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CONSTRUCTION ‘TO BE GOING + INFINITIVE’ AS A MEANS OF EXPRESSING FUTURITY KONSTRUKCJA ‘TO BE GOING + INFINITIVE’ JAKO SPOSÓB WYRAŻENIA FUTURALNOŚCI Ihor Byk Key words: futurity, modality, construction ‘to be going + Infinitive’, dominant meaning. Słowa kluczowe: futuralność, modalność, konstrukcja ‘to be going + Infinitive’, znaczenie dominujące ABSTRACT Construction ‘to be going + Infinitive’ as a way of expressing futurity has two meanings: 1) temporal, that is a posteriority of an action and 2) and modal, that is intention. The temporal meaning of the construction is realized by in the following cases: 1) when the subject of a sentence is expressed by a noun denoting non-living objects, by a gerund or pronouns ‘it’, ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘there’, ‘something’ etc; 2) when the infinitive of the construction is used in the Passive Voice; 3) when the infinitive of the construction or the sentence expresses an action independent of the will of the agent of the action, and its realization will be necessary with a view of some objective reasons or the will of another person. The modal meaning of the construction is realized in the cases when the subject of the sentence is expressed by a noun or pronoun denoting living beings in the following cases: 1) when the construction is used in the past tense; 2) when the construction is used with the second and third person subject; 3) when the construction is used with the first person subject. The dominant meaning in each particular case is often determined by the context defining the logical stress of the sentence. The use of this construction is stylistically limited: it is mainly used in informal speech. STRZESZCZENIE Konstrukcja ‘to be going + Infinitive’ jako sposób wyrazenia futuralności ma dwa znaczenia: 1) temporalne, czyli następstwo odnośnie aktu i 2) modalne, czyli zamiar. Temporalne znaczenie konstrukcji realizuje się w następnych wypadkach: 1) kiedy podmiot zdania wyrażono nazwami objektów nieżywotnych, gerundijem, albo zaimków ‘it’, ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘there’, ‘something’ itd.; 2) kiedy bezokolicznik konstrukcji użyto w 1 stronie biernej; 3) kiedy bezokolicznik konstrukcji albo zdanie w całości wyraża akt, niepodległy od woli agenta aktu, i ich realizacja jest potrzebna z punktu widzenia jakichś okoliczności objektywnych albo woli innej osoby. Znaczenie modalne konstrukcji realizuje się w tych wypadkach, kiedy podmiot zdania jest wyrażony rzeczownikiem albo zaimkiem, co oznacza osobę w następnych wypadkach: 1) kiedy konstrukcja jest użyta w czasie przeszłym; 2) kiedy konstrukcja jest użyta z podmiotem w osobie drugiej albo trzeciej; 3) kiedy konstrukcja jest użyta z podmiotem w osobie pierwszej. Dominujące znaczenie konstrukcji w każdym odrębnym wypadku często wyznacza się kontekstem, jaki wyznacza logiczny akcent zdania. Używanie konstrukcji jest stylistycznie ograniczone: używa się ona w większości w mówieniu nieformalnym. The category of futurity occupies a special place in the temporal system of a verb. First of all, special attention should be paid to the specific meaning of future: while the present and past tense forms express real facts that took or take place, future tense forms do not denote any facts at all. Its sphere is the realm of possible, foreseen, planned, desired, something which speaker expects will (not) happen. And because we know about future much less, than about past or present, the means of its realization are defined not so clearly as the means of realization of past or present ad they are more numerous. Construction ‘to be going + Infinitive’ occupies a specific place in the system of means of expressing futurity. It has two meanings: 1) temporal, that is a posteriority of an action and 2) and modal, that is intention. These two meanings are not equivalent as to their relevance: in every specific context one of them is dominant. Formally, a grammatical center of the construction is Present Continuous of the verb ‘to go’ (in this case the level of loss of meaning of the verb is very high, though not complete. As I.Ivanova1 and R.A.Close2 write and the results of our own research show this construction is not used with the verbs of movement, because such a combination would have been tautology). Some linguists (Ch.Barber3, B.Strang4, R.L.Allen5) believe that ‘to be going to’ is a secondary auxiliary. Others even include it in the paradigm of an И.П. Иванова, Вид и время в современном английском языке, Ленинград 1961, с.57. R.A.Close, The Future, London: Longman Group Limited 1969, p.22 3 Ch.Barber, Linguistic Change in Present-Day English, Edinburgh and London 1964. 4 B.M.H. Strang, Modern English Structure, London 1962. 5 R.L.Allen, The Verb System of Present-Day American English, The Hague – Paris: Mouton & Co 1966. 1 2 2 English verb as an auxiliary verb of temporal future constructions along with ‘shall’ and ‘will’ (M.Celce-Murcia, D.Larsen-Freeman6). The lexical center of the model is the infinitive of a verb. It should be noted that partial loss of meaning of the verb ‘to go’ takes place only if both conditions take place: it is used in the Continuous form and followed by an infinitive of a verb. Thus in the following examples I’ll have that cupcake if it’s going spare. He is going to school. It’s a secret, don’t go telling everyone. A bell goes to mark the end of each class. Which qualities go to make a good teacher? It’s just goes to show, you never know what’s going next7 there is no loss of meaning of the verb to go as formal requirements to the construction are not met. Construction ‘to be going + infinitive’ expresses a future orientation of an action, this future being implicitly expressed as potentially connected with the moment of speech. The action expressed by the infinitive of the construction is not a statement of objectively existing reality, but a personal point of view of a speaker. W.S.Allen in this connection writes that ‘going to’ expresses not a simple futurity but add a shade of intent or feeling of certainty on part of the speaker.8 It is in this peculiarity that the subjective modality of this construction is expressed. The specific meaning of the construction is defined by the infinitive and the lexical environment. The temporal meaning of posteriority is realized by the construction in following cases: 1) when the subject of a sentence is expressed by a noun denoting non-living objects, by a gerund or pronouns ‘it’, ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘there’, ‘something’ etc: His battleship was going to meet them just like in the old days, as if the aircraft carrier had never come along [TC:204] But calling to New York ain’t going to help you [MP: 193] And nothing else is going to happen [MP: 85] M.Celce-Murcia, D.Larsen-Freeman, The Grammar Book. An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course, Newburry House Publishers 1983. 7 The examples were taken from: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited 2000 8 W.C.Allen, Living English Structure, London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1956 p.122 6 3 That’s gonna be his first reaction [MP:90] There’s gonna be a hell of a lot of heat and trouble [MP: 149] The lexical meaning of the subject, expressed by these forms, excludes the possibility of the realization of the meaning of intention; 2) when the infinitive of the construction is used in the Passive Voice: The Tattaglia Family is going to be wiped out [MP:97] Solozzo was looking at him speculatively and suddenly Hagen knew that he was not longer going to be set free [MP: 91] 3) when the infinitive of the construction or the sentence on the whole expresses an action independent of the will of the agent of the action, and its realization will be necessary with a view of some objective reasons or the will of another person: They are going to have to get used to a wholly new acoustical signature [TC: 181] I don’t like losing the striking power, but what we’re going to need is more ASW muscle [TC: 125] I believe I’m going to have labor trouble [MP:60] It should be noted that futurity in the above examples has a specific character: the construction in these cases expresses a future action as a form of realization of the present time, underlining as R.A.Close wrote, existing in the present indications to what future may bring.9 This construction shows that the speaker hopes this action will take place in the nearest future. What concerns the modal meaning of intention of the construction, it is dominant in its lexical meaning only in the cases when the subject of the sentence is expressed by a noun or pronoun denoting living beings in the following cases: 1) when the construction is used in the past tense: When they had finished the coffee he told her he was going to work that night, and make phone calls and plans for the future [MP: 178] This Operation MANDOLIN was racing forward before they knew what the hell they were going to do, much less how [TC:118] For five years I had this girl under training, singing, dancing, acting lessons, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was going to make her a star. [MP: 62] 9 R.A.Close, The Future, London: Longman Group Limited, 1969 p.22 4 As it can be seen from the above examples, the speaker speaks about his or somebody other’s intentions concerning the past. The action expressed by the construction is posterior to the described moment, but this futurity is expressed through the intention of the agent of the action. In the third example this intentional character of futurity is expressed more distinctly than in the first two. The use of this construction in them allows its substitution with construction ‘should/would + Infinitive’ but with a certain change of meaning: … he told her he would go … … before they knew what the hell they would do … Such a transformation results in “pure” futurity, without additional modal meaning of intention. In the third example such a transformation is impossible. The construction ‘to be going + Infinitive’ may be substituted by verbs ‘to want’, ‘to intend’ etc.; 2) when the construction is used with the second and third person subject thus excluding the speaker. Unlike the cases in which this construction expresses an action independent of the will of the agent of the action and its realization will be necessary in view of some objective reasons or of the will of another person, the context in such cases indicates that the speaker expresses assumption as to the intentions of the agent of the action: He says that Captain McCluskey is definitely on Solozzo’s payroll and for big money. Not only that, but McCluskey is going to get a piece of the drug operation [MP: 134] “So, you’re teaching engineering at Annapolis now, eh? “Yes, Sir. I got a doctorate in that along the way.” “Name’s Td, Skip. And this morning you’re going to tell us how we can hold onto that maverick Russian sub?” [TC: 198] “Red October’s going to defect, isn’t she?” Tyler persisted [TC: 182] In the above examples the forms of ‘is going to get’, ‘are going to tell’, ‘is going to defect’ express speaker’s assumption concerning plans, intentions or wishes of the subject of an action. There is no indication that the action will be performed because of some already existing reasons or conditions. The substitution of the construction ‘to be going + Infinitive’ by the construction ‘shall (should)/will (would) + Infinitive’ in the above examples is impossible, as the meaning of the 5 sentences becomes categorical and the meaning of assumption concerning the intentions of the subject of the action disappears: … McCluskey will get a piece of the drug operation … … this morning you will tell us how we can hold onto that […] sub? “Red October will defect, won’t she?” 3) when the construction is used with the first person subject, that is, when the notions ‘the subject of an action’ and ‘the speaker’ coincide: Kay snuggled up to him and said, ‘After we’re married, will you beat me and then steal a star for a present?’ Michael laughed. ‘I’m going to be a mathematics professor,’ he said [MP: 79] Johnny Fontane sighed. ‘OK, you’re just a guinea peasant.’ ‘And I ain’t gonna change,’ Nino said with charmingly drunken smile [MP: 190] In the above examples it the intention to perform an action that is emphasized, rather than the action itself. The substitution of the construction ‘to be going to’ by the construction ‘shall/will + Infinitive’, as it was in the previous case, will shift this emphasis to the action, which will change the general meaning of the expression. But this construction can be substituted here by the verbs ‘to want’, ‘to intend’, ‘to wish’, ‘to desire’, etc. Then the meaning of the sentence will not change appreciably: I intend to be a mathematics professor I don’t want to change In conclusion it should be noted that it is not always easy to differentiate which meaning is expressed by the construction ‘to be going + Infinitive’ in a particular case. Of great importance here is the context as it defines the logical stress of the sentence. Consider the following example: Michael was as closemouthed as his father. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I guess I’ll see you Christmas, everybody is going to be out at Long Beach, right?’ [MP: 77] The meaning of the phrase ‘everybody is going to be out at Long Beach, right?’ taken separately can be treated both as temporal and modal. But the general context of the utterance, especially the use of the verb ‘to guess’, indicates that the speaker expresses assumption concerning the intentions of the subject ‘everybody’. Thus, the context plays a 6 determinant role in the definition of the meaning of the ‘to be going + Infinitive’ construction, especially what concerns its modal meaning. It should also be mentioned that the use of this construction is stylistically limited: it is mainly used in informal speech. R.A.Close also recommends avoiding it in written English10. Such stylistic limitation of its use is conditioned by the high level of the subjective modality of its meaning, which is inadmissible in academic style, the main features of which are precision and clarity of the layout of the material described, rather than personal emotions of the author or his/her attitude to the events and phenomena described. The author as such in an academic style is as a rule absent, while in fiction and informal speech the author’s perception of the events described and his attitude to them and to the characters are very important. BIBLIOGRAFIA 1. Allen R.L. The Verb System of Present-Day American English. The Hague – Paris: Mouton & Co, 1966. 2. Allen W.C. Living English Structure. London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1956 3. Barber Ch. Linguistic Change in Present-Day English. Edinburgh and London: Oliver & Boyd, 1964. 4. Celce-Murcia M., Larsen-Freeman D. The Grammar Book. An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course. Boston, MA: Newburry House Publishers, 1983. 5. Close R.A. The Future. London: Longman Group Limited, 1969 6. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2000 7. Strang B.M.H., Modern English Structure, London: Arnold, 1962. 8. Иванова И.П., Вид и время в современном английском языке, Ленинград: Изд-во Ленингр. ун-та, 1961 Examples were taken from: MP – M.Puzo, The Godfather, London: Pan Books Ltd 1977 TC – T.Clancy, The Hunt for the Red October, New York: Berkeley Books 1985. 10 Tamże, s.23 7