In answer to Siraisi Tomiio's question, Johanna replied:

> Are the following expressions natural?
> 1. It is getting dark.
> 2. It is growing dark.
> 3. It is becoming dark.
> 4. It is turning dark.
>
> Yes. All are certainly grammatical. #3 may occur less often because in
> less-formal language 'getting' is usually used instead of 'becoming'. #1
> is very natural and less formal; 2 & 4 strike me as slightly literary
> (esp. 2), and 3 is not literary, but does strike me as more formal than 1.

I feel these are all reasonable answers that Johanna has given, but I
wonder if you are aware (Siraisi) that there is a better way to test
empirically for the occurance of these expressions.  That would be by
using a concordancing program on a large database of spoken and/or
written English.  You can investigate concordancing software and
large databases of English by going to the Athelstan website
http://www.athel.com/  developed by Michael Barlow.  With this kind
of software, you can do a check of the database for all occurances of
"get dark", "turn dark" etc.  You will be able to get an idea of how
frequently these expressions occur in a million-word (or more)
database of English.  Such software even allows you to determine
whether some usages tend to be more common in spoken or written
language.

Mike Medley


R. Michael Medley, Ph.D.
Director, Intensive English Program
Eastern Mennonite University
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
Office: (540) 432-4051
Home: (540) 574-4277