Posibilidades y límites de la evaluación en la universidad

Similarly to keep on, go on + to infinitive and also go on + ing appear with all

aktionsart categories. Nr. Go on + to inf. 335 entries Go on + ing 574 entries Went on + to inf. 1036 entries Went on + ing 296 entries

1 Develop (20) Live (57) Say (148) Talk (25) 2 Consider (19) Work (38) Become (77) Look (15)

3 Do (17) Talk (19) Win (62) Be (14)

4 Say (17) Play (16) Explain (36) Stare (10)

5 Argue (14) Think (16) Tell (32) Work (10)

6 Become (12) Look (15) Make (31) Think (7)

7 Do (12) Use (15) Play (27) Type (7)

8 Win (12) Fight (14) Describe (23) Listen (6)

9 Take (11) Make (13) Take (22) Read (6)

10 Discuss (7) Rise (13) Be (21) Gaze (5)

Table 2. The occurrence of situation types within the kept + ing, kept on + ing, go on+ing, went on + to infinitive, resumed + ing construction. Based on data from the

BNC

Sentences (58) and (62) are examples of their occurrence with statives, (59) and (63) of their appearance with activities, (60) and (64) of accomplishments; finally (61) and (65) show the appearance of these constructions with achievements.

(58) We really can't go on living like this - we'll have to find a bigger house.

56

According to Freed (1979) sentence 57) can only be interpreted as an activity, and is paraphrasable as ‘Freed kept going over the article about Goytisolo’.

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(Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary) (59) Emily smiled. "I understand. Together we will make it work, Hari, believe me, we shall have the finest business in the country. "Hari moved towards the door. "I will go on working in my shop until you get the premises, then."

(BNC)

(60) Students can pass through the stage of giving reasons for their beliefs and actions to enlightenment and emancipation; disciplines can become more open and more self-critical; and institutions can go on becoming more and more rational.

(BNC)

(61) By 1885 the area under wheat was already 30 per cent smaller than it had been in the previous decade. It went on falling steadily, although not so rapidly as this. Between 1897 and 1912, the wheat crop of the United Kingdom fell by 6 per cent while that of Germany rose by 38 per cent. (BNC)

(62) My experiences of Young children I know many children and I enjoy looking after them I plan to do this for my career as I have applied to Suffolk College for a place in the Nursery Nursing course so that I can go on to be a Nanny.

(BNC)

(63) She admitted her company's responsibility for the disaster and went on to explain how compensation would be paid to the victims.

(Cambridge Advanced Learner Dictionary) (64) Mikael Sergayiz Gorbachov was born in a rural town near Stavropol in the southern region of Russia in nineteen forty one. He studied law at the Moscow State University, and went on to become a full Communist Party member two years later, in nineteen fifty two. (BNC)

(65) Arnold Palmer (TIME cover, May), who staged two cliffhanging rallies to win both the Masters and U&S& Open crowns, went on to win a record $80,738 for

the year. (BROWN)

As the sentences above show, both constructions allow for each aktionsart category. The two constructions go on + ing and go on + to infinitive show no

considerable difference in their choice for an aktionsart category. A difference between the two constructions seems to be the frequency of the two constructions with speech verbs: the go on + to infinitive seems to appear more often and with a

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constructions seem to appear more often with achievement verbs (e.g. ‘win’) than the go on + ing construction. This may have to do with the difference in meaning

between the two constructions already outlined in this chapter: the go on + to infinitive construction expressing orientation toward the future occurrence of an

event (66-67) allows for any aktionsart category as its complement, whereas the future orientation seems to be missing from go on + ing (68).

(66) It certainly was, Sam,**" Nick would agree, and go on to say with a touch of self-importance: ^*"No wonder he tried to have me suffocated back last summer.

(LOB)

(67) The investigators go on to suggest, from detailed analysis of the responses obtained, that *'the problem for the manual worker does not centre on his conception * old age, but rather on how he interprets its meaning for his own

future life'. (LOB)

(68) She looked troubled. "I'm very disappointed in you, Mark." "You have every reason to be. I'm sorry. Obviously I can't stay here any longer. I'll leave tonight." "Leave? Tonight" She seemed frightened and bewildered. "Yes. I'll go and pack now. I don't think it would do any good to go on talking”. He rose, and moved

towards the door. (BNC)

The go on + ing construction, although similar semantically to both keep+ing and keep on + ing seems to be slightly different from these latter constructions.

Unlike keep on + ing and keep + ing, which often imply the iteration of the

complement verb, although it can express iterative occurrences (69) go on + ing

often points to a single occurrence. Go on + ing seems to appear more often than keep on + ing (and also keep + ing) with events expressing single occurrences; (go on + ing just like keep on + ing also appears with accomplishments).

(69) "You think," she began, dabbing at her eyes as she came back with the pad, "you think someone --; someone killed my Charlie because he wouldn't go on --; go on doing these jobs for them?" "Something like that," Now was not the time to

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suggest to this woman that her husband had been a blackmailer as well as a thief. (BNC)

Neither sentence (70), nor (71) can be given an iterative interpretation; in (70) the work is seen as going on continuously; similarly (71) views the reading of a book as one ongoing occurrence that pertains to a habitual occurrence.

(70) Over the last 48 hours we have found ourselves drawing closer together as a group. Everything will be overshadowed by these events but we intend to go on making the week work as well as we can. Dr Howe who was thirty four had lived in Edith Road in Oxford for three years … A friend is looking after the house today … Her husband Jeremy … who's head of drama for BBC Radio Three and two

daughters… (BNC)

(71) The memory of those sensitive hands, the clean square nails, the single white streak in his hair, would fill her mind with agony, and she would go on reading her book without taking in a word, or find herself deaf to the fact that the tape she was playing had long since finished. (BNC)

Similar is the case with go on + to infinitive, which (apart from the cases when it

appears with iterative instances (72) also expresses single occurrences (73-74). In these sentences the construction contains an accomplishment and respectively an achievement verb expressing a single occurrence.

(72) Each controversial issue is examined by leading experts and illustrated by extracts from major UK companies' recent accounts. The experts describe the problems that arise, outlining the main areas of choice, and go on to make specific proposals for improvement in reporting practice. (BNC)

(73) People often ask me, "Hugo, why is it that when dining with royalty, you always keep your hat on?" I explain that this is due to an old charter, dating back to the time of Sir Hugo de Courcy Rune, third earl of Penge. And then go on to tell

this tale. (BNC)

(74) The best I can manage is to say that the thriller is intended to thrill; it is a succession of exciting events, whereas the suspense novel is designed to create suspense, a series of situations of which the outcome is in doubt. From this we can

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go on to discover one of the rules for this sort of crime fiction. Although a suspense novel consists of that series of situations with doubtful outcomes, the final outcome is not, paradoxically, ever really in doubt. (BNC)

Finally, because of its semantic value, resume + ing usually appears with activities requiring an active agent as their subject. Freed (1979) argues that resume presupposes intentionality, which would explain the ungrammaticality of sentence (75). The most frequent occurrence of resume + ing is with activities: no examples

have been found either in ICAME or in BNC for the appearance of resume with

accomplishment and achievement verbs. That is when the construction contains an accomplishment or an achievement situation type, these are usually recategorized as activities (76-77). In these sentences a single occurrence interpretation would be strange and would result in an ungrammatical reading (e.g. *resume sending a golf report).

(75) *Topsy’s teeth resumed decaying. (Freed: 103) (76) Activity was such that the Ladies resumed sending their golf reports to The Times, Sporting Life and Gentlewoman and the Standard warned of the early re- introduction of the entrance fee. (BNC)

(77) Ben Hanbury's three-year-old completely missed the break in that 16-runner event and in the circumstances did extremely well to finish sixth, 12½ lengths behind Musicale. Cruachan a close second To Tel Quel in the Dubai Champion Stakes here last October, may resume winning ways/ *the way in the Earl of

Sefton EBF Stakes. (BNC)

Freed also mentions the non-occurrence of resume with accomplishments (78); in

(79) the use of a derived nominal instead of the non-finite –ing form makes the

sentence acceptable:

(78) ? Barbara resumed writing her dissertation.

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Neither does resume + ing appear with state verbs. Motivated by their semantic

character (their unbounded nature) states cannot be part of the resume + ing

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