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Re: Immediate future tense

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Saturday, November 7, 1998, 8:29
Keenan wrote:
> to whit: the immediate future tense. An action that hasn't happened yet > but is at the point of being performed right now.
"I'm about to ..." would be that, if I understand you correctly. How about future-past? Does anyone have that? By future-past I mean "I was going to ..." or "I was about to ...", that is, at the point of time being referred to, the action had not yet occured, but it has occured by now, or would've occured. For example, "I was about to call him when the phone rang".
> And possibly also: the habitual future. An action That will be performed > habitually in the future. > > Do these tenses occur in any natlangs or conlangs on this list
Future habitual certainly does in W. Aspect and tense are marked seperately, so that future habitual can definitely occur. It's not very common, as I can't think of very many cases where one would know that one will do something habitually in the future. Not all combinations can occur, tho. Perpeptual and Continous aspects can only occur with the present tense. -- "It has occured to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will." - "Lord Leto II" (Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert) http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files/ ICQ #: 18656696 AOL screen-name: NikTailor