Time Inconsistency In Simple Future Tense: A SFL Perspective

This thesis defines"is/am/are going","is/am/are doing","is/am/are to"and"why not"as the functional variants in simple future tense from the two kinds of meanings——the epistemic meanings and the temporal reference of future, which are deduced from the typical markers of simple future tense in the primary tense system"will/shall". These two kinds of meanings are the requirements for the definition of the functional variants in simple future tense. In order to construe the mutual transformations between the grammatical elements and the groundings, we construct two models"from below to above"&"from above to below"which highlight different aspects. For the model"from below to above", it explores the embedded constructions from the grammatical perspective in which the experiential meanings precede the interpersonal meanings but surrender to the latter; for the model"from above to below", it explains the profiling construction from the functional perspective in which the metaphoric interpersonal meanings profiled by the groundings profile the congruent experiential meanings in terms of grammatical metaphor. In addition, the concepts of"context of situation","transitivity"and"Mood system"are used to analyze the concrete expressions with these patterns since the two models have some limitations to explain these patterns.①The pattern"is/am/are going"emphasizes the epistemic meanings implied in the specific contexts of situation in terms of Field, Tenor and Mode since it has the potential to convey the meaning of"progress". And in different contexts of situation, the pattern"is/am/are going"can express different epistemic meanings, for instance,"a prediction","a simple fact about future", the meaning"when we have a previous plan to do something"and so on. Their epistemic meanings can confirm the temporal adjuncts of future and imply the temporal reference of future if there are no temporal adjuncts of future.②The pattern"is/am/are doing"stresses Field, Tenor, Mode in contexts of situation which can imply the epistemic meanings, for instance, the willingness, the possibility, a plan about future and so on. This kind of expressions with the functional variant in simple future"is/am/are doing"should be distinguished from the expressions in simple present tense in progressive which have the same structure since the former pattern has the potential to convey the epistemic meanings but the latter one does not.③The pattern"is/am/are to"focuses on the transitivity system. If"is/am/are to"functions as the equative classes, it represents simple future tense to combine the two constituents for the expression of identity; if"is/am/are to"performs the function as the functional variant in simple future tense, it conveys the epistemic meanings of a plan about future, an obligation, the possibility, a prediction and so on. In this section, the functional variant"is/am/are to"is classified into two categories in terms of the temporal adjuncts. The category without the temporal adjuncts is in turn classified into two subcategories in terms of"voice"while the category with temporal adjuncts are classified into three subcategories in terms of the relationship between the epistemic meanings and the temporal reference of future.④The pattern"why not"emphasizes the contexts of situation since there are another two kinds of meanings of making the affirmation about other speakers'expressions and questioning, which cannot be accounted to the functional variants in simple future tense for lack of the epistemic meanings. The epistemic meaning of giving a suggestion and a request implied in the specific contexts of situations can be reflected on the analyses of the constituents in terms of Mood system: during the analytical process, the epistemic meaning of giving a suggestion and a request infers that the variations take place on the congruent functional labels of"why"and"not", in which these two elements transform from Residue to Mood.In the meantime, during the analytical and demonstrative processes of the four functional variants in simple future tense, the two models"from below to above"&"from above to below"we proposed in the thesis are demonstrated to have the maneuverability when they are used to analyze the time inconsistent grammatical phenomena.