Part IV, Number Four
IV.F.6 VERBS
IV.192 The term “verb” was in its Latin parent simply “word” (“verbum”), whence our own commonplace MODIFIER “verbal” in the linguistic meaning “consisting of words”. But the contemporary social meaning is a bit murkier than this ancestry should foreshadow. Among the NOUNS it modifies in the BNC, I saw some NEUTRAL ones, like “communication”, “description”, “information”, “material”, “message”, “report”, “response”, “presentation”; a few AMELIORATIVE ones, like “skills”, “inspiration”, “reassurance”; but a hoard of PEJORATIVE ones, like “abuse” (at 55 uses, the most frequent), “aggression”, “assault”, “attack”, “battle”, “blow”, “fracas”, “in-fighting”, “jousting”, “sparring”, “threats”, “thrust”, “trickery”, “venom”, “violence”. Hardly a scintillating retinue.
IV.193 Perhaps the tacit motive for converting the plain “word” (“verbum”) into the grammatical term VERB and loyally retaining it over the centuries was the inability to settle upon any more informative name. Certainly, the means of identifying VERBS and their SUB-CLASSES are by no means so tractable as NOUNS. Whereas NOUNS highlight things and people that are (or can be) made specified, decided, familiar; or stable, VERBS highlight EVENTS, ACTIONS, and STATES that are (or can be) made unspecified, undecided, unfamiliar, or unstable -- people starting or stopping, eating or drinking, loving or hating, buying and selling, rushing in or running away, shooting or bombing -- not to mention the less ordinary, such as belching thunderclaps or getting hit by flying cows (II.142) -- always up to something, changing things, causing or feeling effects, telling tales, or just being. And “grammars” get the dicey cluster of tasks of trying to put all those goings-on into some semblance of order under the heading “verbs”.
IV.194 Among the easier tasks for VERBS is to distinguish POLARITY. The most basic PATTERN of the AFFIRMATIVE has just the VERB [832] and the NEGATIVE has an AUXILIARY (“do” if no other is needed) + VERB + “not” [833] -- having no AUXILIARY sounds old-fashioned nowadays [834].
[832] I want money for the trip to Amsterdam (Van Gogh)
[833] “I don’t want money”, said Tony. “I want the piano”. (Piano)
[834] Some will say, our language wanteth grammar. Nay, truly, it wants not grammar; (Philip Sydney, 1581)
I feel wistful recalling Sir Philip jovially affirming the value of English just one year after the first “grammar” kicked off a campaign of centuries trying to “fix” it (cf. II.88).
IV.195 The basic emphatic versions add the AUXILIARY to the AFFIRMATIVE, and possibly STRESS as well [835]; and add STRESS to the NEGATIVE indicator [836].
[835] Percy: Upon my honour, Sir, I did not mean to be uncivil. Dr Johnson: I cannot say so, Sir; for I did mean to be uncivil. (Boswell)
[836] And the bartender knows that that young man, with his fine reasonings and his belief in himself, is the confirmed drunkard of year after next. But his customers do not know it. (Arthur Brisbane)
Emphasis too is the plausible motive for multiple NEGATIVES as regional variations which rank among the most heinous “errors” in “grammar lessons” from time out of mind, and yet stay very much alive, viz.:
[837] These careful respectable people didn’t show themselves too forward either in giving help or information to the police. Not by no means. (Robbery Under Arms, 1888, Australia)
[838] “Your kid’s come home here.” “Ain’t nobody come nowhere.” (Sometimes a Great Notion, 1964, US)
[839] Arthur: I don’t want no cucumber Richard: you don’t want no cucumber? Arthur: no I don’t want none (conversation, 1992, Britain)BNC
The official pretext for the proscription is moderately cognitive: according to logic, two NEGATIVES should cancel each other and produce an AFFIRMATIVE, though a grammarian would be foolhardy to chuck cucumber in the salad whilst claiming that Arthur (an unemployed 45-year old from Lancashire) does want it. At any rate, such logic rarely uses two of the main NEGATIVE WORDS like “not, “no”, “none”, or “never”, and the results sound to me odd [840], strenuous [841], or old-fashioned [842].
[840] I’ve never known nobody get on at this stop before (corpus data provided by Michael Halliday)
[841] Even if I had dared hope to be efficiently hushed up, I couldn’t have not fled. (Dandies)
[842] Few Nobles come, and yet not none. (French Revolution)
The preference is rather to use one less conspicuous NEGATIVE, such as a PREFIX. Even so, the supposed logic is irrelevant: [843] is not the same as “her voice was steady”, because a “trembling” person’s is supposed to be “unsteady”; and “the fatal differences united their hearts” for [844] would be a trifle absurd.
[843] Emma’s tremblings were better concealed than Harriet’s, but they were not less. Her voice was not unsteady (Emma)
[844] The fatal differences which separated them in politics never disunited their hearts; (Henry Esmond)
More subtle is the “British reserve” of combining a NEGATIVE with an expression of mild disapproval that understates the real PEJORATIVE indicated elsewhere in the context, e.g.:
[845] The legal profession is not always entirely blameless, [due to] the suspicion that the scoring of points and the winning of cases takes precedence over the desire to administer justice and establish truth. (Alternative Religion)
[846] The journey from Boston via Liverpool to West Sussex was not without its hiccups. When the first container was loaded on to a truck it was so heavy all four tyres promptly exploded. (Yorkshire Life)
“The legal profession” surely deserves heavy “blame” on this point; “four tyres exploded” is no mere “hiccup”.
IV.196 As these data and many like them indicate, the most vital cognitive and social function of the NEGATIVE is to deny something that might otherwise be imagined or expected to be the case. Memorable denials came from two very tricky “Dicks” (in every sense of that last word):
[847] People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. I’m not a crook. (Dick Nixon, 17 November, 1973)
[848] There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. (Dick Cheney, 26 August, 2002)
What is denied may be inferred from context [849], or may have been explicitly stated [850].
[849] Neither of them was very civil. They did not dislike each other, but they each wanted to be somewhere else. (Longest Journey)
[850] “You have probably entirely forgotten a conversation between us one evening at Barton Park”. […] “Indeed”, answered Elinor, “I have not forgotten it.” (Sense)
This denial function can be turned to multiple effect in quarrels:
[851] “Don’t you go puttin’ no circus notions into Miss Polly’s head.” “I ain’t done nothin”, Hasty protested. “Never do do nothin”, growled Mandy. (Polly of the Circus)
[852] “Ma, where’s my specticles?” “I ain’t seen y’r specticles.” “You have, too.” “I ain’t neither.” “You had ‘em this forenoon.” “Didn’t no such thing.” (Main-Travelled Roads)
[853] Robin: On Wednesday I forged my own will. Sir Roderick: You can’t forge your own will! Robin: Can’t I, though! If a man can’t forge his own will, whose will can he forge? Sir Roderick: Humph! These arguments sound very well, but if they were reduced to syllogistic form, they wouldn’t hold water. (Ruddigore)
IV.197 Perhaps the trendiest NEGATIVE tacks on “not” by itself after an AFFIRMATIVE:
[854] One awaits the geriatric Techno of the next century with interest. Not. (NME)
[855] James Baker III and the seven dwarfs of the “Iraq Study Group” have come up with some simply brilliant recommendations. Not. (Columbus Free Press)
It’s so vulnerable to temporary misunderstanding that I couldn’t advise using it unless you want to confuse people just for a moment.
IV.198 Another fairly easy task for VERBS is to distinguish the NUMBERS of SINGULAR versus PLURAL and the PERSONS of FIRST, SECOND and THIRD. As we saw on the section for PRO-NOUNS, the functions of these three PERSONS need not conform to the traditional sorting among speaker(s), hearer(s) , and everybody or everything else (cf. IV.152). But for most VERBS, the forms are a tidier matter . Only the THIRD PERSON SINGULAR needs to display a formal ENDING, normally “‑s”, which the PLURAL lacks:
[856] Of all the busy throng that so lavishly spent their time and money here only one man remains -- a lone bachelor with one suspender. (Steep Trails)
[857] The boat is again seen slowly advancing against the stream. Two men, called bowsmen, remain at the prow to assist (Inland Commerce)
Such directly contrasting examples as are not so easy to track as might be imagined till you’ve tried. The SIMPLE PRESENT in general is not too common except in conversation, whether enacted in real life or in reported literature. Besides, much of the work of indicating NUMBER is shunted off onto the AUXILIARIES, as we notice by contrasting these reminiscences of two of Scotland’s towering football geniuses:
[858] When it comes to identifying the ante-post favourite, one player stands out above the rest -- Lou Macari (Hampden Babylon)
[859] Drink and scandal are part of the fabric of Scottish football, but remarkably, only one player has stood accused of being drunk in charge of a football -- Hughie Gallacher (same)
IV.199 Three shifty VERBS stand out by exercising multiple functions: as plain VERBS, AUXILIARIES, and PRO-VERBS (cf. § xxx). Since their erratic behaviour reveals similar trends in modern German, whose ancestors graced Britain with an “Anglo-Saxon” destined to become “English “(cf. II.76), such trends may well be so old that we can scarcely hope for evidence to trace or explain their origins. The two line-ups of “have – has – had” and “do – does – did – done” seem innocuous enough since -- again similar to German -- the one using the ancestral vowel shifts.
IV.200 The shiftiest culprit is the VERB “be” with its “am – is – are – was – were – been”. By some quirky history, it was apparently bodged up from three stems: a “b” stem, as in “be” and “been”; an “s” stem alternating with “r”, as in “is” and “are”; and a “w” stem, as in “was” and “were”. Frankly, I am baffled about why and how. The “s” and “r” alternation (carrying the mouth-filling term “rhotacism”) does show up in Latin (“sum – eram” ) and descendants like Spanish (“soy – eres”), but the other two stems don’t; and why borrow just this one stem in English, anyhow? More plausibly, three distinct and complete VERBS were competing long ago like rival football clubs who traded off players and then merged. There is in fact some early evidence for this strange account, namely Old Saxon “buan” (to reside), and Old English “wesan” (to exist).
IV.201 Now when an isolated and elaborated item occurs within an otherwise fairly simple system of the GRAMMAR of English, we can expect variation and instability (IV.151, 238), and here’s plenty. The most natural is just to use an obvious stem form like “be” or “been” for all PERSONS, and such I find indeed, though mostly in regional usage:
[860] I be lucky I get any bloke fer more’n two monfs togewer like my ol’ lady (Sugar and Spice, Cockney)
[861] I want to go out but I been home but at dinner time just (Suffolk)BNC
[862] “My voice, it sounds so idiotic.” “That’s cos you be a country yoke” (conversation, Midlands)BNC
[863] you been the college up there didn’t you? (conversation, East Anglia)BNC
[864] “You wanna see my bay-bee? Here he be”, she whispered (Hide and Seek)
[865] He been out of work since September the sixth. Four months now. (conversation, Wales)BNC
[866] “Mr. Mitchell has picked you out as the man who chipped out this figure. But what did you mean by it?” “She be hungry.” (Life in the Iron-Mills, Welsh immigrant)
[867] What she been eating? (Main Street, Minnesota)
[868] “Here, have a swig of this m’old beauty, and it only be a shilling a pint, and it’s organic.” “Oh, it be that all right, m’dear, you’m grow leaves if you drink enough of it.” (Seeing in the Dark, Somerset)
[869] “And have you worked in here for many years?” Oh yes. More than I care to remember. “Aha.” “Unless it been, like I left from my kitchen.” (unidentified “oral history project”)BNC
[870] We be strong men, and take; these be weak, and crave; (The Black Arrow, East Yorkshire)
[871] We been in Cowley nick so many times they keep a special room for us (Rules of Disorder, Oxfordshire).
[872] they used to report for work at say quarter past seven in the morning and then they be at work at half past seven (Suffolk)BNC
[873] You want to choose one there, they been very busy (conversation, region unlisted)BNC
Still, some modest data for African American English (and in the speech of my acquaintances in rural Florida) indicate favour for these forms:
[874] Heaps o’ folkses be varmints (Cross Creek)
[875] “You been mighty good to Alvah”, she faltered (same)
IV.202 Historically, one might expect the old SECOND PERSON “thou” (or, in later conflation, “thee” as SUBJECT) to simplify in the same manner, but instead I find a handful of the forms “be’st” or “bee’st (with apostrophe):
[876] “Thou bee’st a plucky one”, he said, as Ned after his third fall again faced him (Through the Fray)
[877] “Thee bee’st for sartan too thick and weazy [gluttonous] like for them stairs”, said the miner. (The Three Clerks)
Apparently, these “b” forms were chiefly reserved for one version of the old “subjunctive”, which I would rather call CONDITIONAL (cf. § xxx):
[878] If thou be’st Death I’ll give thee England’s treasure, enough to purchase such another island (Henry VI)
[879] I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. (Isiah 36:8)
For ordinary usage, “art” evidently held its own:
[880] Thou art too wild, too rude, and bold of voice (Merchant of Venice)
[881] She opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad (John 12:14-15)
The other noticeable instability occurs between the forms of SINGULAR and PLURAL. The reversal is not uncommon in the SIMPLE PRESENT; and in the SIMPLE PAST, it seems in fact to be well established in some regional GRAMMARS.
[882] “Where’s the commander of this ship?” inquired our captain, stepping up to this individual. “I is capin," he answered, “We is come from Aitutaki; we was go for Rarotonga. We is native miss’nary ship”. (Coral Island)
[883] Say! it seems to me, ole feller, you is quite yourself to-night; (Peleg Arkwright in the Canadian Elocutionist)
[884] Every time I took a big breath I were getting short pains all down this side (medical consultation)BNC
[885] You was big enough for her, I could see, but you’re only a baby still really (Classic English Crime)
[886] A Devon labourer who promised his mother not to marry in her lifetime, finally married only at the age of 51: “bugger, we was courting for seventeen year.” (I Don’t Feel Old)
[887] But there were a lot o’ poor farmers at that time o’ day. They was poor men but they was good ‘uns. But there was some on ‘em, they wasn’t any too good. (Crooked Scythe)
[888] Walter Machin were a bit of a lad; […] he were a good-looking chap, well set-up, like (Posthumous Papers)
[889] “A young girl in her fair prime and pollen.” “She were a big stroppolin’ mawther”. (Crooked Scythe)
[890] The fleapit is eventually burnt to the ground by its old commissionaire: “It were the only way weren’t it?” he says (Lights That Failed)
Why this instability of forms between SINGULAR and PLURAL has been so resiliant -- though denounced by English teachers round about the pendent world -- whereas the simple levelling to “be” or “been” has been more isolated, is one corner in the larger puzzle of how this motley multi-stemmed VERB got cobbled together in the first place; in some varieties, forms like “was” and “were” may simply have landed where they are now without any process of interchange. At all events, we shall see similar instability in the role of “be” as AUXILIARY (cf. § xxx).
IV.203 A far more complicated task for VERBS is to indicate TEMPORALITY, and in English (as well as some of its cousin languages), this daunting challenge is largely managed along two main dimensions. DISCOURSAL TEMPORALITY deploys TENSE to situate EVENTS, ACTIONS, and STATES relative to the real or supposed timing of the discourse itself (e.g., before, now, after). RESPECTIVE TEMPORALITY deploys ASPECT to situate them with respect to each other as well (e.g., this before or after that).
IV.204 The most basic forms have traditionally borne the label of “simple tenses”, but the term is not altogether felicitous. I have been repeatedly, and at times icily, faced English teachers in various countries who insisted it means “consisting of a single word”; and so it must follow, as does the night the day, that English has exactly two, “past” and “present”, full stop (II.64). Although my data clearly show the “future tense” to be much less common than “past” and “present” throughout the sub-system of English VERBS , it is certainly an integral category. Yet my intercessions on its behalf, by adducing symmetry and consistency -- even by invoking majestic Latin -- were brushed off with such bovine placidity as to call in question whether the “teaching of grammar” itself had a “future” in such climes (cf. Part VII). It seemed far too encumbered with its past: the plodding of befuddled generations through “grammar classes” where teachers “taught” just what they had once “learned” on the old school bench.
IV.205 So let’s keep the term SIMPLE TENSES confined to the meaning of “most basic”. All three appear nicely harmonious when made explicit in serendipitous locutions [891-93], as opposed to disastrous derailments [894].
[891] In the past, the “Charity” ad ran in twenty Islamic countries (Coca Cola’s television advertising)WWW
[892] At present the University of Groningen runs a trimester programme. (International Master's programme)WWW
[893] In the future the pumps will run dry at some point (Wikipedia)
[894] I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future. (Bush)
However, such harmony is not too common in my data, much less predominant. For instance, I find the locution “at present” occurring with VERBS in both PAST [895] and FUTURE, [896]; and “for the future” occurring with PRESENT TENSE [897].
[895] Altogether it was an interesting room, and very typical of Jim. At present it resembled a maelstrom (Mates at Billabong)
[896] “We may need to see them later”, said I. “At present I will do all I can for you on the evidence in hand.” (Enchanted Typewriter)
[897] For the future, then, it seems that we must accept working women in every path of life. (Woman in Modern Society)
Here, we are simply registering the vital difference between ordinary “time”, which is mainly cognitive and social, versus grammatical TENSE, which is mainly linguistic.
IV.206 To get a broader and more functional repertory, English deploys what I shall call ASPECTS just because the label fits, even though it is not nearly so well secured as TENSE. They nearly always occur together with the TENSES, except in NON-FINITE CLAUSES or NON-CLAUSES -- unconventional PATTERNS I shall vigorously advocate for inclusion in the “grammar of English” later on (cf. VI.E2-3).
IV.207 The PROGRESSIVE ASPECT -- also called CONTINUOUS -- is by far the most respected in “grammars”, mainly because some VERBS or VERB-CLASSES welcome it, whilst other resist it (cf. § xxx). Its most basic PATTERN is formed with AUXILIARY “be” + PRESENT PARTICIPLE. Again, we can help the names to stick by means of serendipitous locutions like “continually” or “progressively” for PRESENT PROGRESSIVE, [898, 901], PAST PROGRESSIVE [899, 90, 901], and (rarely) FUTURE PROGRESSIVE [900]:
[898] Jack: You are continually christening, aren’t you? Miss Prism: It is, I regret to say, one of the Rector’s most constant duties in this parish. I have often spoken to the poorer classes on the subject. (Earnest)
[899] People were continually falling out and rushing to the nearest royal court. The intendant suggested that this propensity should be curbed, or there would soon be more lawsuits than settlers in the colony. (Seigneurs of Old Canada)
[900] In any non-routine form of work, professional responsibilities and personal goals will be continually pushing people up against their limitations of personal resource. (Being a Teacher)
[901] We are told that when directly primordial matter appears on the scene, and the laws of sequence and action which observed experience has formulated and is progressively formulating are given, then nothing else is required. (Creation and Its Records)
[902] Parishes […] had placed themselves on a vicious spiral of soaring poor rates and were progressively increasing the very poverty they sought to relieve. (Albion’s People)
IV.208 For the ASPECT of relating what expressly came before something else, the traditional term has been “perfect”, which is hardly felicitous either. It became entrenched long ago when it could still mean “completed” or “finished”, viz.:
[903] Here the letters may be read that make the story perfect. (Volpone)
[904] Now my revenge is perfect. Sink, thou main cause of my undoing! (kills Ferdinand) (Duchess of Malfi)
Since hardly anyone now remembers those days, the term may seem misleading or antiquarian, like a petrified shibboleth in a scrabble-game.
IV.209 I would therefore propose the unfamiliar but more precise and consistent term PREDECESSIVE to match PROGRESSIVE. Its most basic PATTERN is formed with AUXILIARY “have” + PAST PARTICIPLE. Here, serendipitous locutions are more incidental, e.g. “until now”, “until then”, or “before then”, to demonstrate the PRESENT PREDECESSIVE [905], the PAST PREDECESSIVE [906], and the (rather rare) FUTURE PREDECESSIVE [907]:
[905] Until now, much of the thrust of the national curriculum has gone into preparing teachers. (Independent)
[906] Up until now he had gone to the kitchen to meet Fayte before going to the dining hall (RPG Chat)WWW
[907] It's pretty obvious that publication day has come and gone. Well before then, review copies will have gone out to the literary editors who in turn will have placed the book with the appropriate reviewer (Busker)
IV.210 At this point, we come to an apparently missing term to make the sub-system of ASPECTS symmetrical, namely for relating what will expressly come after something else in present, past, or future -- as contrasted to the “simple” FUTURE, which need not specify anything happening so soon, nor in relation to something else -- for which I am aware of no traditional term. Symmetry counsels the term SUCCESSIVE, whose basic PATTERN would be formed with the AUXILIARIES “be going to” or “be about to” + INFINITIVE for something soon after something else in past, present. or future, respectively; the immediacy is best signalled within the overall context. Only the PRESENT SUCCESSIVE [908, 910] and the PAST SUCCESSIVE [909, 911] appear common; the instances I found of the FUTURE SUCCESSIVE (Internet only) are rare indeed [912-13], perhaps because the two categories are felt to compete.
[908] then, just at the very moment when he is going to alarm the inmates, there rushes into the way, a blundering dog of a half-bred butler (Twist)
[909] I was going to have my breakfast when, suddenly, I fainted (Hepatitis B Foundation)
[910] Interrupting the vender just as he is about to give his opinion he draws from his pocket a copy of the paper containing the advertisement, and places it in his hand (Slaveholder’s Daughter)
[911] Just when he himself was about to enter the Dark Valley, Jesus was often in his thoughts. (Oscar Wilde)
[912] When Episode 3 comes out, George Lukas will be going to say several things. (killermovies)WWW
[913] The Qur’anic verse says: “When that Day of Judgment will be about to come there is going to come out of the ground an animal to talk to the people, saying to the people that they used to deny Our signs.”[Note 11] (Imam A. M. Khattab)WWW
I suppose English teachers who hesitate to even acknowledge the plain old “future tense” won’t rush to accept a novel term for “near future”. Yet I surmise that the “auxiliary future” in languages where it coexists with the single-word “future” -- say, Spanish “voy a hacer” versus “yo haré” -- has a “successive” flavour, though I have neither the data or the space to argue the case here, and analogies between languages are inconclusive. As for authentic English data, if someone says “I am going to kill you” [914], you better say your prayers, or run like the clappers, or unleash your fiercest karate, because the action is coming right up. But if someone says “I will kill you” [915], the action may be far in the future or merely a threat.
[914] “You are going to get it, you bastard. I am going to kill you.” Clifford had shot once, reloaded and shot again. (Scotsman)
[915] “One day, you son of a whore, I will kill you!” The abuse was uttered by a female throat. (Sign for the Sacred)
Also, the SUCCESSIVE can convey firm determination more decidedly than the AUXILIARY “shall” some grammarians once decided should do so (but only SECOND and THIRD PERSON, please) (cf. II.88).
[916] I don’t know what anybody else is having but I’m going to be bad tonight and have a cigarette and hot whiskey. (Amongst Women)
[917] Whatever happens, I don’t care how long I spend in prison, because I’m going to keep fighting this law. Somebody’s got to do it. (Abie Nathan on radio Voice of Peace)
These are not mere “informal usages” for “school grammars” to decry or ignore, but resolute practical matters -- after all, the Israelis repeatedly threw their outspoken peace advocate Abie Nathan in jail for violating “laws” that forbade contact with Arab nations or organisations.
IV.211 I would advance a comparable plea that authentic data justify the more complex combinations of terms where ASPECTS apply to each other. The PRESENT PREDECESSIVE PROGRESSIVE is for what “has been happening” before something in the present [918]; the PAST PREDECESSIVE PROGRESSIVE for what “had been happening” before something in the past [919]; and the (rare) FUTURE PREDECESSIVE PROGRESSIVE for what “will have been” happening before something in the future [920].
[918] Microsoft Corp’s chief hatchet man Steve Ballmer has been telling people that Windows NT will be available in May; meanwhile Cairo is now apparently being referred to as “NT Version 2” (Computergram International)
[919] There was an immediate inquiry at which evidence was given that Hunt had been running when the race was stopped, but not really racing. (Champions of Formula 1)
[920] Your increased metabolic rate will have been burning up a few hundred calories […] in addition to the calories you will be shedding by using the low fat recipes (Walking Diet)
The PRESENT SUCCESSIVE PROGRESSIVE is for what “is going to be happening” [921]; PAST SUCCESSIVE PROGRESSIVE for what “was going to be happening” [922]; and the (rare) FUTURE SUCCESSIVE PROGRESSIVE for what “will be going to be happening” [923].
[921] Feasts are going to be cropping up as we move through the year (Fairs)
[922] The Elkhound barked the day he found a newborn baby whose entire experience of life was going to be lying abandoned for a few hours by a creek near Plymouth, […] and the baby was saved. (Dogs Today)
[923] We will be going to be bumming in the morning and watching and enjoying the singing at night! (SAMMI)WWW
Theoretically, the TENSE-ASPECT sub-system could even compile the FUTURE SUCCESSIVE PREDECESSIVE for what “will be going to have happened”. However, my data strongly indicate that at some point, BALANCE limits the options. After much sly websurfing, the only two instances I scrounged up were in contexts of “time travelling”:
[924] This talk will be going to have covered the basics of objects and their syntax. (Hey, can anyone help me with English time-travel tenses?) (Calum T. Dalek in MathNews)WWW
[925] The Doctor and Romana get the injured Hoopy to safety before the fire spreads, and leave his body where they will be going to have found it when they first arrived later. (Dr Who Guide)
The data are mighty suspicious, too: Calum T. Dalek in [924] is ostensibly a robot at the University of Waterloo (Canada), and so hardly a “native speaker of English”; and in this more than usually daft episode of Dr Who in [925], the tousle-headed boffin himself doesn’t remotely understand the story-line, “aided and abetted by a drug-addled hippie lizard, a hard-hitting investigative reporter, and a suicidal ship’s computer”.
Still, such data may suggest marginal traces of the inner symmetry of the sub-system working against the current of BALANCE .
IV.212 For an overview of the TENSE-ASPECT presented so far, here they all are in a table with the VERB “do” in the ACTIVE. (Not one among these data, nor any from the tables for Passive and Medial further along, was lifted from the tables from “grammar websites”, which, as far as I checked, all use invented data anyway!)
Present: does
[926] Mick Jagger does a really good performance, but with Jim [Morrison] you got the sense that any night could be his last concert. (The Face)
Present Progressive: is doing
[927] “This machine here is doing the work of twelve men.” “O brave new world”, said Robyn, “where only the managing directors have jobs.” (Nice Work)
Present Predecessive: has done
[928] The United States has done a great deal to blur the barrier between the bomb and the watt [by] claiming that the civil side of nuclear power has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. (New Scientist)
Present Predecessive Progressive: has been doing
[929] Debbie is originally from Plano, TX, and has been doing nails for 21 years (Nails Etc)WWW
Present Successive: is going to do
[930] Everything is going smooth until all the files are copied and the computer is going to do a restart, but nothing happens (Windows)WWW
Present Successive Progressive: is going to be doing
[931] During the millennium everyone is going to be doing the work and the will of God (Christian Biblical Church)WWW
Present Successive Predecessive: is going to have done
[932] Whoever ends up winning, it is going to have done a superb job because the amount of competition here is phenomenal (desert news)WWW
Past: did
[933] He did a store cattle trade with the far-out squatters that were stocking up new country in Queensland. (Robbery Under Arms)
Past Progressive: was doing
[934] Mr Tupman was doing the honours of the lobster salad to several lionesses, with a degree of grace which no Brigand ever exhibited before (Pickwick)
Past Predecessive: had done
[935] this young man at Menlo Park had done some wonderful things for telegraphy and telephony (Edison)
Past Predecessive Progressive: had been doing
[936] I suspected mama had been doing something that she didn’t want me to know about. (Beacon School)WWW
Past Successive: was going to do
[937] I was going to do my homework all day but I ended up watching Rurouni Kenshin instead (Anime Central)WWW
Past Successive Progressive: was going to be doing
[938] The whole orientation was that He was going to be doing something for me (Terms of the New Covenant)WWW
Past Successive Predecessive: was going to have done
[939] I had promised her that I was going to have done some laundry (mushroom blue)WWW
Future: will do
[940] Rapid changes in temperature and humidity will do the greatest damage in the shortest time (Ken Weeks in Noticias Egiptología)WWW
Future Progressive: will be doing
[941] Congratulations to Beverly Aist-Mejia who will be doing her Family Practice residency at Christus Santa Rosa in San Antonio, Texas. (HMS Peabody Society)WWW
Future Predecessive: will have done
[942] The Lions victory over Wellington will have done plenty for the tourists (Rugby News)WWW
Future Predecessive Progressive: will have been doing
[943] It is assumed that you will have been doing your daily work, so that cramming the night before will be unnecessary (Salmen High School)WWW
Future Successive: will be going to do
[944] This is our first year and we are very excited! […] We will be going to do some high school outreach where we do presentations (University of New Brunswick)
Future Successive Progressive: will be going to be doing
[945] Congratulations! You will be going to be doing an internship as an anthropologist (Art & Culture)
Note to Part IV, NUMBER 4
11. None of the verses referring to the “Day of Judgment” in my version of the Qur’an (Pickthall translation) relates any such story.
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