Does grammatical aspect convey pragmatic meaning?

Abstract The study investigates the stance marker believe in the progressive aspect, challenging the view established in the ESL community that state verbs are used exclusively in the simple aspect and an overall neglect of the pragmatic meaning associated with different structural forms. The study shows that a corpus-based analysis of naturally occurring data proves the opposite: While the simple aspect remains the prevalent use, believe in progressive displays important pragmatic functions, indicative of immediacy, expression of agency, and intensity. The paper discusses the identified pragmatic functions and relates them to the communicative goals of the registers they are attested in, such as blogs and news reports. News broadcasts, for example, feature interview sources offering their subjective take; in opinion blogs, writers share experience offering evaluation. Speaker agency is thus a crucial component of influencing public opinion or the construction of the online persona. The study has implications for teaching, suggesting that students need exposure to and a thorough understanding of this authentic use.