You are kidding right? The English present progressive as a stance marker in film dialogue

Telecinematic discourse is a highly involved and emotionally loaded register (Quaglio 2009; Forchini 2012) in which stance and emotionality are conveyed via a variety of linguistic structures, including intensifiers (Tagliamonte, Roberts 2005; Baños 2013), expletives (Azzaro 2018; Bednarek 2019), vocatives (Formentelli 2014; Zago 2015) and emotionally charged lexical bundles (Freddi 2011; Bednarek 2012). The current study focuses on the present progressive in English film dialogue as an additional stance marker, especially when used in non-aspectual functions. Following Leech et al. (2009)'s model, different uses of the present progressive are investigated in a corpus of filmic speech, the Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue. After categorizing all the occurrences of present progressives in the corpus by their specific function (aspectual, futurate, stative, attitudinal), items are further classified based on their affiliative or disaffiliative stance. The focus is then narrowed down onto attitudinal, particularly interpretive, present progressives. The most common verbs used in interpretive patterns are singled out and analyzed in greater detail, by looking at the clusters or n-grams they appear in and drawing comparisons with spontaneous spoken language data. Findings show that interpretive present progressives are used extensively in film dialogue and often associate with a stance-marking, primarily disaffiliative function. The trend is especially evident in a set of verbs that appear in recurring patterns and n-grams throughout the corpus and act as privileged interpretive predicates. Data also suggest that multiple features cluster together to convey interpersonal meaning and display disalignment and conflict on screen.

影视话语（Telecinematic discourse）是一种高度卷入且饱含情感的语域（register）（Quaglio 2009; Forchini 2012），其立场与情感可通过多种语言结构传递，包括强化词（intensifiers）（Tagliamonte、Roberts 2005；Baños 2013）、感叹语（expletives）（Azzaro 2018; Bednarek 2019）、呼语（vocatives）（Formentelli 2014; Zago 2015）以及饱含情感的词簇（lexical bundles）（Freddi 2011; Bednarek 2012）。本研究聚焦于英语电影对白中的现在进行时（present progressive），将其作为一种额外的立场标记（stance marker），尤其是当其用于非体貌功能（non-aspectual functions）时。遵循Leech等人（2009）的模型，本研究在电影语料库《帕维亚电影对话语料库（Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue）》中对现在进行时的不同用法展开研究。研究人员先将语料库中所有现在进行时实例按其具体功能（体貌用法、将来时用法、静态用法、态度用法）进行分类，随后再根据其亲和性（affiliative）或非亲和性（disaffiliative）立场对条目进行进一步归类。研究焦点随后进一步缩小至态度类（尤其是阐释类）现在进行时。本研究筛选出阐释类用法中最常见的动词，通过分析其所在的词簇或n元语法（n-gram）结构，并与自然口语语料（spontaneous spoken language data）进行对比，展开更细致的分析。研究结果表明，阐释类现在进行时在电影对白中使用广泛，且通常承担立场标记功能，尤以非亲和性立场为主。该趋势在语料库中反复出现的模式与n元语法结构中出现的一系列动词中尤为显著，这些动词可作为专属阐释性谓词。数据同时显示，多种语言特征会形成簇群以传递人际意义（interpersonal meaning），并在荧幕上呈现出立场分歧（disalignment）与冲突状态。