Verbs used in the beforefuture static

The following 71 verbs have been found on the 50,000 pages of text (mainly fiction):

be (7); do (6); have (5); become, forget, gather, get (become), go, lose, make, notice (3); finish, hear, live, see (2); allow, arrange, arrive, bake, begin, break, bring, cause, complete, conclude, cover, cut, dawn, decide, demonstrate, destroy, develop, discover, fail, find, flit, follow, glorify, grow (become), happen, hurt, improve, join, leave, miss, ob­serve, point, prepare, prove, reach, realize, repay, replace, save, serve, shake, shock, slip, solidify, spend, succeed, suffer, swamp, talk, tell, travel, try, turn, watch, wear, weather (1).

MODAL USE OF THE BEFOREFUTURE STATIC

In about 28% of all its uses the Beforefuture Static is associated with the modal meaning "it is (highly) probable", as in:

1. "I'm a seafaring rat, I am, and the port I originally hail from

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is Constantinople. You will have heard of Constantinople? A fair city, and an ancient and a glorious one. And you may have heard, too, of Siguard, King of Norway (K- Grahame) (In the first place, the situa­tion of reference — "I'm a seafaring rat ..." — does not belong to a future time but to the present; secondly, "You will have heard" is used here parallel with "you may have heard," that is "it is probable that you may have heard"); 2. Neville listened to them. Regret turn­ed in her, cold and tired and envious. They all wrote books except her. To write: it wasn't much of a thing to do, unless one did it real­ly well, and it never attracted her personally, but it was, neverthe­less, something (It will have been gathered by now that Neville was an egoist) (R. Macaulay); 3. "You are not the man to burgle. You are, if I may say it — the thing will have been pointed out to you before —a. coward" (G. Wells); 4. "How did he get away?" — "He'd been so normal that they weren't at all at their guard. He walked to the station and took the train. It's only twenty miles. He'll have been in town before they found out he was gone" (J. Galsworthy).

It is probable, therefore, that "will have heard," "will have been gathered," "will have been pointed out," and "will have been" in these examples are structures homonymous with the Beforefuture Static (the modal verb will = may + a Perfect Infinitive).

References to Single-Act, Single-Occurence Processes

In most cases (about 90%) a verb in the Beforefuture Static refers to single-act, single-occurrence processes, for example:

1. "What's biting you?" —"I'm worried we'll have lost our place in Selby Street," he mumbled (J. Lindsay); 2. "We shall see what your father says — he'll have talked to your uncle Lionel" (J. Galsworthy); 3. "But perhaps somebody will wait for me, for he will have told them I am out" (Th. White).

References to Processes of General Character

1. Very often a jury will have concluded little and yet it will have reached a verdict (Th. Dreiser); 2. "Before this price is due you will have watched for many years from this place the sun set over cloudless days of happiness and the moon rise over starlit nights of dreams" (A. Munthe); 3. Commonly, the form -ed appears in a narrative, in which there will have been any number of indications that events are occurring in se­quence (W. Diver).

The Beforefuture and the Passive Voice

Only about 11% of verbs in the Beforefuture Static are in the Passive Voice. Examples:

1. "If I'm wrong or we get nowhere then no very' great harm will have been done" (A. Kingsley); 2. Your readers will have been shocked by the news (D. Worker); 3. "When I come back, all the formalities will have been completed" (P. Wodehouse).

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ADVERBIALS OF TIME COMBINED WITH THE BEFOREFUTURE STATIC

The Beforefuture Static is combined with adverbials of time in about 49% of all its uses: 30% with an adverb or adverbial phrase and 19% with a time- or time-equivalent clause.

Adverbs and Adverbial Phrases of time combined with the Before-future Static (% of all its uses with such modifiers):

by then, etc. (28.4%); in a week, etc. (19.8%); before, long since (before), often, then (5.7%, each); already, before, by now, for many years, seven weeks, some day, soon, two years, year after year (2.9%, each).

By Then, etc.: 1. "We will, all of us, have made our fortunes by then" (F. Norris); 2. "He'll have realized by then that we are engaged" (E. De­lafield); 3. (Zeno): Achilles will never overtake the tortoise. He must first reach the place from which the tortoise started. By that time the tortoise will have got some way ahead (J. Burnot); 4. "We shall have finished paying off the loan by June" (D. Hicks).

In a Week, etc.: "It was a terrible shock, Thomas, but in a week, you'll see, we'll have forgotten it" (G. Greene); 2. "What does he think will have happened in six months?" (E. Delafield); 3. Another twenty years and four more children and you'll have forgotten all about it" (M.Wilson).

Before. Long before That (Long Since). Often.¹ Then: 1. "It will show you a piece of country you will not have seen before" (G. Greene); 2. "Long before that these pretty arms will have turned into little short fat ones" (K. Mansfield); 3. "And when you have roused the beast that sleeps in the people and set it on the church, then —" — "Then I shall ' have done the work that makes it worth my while to live" (E. Voynich).

Already. By Now². For Many Years³. Seven Weeks. Seme Day. Soon. Two Years. Year after Year: 1. "He would be cut; if he dared cross the Boarder." — "Unless he will have been cut already" (Th. White); 2. Anoth­er month will make seven weeks. Seven weeks that I won't have seen him" (M. Wilson); 3. "Seme day I shall have worn cut the selfishness" (Miss Yonge); "It is only home-sickness. I'll have get over it scon" (Miss Yonge); 5. "He will have gone two years next October" (W. S. Maugham); 6. He will have been followed by his growing family, year after year, their pilot and their general (Th. White).

Adverbial Clauses of Time and Their Equivalents: when -clause (53%), by-the-time clause (26%), before -clause (16%), a week after I'm dead (5%).

A When-Clause. In 9 instances from 10 the when-clause contains the Present Static, one example has the Beforepresent tense:

1. "You'll sleep, and when you wake these fancies will have gone" (H. Walpole); 2. "Besides, you'll have dene something worth doing when you have to give up" (R. Macaulay); 3. When I've got Gerda off my hands I shall have done being a mother (R. Macaulay).

A By-the-Time Clause. Three clauses are with the Present Static, two with the Beforepresent Tense:

1. "However, the mares will have had their baptism by the time they get there" (J. Galsworthy); 2. She asked me to send her a copy of the book. I am sure by the time it reaches her she will have travelled far on her spiritual pilgrimage (M. Endicott); 3. "I daresay you'll have gone to bed by the time I've finished my work" (W. S. Maugham).

A Before-Clause. A Week After I am Dead: 1. He will have arrived before you have done talking (B. Shaw); 2. "I do believe that before that year is run I shall have succeeded" (J. London); 3. "And a week after I'm dead they'll have forgotten me" (W. S. Maugham).

TYPES OF SENTENCES AND CLAUSES WITH THE BEFOREFUTURE

In 30.4% the Beforefuture is used in simple sentences, in 25% in the principal clause, in 22.9% in independent clauses, in 20% in subor­dinate clauses and in 2.9% in parenthetical clauses.

From subordinate clauses the most frequent is the object clause (52.4%); attributive clauses make 19%. Examples:

1. "You think he'll have got over hating the sight of me?" (E. De­lafield); 2. "Those firms that will have been in on the development will know how to run the plants" (M. Wilson); 3. "By 1940 he too will be having white drawing-rooms, when it will have become thoroughly bad taste" (E. James); 4. "The idea will slip through you unless you shall have made a study of the first and second sections of the book" (G. Meredith); 5. "Perhaps somebody will wait for me, for Kay will have told them I am out" (Th. White); 6. "Back to the treadmill", cries Lord Mansfield. And, as you will have gathered from our report yesterday, his lordship was not joking (D. Worker).

THE USE OF ANTERIOR DYNAMIC TENSES

The anterior dynamic tenses are used to denote verbal processes anterior to the speaker's mental time (for the Beforepast Dynamic also to any other process of the past) and represented as relatively dynamic.

THE BEFOREPRESENT DYNAMIC

The Beforepresent Dynamic is a relatively rare tense: 1 instance per 24 pages of text of fiction (see Table III on page 52). It is used to refer to processes anterior to the speaker's mental present and repre­sented as relatively dynamic. Processes denoted by verbs in the Before-present Dynamic can be of any length; inclusive (66%) or exclusive (34%); currently relevant or irrelevant; isolated (86%) or simultaneous (13%) or sequent (1%) with other processes; they can be anterior to

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objective present (98,6%),past (1%)or future(4%). In 61.6% of their use verbs in he Beforepresent Dynamic are combined with no adverbial modifiers of time whatever. They are opposed to verbs in the Before-present Static by Models II (61%), 1(34%) and III (5%)¹.

Examples of Verbal Processes of Increasing Length

1. "You are crazy! What's the matter with you? You hadn't been eating a drug or something?" (J. London) (It takes a moment to take a drug); 2. "Have you been smoking a cigarette in here? Tell me the truth, young lady" (J. Salinger); 3. "He's been reading me 'Gulliver's Travels', Dinny. The man was coarse, you know" (J. Galsworthy); 4. "She's been watching you play for some days" (E. Wallace); 5. "What have you been doing for the last few weeks?" (O'Henry); 6. "For months now they've been growing more and more out of key" (J. Lindsay); 7. "I've been waiting for this for years" (H. Walpole); 8. "These people have been working on this little island for a thousand years" (Th. Dreiser); 9. "To live better and to live longer I guess that's what people have always been fighting for" (A. Saxton); 10. The stars have been hanging here for millions and billions of years (H. Miller).

Distance Between the End of Verbal Process and the Moment of Speaking

The distance between the end of a process denoted by a verb in the Beforepresent Dynamic and the moment of speaking ranges from some instants to several months. For example:

1. Here Cecilia, who has been talking to Stairs, turns to them with faintly flushed cheeks (Mrs. Hungerford); 2. "Darling, how providential that you should bring your car now. Jenny and I have been saying that what we most wanted is to be driven a long way very fast" (A. Kingsley); 3. "Oh, I'm kind of tired. Been pounding very hard at the office" (S. Lew­is); 4. "Tell you about what?" answered Mat hew sullenly.—"About the rajas and princes you've been hob-nobbing with" (A. Cronin) (Brodie to his son who had returned from India by ship); 5. "Who d'you think turned up last night? — her brother — young Jon Forsyte. Been tra­velling all the winter — Egypt, Italy, and that — chucked America" (J. Galsworthy) (It was May).