The syntax of progressive and ingressive <i>aanhet</i>-constructions in Dutch

Abstract This paper presents a novel syntactic analysis of the much-debated Dutch aanhet -construction, e.g. Pieter is aan het opruimen ‘lit. Peter on cleanup: cleaning up’. We show that construction’s behavior varies with matrix verb: progressive zijn ‘be’ versus ingressive gaan ‘go’ and slaan ‘hit’. Based this variation, we argue there are two -projections occupying different synchronic positions functional-to-lexical cline.