from the East-Africa, Great-Britain, Hong-Kong, India, Philippines and Singapore ICE components. GB alone contains 36 instance, while the non-native components together include 40 (HK-15; SIN-8; PHIL-6; IND-6; EA-4). All instances come from spoken sources, especially dialogic ones (GB: 24; others: 24). The construction: tends to pattern with pronominal subjects (ICE: 33; others: 34); can realize its matrix phrase finite verbs in contracted (GB: 21; others: 17) or non-contracted forms; mainly occurs in main/coordinate clauses (GB: 20; others: 20) or embedded ones (GB: 13; others: 15); mostly encodes durative events (GB: 31; others: 27); may convey the meaning of ‘intentionality’ (GB: 10; others: 17) or ‘predictability’ (GB: 14; others: 14) or be ambiguous between the two (GB: 12; others: 9); is associated with common lexemes (GB: 27; others: 29) which do not trace distinctive semantic patterns. The data reveals that be going to be V-ing is an infrequent form, whose usage is homogeneous in the native and non-native English varieties considered. Its preference for the oral register, pronominal subjects, and contracted finite verbs suggests that it is characteristic of informal communication. Also, its concentration in oral texts suggests that it is a manifestation of the increasing spread of the progressive in English (Gavis 1998; Hundt 2004). Finally, its lower frequency in the non-native varieties suggests that these lag behind in the implementation of the above-mentioned change in progress. Declerck, Renat (1991) A comprehensive descriptive grammar of English, Tokyo, Kaitakusha. Gavis, Wendy Antoinette (1998) Stative verbs in the progressive aspect: a study of semantic, pragmatic, syntactic and discourse patterns, PhD dissertation, Columbia University. Hundt, Marianne (2004) “Animacy, agentivity, and the spread of the progressive in Modern English”, English Language and Linguistics, 8(1): 47-69. Gesuato Sara (2008a) “Linguistic research with large-scale corpora”, in Taylor Torsello C., Katherine Ackerley, Erik Castello (eds) Corpora for University Language Teachers, Berlin, Peter Lang, 129-140. Gesuato Sara (2008b) “The progressive form of the to be going to future: a preliminary report”, in A. Baldry, M. Pavesi, C. Taylor Torsello, C. Taylor (eds.) From Didactas to eColingua: an ongoing research project on translation and corpus linguistics, Trieste: Università degli Studi di Trieste, Dip. di Scienze del Linguaggio, della Traduzione e dell'Interpretazione, EUT, pp. 205-233,. Römer Ute (2005) Progressives, Patterns, Pedagogy, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins. Williams, Christopher (2002) Non-progressive and progressive aspect in English, Fasano (BR): Schena Editore.