ABSTRACT
THE ENGLISH EXPANDED TENSES 281 prose reads like poetry I it lookes ill, it eates drily, marry 'tis a wither'd pear (Sh.)). This latter use may assist in explaining some examples of is -ing (preparing, brewing, maturing), but not all, and in particular not the one which is perhaps of most frequent occurrence: the house is building, for it is impossible to say the house builds in a passive sense. The chief source of the construotion is in my view the combination on with the verbal substantive in -ing, which as other verbal substantives is in itself neither active nor passive (see above, p. 172) and therefore admits the passive interpretation (cp. the house is in construction). Combinations with the preposition a were not at all rare in former times in the passive signification: as this was a doyng (Malory) I there is some ill a-brewing towards my rest (Sh.) I while my mittimus was a making (Bunyan). This naturally explains the construction in: while grace is saying I while meat was bringing in. There is decidedly a difference between "my periwigg that was mending there" (Pepys) and "he is now mending rapidly," for in the latter, but not in the former case, the unexpanded forms mends, mended, may be used. Compare also "while something is dressing for our dinner" (Pepys) and" while George was dressing for dinner" cf. George dresses for dinner).
