ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that sentences containing progressive aspect, in certain discourse contexts, convey events from a character's vantage point. It illustrates the relationship between point of view and progressive aspect to the extent that the events denoted in the progressive aspect are attributed to the character whose point of view orients the events of the immediately preceding discourse. The chapter suggests that the progressive describes events from a character's point of view when these events overlap with predicates denoting a character's speech and thought. The interaction of the semantic properties of the progressive aspect and the discourse context in which the progressive occurs is responsible for the point of view interpretations. According to Smith, 'simple aspect makes linguistic reference to endpoints and progressive aspect makes linguistic reference to a time that is not an endpoint'. The insertion of evaluative words into passages analogous to provides confirmation that simple and progressive aspect differ in their point of view interpretation.
