Re: "Anticipatory" Tense

Howdy, I am not an often poster but I do actually have something to contribute to
this string. What Ian is calling the "Anticipatory" is actually covered in
Latin grammar as the "Future Active Participle" -- "going to do something" or
"about to do something"

For those of you interested - to form it you take the fourth principle part and
drop the -us and add an -urus.

Hope this helps,
Patrick
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ian Maxwell 
  To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU 
  Sent: Saturday, March 02, 2002 12:47 AM
  Subject: "Anticipatory" Tense


 So, I was thinking, since one of my conlangs already has a complex Latin-esque
inflection system, I might as well make it even more complex. I decided to add,
in addition to the perfect and imperfect verb forms, an "anticipatory"
form--for example, the first person past anticipatory of "to go" would be "I
was about to go", and the first person future anticipatory would be "I will be
about to go".

  My question is, does a word already exist for this, or can I just use my own invented word?

  - Ian Maxwell

  ---------------
 "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English
is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion,
English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and
rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James D. Nicoll