ABSTRACT
13.1(1). Subjuncts like always, ever, constantly, all day long, all that afternoon, etc., are very often combined with expanded tenses, and it is not always easy to apply the rule of 'frame-time' to them. Now it is noticeable that these combinations were particularly frequent in ME, i. e. before the expanded tenses came to be swelled by the on (a-) + ing constructions. It is also worth pointing out that in these combinations always does not mean 'at all times in the history of the world' (as in "the sun always rises in the east"), but 'at all the times we are just now concerned with', and thus connects the action with what we are now talking about; in this way a resemblance to the usual employment of the expanded tenses is brought about. "He is always doing that" may generally be paraphrased 'he is continually beginning that again'.
