The progressive in english, Scheffer J., 1975.
Фрагмент из книги.
Before embarking on a discussion of certain aspects of the history of the construction consisting of a form of the verb to be followed by a present participle, together forming the verbal predicate of the sentence in which they occur, one will have to decide by what name to refer to it, as in the past different grammarians have called it by different names, which may sometimes have caused a little confusion.