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§ 5. The opposition of the category of development undergoes 
various reductions, in keeping with the general regularities of the 
grammatical forms functioning in speech, as well as of their para-
digmatic combinability. 
The easiest and most regular neutralisational relations in the sphere 
continuous — indefinite are observed in connection with the sub-
class division of verbs into limitive and unlimitive, and within the 
unlimitive into actional and statal. 
Namely, the unlimitive verbs are very easily neutralised in cases 
where the continuity of action is rendered by means other than as-
pective. Cf.: 
The night is wonderfully silent. The stars shine with a fierce brilli-
ancy, the Southern Cross and Canopus; there is not a breath of 
wind. The Duke's face seemed flushed, and more lined than some 
of his recent photographs showed. He held a glass in his hand. 
As to the statal verbs, their development neutralisation amounts to 
a grammatical rule. It is under this heading that the "never-used-in-
the-continuous" verbs go, i. e. the uniques be and have, verbs of 
possession other than have, verbs of relation, of physical percep-
tions, of mental perceptions. The opposition of development is also 
neutralised easily with 

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verbs in the passive voice, as well as with the infinitive, the only 
explicit verbid exposer of the category. 
Worthy of note is the regular neutralisation of the development op-
position with the introductory verb supporting the participial con-
struction of parallel action. E. g.: The man stood smoking a pipe. 
(Not normally: The man was standing smoking a pipe.) 
On the other hand, the continuous can be used transpositionally to 
denote habitual, recurrent actions in emphatic collocations. Cf.: 
Miss Tillings said you were always talking as if there had been 
some funny business about me (M. Dickens). 
In this connection, special note should be made of the broadening 
use of the continuous with unlimitive verbs, including verbs of sta-
tal existence. Here are some very typical examples: 
I only heard a rumour that a certain member here present has been 
seeing the prisoner this afternoon (E. M. Forster). I had a horrid 
feeling she was seeing right through me and knowing all about me 
(A. Christie). What matters is, you're being damn fools, both of 
you (A. Hailey). 
Compare similar transpositions in the expressions of anticipated fu-
ture: 
Dr Aarons will be seeing the patient this morning, and I wish to be 
ready for him (A. Hailey). Soon we shall be hearing the news 
about the docking of the spaceships having gone through. 
The linguistic implication of these uses of the continuous is indeed 
very peculiar. Technically it amounts to de-neutralising the usually 
neutralised continuous. However, since the neutralisation of the 
continuous with these verbs is quite regular, we have here essen-
tially the phenomenon of reverse transposition — an emphatic re-
duction of the second order, serving the purpose of speech expres-
siveness. 
We have considered the relation of unlimitive verbs to the continu-
ous form in the light of reductional processes. 
As for the limitive verbs, their standing with the category of devel-
opment and its oppositional reductions is quite the reverse. Due to 
the very aspective quality of limitiveness, these verbs, first, are not 
often used in the continuous form 

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in general, finding no frequent cause for it; but second, in cases 
when the informative purpose does demand the expression of an 
action in progress, the continuous with these verbs is quite obliga-
tory and normally cannot undergo reduction under any conditions. 
It cannot be reduced, for otherwise the limitive meaning of the verb 
would prevail, and the informative purpose would not be realised. 
Cf.: 
The plane was just touching down when we arrived at the airfield. 
The patient was sitting up in his bed, his eyes riveted on the trees 
beyond the window. 
The linguistic paradox of these uses is that the continuous aspect 
with limitive verbs neutralises the expression of their lexical as-
pect, turning them for the nonce into unlimitive verbs. And this is 
one of the many manifestations of grammatical relevance of lex-
emic categories.