"The author has produced an excellent work on the diachrony and synchrony, on the meaning, distribution, and form of the progressive constructions in the Romance languages. This is a book that can be highly recommended to any linguist interested in periphrastic constructions, their origin and their grammaticalization, and in the interplay of aspect, actionality, and aktionsart." (Rolf Thieroff, Romance Philology 56/2003)

A detailed synchronic and diachronic examination of the semantics of Romance verbal periphrases, including the range of Romance progressives, as well as Portuguese and Mexican present perfects, Catalan analytic past and French "surcomposes". The volume focuses on the relationship between aspect and actionality (Actionsart) in the grammaticalization process of periphrastic constructions.