When the Perfect Meets the Progressive: Exploring the Evolution of the Present Perfect Progressive in American English

This study explores the evolution of the present perfect progressive (PerfProg) in American English from the early nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. Drawing on data from the Corpus of Historical American English, this study examines the PerfProg in relation to the past progressive and the present perfect simple. The frequency of the PerfProg increased steadily until the mid-twentieth century; thereafter it stabilized in popular writing but declined in speech-based registers. Multinomial regression analysis shows that the PerfProg retains more of its earlier conditioning patterns than the simple verb forms. Its evolution is characterized by a shift toward more eventive uses and specification by adverbials headed by for and since . The results underscore the non-compositionality of this complex verb form on synchronic and diachronic levels.