John, This is sometimes called the "passival," where the subject of certain active verbs can be used in the progressive as a kind of passive. Other examples: - The water is boiling. [i.e., being boiled] - The cookies are baking. - The laundry is soaking. The passival was formerly in general use (The house is building) but is now restricted to a few verbs. I don't think "growing" is an example of this, since the verb has both transitive and intransitive definitions. Dick On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 7:23 AM, John Crow <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > What's up with the following pair of sentences? > > 1. The Smiths are selling their furniture. > 2. The plants are selling like hotcakes. > > > - #1 is obviously a standard present progressive SVO. Is #2 just an > intransitive form of "to sell"? > - Are there other examples like this or is this idiosyncratic to > "sell"? > > Just thought of another possible candidate: > > - John is growing cauliflower. > - The cauliflower is growing bigger every day. > > Thanks, > > John > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface > at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or > leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/