Absentive

From Glottopedia

The absentive is a verbal aspect that expresses an ongoing activity of an agent who is currently absent while engaging in this activity.

[edit] Examples

Dutch We zijn lunchen 'We are off having lunch', Hungarian János levelet volt föladni [János letter.ACC was post.INF] 'János was off posting a letter' (de Groot 2000:695, 693)

[edit] References

de Groot, Casper. 2000. The absentive. In: Dahl, Östen (ed.) Tense and aspect in the languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 641-667.
de Groot, Casper. 2007. The king is on huntunge: On the relation between progressive and absentive in Old and Early Modern English. In: Hannay, Mike & Steen, Gerard J. (eds.) 2007. Structural-functional studies in English grammar: In honour of Lachlan Mackenzie. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 175-190.