Simple vs. Progressive

Question

Hi,some time ago, while I was reading a grammar book, I came across this fragment: "For example, in the sentence 'Yesterday, I play baseball for two hours', the adverb 'Yesterday' creates an obligatory context for a past tense, and 'for two hours' tells us that the required form is a simple past 'played' rather than a past progressive 'was playing'." This one has been bugging me for some time so I decided to ask u guys. I think that the reason for this restriction on the progressive aspect is due to its unfinished nature (expressing unfinished actions), but to my ears both aspects sound correct. If I'm wrong on this one, u guys can correct me Thx

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Anonymous"in the sentence 'Yesterday, I played baseball for two hours', the adverb 'Yesterday' creates an obligatory context for a past tense, and 'for two hours' tells us that the required form is a simple past 'played' rather than a past progressive 'was playing'."

Yes, I agree with that.

Anonymous. I think that the reason for this restriction on the progressive aspect is due to its unfinished nature (expressing unfinished actions)

I don't agree with that; I don't see what 'unfinished' has to do with it:

Yesterday I was playing baseball when the earthquake struck. — Here the game is also unfinished.

Anonymous to my ears both aspects sound correct.

Not at all to mine, sorry.

Anonymous · Answer

Mister MicawberI don't agree with that; I don't see what 'unfinished' has to do with it:Yesterday I was playing baseball when the earthquake struck. — Here the game is also unfinished.

So, if I understand u correctly, even though my example (the correct version) shows a finished activity and is realized through the simple aspect, and your example shows an unfinished activity and is realized through the progressive aspect, u are saying that the dichotomy between finished and unfinished has no role in the aspect choice.
If so, then how do u determine which aspect to use in: "Yesterday, I _______ (play) baseball for two hours"?

Mister Micawber · Answer

Anonymous if I understand u correctly, even though my example (the correct version) shows a finished activity and is realized through the simple aspect, and your example shows an unfinished activity and is realized through the progressive aspect, u are saying that the dichotomy between finished and unfinished has no role in the aspect choice.

You understood me correctly but I was completely wrong in my explanation; I now see what you mean about 'finished' vs 'unfinished'. In fact, I had forgotten the simple definition of 'simple past', which is 'a finished action'. Let us begin again.

Yesterday, I _____ (play) baseball for two hours— This requires simple past not just because it is finished, but because there is no other action indicated during the 'playing'. The particular use of the past progressive is as a 'background' durative action during which a relatively instantaneous other action took place; hence, the example sentence that I produced:

Yesterday I was playing baseball when the earthquake struck.

Without the other action in the context, the utterance is incomplete. If you wish to add the specified durational element, then it of course must precede the instantaneous act—still in a past progressive form:

Yesterday I had been playing baseball for two hours when the earthquake struck.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymousto my ears both aspects sound correct.

Not to mine, though you may actually be in the majority. I have noticed that many speakers accept the past continuous with a for-phrase of time where I would not, but it usually sounds suspect to me, sometimes more suspect than others, depending on the verb. To me the past continuous expresses an open period of time, i.e., its limits are indefinite. We don't know for certain when it began or when it ended, so we don't know its duration. Combining a tense that indicates unknown duration with a for-phrase that specifies the duration seems rather contradictory to me. Thus, in the case of your example, I hear "I was playing baseball for an indefinite period of time for two hours"!

I am excluding here examples such as those given above by MM, where the time period expressed by the for-phrase is made to come to an end by the interrupting event.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you guys. You've been very helpful. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Simple vs. Progressive

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