Re: Aspects of English Grammar

"To be about to" is possible in the future tense:
Tomorrow morning, at the same time, I'll be about to
take the train to Madrid...

It all depends what we accept under the denomination
of "aspect". AFAIK, "aspect" usually includes duration
and/or limits. But some other concepts should be
considered too, whatever we call them:
- I keep doing (as you mentioned)
- I nearly did
- I did it to the very end (I completed it)
- I sometimes do
- I do by intermittence, or cyclically, or irregularly
- I increasingly (or de-creasingly) do
- I'm just stopping (beginning) doing it
- I did it for a very short time...

There also can be considered a "non-aspectual" form.
Ex: The sum of the angles of a triangle equals 180
degrees (non-temporal, therefore non-aspectual). The
form "I do" would be perhaps temporal, non-aspectual.

--- Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>
wrote:
> The prescriptivist English Grammar book that my
> parents had listed four
> aspects in English, each of which could occur in any
> tense.
> Simple			I do.
> Continuous		I am doing.
> Perfect		I have done.
> Perfect continuous	I have been doing.
>
> However, I normal usage, I find that several other
> aspects occur, some of
> which are restricted as to tense.
>
> I keep doing		Habitual
> I used to do		"Perfect habitual" restricted to past
> tense.
> I am going to		Prospective, seems unnatural to use
> in future tense.
> I am about to		Maybe a form of incohative, may be
> difficult to use
> in 			the future tense.
>
> Any thoughts on these?
>
> Pete

=====
Philippe Caquant

"He thought he saw a Rattlesnake / That questioned him in Greek: / He looked
again, and found it was / The Middle of Next Week. / "The one thing I regret',
he said, / "Is that it cannot speak !' " (Lewis Carroll)

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