Re: [Off topic] You language-y types.
- From: Doug Wickstrom <nimshubur@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:40:25 -0600
On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:07:21 GMT, in message
<9tvas1t91751hu3ede2g7aopbn9gahu61r@xxxxxxx>
mirror <mailto@xxxxxxxxx> caused electrons to dance and photons
to travel coherently in saying:
>On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 18:55:52 -0000, "Paul Blay"
><ask_me_or_get_spam_trapped@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>What sort of thing do you call sentences like the following
>>with regard to tense?
>>"I am going home soon."
>
>I have an uninformed comment. The sentence is a common
>colloquialism -- a gerund with a time reference attached that
>specifies when the gerund springs to life. Sort of "I am going
>home, ah, soon" to express what should have been "I will go home
>soon." Related to "I am going home later," also colloquial and
>equally without meaning when stared at for too long (part of the
>family of mind benders that includes "How do you do?").
Well, _technically_, "will" indicates volition, as in prefers,
wants, or wishes. Colloquially, though, they are equivalent, as
you say.
--
Doug Wickstrom <nimshubur@xxxxxxxxxxx>
"Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot."
--Groucho Marx
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