Immediateness

Carlos Thompson wrote:

>Some postings ago, there where a little discution of how tense is used to
>mean urgency
>
>For example in English:
> I'm out of here. (meaning "I will leave at once").
>
>In Spanish, at least in my dialect, one would say
>  Ya me fui'. (lit: I'm already gone)
Which dialect is it?

In my own dialect (Rioplatense), you can say: "(Ya) me fui" or simply
  "(Ya) me voy" (I go, I'm going already)


"(Ya) me fui" is a bit more vehement (it applies if you have been kindly
asked or suggested to leave, for example).

In my conlang Draseleq, you usually use the future for this kind of sense.
The label "future" is a bit inexact -- the tense is used to render near
future and also the imperative. To order someone to go, you say "You will
leave (now)". It's not necessarily as kind as it sounds in its English
translation. This imperative sense has "contaminated" the usage of the
future tense, so if you speak in the first person and use future, it'll
certainly carry a subtle sense of urgency or obligation.

<Famp fuseir> "Leave now" (lit. "Now you-will-leave")
<Famp fupat>  "I'll leave now"

(The symmetry helps to emphasize the second action is a result of --or
reply to-- the first one.)

However, if you really mean to say you're going to leave, you can use the
"future posterior" tense. This refers to an action which will be performed
after something else (mentioned or implicit) happens. It's more or less
like saying "I'll be leaving/gone".

--Pablo Flores