Re: Aspects of English Grammar

On Sun, Mar 14, 2004 at 12:32:08PM -0500, Roger Mills wrote:
> Note that (1) "Tomorrow, at this time, I'll be about to throw up" is total
> nonsense.
No, it's not.  It's admittedly odd to have foreknowledge of your need to
vomit, but I suppose if you're planning on going on a drinking binge you
might simply make the assumption.

You should qualify such statements with your reference 'lect.

The phrase "to be about to happen" means only that the happening is
imminent.  The future tence "will be about to happen" is just as
legitimate as the present or past.

Consider the following:

        Tomorrow I will get out of bed at 6am.

        Tomorrow at 6:05 I will have just gotten out of bed.

        Tomorrow at 5:55 I will be about to get out of bed.

The above sentences describe the same event from slightly different
vantages: at, just after, and just before.  All of them sound *equally*
natural to me, not at all strained or anything.  And it's not just me;
my wife finds it perfectly unobjectionable as well, and I imagine if I
took a survery of my officemates they would agree.  I may do so just to
provide a data point.  But I can't for the life of me imagine why the
last one is any more objectionable than the other two.

-Mark

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