Nik Taylor wrote:
>David Peterson wrote:
>> 2.) I'm eating (present/present progressive): "What are you doing?" "I'm
>> eating; what's it look like?"
>
>Which can sometimes be used in the future "I'm leaving tomorrow at noon"
>or as a habitual "He's going to school at UF"
>
>Speaking of English, has anyone else encountered "be staying" for
>"live"? E.g., "I'm staying at the Avenues [an apartment complex]" I
>don't think I've encountered it used for a place that you own, it might
>be restricted to rental situations. Still, I'd use "live" in those
>cases.
"Living" for me implies some permanency, "staying" transciency. Even in a
case like "Where are you staying?/living while your house is being
renovated?" "I'm living (not _staying_) in an apartment"
It's getting rather late; more on this tomorrow.
(snip)
>
>> 3.) I'll eat (promisary): "You're going to eat your vegetables, right?"
"Yes,
>> mom, I'll eat them."
>> 10.) I'll eat (conditional): "I'll eat if you get me something." (Here
the
>> emphasis is on the action taking
>
>I think these are the same. You're promising to eat *IF* that condition
>is met.
>
>> 11.) I eat (past iterative): "So I eat this big sandwich and I get this
awful
>> stomach-ache afterwards!"
>> (This is used when relating a story. I didn't know what name to give
>> it...)
>
>Simple present tense. You're relating a past event as if it were taking
>place at the present time.
>
>> 13.) I was going to eat (past interrupted): "I was going to eat when I
was
>> struck down by the Lord."
>
>Related to that is the "future past", "I was about to eat", which can be
>interrupted, but doesn't have to be, like "What were you doing at 5:00
>yesterday?" "I was about to eat"
>
>> 14.) I will've eaten (properfect): "Don't worry, Ma. By the time your
asleep
>> I will've eaten."
>
>I will've eaten sounds odd to me. I'd say either I'll've eaten or I'll
>have eaten or I will have eaten.
>
>Future perfect is the normal term.
>
>> 20.) I'm about to eat (immediate future): "Hey, can you help me with
this?"
>> "I'm about to eat; can it
>
>In the South, the adverb (?) is often "Fixin'" or "fittin'" "I'm fixin'
>to eat"
>
>> I wonder what other native English speakers will think of my little
>> list...?
>
>Well, I think you're leaving some things out, like:
>
>21. Obligation: I must/have to/gotta eat
>22. Semi-obligation?: I should eat, I oughta eat
>
>Oh! And a fairly major one
>23. Past habitual?: I used to eat: "He used to eat meat, until he became
>a vegetarian"
> And its negative: I didn't used to eat
>
>Many others, of course. :-) English seems to be pretty free with
>auxiliaries and adverbs, I guess you'd call them. I don't think you can
>really come up with a definitive list.
There is a book (or else a very lengthy article) from the 60s by Martin
Joos, called IIRC "The English Verb". He analyzes the transcript of a
British trial-- I think from a mystery novel, so it's literary, not real
spoken language-- (and there's lots of "correct shall-will/should-would that
we no longer use). Covers all of the bases and then some. Quite a tour de
force. (M. Joos is one of just two or three people I can think of, who
spoke in perfect well-organized paragraphs.)