Editing Going-to future (section)

==Expressions using ''going to'' as relative future form==
The ''going-to'' construction, as well as other constructions used in English refer to future events, can be used not only to express the future relative to the present time, but also sometimes to express the future relative to some other time of reference (see [[relative tense]]).<ref>Fleischman, p. 65.</ref>

Some reference points appear more suitable for use in relative future than others. The following are universally attested:
*Future relative to a past reference point is formed using the past tense of the copula, e.g. "I ''was'' going to eat dinner" (instead of the present "I ''am'' going to eat dinner"). This may express past intention ("I was going to eat dinner") or prediction ("It was going to rain").
*Ongoing intention or prediction existing up to the present time is also attested, based on the [[present perfect progressive]] of the copula. For example, "I have been going to do it for some time" (but I haven't gotten around to it) or "It has been going to rain all afternoon" (but it hasn't started). Similar sentences can be formed on the [[past perfect progressive]] (e.g. "I had been going to eat").
*Future relative to a past [[English subjunctive|subjunctive]] is attested in a condition clause: "If I was/were going to eat..."

The following relative futures are more nebulous:
*Future event relative to a future reference point. In theory, one could string two going-to futures together ("I'm going to be going to eat"), or, to more easily disambiguate them, use the modular future for the reference point ("I will be going to eat"). A strong example might be one that incorporates the precise difference in time between the reference point and the event: "We can't visit Louise in June, because she'll be going to have a baby three weeks from then."
**However, it is not clear that English speakers would agree on the naturalness of this construction or on the interpretation. In fact, some have argued that such a construction does not occur in English or other natural languages with the intended meaning;<ref name="Linguistics Stack Exchange answer">{{cite web | url=http://linguistics.stackexchange.com/a/11055 | title=Are there any languages with a plufuture for tense sequencing? | publisher=Linguistics Stack Exchange | date=January 12, 2015 | access-date=June 15, 2016 | author=Michaelyus}}</ref> the latter "going to" in these constructions may signify the main verb [[Go (verb)|to go]] as in "to move from one place to another."
**Others have speculated about this grammatical [[Lacuna (linguistics)|lacuna]]. [[Hans Reichenbach]]'s scheme of tenses identifies a sequence S-R-E, i.e. speech act followed by reference point followed by event, but it does not correspond to an English tense in a strict sense.<ref name="Hackmack paper on Reichenbach">{{cite web | url=http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/khwagner/verb/pdf/Reich.pdf | title=Reichenbach's Theory of Tense and Its Application to English | publisher=University of Bremen | access-date=June 15, 2016 | author=Hackmack, Susanne}}</ref> [[Latin]] had a form that may have corresponded to this use, e.g. in the phrase "abiturus ero", which could be translated "I shall be one of those who will leave."<ref name="Time: From Concept to Narrative Construct: A Reader">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jHUewtzUVbcC&dq=%22abiturus+ero%22&pg=PA10 | title=Time: From Concept to Narrative Construct: A Reader | publisher=de Gruyter | author=Jan Christoph Meister, Wilhelm Schernus | year=2011 | pages=10 | isbn=978-3-11-022208-1}}</ref> Other authors have argued that the future of the future is "not attested in natural languages."<ref name="Tense, Mood and Aspect: Theoretical and Descriptive Issues">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SDfbz8wpKGIC&pg=PA10 | title=Tense, Mood and Aspect: Theoretical and Descriptive Issues | publisher=Rodopi | author=Edited by Louis de Saussure, Jacques Moeschler, Genoveva Puskás | year=2007 | pages=10 | isbn=978-90-420-2208-9}}</ref> The South Indian language [[Kannada]] has a posterior future tense that might correspond to this usage, but reportedly denotes "to need to."<ref name="The Prominence of Tense, Aspect, and Mood">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTNFyNZXkTcC&dq=%22Posterior%20future%22&pg=PA24 | title=The Prominence of Tense, Aspect, and Mood | publisher=John Benjamins | author=Bhat, D. N. Shankara | year=1999 | pages=24| isbn=9027230528 }}</ref>
**Some have speculated that the lacuna, if it exists, may have a semantic origin; that is, the future is already difficult to specify, and there is simply little occasion in human experience for using a future event as a reference point for a ''further'' future event.<ref name="Linguistics Stack Exchange Answer Comment">{{cite web | url=http://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/9184/are-there-any-languages-with-a-plufuture-for-tense-sequencing#comment23226_9184 | title=Linguistics Stack Exchange Answer Comment | publisher=Linguistics Stack Exchange | date=October 13, 2014 | access-date=June 15, 2016 | author=JLawler}}</ref>
*Future relative to a hypothetical ([[conditional mood|conditional]]) state: "I would be going to eat." A similar interpretation to future relative to future may arise instead: "I would be going (on my way) to eat."
*Future relative to unspecified time: the infinitive (or occasionally [[English subjunctive|present subjunctive]]) of the copula can be used, e.g. "To be going to die is not a good feeling." The infinitive can be used in a variety of constructions, in line with the normal [[Uses of English verb forms#Infinitive|uses of the English infinitive]]; for example, "He is said to be going to resign." Speakers may differ on the interpretation of such constructions.

Relative future is also possible for a limited number of uses of the modular "will" or "shall" in their so-called past tense forms, respectively "would" and "should" (see [[future in the past]]).

[[Periphrasis|Periphrastic]] phrases may be able to express some relative future meanings that are otherwise unattested. For example, the phrase "to be about to" means that in the very near future, one will do something. Hence, "I will be about to leave" expresses a future event relative to a future reference point.

Another construction, "to be to", also has similar denotations in some constructions, e.g. "I was to see the Queen the next day." However, its use is restricted to simple finite forms of the copula, namely the present indicative ("I am to do it"), the past indicative ("I was to do it"), and the past subjunctive ("if I were to do it" or "were I to do it"; these last have somewhat different implications, as described at [[English conditional sentences]]).