The Reasoning of The Future Tense
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:52 am
The Reasoning of The Future Tense
If my reasoning of the future tense is difficult to understand, it is because I have put all the arguments here at once. In other forums, we go step by step. There are two main points in my reasoning:
(A) A future action is realized in the future:
Ex: They will come here next weekend.
It is realized in next weekend. They may really come here, or they may cancel the trip. Therefore it is different to a past action:
Ex: They came here last weekend.
They did come here and cannot cancel the trip. In past or present actions, we don't care about the realization, but it is an important element in the future actions.
(B) If we don't know the final truth and make a guess now, either to the future or to the past, the realization is the same:
Ex1: They will come here next weekend.
Ex2: They would have come here last weekend.
The realizations of them are still in the future, behind the speaking time. The point here is, even a guess to the past, as in Ex2, is a guess that is realized in the future. The truth we may find out is that they did come here, or that they didn't come here. Since the guesses are all linked to the future time, we may call them the future tense.
If we know how to define the future time, it is much better. I only agree that, because we don't have the future time, we don't have the future tense. The word 'Tense' comes from Latin Tempus, meaning time. If we may have future time, we may have future tense.
If my reasoning of the future tense is difficult to understand, it is because I have put all the arguments here at once. In other forums, we go step by step. There are two main points in my reasoning:
(A) A future action is realized in the future:
Ex: They will come here next weekend.
It is realized in next weekend. They may really come here, or they may cancel the trip. Therefore it is different to a past action:
Ex: They came here last weekend.
They did come here and cannot cancel the trip. In past or present actions, we don't care about the realization, but it is an important element in the future actions.
(B) If we don't know the final truth and make a guess now, either to the future or to the past, the realization is the same:
Ex1: They will come here next weekend.
Ex2: They would have come here last weekend.
The realizations of them are still in the future, behind the speaking time. The point here is, even a guess to the past, as in Ex2, is a guess that is realized in the future. The truth we may find out is that they did come here, or that they didn't come here. Since the guesses are all linked to the future time, we may call them the future tense.
If we know how to define the future time, it is much better. I only agree that, because we don't have the future time, we don't have the future tense. The word 'Tense' comes from Latin Tempus, meaning time. If we may have future time, we may have future tense.