progressive (adj./n.) (prog)

A term used in the GRAMMATICAL description of VERB FORMS, referring to a contrast of a temporal or durative kind, and thus handled sometimes under the heading of TENSE and sometimes under ASPECT. The usual contrast recognized is between ‘progressive’ or ‘continuous’ (e.g. I am going) and non-progressive or ‘simple’ (e.g. I go). LINGUISTS prefer an aspectual analysis here, because of the complex interaction of durational, completive and temporal features of meaning involved; TRADITIONAL grammars, however, merely refer to ‘simple tense forms’, etc., and thus imply a meaning which is to some degree an oversimplification.

A term used in PHONETICS and PHONOLOGY as part of the classification of types of ASSIMILATION. In progressive assimilation one sound influences the following sound, as when [s] becomes  following , in such phrases as Goodge Street. It is opposed to REGRESSIVE and COALESCENT assimilations.