Re: "About to" aspect

At 2:31 pm +1100 10/11/98, zev wrote:
>I believe it's 'inceptive'. Where have all the experts gone?
'inceptive' is the term I'd also use.

The aspect is also called 'inchoative' - and not only by lojbanists.  The
two terms 'inchoative' & 'inceptive' seem to be about equal in choice of
term for this aspect among linguists.

In both Latin & Esperanto the tenses of this aspect are expressed by using
the so-called future participle with the verb 'to be'. (I believe it's now
not uncommon to find Esperantis who add the tense endings directly to the
participle, e.g. mi estas ironta _or_ mi irontas = iturus sum "I am about
to go").

I prefer the term 'inceptive' since inchoative is also the term
traditionally used to describe Latin verbs like 'noscere', 'crescere' etc
which show a change of state.

Ray.