As I understand it, you can't search for a POS tag in BNC (using SARA, that
is) unless you choose a lexical word, which means that apart from the
auxiliaries in Stefan's list, yes, you have to search for each verb in turn.
Perhaps you can do a pattern query for a form of 'be' followed by 0 to
(say) 3 words, followed by any number of characters and -ing. I'm not in a
place where I can try it as I write, but maybe someone else can jump in
here?
Using WordSmith and its wild card is of course nor possible for the BNC
texts, but if you've got other material it works fine, and the "pattern"
I've described above will find progressive forms including intervening
adverbs. Unfortunately the future use of present progressive seems to be
rather rare in written texts.
Hope this helps -- Naomi
Naomi Hallan,
Project: 'Learner Behaviour in the InternetGrammar', Englische
Sprachwissenschaft, TU Chemnitz,
Reichenhainerstr. 39, D-09107 Chemnitz, Germany. mail:
naomi.hallan@phil.tu-chemnitz.de
145 route de Luxembourg, L-7374 Helmdange, Luxembourg. mail:
naomi.hallan@ci.educ.lu
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