Bibliogr. s. 255-257

Departing from the well-trodden path of traditional phraseology, this study adopts the distributional perspective to account for patterns with the progressive form of four common verbs of speaking (i.e. say, talk, tell and speak) in courtroom interaction. Drawing on data from a libel trial, it demonstrates that speakers rely on the progressive construction to convey evaluative meanings and to position themselves vis-à-vis other speakers and their utterances. More precisely, the analysis demonstrates that patterns with the progressive saying, which are most frequent in the data, tend to appear in negative contexts and display a negative discourse prosody resulting from the interplay of the collocational co-occurrences and the wider interactional context. At the same time, it is revealed that the evaluative leanings of patterns with the progressives talking, telling and speaking are not so manifest. Overall, the study indicates that verba dicendi perform pragmatic functions other than the transmission of information or the signalling of the speaking activity itself. It also shows that courtroom interactants use the “interpretive” or “explanatory” progressive which betrays the speaker’s attitude and perspective of the situation as well as conveys his or her evaluation at a particular moment of interaction.